Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

KNOX COUNTY.    307

^    extending    from Thomaston through the western part of Rockland to

the Penobscot on the north-eastern side of Camden. Of these, Mount
Megunticook is 1,265 feet high; Ragged Mountain, 1,230; Mount
Pleasant, probably about the same height as the latter; Bald Mountain,
1,140 feet; and Mount Battie, nearly 1,000 feet. Mount Hatchet, in
Hope, is a considerable eminence, and another in Rockland, 558 feet
in height, is known as Madambettox, Mathabesec, and also as Dodge’s
and Marsh’s Mountain. The soil compares well with that of other
counties, being generally fertile in the valleys and on the interior
slopes, and sterile on the ridges and along the coast. St. George’s
and its neighborhood was one of the earliest points visited and occu-
pied by Europeans. In 1630, Leverett and Beauchamp, two English
merchants, received by grant from the Plymouth Company, the terri-
tory lying between the Penobscot and Muscongus Rivers, extending
north far enough to form a tract 30 miles square, or nearly 600,000
acres. This was first known as the Muscongus, and, subsequently, the
Waldo patent, from having passed into the ownership of that family.
This patent forms the basis of most of the land titles in Knox and
Waldo counties. In 1694, Sir William Phips acquired a partial title
to lands in the southern part of Knox County, by purchase from Ma-
dockawando, a famous chief of the Tarratines. The two block-houses
which, by subsequent enlargements, became Fort St. George, were
erected in 1719-1720.

Lovewell’s, or the “Three Years’ War” with the Indians began in
1722 and continued into 1725. During this time foe inhabitants of
Knox County suffered greatly; and in July of this year two Massachu-
setts commissioners held a conference at the fort with thirteen Indian
chiefs. This was adjourned to Boston, where for a month the discus-
sion of the differences between them and the settlers in this region
were discussed by the State authorities and two chiefs representing
the tribe ; the Indians denying Madockawando’s right to make a sale of
land here as he had to Governor Phips. At length the chiefs were
pacified by an agreement to establish, trading-houses on the St. George’s,
where goods should be sold to the Indians at a slight advance on cost.
This arrangement was known as the Dummer Treaty, and was ratified
m the following summer by a large concourse of Indians at what is
now Portland.

It was at this epoch that we first hear of Samuel Waldo, a young
Boston merchant, who, about this time, by inheritance and by subse-
quent purchase came into possession of nearly the whole of the Mus-
congus patent, all, in fact, of Knox and Waldo counties, except
what is now included in the towns of Camden, Hope and Appleton,
f    Thus Mr. Waldo became sole patentee of half a million acres, whose

f *•    northern boundary was claimed by him to be but very little south of

the site of Bangor. One of his first acts was to open the lime-quarry
which was long afterward enclosed by the w^ralls of the Maine State
Prison, where he commenced the manufacture of lime for the Boston
market,—thus being the pioneer of what has become a leading industry
in the region. In 1735, Mr. Waldo contracted to deed to each settler
I    a lot 40 rods wide on the River St. George, and running back so as to

\    contain 100 acres ; the settlers on their part agreeing to build houses,

i    and clear four acres of laud on the lots occupied within two years,

i    The first party consisted of 27 families of Scotch-Irish extraction.