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Who Was Who—Back When Hancock Was Part of Sullivan
By Lois Crabtree Johnson
Special to The Ellsworth American
Hancock has an
unusual history: For its first 39 years, the section then known as
Skillings Neck, now Crabtree Neck, was part of Sullivan.
So, too, was
Marlboro, today part of Lamoine. Finally, in 1828, Skillings Neck
and Marlboro together were set off from Sullivan. They had added to
them a large part of Plantation No. 8, creating the entity now
called Hancock.
It is only in
recent years, as people have searched for their family histories,
that the interconnectedness of the early settlers has been found and
understood. Many of these early families came from the same general
area and were related. And these very details tended not to appear
in family or town histories.
Because not every
family had a sailing ship or teams of oxen suitable for a lengthy
trek over barely passable woods roads, the relationships may help
explain how people got here—and why. The original proprietors all
had come from York and had settled in Sullivan proper.
Agreen Crabtree and
Phillip Hodgkins Jr. are said to be the first two settlers of
Hancock. But they were probably part of a group that came from the
Bowdoinham area. There, they had been part of the “Maine Colony
Company on the Kennebec River” in 1762, which also had included
Eleazer Crabtree and Nathan Jones.
The Crabtree
brothers came from
Attleboro,
Mass.;
Jones came from Weston, Mass.; and Hodgkins from Falmouth, Mass. In
1768 Agreen bought 100 acres of land from Ezra Ide, whom we now know
was a first cousin to Agreen’s wife, Sarah Ide Ingraham—both of
Attleboro.
We also have
learned that Nathan Jones, who settled in Gouldsboro, was a first
cousin to Eleazer Crabtree’s wife, Lucy Traine, and to Thomas Hill’s
wife, Rebecca Train, all of whom were born in Weston, Mass. So now
it is all the more interesting to read in Thomas Foss’ privately
printed 1870 History, that Nathan Jones helped Agreen build his
double mill. It crossed the ledges and channel to
Hills Island (Thomas
lived there briefly before going to Gouldsboro), and from the other
side of the island to Hydes (Ides) Point. It was truly all in the
family.
Agreen, Eleazer,
Phillip and Nathan were all sea captains, and could provide
transportation to those who needed it. The original drawing card for
most settlers probably was the stands of pine to be cut for
masts—and most of these went to the King of England. Old deeds refer
to “Mastland Creek” being located close to Agreen’s mills.
In what is now
North Hancock, formerly Plantation No. 8, the McFarlands, Googins
and Smiths arrived from Saco. But these families do not seem to have
had any connection to other early settlers.
Stephen Young was a
settler before 1784, but until this year, no one was sure where he
came from; he didn’t belong to the other Young families in Hancock
County. Now, not only is it probably that he also came from
York, but that his sister Sarah was the wife of Ezra Ide,
mentioned above.
Stephen and his
sister Sarah had an aunt, Hannah Young, who married John Johnson of
York—and they had moved to Sullivan in the late 1760s. Stephen was a
yeoman (farmer), but obviously had relatives with their own ships.
That may explain how he may have gotten here, and the relationships
as his reason for coming.
John Alexander Cook
was a sea captain (lost at sea in 1788). When he came from Scarboro,
he probably brought with him his son-in-law, Robert Mercer..
Mercer married
John’s daughter Christiana in Biddeford in 1787. Mercer was town
clerk in Sullivan for several years, including 1827; in 1828 he
became Hancock’s first town clerk.
On the east side of
Skillings Neck, Capt. Thomas Moon was a prominent early settler. His
origin is unknown, but he married Jane Salter in Marblehead, Mass.,
in 1754, and possibly came to Sullivan with Jane’s brother, Capt.
Francis Salter, each having his own ship. Salter married and settled
in Sullivan and had a family, but the Salter name no longer is found
here.
Also from
Marblehead was Francis Grant, who married Martha Baker there in
1752. Several years later he traveled from Marblehead to Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick before coming to Sullivan. There, he became the
first town-approved ferryman, located in the vicinity of the present
Hancock-Sullivan
Bridge.
His son Henry was
born in Lunenberg,
Nova Scotia,
in 1767; he, too, became a sea captain. Today we can wonder, did
Francis Grant know the Salters when they were all in
Marblehead? Quite likely. They were the same generation.
The Abbotts, from
Berwick, also spent some years in Nova Scotia before arriving here
about 1770. Since there is no known connection among them and other
settlers, I have wondered if they met up with the Grants and perhaps
mutually agreed on where to go next.
Of course, there
were other families in Hancock early on: In the 1790 census for what
is now Hancock, there are 25 different family names.
I have found
“connections” for half of them, and I will keep looking for others.
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