Maine’s Last Indian Scare

Steve Pinkham

Maine’s early wars with the various Wabenaki tribes that resided on the Saco, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot, and St. Croix Rivers, were fought mostly from the mid-1600s to the 1750s, which involved numerous attacks along the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire and along the Merrimac River in Massachusetts. The last attacks on the coast of Maine occurred at Friendship and Thomaston. At sunrise on May 22, 1758, Indians made an attack on Friendship, and on June 9th they attacked Arrowsic. In September they attacked Thomaston and Friendship again killing or capturing eight Englishmen.

In 1759 General Wolfe defeated the French at the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City, and war with the Wabanakis came to an end. By 1760 most of the forts along the coast and up the Kennebec River were soon abandoned. However, one more attack occurred as late as 1785 at Bethel, though it was not an attack by a whole tribe; it was a rather poorly planned act of revenge by a few disgruntled members of the St. Francis tribe in Quebec, who intended to sell their captives as slaves, even though there was no market for captives at that point.

Attack Fears

While these were the last known Native American attacks in Maine, continuous fear of an attack remained for many years in the psyche of the people of Maine. In 1808 the early settlers of Phillips in Western Maine, heard a rumor of an Indian attack and they all ran to the house at the top of the hill to secure themselves from the enemy. However, that rumor had been the work of a young man who owed money and hoped to get out of paying his debts.

Twenty -eight years later the fear was still alive, when word came from northern Washington County. The following article, which first appeared in the Advertiser, was republished in the Bangor Whig and Currier on Oct. 26, 1836.

“We learn from a gentleman who arrived here last evening from Baskahegan Lake, that considerable excitement prevails in that neighborhood, in consequence of a rumor that several hundred Indians had recently come through from Canada, and pitched their tents near that place, and were preparing to give battle to the inhabitants. So great was the excitement that large numbers had prepared themselves with powder and balls for the attack, which was hourly expected when our informant left.”

The following day, the Bangor Whig and Currier apologized and published another article refuting the original story.

BDN     Apology

“We were informed by a gentleman from the immediate neighborhood of Baskahegan Lake, that there is no foundation for the report copied into our paper yesterday from the Advertiser. He says the story of an Indian invasion is an old one in that region and not entitled to credit. Some alarm had been created, but a small portion of the people only entertained any fear of an attack. To prevent unnecessary alarm, we would state further, that it was also reported at Baskahegan, and the report believed as fully as the one mentioned, that the Penobscot Tribe of Indians had formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Mohawks, and were preparing for a grand simultaneous attack upon the whites; the first step towards which had been the emigration of the whole tribe of Penobscots towards the boundary, where they were to meet the Mohawks. This will be news to the Penobscot Indians, who are smoking their pipes in peace in their usual haunts. So much for the down-east Indian War. “

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