Tidbits of History - Franklin County ME
Last updated 06-Dec-02
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Rangeley - General Region
- ... it was the summer of 1815, that Luthur Hoar, with two companions, went from Madrid across the mountains to spy out the Dead River Region because a rumor of the presence of hostile Indians had reached that little hamlet. ... No Indians were seen ...
- During the winter [1816/17], the Indians had discovered Luther Hoar's potato storage and had stolen the food he had put aside to feed his family when they came to settle in the spring. The theft was later repaid anonymously by the gift of two birches. [probably birch bark canoes are being referred to here -NL]
- Richard Lombard came in 1825 and settled Lincoln Plantation/Wilson's Mills. He was a Methodist and loved the ministry. His home was a religious center. The local Indians participated.
- Betsy Rowe chased Indians away with a firebrand while men away at barn-raising. [date unknown but early settler -NL]
- [They] came over the Canada line and down to the lakes, a detachment of [the] tribe, who annually came over to hunt and fish in summer and smoke and dry their game and fish for winter use, which they carried back to Canada with them. [1812-1835]
- Old Phillips, a famous hunter of those times, [hunted] on the Cupsuptic and Magalloway rivers. [1812-1835]
- 1824-25 David Robbins made a trip to Farmington with furs; on way back kidnapped two year old Jim Wilbur, sold him to St. Francis Indians for beaver pelt.
- The family band of Waurumba resided on Lower Richardson Lake. His son Wenongonet was the last of the band in the region. He lived on Spirit Island.
- Annance and mother lived near old William Hoar - Hunter Cove.
- In more recent times, early 20th century, there was a family of Wawanolet who spent a few summers at Oquossoc, to the great chagrin of the Old Towners [Penobscot] who felt the Rangeley Region was their basket-selling territory. - quote by Stephen Laurent 1957
"Squire Rangeley's Township - 1837-1849"
by Zenas T. Haines, edited by Barbara Bruce -1970
pg.38-40
There was a little colony of Indians of the St. Francis tribe in the settlement in the 30's and 40's. The "big Indian" of the party was Louis Annance, a graduate of Dartmouth College, his aged sister, two nephews (the brothers Jerome and Elijah Wasmimmet), Jerome's wife and several children.(17) They occupied a log cabin on the road leading to Nathaniel Toothaker's and Abraham Ross's. There the women made prettily colored baskets. The men tanned moosehides and made mittens of them. In harvest time they worked for the farmers.
I think the first moose taken alive in that region was captured by Jerome and Elijah. It was a young one, and while it was feeding on lily pads in a shallow of Cupsuptic Lake, the Indians stealthily approached and pulled it into their boat. They brought it to Deacon Lake's where it became so far domesticated that, after roaming the woods all day for food, it would return to its pen at night. Its favorite food was the blossoms of fireweed called 'wickup'.
Down in the woods sloping westerly to North Cove Jerome and Elijah smoked and softened their moose peltry to a fine tint of yellow. Their entire 'plant' consisted of a tin pan of smouldering chips set in a hole in the ground and having as a chimney a green moose hide drawn around it cylindrically to absorb the smoke. It was a bit of savage life calculated to impress a boy observer very keenly.
More than fifty years ago Annance wrote for William Dodge a geographical description of the lake region, including the nomenclature of the several bodies of water. I think it varied somewhat from the names as now spelled and pronounced. If Mr. Dodge had preserved that writing its reproduction in the 'Rangeley Lakes' would doubtless afford great satisfaction to the readers of the paper. (18)
It was Annance who told Capt. Kimball that the once __ shaded point between Lake Cupsuptic and the outlet stream from the Kennebago and Rangeley Lakes, was an ancient Indian burial place. (l9) It was a charming spot before it was spoiled by flooding.
Once near an old landing on the Kennebago we found an ancient but well-preserved 'jack' for night still hunting of moose. It bore the marks of careful Indian handiwork. The edges of the background of bark were neatly bound with thread-like roots. and near the centre was a socket for the torch intended to lure the game to its death. The last use of that jack was to hold a candle for a lazy boy to read in bed.
Authors Notes - not Ne-Do-Ba notes;
- 17. Verifiable accounts of Indian connections with the Rangeley area are scarce, probably because the region was settled long after the Indian wars had destroyed the Abnaki tribes which had inhabited the Androscoggin Valley. This perhaps give added interest to this section of Zenas Haines narrative.
Louis Annance was not a graduate of Dartmouth College, but was a student at Moor's Indian Charity School run by Dartmouth President John Wheelock in Hanover. He was the son of Francis Annance, sachem of the St. Francis Indians of Quebec whose two villages on the St. Francis River were made up of the remnants of several tribes, including the Abnaki. He studied in Hanover from 1803-1809 when, according to a letter written by John Wheelock, he was called home by the illness of his mother. Wheelock writes: "He is well acquainted with reading, writing and the catechism; and has proceeded in his studies into Virgil. His conduct has been sober and regular; and his habits, virtuous and chaste." In 1811. Wheelock wrote of him again that he was of good disposition, was about 18 years of age and lived with his father. An account of Louis Annance in Sprague's Journal of Maine History, Vol. 8, No. 1 dated June, 1920, states that he returned to St. Francis at the request of the British Government and then served for three years in war. Presumably this would have been the War of 1812.
August 25, 1794 is given as his date of birth on his tombstone in Greenville, Maine, where he lived and was well known for thirty years. The stone also states that he became a member of the North Star Masonic Lodge in Lancaster, N.H. in 1836, and that he came to Greenville in 1853. His probable period of residence in Rangeley was between those two dates. Louis Annance died at his home in Greenville on December 25. 1875, leaving a numerous family. Many of his descendants still live in the Moosehead Lake area. I am indebted to Ivan Sherman of Greenville for some of the above information.
Appended to this volume are two letters written by Francis Annance which eloquently state the high value this Indian leader placed 'on education for his son and other Indian children'.
- 18. In Vol. II, No. 29, Page 1 of RANGELEY LAKES there is the following editors note: "The written geographical description of the lake region mentioned above by the Old Laker, is not supposed to be in existence. Mr. Dodge informs RANGELEY LAKES that when he left his home in Rangeley, about 55 Years ago, he left the book behind him, and has never seen it since. It was about 1836 that Mr. Dodge went on several moose hunting trips with Annanse, occasionally going over the line into Canada. They killed a great many moose."
- 19. These paragraphs, under the title 'Prehistoric Remains Found in Rangeley,' are found on page 1 of Vol. I, No. 17 of RANGELEY LAKES.
Last week's RANGELEY LAKES, in the article, 'Prehistoric Remains in Canada,' stated that Indian relics had never been found at the Lake region. Mr. Richardson of the O.A.A. (Oquossoc Angling Association) at Indian Rock informs us that last year, Clarence Haskell, son of E. B. Haskell of the Boston Herald, found an arrow head and this year a broken one, on the ledge known as Indian Rock, near the O.A.A. Club House. This would seem to prove that the Rock was correctly named. Mr. Richardson further informs us that on the point of land between the Rangeley and Kennebago streams, must have been a camping ground, for he found thorn bushes growing there when nowhere else this side of Madrid could one be found, and that thorn plums were an article of food with them. When the lake was raised this point was covered, but Mr. R. saved two bushes which are now growing in front of the club house.
"When Mr. Richardson first came here 33 years ago (c.1852) there were signs of the work of modern Indians, the St. Francis tribe, on an island below the `narrows,' which is now submerged. They had built a bark canoe there."
"A Chronological History of the Rangeley Lakes Region"
by Edward Ellis
pg.26 ... 'Flyrod' Crosby later wrote in 1885 of the 1840's - "A few of the St. Francis Indians lingered around the lakes until the 1840's and helped farmers when they were not hunting, fishing or making baskets. A small family of them lived with Deacon Lake whose log cabin was near our home. These were the Wasmimmets - Jerome and Elijah - whose uncle Louis Annance was the noted student of Dartmouth. Jerome eloped to Canada with the wife of a 'neighbor'." ...
The name Annanse (Annance) previously mentioned is one that is a story in itself. There was a tribe of St. Francis Indians in the area in the 30's and 40's, according to Barbara Bruce in her book Squire Rangeley's Township, and the 'Big Indian' was Louis Annanse, a graduate of Dartmouth College. He lived with his aged sister, two nephews Jerome and Elijah Wasmimmet, Jerome's wife and several children. They occupied a log cabin on the road to what later was Abram (Abraham) Ross's farm and Nathaniel Toothaker's farm overlooking the lake. Louis's father was Francis Annanse of the St. Francis Indians in Quebec Province, Canada. It was this family of Indians who taught the pioneer farming stock the ways of the woods and lakes, as well as the Indian lore of the region.
"The Rise And Fall of Bubiertown"
by Sid Harden
Rangeley Record 19-Jul-1957
... Many fine old English families lost thier money in land speculations. They came North and settled where they pleased. They were called squatters. Many came to Avon and left their families and followed the old Indian trails North, there was an Indian colony at Madrid at this time [1790's]. The trails branched, one going to Bemis on the Big Lake, the other to the Indian settlement on Aquasuc Lake. In 1810 my great grandfather Salmon Whitney with his wife and son one year old, settled in the Gore on the Indian trail that went to Bemis. That same year Ebenezer Oakes and Benjamin Bubier, both from a fine branch of old English families, followed the trail that went to the Indian settlement on Aquasac Lake. When they came over the top of the hill and saw that beautiful view, Oakes stopped there and built him a camp. Bubier went to the next hill and built him a camp. They were the first white men to settle north of Madrid, five years before Deacan Luther Hoar the first white man to settle in Township 3, Range 3, now Rangeley.
| Important Facts About This Place For Researchers |
| Date |
Fact |
Notes |
| |
Dallas Plantation |
organized |
| 1855 |
|
incorporated |
| 1805 |
Oxford County |
|
| 1838 |
Franklin County |
|
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Farmington
- They [Thomas Wilson and 5 others] crossed the Sandy River about where New Sharon village is now located and continued along the northern bank of the river until they reached the present Farmington Falls. There they came onto two Indian camps, one belonging to Pierpole, the other, to Phillip. [1776]
| Important Facts About This Place For Researchers |
| Date |
Fact |
Notes |
| |
Sandy River Plantation |
organized |
| 1794 |
|
incorporated |
| 1760 |
Lincoln County |
|
| 1799 |
Kennebec County |
|
| 1838 |
Franklin County |
|
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Sandy River - General Region
- Salmon Whitney was a fur trader with his post on the trail [Indian trail from Madrid to Rangeley]. His nephew, Sid Harden, knew the Indians that lived around Phillips. Dozens would come from the lakes to trade twice a year. [early 1800's? Does anyone have vitals for these 2 men?]
- Abenaki ... campfires seen nightly by settlers on the north line of Phillips. [1790's]
Eastern Argus of Portland ME 16-Sep-1847
"Mr Wilbur's daughters at Saco factories saw among a body of Indians encamped there, a white young man, recognized a resemblance to their family & soon claimed him as a brother 23 years old. The Indians encamped at Cape Elizabeth ME opposite this city with the youth & his wife, for he had married an Indian girl last Spring. Child was lost in 1827, when family resided near Sandy River Pond Franklin Co. ME, since then his family had moved to Bethel ME. 20 yrs ago the boy was 2y 10m, one day went to meet the other children but never returned. Perhaps Robbins (an old offender) stole the child, tried for petty thefts, afterwards imprisoned for murder of Hinds & son in 1828, but made his escape."
Zion's Advocate 21-Oct-1847
James White reputed son of Mr. Wilber of Bethel ME. No one can doubt he's white, yet from habit he is happier among Indians.
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