Hike Through History 2002

Central School

South Berwick, ME 03908

TRAVELING THE TRAILS

OF THE NATIVE PEOPLE OF QUAMPHEGAN (SOUTH BERWICK)

INTRODUCTION

Children and adults alike have always been curious about the native culture that existed here in the South Berwick area before the European settlers came. Unfortunately, very few historical documents have survived to tell us about them. Books have been written about the New England native culture in general that likely applied to the people living in the South Berwick area. Early settlers provide some eyewitness reports, but they were with a mission -- to take possession of the land occupied by these “savages” -- so these accounts were not necessarily objective ones. Family oral histories containing references to the natives may or may not be accurate because of stories being altered as they were passed down through the generations.

This “tour” of early trails of South Berwick village is an attempt to flesh out the lives of the first occupants of our area. The “Indian trails” here described are a creation of the mind of the writer, but trails did exist among these people, for specific reasons -- these descriptions are based on reasonable speculation.

Early European fishermen. Contact between Europeans and the native people living on the Piscataqua River had taken place by the 1500s. Basques, Irish, Portuguese, French and English had fished for cod off the New England coast, setting up drying racks called stages at temporary fishing settlements on the Isles of Shoals and along Old Road in Eliot. Besides salting and drying fish, these early fishermen would bring from their home countries items to trade with their Indian neighbors -- steel knives, kettles and cloth in exchange for beaver skins and Indian corn.   At the end of the fishing season, the fishermen would head back to their homeports in Europe, with their ships loaded with dried salted fish, to return again the following year.  The local natives undoubtedly recognized in these fishermen the pattern of their own lives -- commuting from one food source to another, depending on the season.  It must have been easy to share space with these saltwater fishermen from faraway “tribes”.

European explorers. In the late 1500s, a new kind of European began appearing off our shores, exploring the land with an eye to colonizing it.  They observed and wrote about the native people living here. The explorers made inventories of the natural resources of the seacoast, noting the seemingly endless supply of timber and useful plants, beaver, fish and other wildlife.  In 1602, Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold's ship dropped anchor off what is thought to be Cape Neddick.  He was looking for sassafras, a medicinal herb highly prized in England.  John Brereton was the recorder for the trip.  He wrote about an encounter with the local natives.  Six Indians in a Basque shallop (small fishing boat) with mast and sail approached the ship and came aboard.  Brereton described the men as tall and dark-skinned. One of them was wearing a black coat and trousers, stockings and shoes.  The other five wore deerskin breechcloths.  He described the men as tall and dark-skinned.  Their eyebrows were painted white.  They carried bows and arrows.  By words and sign language, the Indians indicated that some Basque fishermen, of the ship named St. John de Luz, had fished and traded in that place.

What were these native people like?  The environment in which they live influences human beings, like other creatures of nature.  The native people who lived in South Berwick before English settlement shared an ecological setting with those in southern New Hampshire and eastern coastal Massachusetts. They lived near the seacoast, making available to them clams, oysters, lobsters and saltwater fish.  They lived on a river emptying into the sea, the river we know as the Salmon Falls River but called by them the Newichawannock (New-ik-a-WAN-nok). They lived near the fall line, the place where waterfalls prevent salt water from traveling any further into freshwater rivers. The natives called the nearby falls Quamphegan (Kwam-FEE-gan).

What was “Quamphegan”? In the area that is now South Berwick, the name Quamphegan was used in two ways by the native Americans. There are several possibilities that have come down to us through oral tradition: “place of tall trees” or “place where fish is taken in nets.” The natives called the falls at the fall line the Quamphegan Falls. The Quamphegan Falls are located at the foot of the hill on Route 4 to Dover, near Old Berwick Historical Society's Counting House Museum. Quamphegan was also the name given to an area on both sides of the falls – in old Dover and on the Maine side. On the Maine side of the river, there was an Indian settlement as well, called Quamphegan. The Indian sagamore (leader) Rowls sold land to Humphrey Chadbourne but reserved Quamphegan for himself and his family. Eventually, the name carried over to the English settlement -- Quamphegan of the town of Berwick. In 1814, Quamphegan separated from Berwick, and was renamed South Berwick.

What was it about this particular spot called Quamphegan that attracted permanent native and English settlement?  Water, water, and water.  The native village was nestled into the protective western slope of Powderhouse Hill, a drumlin (small oval-shaped hill) left behind by the glacier's retreat around 10,000 years ago.  The hill is a veritable fountain of fresh water springs.  The hill provided excellent and abundant drinking water and an easy means of watering crops.  Quamphegan was located near the junction of two rivers -- the Newichawannock River and the Asbenbedick River, today's Salmon Falls River and Great Works River.  The rivers were major transportation routes from inland to the sea, as well as a food source for fresh water fish.  Finally, the Great Bay and the ocean were just a short canoe trip downstream, providing another major food source -- saltwater fish, clams, mussels, oysters and lobster. Water to drink, water for crops, water for transportation and water as a source of freshwater and saltwater food -- water was so very important to the natives' way of living, to the English settlers, and to us, today.

In the 1600s, when the Europeans first settled here, great forests of tall and ancient trees were located in the area, providing the natives with deer and other game.  There were many freshwater springs nearby.  Most important, the climate was mild enough that the natives living at Quamphegan could rely on agriculture. The growing of corn and squash had spread from South America, reaching southern New England by the 1300s and 1400s.  Quamphegan was near the uppermost reaches of the corn-growing belt.  The Saco River Valley was the approximate northern boundary, and beyond it, the growing of corn was unpredictable.  The length of the corn-growing season created a major difference between the agricultural natives of Quamphegan and the natives of much of Maine, who had to continue to rely on hunting and food-gathering as their means of survival. Native Americans living in Quamphegan were farmers and hunters.

The natives who lived in New England spoke the Algonquin Indian language and called themselves the Abenaki (Wabanaki), the People of the Dawn.  They were the first on the continent to welcome and honor the rising sun. The eastern Abenaki lived approximately north and east of the Saco River.  The western Abenaki lived south and west of the Saco.  The people living at Quamphegan were most likely one of the western Abenaki tribes.

What name did the early explorers give to the native people who lived in Quamphegan?  Samuel de Champlain explored the New England coast in 1603. The drawing below was done by an artist on the voyage.  Champlain had with him as an interpreter an eastern Abenaki.  When asked, "Who are these people?" the interpreter replied in French,  "They are Almouchiquois (Al-muu-she-KWA) -- dog people."  He led Champlain to understand that these people were different from his people. Perhaps the name was a negative one, given in scorn by an Indian guide hostile to the natives of our area. Perhaps the difference lay in the many cornfields surrounding the bark wigwams and long houses that indicated a more settled life than his.

Who was Sagamore Rowls? Historical documents recording local Indian names are very few, but they do exist today in the form of ancient deeds and agreements. One of the oldest Indian deeds in the country, dated May 10^th, 1643, is signed by Sagamore Rowls, transferring land here in present-day South Berwick to Humphrey Chadbourne. Rowls was the leader or sagamore speaking for the native people who lived here at the time of English settlement. Our earliest settlers lived among Rowls' people. Rowls “drew” his signature, which unfortunately has been damaged and marked “torn out.”

Rowls” is a decidedly English name – we do not know why the sagamore was called Rowls, and we have not found an Indian name for him. He signed several local deeds. The Wheelwright Deed of 1629 was an agreement between several Indian leaders and people representing the English settlers in the Exeter (NH) area. It is now thought to be a fraudulent document, but among the names of the Indian signers is that of Rowls, identifying him as . . . “Sagamore of Newichawannock.”

Where was “Newichawannock”? The name “Newichawannock” seems to have been used in several ways by the natives.

Newichawannock was the Indian name of the river flowing down from Milton Three Ponds (New Hampshire) to the sea – we call it today the Salmon Falls River. We do not know for certain what the name means, but two possibilities have been mentioned: “river with many falls” and “fork or confluence of two rivers.” The river does indeed have numerous waterfalls along its length. Three waterfalls on the river are found very near South Berwick (the Indian village at Quamphegan). There is the Salmon Falls, between South Berwick and Salmon Falls villages; Quamphegan Falls; and about a mile south of Quamphegan Falls, there is a series of rapids in the river, extending from Leigh's Mill Pond to the foot of Vaughan's Lane – these also were called “falls” in the late 1600s. These waterfalls were significant to native tribes from all over New England, for they came here to catch salmon and other fish that migrated up the river in the spring.

According to Chester Price, of the NH Archeological Society, Newichawannock was the name of the Indian trail running along the Maine side the Newichawannock River, and then crossing into New Hampshire at a wading place that once existed near Leigh's Mills. Part of the trail still exists today in Rollinsford at the intersection of Baer and Sligo Roads. This old road is identified as the Newichawannock trail the in the deed to the abutting property of Ruth Emerson.

Newichawannock was very likely the Indian name for the extensive falls between today's South Berwick Village and Salmon Falls Village, the falls today known as Salmon Falls. Any other Indian name for the falls is unknown, having disappeared from early records and accounts relatively quickly, the settlers favoring the name “Salmon Falls.” Samuel Sewall was a traveling judge in 1689, and in his journal, he travels to the mills at the Salmon Falls. By that early date, the Indian name of the falls no longer existed.

Newichawannock was also was very likely the Indian name of the area on both sides of the river, adjacent to the Newichawannock falls and an Indian settlement located on the west bank of the river. In 1898, Wilbur Spencer wrote The Maine Spencers, a history of the Spencer family beginning with the arrival of Thomas Spencer in 1634. Spencer declares more than once that, according to the oral traditions of his family, Salmon Falls village was once the site of the Indian village of Newichawannock. Records of ancient Dover also make reference to Salmon Falls village having once been a tribal seat.

How did the early settlers use the name “Newichawannock?” The English use of the name “Newichawannock” appears in Ambrose Gibbons' letters to his employers in London. Gibbons' trading post was located at “Newichawannock” in 1631; it is unknown if it was on the east or west banks of the Newichawannock River, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of Leigh's Mills. As late as 1697, Major Charles Frost and his friends were returning from Sunday church meeting at “Newichawannock” (Old Fields in South Berwick) when ambushed by hostile natives. Early settlers living on both sides of the river identified themselves as residing at Newichawannock for much of the 1600s.

The settlers had yet another use for the name Newichawannock. The Chadbourne map of 1764 identifies the rapids at the mouth of the Asbenbedick (Great Works) River and south, down the river towards the Lower Landing, as the Newichawannock Falls. The rapids north of the river mouth, at the wading place, were called Little John Falls at the time. The rapids at Little John Falls and the wading place were destroyed in 1828 when a channel was blasted into the riverbed, allowing gundalows access farther up the river. (Today, the name Newichawannock Falls has disappeared from the maps – the name, Little John Falls transferred over time to the “falls” or rapids near the Lower Landing).

The first permanent settlers and the native people. By 1620, the enthusiastic reports of earlier European explorers had attracted the attention of English “merchant adventurers.” These were businessmen who were willing to invest their fortunes in the development of New England. They came to the Piscataqua region with their employees and families, and they intended to remain. There were early settlers at Strawbery Banke and Pannaway (Portsmouth and Rye) as early as 1623, when the whole region, on both sides of the Piscataqua, was known as the Piscataqua Plantations.

Alexander Shapleigh was a fish merchant. In 1634, Shapleigh came to the Piscataqua and settled in what would become Kittery, then Eliot. He brought with him his family, fishing vessels and fishermen. No longer did fishermen come just for the summer – they came to stay.

In 1631, Ambrose Gibbons, his wife and little daughter settled among the natives at Newichawannock. Gibbons was an employee of the Laconia Company, organized by Mason and Gorges of England. Financed by his employers, Gibbons built a trading post to obtain furs from the native people. Gibbons remained in the area, to become a permanent settler in Dover (later Oyster River), NH.

In 1634, William Chadbourne came to Newichawannock, one of three carpenters employed by John Mason to built a gristmill and a sawmill at the high falls there. Called Asbenbedick Falls by the natives, the falls are located at today's Great Works. Although William did not stay here, his son, young Humphrey Chadbourne, purchased land from Sagamore Rowls and established himself as a permanent settler, building a fine house by 1650 and turning out lumber, shingles and barrel staves at his own mill at the juncture of the Newichawannock (Salmon Falls) and Asbenbedick (Great Works) Rivers. Descendants of Humphrey Chadbourne can be found among residents of South Berwick today.

The native people succumb to European diseases. As the English settlers increasingly pushed into the territories and lives of the native people, the Indian way of life was permanently altered. It is thought that seven out of ten native Americans died of simple European illnesses such as measles or small pox. At Quamphegan, Sagamore Rowls survived these epidemics and seem to have lived in peace with the new settlers. But shortly before his death, Rowls predicted that there would be trouble between the English and the native people.

Peaceful native life in the early days. There is a brief description of life among the native people in Thomas Spencer's time (he lived at Old Fields between 1634 and 1680), passed on through oral tradition and included in The Maine Spencers (1898) by Wilbur Spencer (pp. 45-46):

“. . . it is really an essential feature of this sketch of Thomas Spencer's life, to say a few words of his neighbors, the Indians. Hardly a day passed when he did not see them, now that he had come to live in their midst. He would see them on the ponds, on the rivers, in the woods, and even in his own dwelling. Their dress was very meager, consisting of skins before they began to use English cloth, and then they were not particular about its scantiness. Their canoes were of two kinds, with which they ventured upon the roughest seas. The birch canoes were made from a good quality of bark sewed with sinews over their frames. Canoes made from tree-trunks were shaped in the woods and then burned out, the process requiring often a dozen years. These boats were much used by the settlers themselves in those times.

“In the Indian village near Thomas's house they lived during the planting season. At other times they were in their hunting lodges or on the seashore. Their wigwams were taken down and put up by the women. These were covered with skins and mats so that not a drop of rain could enter, and were often fifty or sixty feet long. These encampments can still be located by their circular stone fire-places”... (Note: This was in 1898, when Wilbur Spencer wrote the book.) ... “The work of the men consisted in fighting their battles, hunting and fishing, and making and mending their implements. This kept them much time in the woods, while the wives tilled the fields. In these early years of peace they would enter a settler's house without knocking and even sit down without being asked to do so...” (Note: This habit of entering without knocking for a friendly visit was normal among the Indians of those times – have you ever tried knocking on a tent?! With the retelling of the story by Spencer people – people of English culture – this habit came to appear “rude” or “surprising” to later Spencer generations).

“They (the natives) were very strong and agile and lived to be very old (unless struck down by foreign diseases). They were almost inclined to honesty in its cruder forms. Any violations of the rights of ownership could be easily reported to their chief. For this reason Thomas was safe from them, and could till his ground and let his horses and cattle roam through the woods. The fact that he had purchased land of their chief was sufficient to secure personal safety and respect for his property.”

The Indian wars. Disenchanted natives of New England attempted to drive away the new settlers in their midst. There were Indian attacks on local settlers during the King Philip's War (1675), a war of survival. The story of this attack on the Tozier garrison on the Salmon Falls River near the present-day South Berwick-Berwick line was passed on through the Spencer family, and it involved one of their ancestors (p. 89-90). It was the opening chapter of a series of wars, a period of almost 75 years during which daily living among the settlers was stressful and dangerous:

“On the twenty-fourth day of September, 1675, the Indians made an attack upon the dwelling house of John Tozier at Newichawannock. This house stood about a half a mile above the garrison and mills at Salmon Falls in Berwick. Near the house of Tozier stood another which had better means of defence. The door of the Tozier dwelling was standing wide open when the savages approached the house, and within was a number of women and children, amounting to fifteen in all. The attack was led by Andrew, of Saco, and Hopegood, of Kennebec, the two powerful representatives of their tribes.”

There were more attacks at Newichawannock in October 1675, Roger Plaisted and his two sons were killed defending their garrison (it was located on the site of Salmon Falls Nursery just beyond the railroad track on 236). According to Wilbur Spencer, (The Maine Spencers, p. 100) the mill at Great Works was also attacked and destroyed during this war, around October 23, 1675. This uprising lasted barely a year, and there was a period of uneasy peace.

In 1688 a series of French and Indian Wars began, making life in our area unsettled and often dangerous. Some of these wars were extensions of war in Europe between France and England. In the New World, the French had the support of displaced natives from western and eastern Abenaki tribes as well as Indians from Canada; the English had their native allies as well. The French and Indians made numerous attempts to disrupt English settlements in New England, lasting well into the 1700s. It was to the benefit of France that English settlements failed, for settlements like Salmon Falls and Quamphegan were providing masts for the English navy in Europe.

Salmon Falls, Quamphegan and Old Fields felt the effect of King William's War (1688), Salmon Falls was all but destroyed in the surprise attack of March 18, 1689. A group of French from Canada and their Indian allies burned homes and mills, killed many settlers and captured others, a young woman named Mehitable Goodwin among them. This attack may also have been responsible for the burning of the Humphrey Chadbourne homestead. King William's War lasted until 1698.

Following a few years of uneasy peace in the settlements on the Newichawannock River, Queen Anne's War (1703-1712) broke out. With the French and their Indian allies in easy striking distance from the north, living on the forested frontier continued to be a risky business. According to Wilbur Spencer (The Maine Spencers, p. 122):

“An Indian war commenced in 1703, and on the twenty-sixth of September five men were beset by an ambushed party, and one of them killed, another wounded and the rest made prisoners; two houses were burned; and an attempt was made to capture the garrison of Andrew Neal, but it was unsuccessful. Feeling a strong tendency towards revenge, the savage foe burned a prisoner, Joseph King. The return of spring brought with it the early renewal of hostilities and feelings of anxious uncertainty and almost discouragement. And as Berwick was much exposed, notwithstanding the fact that treaties existed, there were often attacks on the settlements by roving parties of eastern Indians.” (Note: Eastern Indians were from further north and east in Maine – the eastern Abenakis)

“As Berwick was in a critical position on the frontier, about a hundred friendly Indians were posted there, who had been brought from Rhode Island. In spite of this arrangement, however, on the twenty-fourth of April Nathaniel Meader was shot while at work in his field, and two other persons were killed, while returning from church by a small roving band. The people of the town, aroused to action by their repeated outrages, again took up arms against the savages ...”

Another French and Indian War, Lovell's War (1722-1726) forced men to have weapons and ammunition with them as they carried out their daily lives. According to Wilbur Spencer (p. 131):

“Two men were killed in May, 1723, and in April of the following year (1723), Mr. Thomson was killed and his son captured near his home on the road from Quampheagan to Wells at Love's brook. A boy named Stone was mangled and scalped near the same place, but he survived and lived to an old age ... This all happened above the road upon which Moses Spencer lived (Witchtrot Road) and not very far away.”

Continued harassment by Indians resulted in renewed hostilities. According to Wilbur Spencer (p. 131-132):

“Between the war ending in 1726 and the one beginning in 1744, there was a long cessation of hostilities on the part of the English. But the French in the northeast became intolerable, for they kept Indian bands constantly hovering about the frontiers for scalps, upon which they paid a large sum in bounties, and they often assumed command of great expeditions in person. To put an end to this state of anxious uncertainty, and to destroy what would be their ruin in the future, an enormous expedition was planned by the New England colonies with the purpose of subduing a stronghold at Cape Breton, called Louisburg. William Pepperell, a wealthy merchant of Kittery, a man highly esteemed in York county, and known personally to the people of Berwick, was entrusted with the command.”

In 1745, the English colonies in New England took the war to Canada in a war that wouldn't be resolved until 1763.

What happened to the Indian village of Quamphegan? Some native families of Quamphegan remained in the area, living peaceably among their English neighbors. Sometimes they warned the English settlers of impending raids by wandering bands of hostile Indians, as happened in the Spencer family. Others moved away from the coast and joined other tribes. By 1715, Quamphegan was no longer a native American village.

Our early streets and byways -- traces of the native people in South Berwick.  The major legacy of the native people of Quamphegan is their trails. Quamphegan, that piece of land between Salmon Falls, near Fogarty's Restaurant, and Quamphegan Falls, near the Counting House Museum, was once crisscrossed with Indian trails. The natives traveled either by canoe or by foot -- they did not have horses or other beasts of burden.  Moccasined feet wore into the soil narrow footpaths connecting one important place to another. They sought the shortest, fastest, driest, least tiring way possible.  Their trails would have been no more than 6" to a foot in width.  The new settlers continued using these well-established paths that eventually were enlarged to become our earliest streets and roads.  This year's Hike Through History will follow the early tracks of the native people living in Quamphegan on the banks of the Newichawannock River.

THE HIKE

Central School is located today on Main Street in the center of South Berwick. Main Street runs from today's Salmon Falls to Quamphegan Falls. In Indian times it would have been the trail connecting the two falls, both being important food sources.  Also, canoe travel to and from inland villages upstream would have ended at the roaring Salmon Falls. To get around the two falls, it required only a short walk or portage carrying belongings from one falls beyond the other to resume their river travel. Midway along this trail, at today's Central Square, a trail branched off towards Mt. Agamenticus.  Today we call it Portland Street (Rtes. 4 and 9) and Agamenticus Road. In pre-colonial times, the trail would have passed near cornfields planted on the east side of Powder House Hill, fields watered by natural springs flowing out of the hillside.  

From Central School, turning south and west on the trail, one can imagine taking the path to the Quamphegan Falls. The path would have passed beneath pine trees of enormous height, one of the meanings suggested for the word – Quamphegan – place of tall trees. There were springs and small brooks flowing near the trail. One brook flowed from behind today's town hall, across the trail and down the hill, to empty above the dam. At one time, it was called Roaring Brook. Now it runs beneath our feet, in the town drainage system. There was once a spring in the parking lot of the First Parish Federated Church. Wigwams would have been scattered along the trail, at choice locations beneath the trees.

Stop 1A: Quamphegan Falls: The Counting House Museum. One can imagine the canoes of the native people being drawn up along the banks of the river here. Quamphegan Falls and other waterfalls in the area were very important to local native people and to inland tribes. Native families who didn't have the good fortune to live on estuarial rivers would make seasonal visits to places like this. They would come in the spring, setting up temporary wigwams on the rolling hills across the river in Rollinsford. Past residents of Rollinsford have turned up many Indian artifacts while plowing the fields there. Sarah Jewett recalls the river in South Berwick being called by her elders “. . . the greatest fishery in the country.” It was said that the salmon leaping the falls here and at the Salmon Falls were wedged so closely together that a man could walk across the river on their backs. The native visitors would catch and smoke fish for their winter's food supply, then return to their villages.

In 1650, the Indian leader Sagamore Rowls sold Quamphegan, including the land we are standing on, to Thomas Spencer. Thomas Spencer eventually sold the rights to the falls to some businessmen. Shortly afterward, there were sawmills and gristmills built on both sides of the river, taking advantage of the waterpower of the falls.

Inside the Counting House Museum are exhibits related to the 1650-1690 Humphrey Chadbourne Archaeology Project, sponsored by the Old Berwick Historical Society under the direction of archeologist Dr. Emerson “Tad” Baker. The Humphrey Chadbourne house, near where the Great Works River empties into the Salmon Falls, is the first verified dwelling in South Berwick. It was one of the largest homesteads in New England at the time, with leaded glass windows, indicating that the Chadbournes were quite well off compared to most settlers, and consisted of a dwelling and numerous outbuildings. Every summer since its discovery, annual historical society “digs” have uncovered thousands of artifacts yielding details about 17^th century life, and making this one of the most important archaeological sites in southern Maine. Found among old iron tools, broken pipe stems, rusted nails, fragments of pottery, straight pins and fish bones were a few Indian artifacts that found their way into the cellar of the Chadbourne house. Artifacts from the life of the Chadbourne family and these Indian artifacts can be viewed at the Counting House Museum.

Stop 1B: Quamphegan Falls: Fish ladder at the CHI, Inc. Hydro Plant

For about 200 years people have used the power of this waterfall to run factories at this spot. In recent years, the water has driven machinery to generate electricity used in homes in New Hampshire and Maine. But when the factories came, many fish that used to swim up from the ocean had to stop at this place. Even salmon, after which the Salmon Falls River was named, were blocked from their breeding grounds. The fishing that had brought Indians here for thousands of years gradually faded away.

This year, however, the company that now owns this power plant, CHI, Inc., has built a fish ladder. Today we can see how this new construction will allow the alewives, shad and bass in the river to swim right over the dam.

Stop 2: The Salmon Falls River and High School Students' Fishing Weir.

Looking across this beautiful spot on the Salmon Falls River, we see Quamphegan's fishing spot much as it may have appeared to native Americans. Paddling canoes or standing on the banks, Indians would have caught fish in the river with hook and line as people do today. Oysters and clams were plentiful, and natives would have also hunted ducks and geese here for food. Near the Waste Water Treatment plant, a small stream enters the river. For the Hike Through History, high school students have built a fishing weir, much like the ones used by the Indians to catch fish. A weir such as this would have been built across a large stream or small river. Fish swimming upstream to their spawning grounds would be channeled into the weir, trapping them there. The fish would then be caught by hand or with spears.

Stop 3A: Liberty Street as an Indian trail!

Liberty Street was probably an Indian trail connecting the falls at Quamphegan with cornfields near the Asbenbedick (Great Works) River, the steep falls at Great Works, and also the outlet of the Great Works River into the Newichawannock (Salmon Falls) River via Vine Street. Picture this road as a narrow path just wide enough for one person to walk on the way to these hunting and fishing places.

Trails were also used in times of war. An eyewitness report of the attack of March 18, 1689 described the devastation wrought by the French and their Indian allies. It stated that following the attack on the fort at the Salmon Falls, the attackers proceeded to Thomas Holmes' garrison, located near his mill at the Quamphegan falls (near the Counting House Museum). The attackers were repelled there, then continued on, burning several houses and attacking the Spencer garrison, located at Old Fields. The French and Indians were on foot; they would have traveled up this very street, then an ancient Indian path, carrying out their well-planned raid on the settlement.

The Indians had known warfare among each other, before the settlers arrived, as well. The Eastern Abenaki, further north and east of the Saco River, occasionally raided southern villages like Quamphegan, demanding corn to add to their less abundant supplies of winter food. The Mohawk Indians, guardians of the Eastern Gate of the Iroquois Confederacy in today's New York State, also occasionally attacked New England native villages, demanding tribute. Because of inter-tribal warfare and the deadly epidemics of European diseases, the population of native villages along the Atlantic coast was greatly reduced by 1630.

Stop 3B: Breed House. Walking up the hill, one comes to a white house on the left, very close to the road. It is the home occupied today by the Breed family. This house was built around 1790, well after the native people ceased to live here as a tribe. There is a lot of clay in this hill, and the builders were concerned that the house might slip. So the house was built on double sills, two and a half feet thick, made from American chestnut, a tree that no longer exists. The center chimney of this house measures 8x11 feet. Trace that out on the ground – it is really large!

Stop 3C: Quamphegan Indian Village

Imagine all the houses and cars near the river are gone. This gentle hillside above Quamphegan Falls may well have been the site of an Indian village, and even today one can easily imagine one located here. Small wigwams and larger longhouses likely dotted the hillside. They were sheltered from winter winds by Powderhouse Hill up above here, and were kept cool in summer beneath towering trees even larger than the ones we still see. The rolling hills all around this place were home to deer and other animals the natives could hunt for food and clothing. Strawberries and other wild fruit probably grew here as well.

How many natives were living here when the settlers came? In 1631, Ambrose Gibbons and his family were living among the native people. In a letter to his employers in London, Gibbons reported that there were approximately 100 Indians (men) frequenting his trading post at Newichawannock. Considering that many of these men were “heads of household”, this figure could probably be extended to about 300 native men, women and children living nearby.

Picture a native family gathered here, constructing a new wigwam. First they would cut saplings and set the larger ends in the ground two or three feet apart to outline the cabin's shape. Then they'd bend the tops inward and tie them together to form a dome. They would lace the saplings together with strips of bark, sewing the strips together with a thread of evergreen tree roots. Finally, to make the walls and roof thick and warm, they would throw skins and woven mats over the top, perhaps a couple layers thick. These would keep the house watertight. At the center of the roof a smoke hole would be left, so on very cold nights the family could light a fire inside. Or they also could heat stones at an outdoor fire and bring them in as “radiators.”

If we picture a village here we'd also imagine gardens with crops growing corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans. After planting, it would be the children's job to be the scarecrows, and chase birds away from the newly planted seeds. Young hunters also took aim at thieving woodchucks or raccoons.

Notice the stream that still runs through the field. For the Indians, the hill provided fresh water for drinking and to water their gardens. They could even plant in the spring, leave the village for a period of time to hunt game or gather wild herbs and berries, and then return.

The streams here have a lot of clay. The Indians would gather it to mix with powdered rock or shell to add strength, and shape it into a bowl or pot. To make the clay strong, the pots were baked gradually over a fire till the clay became hard enough to hold soup or water.

A clay-bottomed stream had other uses. A method of preparing deer hide for clothing was to place it under water in a running brook with a clay bottom. This loosened the hair so it was more easily removed. A stone gouge was used to scrape the hair off and oils to make the skin flexible.

The Indians made use of many native plants that we ignore today. One was the cattail, like those we see here by the stream. The long thin leaves or reeds would be good for weaving into baskets or mats.

Cattail flowers -- the dark brown tops -- were one of the plants thought to be a cure for diarrhea. The soft fluff made by the old cattail tops might have been used inside animal hides when the mother wrapped her baby up to sleep. In winter it also made insulation inside moccasins. These cattails here may well be descendants of those the natives used in their daily lives for thousands of years.

Another thing to picture in this imaginary Indian village: dogs! Just one family might have as many as six, so there would be plenty of dogs in sight here. Native American dogs were slim and foxlike. The family carefully trained them to be good hunters. A fast dog could run down deer for example. Or, if the master was hunting by canoe, a good dog would lie quiet in the bow till the owner had shot his bow and arrow, then on signal, leap into the water to retrieve the duck or goose. Another Indian pet was the hawk. A tamed hawk was sometimes kept around the fields to help the children chase crows and other birds away from the village's gardens.

Stop 4A: Another Chadbourne House: Continuing up the Liberty Street trail to the top of the hill, one passes a large and rambling white house on the right. This is another old Chadbourne homestead, Parts of this house date back to the late 1600s, but it is newer than the Humhrey Chadbourne house of the archaeology dig. Were materials from older houses used in its construction around 1720? This house has been renovated several times over the centuries. The Chadbourne Family Association and the Old Berwick Historical Society are continually searching for old documents to learn more about this house and the locations and original occupants of other Chadbourne homes in our town.

Stop 4B: Judge Benjamin Chadbourne Mansion. The white house at the top of the hill on the left, at the corner of Liberty and Vine Streets, is another Chadbourne house. Judge Benjamin Chadbourne, who had lived in the old Chadbourne homestead across the street, wanted a fine new house. Master Joseph Tate was a schoolmaster who taught at Quamphegan. He kept daily journals. One has survived to this day and is called Master Tate's Record. He writes: “Tuesday, June 12, 1770. Esq. Benjamin Chadbourn of Berwick raised a new house and barn.” When the house was built, it had a hip roof, similar to that of the Sarah Orne Jewett House. A descendant of Judge Chadbourne still owns the house today.

Stop 5: Leigh's Mills Pond and Pudding Hill. Turning right onto Vine Street, one approaches Leigh's Mills Pond. The first glimpse of the pond can be taken from Vine Street. Remember the Breed house, and the fear of clay slipping and the house sliding downhill? This is exactly what happened here within the past ten years. The clay embankment slipped into the pond, taking with it the trees and shrubs that covered this hillside.

CLAY AND THE GREAT WORKS (ASBENBEDICK) RIVER

The Indians called the Great Works River the Asbenbedick. The pond seen today was created in the early 1920s when a power company built a dam across the flowing water, which travels all the way down from Sanford through South Berwick. If one could remove the dam and turn back time, instead of a pond, one would see a wide and shallow valley. Water flowing over the steep falls at Great Works wound its way into this valley, separating into many little streams before entering the Salmon Falls River at Leigh's Mills. Known locally as the Vineyard, it was a wonderful place for birds and growing things. Native people and English herbalists alike found many useful medicinal plants growing here. In the center of this place was a small hill called Pudding Hill. According to oral tradition, the hill, now an island, was sacred to the natives. An old 19^th century photograph of the Vineyard shows that the hill used to be larger – flowing water has washed away much of its soil. We have Sarah Orne Jewett's description of the Vineyard as it existed 100 years ago:

“. . . below (the falls at Great Works) in the intervale the water separates into

brook-like streams, and flows gently among willows and alders, circling the

mysterious Indian mound. Wild grapevines and tangles of clematis are

festooned from tree to tree. In August the water brink is gay with cardinal flowers.

Everything seems to grow in the Vineyard, and to bloom brighter than elsewhere.

As an older friend once told me, “If you want six herbs, you can go right there and

find them.” The shyest and rarest of birds of the region may be seen there, in

secret haunts, or at the time of their migration; it seems like Nature's own garden

and pleasure ground.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Old Town of Berwick”)

This place would have indeed been very special to the native people who lived here 400 years ago.

Stop 6: Humphrey Chadbourne Archeological Site. In 1995, the Old Berwick Historical Society undertook a search for the 1631 site of Ambrose Gibbons' Laconia Company trading post. Gibbons described the trading post as including a dwelling house, out buildings and well, all surrounded by a stockade fence. The archeologist directing the dig, Dr. Emerson “Tad” Baker, chose this site overlooking the river as a likely place for a trading post. Instead of finding a trading post, archeological teams have uncovered the foundations of a large and well-appointed house. Annual “digs” have revealed the earliest Chadbourne house of all, built sometime around 1650. Its very existence was forgotten in Chadbourne family stories and traditions. Burnt, broken and discarded artifacts helped the archeologist determine the date and occupants of this house site. Humphrey Chadbourne had a sawmill near his house, at the mouth of the Asbenbedick River. In addition to producing milled lumber, barrels and shingles were also made here by hand by his employees. Chadbourne's house and mill can be seen on a promotional map of 1672 (shown below). Humphrey Chadbourne's house burned around 1690, very possibly in the March 18^th attack on the settlement in 1689. The attackers would have passed right by this place on the way to Old Fields.

Stop 7: Vine Street and the Vine Street Bridge. Today we call this area Leigh's Mills after a later family of mill operators, but in the earliest settlement days of the 1600s, when Indians still hunted and fished these waters, the Chadbourne sawmill was here. Vine Street was a well-used Indian path. Our modern bridge is very high. Crossing the bridge and looking back towards the other side, one sees a low island covered with a tumble of rocks, small trees and shrubs, jutting out towards the Salmon Falls River. How would the native people have crossed this rough terrain? The native people had bridges, too. They would have selected a large tree near the water's edge and cut it down so that it fell across streambed. With hatchets, they might make the fallen tree more level on top, so that it was easier to walk on. A 1764 map of the Chadbourne farm shows Vine Street in a slightly different position, the bridge on Vine Street crossing from the north bank to the island below, then to the south bank of the Great Works River. The island was a midpoint between two “bridges.”

How did the native people cross the larger river, the Newichawannock (today's Salmon Falls) River? Old Dover (NH) records frequently mention a wading place that used to exist across the river. The 1764 Chadbourne map shows a right-of-way leading to that very place. It was shallow enough that, on low tide, the river could be crossed on foot or by horse. A map of Indian trails in New Hampshire, created in 1958 by Chester Price, a member of the New Hampshire Archeological Society, shows this fording place. It was part of the Pentucket trail, which ran from the Indian village of Pentucket (now Haverhill, Massachusetts) to the Indian village at Cochecho (now Dover), across the wading place, then up the hill and on to the Indian village at Accominticus (now York). This was an intersection of Indian trails, for Sligo Road, across the river in Rollinsford, was also known as the Newichawannock trail (the Newichawannock trail followed the Newichawannock River from Milton Three Ponds in New Hampshire). It was by trails such as these that visiting native tribes would travel here to the local falls to catch salmon and alewives in the spring.

The English settlers also used the Newichawannock trail (Sligo Road) across the river. According to ancient Dover records, in the late 1600s Church Elder William Wentworth traveled the Newichawannock trail from the Garrison Hill area of Cochecho (Dover) to preach at the Unity meetinghouse at Old Fields.

It is very possible that by this trail, local militia marched to Boston in the Revolutionary War. It was the main road to Dover before 1805, when the turnpike (today's Rtes. 4 and 9) was built. At the intersection of Sligo and Baer Roads in Rollinsford, one can still walk the trail as it existed in the times of the Revolution. However, the wading place near here across the Newichawannock no longer exists. Around 1828, the wading place and nearby Little John Falls were blasted away by the federal government, to make a channel for gundalows to reach the mills at the Upper Landing near the Counting House Museum.

Stop 8: Old Fields Cemetery. The Pentucket Indian trail proceeded up from the river to the intersection of today's Vine and Brattle Streets and Old Fields and Old South (Parish) Roads. Proceeding up the trail, one sees on the left the ancient Old Fields Cemetery. Back in the mid-1600s and early 1700s, there was no stonewall – that was added about 200 years later. Wilbur Spencer states in The Maine Spencers that this cemetery was originally the Spencer family cemetery. William Chadbourne, Humphrey's father and one of the three carpenters working on the construction of the 1634 mills, built a house on the ten acres of land given him by his employer, Capt. John Mason, as compensation for his work. When he left the area, William gave the house to his daughter and son-in-law, Patience Spencer and Thomas Spencer. Members of the Spencer family were buried in the family plot near the house. Sometime after the formation of the Congregational Church in 1702, the Spencer family transferred the plot to the church. Thomas and Patience Spencer are buried here. Humphrey Chadbourne died around 1667, and as the brother of Patience Spencer, he is likely buried here also. These graves are all unmarked. Graves of the earliest settlers in our area were simple – a stone at the head of the grave, sometimes marked but usually not, and a smaller stone marking the foot of the grave.

The oldest recognizable gravestone in the cemetery is that of Mehitable Goodwin, who died in 1726. Mehitable experienced first-hand the terrors of the Indian wars. Born in 1670, she was the daughter of Lt. Roger Plaisted. The Plaisted garrison was located at Salmon Falls on the old trail that today is Rt. 236 to Berwick, on the property of Salmon Falls Nursery, not far from the railroad tracks near today's Berwick-South Berwick line. On October 6, 1675, during King Philip's War, Indians attacked Salmon Falls. Mehitable's father and two brothers died in this attack.

When a young woman, Mehitable married James Goodwin. In 1690, during King William's War, Indians attacked the settlements of Salmon Falls and Old Fields on March 18^th. Many were killed, mills and houses burned, and hostages taken, and this event may have destroyed the Humphrey Chadbourne homestead, archaeologists beilieve. Mehitable Goodwin and her newborn child were taken hostage, and once again she suffered at the hands of the Indians. An attempt was made to rescue the hostages in a day-long battle near Worster's River (between South Berwick and Berwick), but that attempt failed. Mehitable's baby was killed during the torturous trek through the New England wilderness to Canada.

The French in Canada had worked out a system with the Indians, whereby the natives would be paid for healthy captives delivered to the French government in Canada. The French would try to convert hostages to Catholicism and encourage women to stay and marry, which occasionally happened. Hostages were also returned to New England in exchange for ransom, which is what eventually happened with Mehitable. In 1695, she was ransomed from Quebec and returned to her husband. Two years later, in 1697, while the Goodwins still lived in fear of attacks, their son Thomas was born. Mehitable's second son, Ichabod, was born in 1700, in a period of uneasy peace.

Three years later began the second French and Indian War -- Queen Anne's War (1703). The mills and settlements at Salmon Falls, Quamphegan and Oldfields continued to be targets. Mehitable and Thomas continued to live near the mills at Salmon Falls. Mehitable lived long enough to witness the third French and Indian War, locally called Lovell's War (1722). Mehitable died at the age of 57 in 1727, in a time when her family and neighbors still carried weapons to Sunday church services and to work in forests and fields. Mehitable was a hardy, determined woman, and represents those settlers of the early years who endured the terror and hardship of Indian warfare, to stay in their new home.

Mehitable was also the ancestor of two governors, Ichabod Goodwin of New Hampshire, and John Noble Goodwin, first territorial governor of Arizona. Today, many of Mehitable's descendants still live in South Berwick, North Berwick, Berwick and Eliot.

Stop 9: Old Fields. The first “town center” in South Berwick was at this intersection of Indian trails. One branch of the trail led from here to the Indian village at Webhannet (now Wells). This became the settlers' Old South (Parish) Road, Witchtrot Road, Emery's Bridge Road, and on to Wells. Another trail bore to the right and became Old Fields Road, Eliot's State Road, then Old Road, paralleling the Piscataqua River and leading to its mouth. There seemed to be two paths to Accominticus (York): one led from the foot of Rocky Hills at Witchtrot Road (today's Rt. 91); the other branched off Old Fields Road onto Fife's Lane, across the power lines, up into the Rocky Hills, to join with Rt. 91, then on to Accominticus.

This settlement was called Old Fields because of the abandoned Indian cornfields here. The natives practiced “slash and burn” agriculture. They would clean an area by setting fire to the base of tree trunks, thus killing the trees. The following year, they would complete the work with hatchets and adzes. The final step would have been the burning of fallen tree trunks and underbrush. Corn was not planted in neat rows as we do today; rather, large hills of corn were scattered among the blackened stumps of trees.

The Spencer garrison was located near this intersection, exactly where is currently under debate. The men of this garrison successfully defended it against the French and Indians' attack of March 18, 1690.

Here at Old Fields, the Spencer family also operated an “ordinary” – a tavern and gathering place. It was also located near this intersection.

The first meetinghouse was built near here. It is uncertain if it was located on Vine Street, nearer the cemetery, or if it was built on lands designated “ministry lands” at the corner of Old South (Parish) Road and Brattle Street. It was called the Unity meetinghouse at Newichawannock, named for the ship, Unity, which brought to this country many Scotsmen, prisoners taken by the English at the Battle of Dunbar. After first being put to work at the ironworks at Saugus, Massachusetts, they were brought to construct the mill at Great Works.

The meetinghouse was built sometime around 1660. Membership included settlers from the rural parts of Berwick and as far south as Goodwin Road in Eliot. George Washington Frosst made the drawing of the meetinghouse (below) from descriptions handed down in Frost family stories. The Frosts had reason to remember this fortified meetinghouse. In 1697, during King William's War, Major Charles Frost and his companions were returning from Sunday meeting here, when they were killed by Indians on their way home to Frost Hill in Eliot.

In 1702, the Congregational Society organized a new church, and a new meetinghouse was built, the old meetinghouse judged to be not worth saving. By 1715, many of the surviving native people had left the area or had settled down among the settlers – there remained little recognizable tribal structure. On footpaths that formerly led to cornfields and other Indian villages, there were now the homes of the English and Scots. Indian trails became the major roads of the new settlers. Great pines were cut down, and hauled to the river by teams of oxen, to be floated to Portsmouth and loaded on mast ships bound for England. Just around the corner from this intersection at Old Fields is Vaughan's Lane leading down to the river. Long before the Hamilton House was built there, the foot of the lane was the Lower Landing, also called Pipestave landing. Shingles and barrel staves (pipe staves) were undoubtedly made there. Lumber was taken to the landing and taken down to Portsmouth. Local produce was shipped to Portsmouth, Boston, England and the Caribbean. A great deal of commercial activity passed through Old Fields.

Turning left onto Brattle Street, an Indian trail led to the steep falls known as Asbenbedick by the Indians, and Great Works by the English and Scots. This became one of the earliest roads, the most direct route between Old Fields and the mills on the falls.

Stop 10/11: Great Works - Brattle Street Bridge.

This place explains where the name “Great Works” came from. In 1634, carpenters began building a sawmill and gristmill here for Capt. John Mason. It was the first overshot sawmill in New England and the first gristmill between here and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Earlier claims, that this mill site was the first sawmill in America, are now known to be untrue – there were sawmills existing before 1634 in Virginia). Later, in 1652, Richard Leader, built another mill with 19 saws. This mill was so much larger than any previously built, that it was called Great Works. Early saw mills clogged the river with so much sawdust that the salmon could no longer travel the river. This was a blow for the native people.

The mill building we see here today was built two centuries after these early sawmills, in the 1800s, to process wool, and blankets were made here till the mid-1900s. Today electricity is generated from the waterfall's power.

Crossing over the Great Works (Asbenbedick) River, one can picture the bridge as it might have been in the 1600s. The native people would have felled a large tree or two– that was their bridge. Mr. Russell Goodwin, who was born in the large white colonial house just beyond the bridge and who passed away recently, has volunteered in the past to speak to Central School children about local history. When Mr. Goodwin was a child, he recalled, he picked wild cranberries in the wetlands near here, just as the native people did before him. Mr. Goodwin remembered what he said were abandoned Indian corn fields across the highway from his house. When Rt. 236 was a railroad track, he remembers a certain train, the Yankee Flyer, which used to scare his family's farm animals. In 1952, when the highway was built, dirt from the hillside across the way was quarried out of the hillside, and the Indian corn mounds disappeared into the roadbed of Route 236.

Stop 12: Top of Wadleigh Lane. This trail would have led to the high ground, the top of Powderhouse Hill. It would have been a fine lookout point for the natives. From the top of the hill, similar high points of land can be seen, from Mt. Agamenticus to Garrison Hill in Dover (Cochecho) to the White Mountains, far off in News Hampshire. By the early 1700s, there was another Chadbourne house located very near this spot.

Looking west, one can see trees extending to the horizon. The tree growth in Indian times was even greater. These were the natives' hunting grounds. In some places, Indians would have carefully controlled burnings in the spring of the year, burning the underbrush and creating grassy open spaces beneath the trees. The grasses would be rejuvenated, attracting the deer. Then the hunters could go to these special places, knowing they would find the deer they needed for food, clothing and shelter. Dover Point was described by early explorers as very similar to an English park, with wild animals fully visible from boats working their way up the Piscataqua River.

Stop 13: Felled Tree on the Way down the Wadleigh Lane hill. Lumbering was one of the major economic activities of the settlers during the period 1650 to 1750. Trees much larger than this were cut down and used as masts. According to Wilbur Spencer (p. 83-84):

“The chief employment of the people of Berwick in the first century of its settlement was cutting masts. It was from this town that most of the masts were exported to England, and it is a peculiar fact that the size and perfection of the trees of this vicinity far exceeded those of any adjoining town or province. An example of this is noted with respect to a spar which was sent to England in 1659 and contained almost thirty tons of timber. It was at that time an object of wonder.”

Stop 14: View of the 1791 House. Up on the Berwick Academy campus we see the back of the oldest schoolhouse in Maine that is still part of a real school. It was built in 1791 when Berwick Academy was this community's high school. Academy Street would then still have been a footpath. When the Chadbourne property map was drawn up in 1764, Academy Street did not yet exist. By 1791, according to Wilbur Spencer (The Maine Spencers), isolated Indian families still lived in the forests surrounding Quamphegan, and occasional bands of wandering natives made mischief for the people of Berwick.

Stop 15: Academy Street Inn. Just before the intersection of Academy and Main Streets on the left is the Academy Street Inn. Construction of this gracious home was begun in 1899 by George Yeaton (YET-n), a prominent lawyer. The house was carefully designed for energy efficiency and privacy on a main street. Paul and Merilee Fopeano are kindly sharing their snowshoe collection with Central School children. Snowshoes (along with canoes) are one of many contributions of native American culture to our lives today.

HIKE'S CONCLUSION

There is much still to learn about the native people who lived here. Study of ancient records and the oral histories of founding families will continue to contribute to our understanding. The Old Berwick Historical Society's Counting House Museum has a permanent exhibit of the artifacts found at the 1650 Chadbourne house site. A few native American artifacts are also included in the exhibit. The Museum is free, and the Old Berwick Historical Society invites the public to visit on weekends in the summer and by request during the remainder of the year (207-384-0000).

Norma Keim

Old Berwick Historical Society

May 2002