102 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
fFeb. 0, 1895. 
PIONEER LIFE IN MAINE. 
BY GEORGE SMITH, 
In accordance with the suggestion of those who had listened 
many times to these stories of the dangers and privations of the 
pioneer settlers, the following account of the early settlement of 
the town of Freedom, Me., and pioneer life in that region, accom- 
panied with a brief record of the years spent in the West, was 
written by.the author al the age of eighty-one. — D. C. Smith. 
My Dear Son: Agreeable to your wishes, I have sat 
down to narrate some incidents of rny father's family. 
Of their ancestry, I know but little, except that his fa- 
ther 's'name was J oshua Smith, a descendant of old Par- 
son Smith, who was a chaplain in the French and Indian 
War, and a resident of Old York, Mass,, as I have been 
informed; that his father's wife's name was Elizabeth 
Hodgdon, of South Berwick, Me., and my father after 
serving in'the Revolutionary War with Great Britain came 
to South Berwick about the year 1780, and there married 
Mercy Andrews, the daughter of John Andrews, an emi- 
grant from England. 
His father, having sold out his possessions in Old York, 
determined to emigrate to what was then called the Dis- 
trict of Maine. He settled on the Damariscotta River, 
then called Jones' Creek. My father, having heard of 
the wonderful chance there, for the lumbering business, 
soon followed him, and there, with his other brothers in 
partnership, followed the lumbering business for several 
years. The country back being entirely unsettled, and 
game, such as bears, beavers, and moose being plenty, 
they made much business in following up the several 
streams, taking great quantities of game as they pro- 
ceeded up the river on snow-shoes in winter. Frequently 
they would kill several moose on their route that they 
would bury up in the snow with other smaller game; 
then returning home they would take their handsleds and 
go after the game till all was brought home and well 
saved for future use. In this way they supplied them- 
selves with an abundance of meat for several years til the 
settements became cleared up, as no domestic animal 
could be kept at first, on account of their bemg destroyed 
by the bears that infested that region. 
About the year 1793 they made an excursion into the 
interior, up the Sheepscot River to its head waters, which 
had then- source at the west side of Hogback Mountain — 
as they called it — this was also, on the eastern side, the 
source of the Megunticook stream, leading into Camden 
Harbor. Here, at the westerly side, right opposite the 
source of the river, they discovered a beautiful tract of 
land of some six hundred acres^which they had surveyed, 
and then divided it into four lots, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 
gave each one a chance to draw for it in a lottery of their 
own making. The names of the four brothers were 
Stephen, Joshua, James, and John. My father being the 
oldest, they agreed he should draw first, and he drew lot 
No. i, on the most southerly part of the survey, with 
which he was well pleased. He then sold out all his light 
in the lumbering business to the others, and having col- 
lected in all about $200, and hired two ox-teams on Jan. 
1, 1795, he started the first family up the Sheepscot Val- 
ley, through a howling wilderness not less than forty 
miles in extent. As no roads were in existence at t hat 
time, they had to follow the lumbermen's trail as best 
they could till they struck the "Great Pond" — so-called — 
on that stream, now in the town of Palermo, and there 
they were left by the teams to get along as they could. 
Here happened to be a lumberman by the name of Turner, 
encamped with his wife and two children. My father 
got the privilege of his family's staying there a few days 
till he could clear a road some ten miles to a settlement 
of three or four men, who had settled near "George's 
Pond," as they called it, which is now in the town of 
Liberty. 
My father's family now consisted of seven persons be- 
sides himself and wife, the oldest about fourteen years 
old. Their names in order were James, Miriam, Joshua, 
John, George, Stephen, and Benjamin, a babe at the 
breast. We all tarried at Turner's till father and his boys 
had bushed out a road, so that a horse and sled could pass 
through to this new settlement, by which means Ave made 
out to get through to the settlement in about two weeks. 
Here my father got permission to live in one end of a 
log-cabin, without floor or windows; the other end being 
occupied by a Mr. Leighton and his wife. We remained 
here till the next May. 
The First ILog Cabin. 
r During this time my father and this man felled trees— 
the first ever felled in what is now the town of Freedom 
—sufficient to build a log-cabin 18x24. At the end of the 
winter they had got up the walls only, and as the spring- 
was warm and early on May 5 my father having a spotted 
line and beaten trail all the way through a gigantic for- 
est to his log-cabin, a distance of four miles, determined 
to show us our future home. Therefore, early in the 
morning on May 5, 1795, we were all six paraded in In- 
dian file, father and mother with the babe in her arms. 
We soon entered a most darksome forest, which led us 
over and down a long, tedious hill two miles in extent. 
"We were often seen seated on the fallen logs to get breath 
to renew the journey. In this manner we reached our 
new dwelling about noon. But, oh, reflect ye complain- 
ing ones! if this were your situation, how could you en- 
dure it? 
A log-cabin without a roof. 
With no floor but the ground. 
With neither chimney nor stove all around. But we 
soon had a nice floor of new boughs, and before night the 
same cover on the roof. B , 
In this situation, with not a square rod of ground to 
improve the ensuing year, with not a domestic animal, 
except' cat and dog, with no road, with no neighbors, 
with no stock of provisions on hand, nor any to be had 
short of thirty miles, through a dismal, uninhabited wil- 
derness three-fourths of the way, with nine in the family 
all told to supply with bread— in this situation father had 
often to go to the nearest market, which was at least 
twenty-five miles or more to what was called Damaris- 
cotta Mills, to buy corn, as that was the only kind of 
bread then in use. Having bought two bushels, he was 
obhged to hire a horse if he could, and in case he could 
not obtain one, he had made for himsef a large knapsack 
that would hold a bushel of corn, and swinging this to 
his back, with gun in hand, he would start for home 
through a dismal 4 forest with nought but spotted trees as 
a directory. He would reach home the second day, and 
after waiting one day 'would return and get the other. 
This was the process the first two years, till he got a few 
acres felled and cleared, so as to be able to raise Indian 
corn on the burned land. Although the burned timbers 
lay on the ground, the corn was inoculated among them 
with sharp sticks, and a good crop was always the result. 
At that time, as no grist mill was nearer than twenty 
miles, he invented a samp mortar by cutting off a log 
two feet across and three, and a half feet high, and then 
setting it up endwise, and building a tire on the top. 
which he kept burning two days and nights. At the end 
of this time, he had a cavity twelve inches deep; this he 
completely scraped out, and it then became a nice mor- 
tar. Placing it in one room of our cabin, he fixed a spring 
pole, to which was attached a heavy pestle, with a cross- 
pin through it, in reach of the hands; in this way in fif- 
teen minutes a peck of corn would be reduced to hand- 
some samp and meal of a nice quality, which were sepa- 
rated by sifting. The meal being made into thin cakes 
and basked on wooden trenches before a blazing fire 
formed an excellent bread. 
But, as bread alone, without butter or milk soon be- 
comes stale to our tastes, and as our father and mother 
were never at a great loss for a remedy, my father wotdd 
rise early in the morning, take down his gun, and visit 
the inhabitants of the forests who were making the woods 
vocal with their music, which woidd often have to stop, 
while they beat time to the thrilling crack of his deadly 
fowling-piece. In this way a valuable acquisition was 
made to our bread without milk or butter, and this was 
frequently varied by the addition of a squirrel or hedge 
hog. This first year was the most distressing, on account 
of our arriving too late in the spring to improve the 
abundant chances for making maple sugar, which, ever 
after, was one of our greatest blessings. Thus passed 
the first two years of our campaign in one of the most 
gigantic forests that ever grew in Maine, which my father 
and his boys caused to bow to their sturdy blows every 
day during the summer of 1795. 
January, 1796, came in with terrible snowstorms. 
Snows fell to the depth of three and a half feel in all 
directions, but we had our cabin well finished off with a 
good roof, covere'd with new spruce bark; with a good 
hewn plank floor; a. good stone chimney up to the man- 
tle-piece four feet high, with jambs five feet apart and 
topped out with "cat and clay," as it was then called; 
the old cabin well "chinked" with moss, and plastered 
with clay; with an abundance of the best wood in the 
world, right at our own door that needed no hauling— 
thus situated we considered ourselves a happy family 
when enjoying in the evening a blazing fire, such as no 
one in these days will ever see. 
The ensuing spring, father got everything ready before- 
hand for making maple sugar. The trees being so near 
the house the sap was brought to it, and that was our 
first sugar-camp; and never was a family of children any 
happier than when the first batch of sugar was stirred 
off, and each one was allowed a good lump on an old-fash- 
ioned pewter plate. Father and his boys made about four 
hundred pounds of sugar, and in order to save it, he 
hewed out some ash-holders, and in these stored it with 
good success. This same spring he had about four acres 
of felled trees to burn, and as the spring was dry he got 
an excellent burn, and then planted corn among the logs. 
A Visit From a Bear. 
Having the prospect of raising a good crop of corn, he- 
thought it best early in the spring to get a swine that he 
might raise pigs. When brought home she was allowed 
to go at large wherever she pleased, and the weather be- 
ing warm she frequented a brook that ran close by the 
house, where she would lie and bathe in the day-time. 
Our stock was increased by four pigs. One da) r , when 
these were about two weeks old, my father happened to 
be absent from home, when about noon we heard the 
hog squeal at the brook. My mother caught the gun 
from the hooks, and rushed down to the brook with her 
dog in advance, just in time to see a bear, with the hog- 
in his arms going up the hill on the other side of the 
brook. She set the dog on him, and he dropped the hog- 
to give fight to the dog, which bit him behind; in this 
way he showed himself openly to my mother, who was so 
terrified at so monstrous a creature, she could do nothing 
but scream aloud. Although she had all the means of 
war in her hands she forgot to use them, and the bear 
was allowed to finish his dinner of fresh meat on the top 
of the Mil. But his. supper, the next night, cost him 
rather more dear. On returning home, father deter- 
mined to have redress, and make him settle for his dinner 
like a gentleman. Accordingly, he collected the frag- 
ments of the stolen dinner, and having surrounded it 
with a hedge — except a small door at one end — within the 
inclosure he set his gun Avell loaded, drawing its line- 
across the door-way with the remnants of the dinner at 
the further side of the inclosure, and in this way he gave 
the bear a good chance to come to his supper. The night 
being dark and rainy, father thought it very favorable, 
as he said, they always took such nights for mischief. 
This evening Ave determined to keep awake, in hopes of 
hearing the salute on his arrival, but sleep took posses- 
sion of us all too soon for us to enjoy the privilege so 
much desired. Toward the latter part of the night we 
heard father jump out of bed, saying to mother: "He 
has got it." And, stue enough, in the morning when we 
Avent to the yard, there he lay fast asleep Avith his head 
just across the line. Never was there greater rejoicing in 
one family since W r olf took Quebec, than was in our lit- 
tle household. He was in excellent order, and weighed 
about two hundred pounds. We had him salted down in 
one of father's neAV-fashioned sugar tubs, and neA-er Avas 
meat eaten with a better relish than this. Father often 
said he was "well satisfied, that the bear paid well for 
his dinner;" but mother did not feel so thankful as the 
young pigs left motherless on her hands, needed milk, 
and Ave had none to give them. However, necessity be- 
ing the mother of invention, she made nice SAveetened 
porridge, and fed them with a teaspoon till they learned 
to eat, and so she succeeded in raising tAvo of them. 
This year my father raised a nice crop of Indian corn, 
the first ever harvested in what was afterward called 
Beaver Hill Plantation — so named from a beaver's hav- 
ing been caught— some four hundred feet above the 
st ream, at its base. There was a beautiful flowing spring 
at that altitude, across the mouth of Avhich he had built 
a dam, no doubt for summer bathing. The inhuman 
trappers could not lei him. enjoy this in peace; there- 
fore, because he wo££ a coat so much finer than theirs, 
they murdered him for the sake of his fine coat, but he 
has the honor of having given a name to this hill, and 
his works are yet to be seen. 
Adventure TVitti a Bear. 
As we had an abundance of corn, my father thought he 
could keep a cow, and immediately bought one, Avhich 
added greatly to our living. In three years from this 
time Ave had three others of the same kind. Their only 
pasture was the Avoods, and being belled, they had to be 
hunted up every night before sundoAAm. Only the oldest 
boy was trusted to enter the darksome woods, and that 
with gun in hand, well loaded, and supplied with am- 
munition. Thus equipped, one dark, rainy day in July, 
1799, he set off early to hunt up the cattle. After trav- 
eling down into a low meadow he heard the bellowing of 
a cow in distress. He hastened to the place from whence 
the noise seemed to proceed, and running to the side of 
a brook through the thick alders, on the other side, he 
discovered a huge bear with a coav doAvn on her side, he 
tearing and eating her back and shoulders. He drew near 
as possible, and discharged his gun at him, loaded Avith 
tAvo balls. This gave him such a hint he thought it best 
to retreat. My brother dared not move till he had re- 
loaded his gun, thinking the bear might return. In the 
meantime the cow made out to rise, and crossed the 
brook toAvard him. In his excitement he became com- 
pletely lost to himself, and had not the coav been able to 
lead the Avay he aa^ouM not have seen home that night, 
but he followed her and came out safe. This Avas a. heavy 
blow to us, as she Avas the only one that gave milk. For 
three years we had liA r ed without milk, and uoav iu the 
best part of the season for making butter, all was gone 
for that business. 
The next morning the cow could not be made to rise. 
As much as two feet of her back was laid bare to the 
bone, and the weather being so Avarm and flies so thick, 
fatlier thougth it best to kill her. "No," said my moth- 
er—a Avoman of indomitable courage — "you make a good 
booth over her to keep off the hot sun, and I will take 
care of her myself; the children can gather Her food." 
She made a covering sufficient to cover the hole in the 
back, and Avith the roots of the Life of Man and Sarsa- 
pariila she made a salve, and a Avash compounded of many 
other herbs; these she daily applied. By this treatment, 
in thirty or forty days, the cow was able to rise alone, 
and by Sept. 1 Avas completely healed, though With rather 
a crooked back. She was perfectly dried up, and being 
Avell fatted was sold for beef to some young men who had 
come to see the country and take up a possession. This 
enabled my lather to buy another cow in the spring, and 
as one of the heifers came in that spring we had two 
cows. 
Increasing Prosperity. 
From that day forward my father began to rise in prop- 
erty; every year felling from five to ten acres of trees to 
be burned and planted with Indian corn, and the last 
piece soAved in to grain and laid doAvn to grass. In the 
year 1800 lie bought the first sheep he ever had, but he 
was almost obliged to take them into the house to keep 
them from the bears. He made a log pen, tight and 
close, Avell covered over Avith heavy timbers, Avith a 
strong door Avell barred inside, and this was joined to the 
house. The sheep had to be put into the pen every night. 
The bears were not pleased Avith such treatment, and de- 
termined to storm his castle the first convenient oppor- 
tunity. Consequently the first dark night that offered 
itself they were on hand, and having approached his cas- 
tle, although it looked so strong, they concluded to try 
their hands at its strength. They succeeded in making a 
breach in its walls, by which they entered, and after ex- 
amining the whole number and putting their mark on all 
they carried off the seventh as a fee for their trouble in 
handsomely marking all the others. 
Tlic Kew House. 
My fatlier thought he Avas now able to build a frame 
house and barn; as his stock and hay were yearly increas- 
ing, he decided to have the barn first, and it was raised 
July 6, 1802. The roof Avas covered Avith long shingles, 
laid tAvo feet to the weather- The walls were not board- 
ed, as there were no boards to be had at that time, but it 
Avas filled Avith hay, to the ridge-pole, the first year. The 
next year he began on a house frame, and got it all ready, 
but did not raise it till 1804. The roof of the house Avas 
shingled without boards; the ribs being laid twelve inches 
to the weather. Hearing of some boards about tAvelve 
miles distant, he Avent in search of them, and bought 
enough to Avail in our house— the dimensions of which 
were 36x30 feet. 
As boards were so scarce, and good pine timber so 
abundant, he determined to make boards more plenty, 
and having a most excellent privilege, he at once built a 
good saAv-mill, and got it going the second yea', and now, 
for the first time, Ave had our buildings well covered. . 
In the year 1806 we bade adieu to our old log-cabin, 
and moved into our new house, which had a stone chim- 
ney with three good fire-places and a large oven in the 
same. These tAvo buildings were the first built in— 
what was then called Beaver Hill Plantation— uoav the 
town of Freedom. 
.Eclipse of 1800. 
This year, 1806, it had been predicted that some great 
calamity would befall the inhabitants of the world. It 
had been asserted by a traveling preacher, who was go- 
ing about the country, that a wonderful phenomena Avas 
to take place on June 1G; that there Avould be total dark- 
ness at noon, that the stars would be seen as at midnight, 
and it might be the Day of Judgment, for aught he 
knew, or could tell. All of Avhich did take place, as I 
can testify, being an eye witness. The day Was perfectly 
clear, and Avhen the sun Avas tAvo-thirds covered the 
Avhole western hemisphere, from north to south, became 
black as sackcloth, and on earth it was the same. This 
Avas a most- gloomy scene to all. Work of all kind was 
suspended, and many took to their houses, called their 
children around them, and sat in fear and gloom as the 
darkness increased every minute. Total darkness set in 
at twelve o'clock, caudles Avere lighted, and frwls went 
to roost as at night. The gloom and darkness lasted ten 
