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

NORTHFIELD.

may be mentioned. A young daughter of Peter Morrill, while gather-
ing hemlock for a broom, was slain by Wawa, a chief of the Pequakets.
On a promontory in Bonny Bigg Pond tradition says that a captive
white woman was kept one winter by the Indians. During the winter
she gave birth to a child, which from the scanty food and exposure,
was feeble and sickly. The Indians compelled the mother to gather
pine fagots, with which they burned the babe to ashes. In the spring
she was taken to Canada and sold to the French, from whom she was
T*    ransomed and returned to her friends. Around the pond many stone

(    hearths are found. They consist of a bed of stone about four feet in

V    circumference, upon which the Indians built fires for cooking. On the

^    north side of.the outlet in a ravine, near the west border of the pond,

\    was found the greatest number of these hearths,—and here probably

was a village of the Indians. Near by is the field where they raised
\    their maize. In plowing the field, many stone-chisels, gouges, pestles,

?    sinkers, hatchets, arrow-heads, etc., have been brought to light.

Having been settled chiefly since the Revolution, Berwick had little
'    opportunity to show her patriotism until the breaking out of the rebel-

lion. Then her sons responded nobly to the calls for men, and the tax-
^:    payers cheerfully voted generous bounties. The number sent out

^    under the various calls was 146, and the amount of bounty paid was

1    $48,000.

The Friends appear to have been the earliest religious society in
town. Soon after 1742 a society was gathered which still exists.
The first meeting-house stood on the Oak-woods road, south of Bonny

*    bigg- The present house is about a mile south-west of the village.

Amone the eminent men who were born in this town are President
Paul Chadbourne, of William’s College, Hon. Ichabod Goodwin, ex-
governor of New Hampshire, and Darius Morrill, member of Congress.

North East Harbor, a post-office and small seaport
on Mount Desert Island, Hancock County.

Northfield lies a few miles south-west of the centre of
Washington county, and 10 miles north by north-west of Machias.
Marshfield, Whitneyville and Centreville lie on the south of this town.
Machias River runs in a south-easterly course through the south-
western part of the town,—receiving in its course Old and New streams
and Bog Brook, the outlet of Bog Pond,—which lies in the eastern
part of the tbwn. The size of this pond is 2 miles long by one wide.
The stage-road from Machias to Calais passes northward across the
eastern part of the town, just west of the pond. The principal settle-
ments are along this road in the southern part of the town, and on the

*    road south of the pond. The principal water-powers are Holmes’ Falls,
on Machias river, and those on Bog Brook. Others are called Dick’s
Falls, College Rips, and Brown’s Rips : On Bog Brook near the pond
is a board, lath and shingle mill.

The surface is quite uneven, being broken by ledges and hills.
Harmon’s Pinnacle is 500 feet in height, and Elwell’s Mountain, 350
feet. The soil is variable, clay loam in some parts and gravel in
others. The crops chiefly cultivated are hay, oats, wheat and potatoes.
Rock maple, beech, juniper and pine are found in the still plentiful
forest.