OF

THOMASTON, ROCKLAND,

AND

SOUTH THOMASTON,

MAINE,

FROM THEIR FIRST EXPLORATION, A. D. 1605; WITH
FAMILY GENEALOGIES.

BY CYRUS EATON:

Cor. Member of the Mass. Hist. Society, also of the Wisconsin Hist. Society
and Member Elect of the Maine Hist. Society.

"Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost."-John, 6, 12.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

HALLOWELL:

MASTERS, SMITH & CO., PRINTERS.
1865.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

CYRUS EATON,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine.

16,

"323, 66 351,

these,
"excitement,

then.
religious excitement.

6, occurs an error, taken from the papers of the day, which the modesty of Dr. Levensaler makes him peculiarly desirous of having corrected; therefore instead of Medical Director of the Southern Department, read one of the Medical Examining Board at Beaufort, S. C. Page 417, line 11, for according, read according to.

PREFATORY.

To the people of THOMASTON, ROCKLAND, and SOUTH THOMASTON, this work, executed under the pressure of many difficulties, sorrows, and anxieties, both public and domestic, is now humbly presented by the author and his devoted assistant, as the only return they can make for the generous patronage, uniform kindness, and ready hospitality, everywhere extended to them, without which, under the circumstances, they could hardly have had the confidence and spirit to persevere in the arduous undertaking. If it shall be found. a faithful and impartial transcript of the past, and reasonably free from those errors which necessarily result from the examination and collation of so many facts and documents nowhere to be found in print and with no living interpreter, for the most part, to elucidate, it will have accomplished the utmost expectations of the author. If in any instance it should fail in this, he hopes the generous reader will pardon, and impute it rather to lack of ability than to any wilful negligence or sinister purpose.

From the public at large, the author can hardly expect the favor bestowed upon his former publication of the kind, which in some respects was less local in its character. Should any

complaint be made that the present work in its appearance and arrangement in the form of annals, too faithfully follows in the track of its predecessor, it may be well to explain that such was the wish and stipulation of the Thomaston Natural History Society under whose auspices the work was originally commenced and continued till the almost total dissolution of that Society by death and the calls of the supervening war. Those portions of the early history of Thomaston which had been forestalled in the Annals of Warren, are now more lightly passed over to make room for additional particulars, or varied by more liberal quotations from the actors and cotemporary writers.

The author takes great pleasure in acknowledging the valuable aid of several persons at a distance from, and not particularly interested in, the locality to which his present work is devoted. Among these, he would mention his unfailing friend, the worthy Librarian of Harvard University, John Langdon Sibley; Hon. Nehemiah Boynton of Chelsea, Mass.; Frederic Kidder, Esq., an antiquarian of Boston, whose opinions, arrived at on the same spot where Weymouth's discoveries were made in 1605, coinciding with those adopted in these pages, were, he regrets to say, received too late for insertion in the narrative; G. S. Newcomb, Esq., of Kingston, Mass.; D. Williams Patterson of West Winsted, Ct.; Col. Ellis Spear, while a resident of Wiscasset; E. Foote, Esq., of the same place; Dr. J. B. Walker of Union, while a member of the Senate; Rev. J. L. Locke, formerly of Belfast and Camden; and, at the national capital, Hon. S. C. Fessenden, Capt. A. C. Spalding, Hon. Lot M. Morrill, and James Parker, Esq., a gifted and well beloved nephew of the author now removed by death; Hon. Joseph Williamson of Belfast; and, of his own townsmen, Hon. A. H. Hodgman, A. Smith, Esq., and Dr. Benj. F. Buxton, whose researches among the archives of the State, while a member of the Legislature, were of a very laborious character.

From many individuals in the three municipalities which form the subject of the work, the author has received much important aid and information, furnished in many cases at considerable sacrifice of time and patience, but which to particularly acknowledge here might seem invidious to some and require too much space. May they all, and especially the sprightly little girl of twelve years, daughter of Capt. H. Spalding, who volunteered to guide the steps of the blind author in his wanderings through the village of South Thomaston, and afterwards copied for his use all the inscriptions from the cemetery there, obtain their reward, here and in heaven! And may the two unpretending volumes now offered, find favor in their happy homes and those of their descendants, long after the hand which has toiled and the brain which has wearied in the compilation, shall have been laid to rest! WARREN, FEB., 1865.