Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Arnold’s expedition

by Mary Grow

Before continuing upriver, this subseries will summarize the one Revolutionary event that did have a direct impact on towns along the Kennebec River. That was the fall 1775 American expedition intended to take Québec City from the British (who had taken it from the French in September 1759).

In September and October of 1775, Colonel Benedict Arnold led an army of about 1,100 men from Newburyport, Massachusetts, up the Kennebec River, across the Height of Land and down the Chaudiere River to the St. Lawrence.

Among documents at Fairfield’s Cotton Smith House, home of the Fairfield Historical Society, is a 1946 Bangor Daily News article quoting Louise Coburn’s Skowhegan history: she said the army consisted of 10 New England infantry companies and three companies of riflemen from Pennsylvania and Virgina.

(The 1890 Cotton Smith House has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992.)

Scattered partial reenactments of this “march to Québec” are being organized in the fall of 2025. Among organizing groups is the Arnold Expedition Historical Society, headquartered in Pittston’s Reuben Colburn house (built in 1765, a state historic site and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004).

A personal note: your writer learned about Arnold’s march to Québec when she was very young, through the historical novels of Maine writer Kenneth Roberts. Arundel, published in 1930, tells of the expedition and the unsuccessful attack on the city. Rabble in Arms, published in 1933, is the story of the army’s retreat down the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers and Lake Champlain.

Roberts highly admired General Arnold. Each novel is told from the perspective of a participant looking back to his youth, so there are references to Arnold’s subsequent switch to the British side; but his conduct in 1775 is consistently praised, and his detractors damned.

Captain Peter Merrill, of Arundel, Maine, fictional narrator of Rabble in Arms, explained that he intended to write a history of part of the war, and found Arnold “an inseparable part” of his project. He wrote:

“Benedict Arnold was a great leader: a great general: a great mariner: the most brilliant soldier of the Revolution. He was the bravest man I have ever known. Patriotism burned in him like an unquenchable flame.”

Why, then, did Arnold switch sides in September 1780? To Roberts (and a few others) the answer is, again, patriotism. Having witnessed the incompetence, corruption and general worthlessness of the Congress that mismanaged the war, costing – wasting – too many lives, Arnold believed the country’s salvation required re-submitting to British rule, with competent Americans as administrators, until the colonies were strong enough to revolt successfully.

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Benedict Arnold

Arnold’s army left Massachusetts on Sept. 19, 1775; reached the mouth of the Kennebec the next day; and stopped first at Gardinerstown (later Pittston), south of Augusta. Here 200 wooden bateaux had been hastily built in Reuben Colburn’s shipyard at Agry Point (named for a 1774 settler), on the east bank of the Kennebec.

(An on-line map shows the Colburn House on Arnold Road, and Agry Point Road running south from the south end of Arnold Road and dead-ending on the south side of Morton Brook.)

According to Colburn House information on the Town of Pittston’s website, Colburn had suggested attacking Québec via the Kennebec and had sent General George Washington “critical information.” Given only about three weeks’ notice to provide the bateaux, he had had to use green lumber, which did not hold up well; the boats leaked copiously, and fell apart under rough handling, on the water and on portages.

The website says Colburn himself and some of his crew went upriver with the troops, “carrying supplies and repairing the boats as they traveled.”

Henry Kingsbury, in his 1892 Kennebec County history, wrote that the army moved immediately upriver to Fort Western in future Augusta, where Arnold arrived on Sept. 21. For more than a week, he and some of his officers stayed with Captain James Howard at the fort.

On the evening of Sept. 23, Kingsbury wrote (using Capt. Simeon Thayer’s diary of the expedition for his source), a soldier named John McCormick got into a fight with a messmate at the fort, Reuben Bishop, and shot him. A report in the January-February, 2022, issue of the Kennebec Historical Society’s newsletter says alcohol was involved.

A prompt court-martial ordered McCormick hanged at 3 p.m. Sept. 26. Arnold, however, intervened and forwarded the case to Washington, “with a recommendation for mercy.” The KHS report says McCormick “was sent to a military jail in Boston, where he ultimately died of natural causes.”

On a website called Journey with Murphy reached through Old Fort Western’s website, a descendant of Sergeant Bishop called him “the first casualty of the Arnold expedition.” She wrote that he was born Nov. 2, 1740 (probably in central Massachusetts); enlisted soon after the Battle of Lexington; and served at the siege of Boston before joining Arnold’s expedition.

By her account, McCormick’s quarrel was not with Bishop, but with his (McCormick’s) captain, William Goodrich. After McCormick was thrown out of the house where they were billeted, he shot back into it, hitting Bishop as he lay by the fireside.

Bishop was buried somewhere near the fort. Kingsbury believed Willow Street was later “laid out over his unheeded grave.” His descendant wrote that his body was moved to Fort Western’s cemetery, and was by 2024 in Riverside Cemetery.

On Sept. 24, 1775, James North wrote in his 1870 Augusta history, Arnold sent a small exploring party ahead to collect information about the proposed route. They went most of the way across the Height of Land. North said the party’s guides were Nehemiah Getchell and John Horn, of Vassalboro.

Alma Pierce Robbins mentions in her 1971 Vassalboro history several earlier histories. One, she said, referred to “Berry and Getchell who had been sent forward…,” implying that they were part of, or guides for, the scouting party.

Different sources list other local men as guides for parts of the expedition. WikiTree cites a 1979 letter from a descendant of Dennis Getchell, of Vassalboro (see last week’s article) saying Dennis and three of his brothers, John, Nehemiah and Samuel, were scouts for Arnold, with Arnold’s journals as the source of the information.

Rev. Edwin Carey Whittemore, in his 1902 centennial history of Waterville, also named Nehemiah Getchell and John Horn as guides for the exploring party. He added, quoting an unnamed source, that a man named Jackins, who lived north of Teconnet Falls, served as a guide for the expedition.

Major General Carleton Edward Fisher, in his 1970 history of Clinton, wrote that Jackins (Jaquin, Jakens, Jackens, Jakins, Jackquith) was a French (and French-speaking) Huguenot who came to Winslow via Germany around 1772. Fisher believed Arnold sent Jackins to Québec with a letter in November 1775, citing expedition records kept by Arnold and others.

(Your writer, extrapolating from other sources, guesses the letter was to supporters in and around Québec letting them know an expedition was on the way.)

Two Native guides, Natanis and Sabatis (Sabbatis, Sabbatus), are named in several accounts, and in Kenneth Roberts’ novel. Some sources identify them as Abenakis (also called Wabanakis), others specify the Abenaki/Wabanaki band called Norridgewocks. Some say the two men were brothers or cousins.

Robbins called them “guides of no mean ability.” Both spent time in Vassalboro, she wrote, and “there are a few reports of those settlers who actually knew these two Indians.” As of 1971, she said, Sabatis’ name was on a boulder on Oak Grove Seminary grounds. Natanis Golf Course, on Webber Pond Road, was named after the 18th-century Natanis.

North wrote that over the period between Sept. 25 and Sept. 30, Arnold’s men moved from Fort Western to Fort Halifax, some in the bateaux (with most of the supplies) and some marching along the east bank of the river on the rough road laid out in 1754, when the forts were built to deter attacks by Natives backed by the French.

Robbins cited an account that the whole army camped on both sides of the Kennebec, in Vassalboro “while their bateaux were being repaired”; and Arnold “was entertained” at Moses Taber’s house.

(Your writer found no readily available information on Moses Taber. He was probably one of the Tabers who were among Vassalboro’s early settlers. They were Quakers; Taber Hill, the elevation north of Webber Pond about half-way between the Kennebec River and China Lake, is named after them.)

In Winslow, according to Whittemore’s history, an early settler, surveyor, doctor and selectman named John McKechnie treated sick soldiers from Arnold’s army

Above Fort Halifax, there was a miles-long stretch of waterfalls and rapids. Here the men had either to unload the bateaux, carry them past the danger zone, bring up the supplies and reload the boats; or haul the loaded boats upriver, in waist-deep autumn-cold water, against a strong current, over a rocky bottom.

North quoted a letter Arnold sent to George Washington in mid-October in which he compared his men to “amphibious animals, as they were a great part of the time under water.”

Several sources say that while his army labored up-river, Arnold made his headquarters in the first house built in Fairfield, Jonathan Emery’s, a short distance north of the present downtown. The Fairfield bicentennial history says Arnold was there a week; a WikiTree biography says two weeks, during which Emery, a carpenter, helped repair some of the bateaux.

(There will be more about Jonathan Emery and his family in next week’s article.)

By the time the army reached Norridgewock Falls in early October, North wrote (referring to Dr. Isaac Senter’s journal), many of the boats were wrecked. Worse, the wooden casks of bread, fish and peas were soaked and the food ruined, leaving the men with little to eat for the rest of the journey but salt pork, flour and whatever game they could kill.

From Norridgewock, North wrote, it was forty miles to the Great Carrying Place where the army left the Kennebec to go overland to the Dead River. After a very difficult journey (described in more or less detail in numerous sources, including North), during which men died and several companies abandoned the expedition and went home, about 600 remaining soldiers reached the St. Lawrence River on Nov. 9.

They besieged Québec and, with reinforcements, attacked the city the night of Dec. 31 1775. They failed to overcome the defenders, and many men were killed, wounded (including Arnold) or captured.

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Kingsbury summarized one effect of the expedition on the Kennebec Valley in the first of his two chapters on military history. He wrote that “The rare beauty of the valley through which they passed, the waving meadows, the heavy forest growth, made a lasting impression” that was not erased by the much harder journey that followed. The post-war peace brought continued hardship and hunger in the valley as “famishing regiments of soldiers” seized any available food on their way to homes along the coast. It “brought, also, many of the members of the Arnold expedition back as permanent settlers.”

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892)
North, James W., The History of Augusta (1870)
Local historical society collections

Websites, miscellaneous.

Local students named to St. Lawrence Univ dean’s list

St. Lawrence University, in Canton, New York, congratulates more than 630 students named to the dean’s list for the Spring 2025 semester.

They include Lola Caruso, of Norridgewock. Caruso is a member of the Class of 2028. Caruso attended Skowhegan Area High School.

Nina Dabas, of Winslow. Dabas is a member of the Class of 2028 and is majoring in English and political science. Dabas attended Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

EVENTS: Norridgewock select board meetings rescheduled

Due to scheduling conflicts, the Norridgewock Select Board’s regular meetings for January 2025 will be Wednesday, January 8 and 22, 2025, 6 p.m., at the Norridgewock Town Office. The regular meeting schedule of the first and third Wednesdays of each month will resume in February. Meeting agenda are posted at the Town Office and online at www.norridgewock.gov.

NORRIDGEWOCK: King Foundation grants extrication equipment to Fire Department

Lt Josh Corson (cq), left, and Firefighter Andrew Dexter of the Norridgewock Fire Department. (Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel)

NORRIDGEWOCK, ME — The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation awarded $40,000 to the Norridgewock Fire Department for the purchase of vehicle extrication equipment. The four pieces of equipment – spreader, cutter, ram, and stabilization struts will support a more efficient process of freeing patients from life-threatening conditions, most usually as the result of a motor vehicle accident. This grant enabled the Department to replace equipment that was 21 years old.

“We are extremely grateful to the STK Foundation for supporting our important project. The new battery-operated Hurst tools will speed the extrication process and eliminate the complications of working with older technologies. We are eliminating a gas-powered motor, hydraulic pump, hoses and fittings, all while upgrading our ability to cut modern metal alloys found in late model motor vehicles. The positive environmental impact is also a bonus,” said Deputy Chief Todd Pineo.

The equipment has been added to Engine 21, a 2019 Pierce Responder pumper, which is the customarily the first apparatus to deploy to an accident scene.

Town Manager Richard LaBelle expressed great thanks for the grant. “Acquiring this new equipment would not have been possible without the support from the King Founda­tion. These lighter-weight, portable tools will help our crews respond quickly to emergency calls and provide them with the right tools to do the job. This grant benefits not just the people of Norridgewock, but anyone who may travel through town.”

The equipment being replaced, through the generosity of this grant, will be donated to a Somerset County fire department in an effort to assist another rural, mutual aid partner.

About the Norridgewock Fire Department:

The Norridgewock Fire Department serves the Towns of Norridgewock (pop. 3,249) and Mercer (pop. 664) for a total of 78.57 square miles.

Norridgewock author publishes new book, Moving Up to a Higher Zip Code

Photo from Amazon

Newly-published author, Deb Brown, of Norridgewock, recently had her book, Moving To A Higher Zip-Code, a memoir about her accidental spiritual journey published and it is now available on Amazon or at Balboa Press.

There is perhaps no greater gift one person can give another than to share his or her story. This book is one of those gifts.

Moving to a Higher Zip-Code is a heartfelt and honest snapshot of one woman’s life. It is the no-holds-barred account of how Deb reached her “higher zip code” — and how you can use what she learned along the way to reach your own.

Deb Brown

Deb vulnerably shares details of a dysfunctional childhood, addictive relationships and behaviors, dark nights of the soul, family tragedy and betrayal, and more in a voice that is relatable and highly authentic. Like all of us, she stumbles and falls — but she also picks herself up in a way that is both instructional and inspirational.

Deb’s “accidental journey” is synchronistic at every turn.

Over the years she developed a passion for writing and sharing her stories. She faced her husband’s cancer in her own way while questioning the existence of God and her reason for being here. Through her challenges she kept fighting for and believing in something greater.

When she had reached perhaps the lowest points in her life she found a Unity church in the right place — at the right time. Life is like that when you are open to it.

In Moving to a Higher Zip-Code, Deb shares the wisdom and experience that opened her to self-love and self-care; learning to believe and trust in synchronicity and the universe; finding her soul mate; and ultimately discovering inner peace.

Tear back the cover of this precious gift and get lost in its pages. With each twist and turn of Deb’s “accidental journey,” as you face your own shadow and light along the way. Hopefully, you will find your own place in the world. We all deserve a higher zip code of our own.

2nd annual Cpl. Cole 5k and half marathon held for charity

Racers crossing the Corporal Eugene Cole Memorial Bridge, in Norridgewock, during the race on Saturday August 19. (photo by Cheyenne Paron, Central Maine Photography Staff)

by Mark Huard

The 2nd annual Corporal Cole 5K and Half-Marathon took place at the Mill Stream Elementary School, in Norridgewock, on August 19, and was a huge success!

Over 700 registered runners took part with 500 in the 5K and 200 in the half marathon, age varied from 1-84!

The event helped raise $25,000 to donate towards the Cpl. Cole Memorial Scholarship.

Event organizer Jessica Gleason said, “We had incredible water stations.” The entire Skowhegan football team, Lawrence football team, Waterville soccer team, Skowhegan cheerleaders, Lawrence and Messalonskee National Honor Society, Lawrence, and Carrabec JMG, Skowhegan Savings Bank, New Balance, and many more! Water stations filled with over 20 people pumped up the runners and kept them going. One station even formed a human tunnel for runners to go through! Three individual moments of silence took place on Sunday, one for Detective Campbell who lost his life doing the right thing. Race director Gleason encouraged the crowd to follow Detective Campbell’s lead and “do the right thing.” The second moment of silence was for Fairfield Captain Jim Lane as his funeral was on Sunday, and their final moment of silence was for fallen hero Cpl. Eugene Cole, with a reminder of his wifes words, ” his shoes may never be filled but his footsteps can always be followed.”

Eli Meader, 9 of, Madison, set a record during the race, going 13.12 miles! Here he is with Sheryl Cole, after the race, when he received his medal. (photo by Missy Brown,
Central Maine Photography staff)

Eli is nine years old. He ran his first 5k at six years old. After a 5k in June he wanted to run a marathon but his mom said he had to run a half marathon first. He didn’t do a lot of training beforehand. Longest run was 8-1/2 miles so she was worried for today’s race. He did great and only walked a little.

Eli went 13.12 miles on Agust 19!

His next goal is to be the youngest kid in the world to run a full marathon. A 14 year old has the record right now.

Sheryl Cole started each race with the air horn following the National Anthem sung by Katie Lee Hill. Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster joined Tom Cole, brother of Corporal Cole, in the 5k walk. All profits from the race go to the Corporal Cole Memorial Scholarship Fund. Between last year and this year they will have donated over $70,000 to the scholarship fund. This race is a success first and foremost because of Corporal Eugene Cole, secondly because Mrs. Cole and the Cole family trust us in honoring his legacy, and finally because of the hundreds of volunteers and unsung heroes behind the scenes. It takes a village to pull off an event this size and our village steps up without hesitation when you mention Corporal Cole. Moving forward we are working on certifying the half marathon with USA Track & Field for 2020 which will be held in August 2020. Race registration will open on November 1, 2019.

This year they held the first kids fun run. Over 20 children participated on an obstacle course run created and managed by Kennebec Valley Community Colleges Physical Therapist Assistant students. Every child received a super hero cape with the numbers 1312 on the back, Corporal Cole’s badge number. Top sponsors included Skowhegan Savings Bank and Redington-Fairview General Hospital, in Skowhegan. Believe you can, dont give up, and you will! This race unites the community, and promotes healthy healing by taking one step forward each and every day. Looking forward to 2020!

Sponsors and volunteers for 2020 are encouraged to contact Jess at corporalcolememorialrun@gmail.com.

Local students inducted into NHS at “Virtual” High School

Maine Connections Academy (MCA), the state’s first distance-learning charter school, announces 14 students who have been newly inducted into the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS). Locally, that list includes Lindsey Childs, an 11th grader from Palermo, and Madison Blodgett, a 10th grader from Norridgewock.

To be considered for NHS membership, students submitted a formal application and narrative, outlining their qualifications. Lindsey and Madison and the other MCA students were selected based on high academic standing, as well as demonstrated excellence in the areas of service, leadership and quality of character. They will be expected to work as a team as they participate in chapter meetings and complete a variety of service projects to benefit their communities.

Jessica Remmes-Davis is the National Honor Society Chapter Advisor at MCA. “I’m very proud of these students,” she said. “They show that going to a virtual school does not limit their opportunities to exhibit their qualities of scholarship and leadership.”

The National Honor Society (NHS) is the nation’s premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

Maine Antique Tractor Club to hold festival

Photo courtesy of Maine Antique Tractor Club

The Maine Antique Tractor Club has held an Antique Tractor Festival for the past 23 years and this year the event will be on Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24 at 351 Waterville Road, Norridgewock. Gate opens at 8:00 each day. Admission is $5.

The Maine Antique Tractor Club, founded in 1994 by a handful of tractor lovers, has grown to over 500 members. As a non-profit organization, it focuses on the preservation of information, documents and artifacts relating to the invention, development and use of farm tractors and the related implements and equipment used. Its mission is to teach present and future generations about the uses of these antique tractors, implements and equipment and show them at work.

The festival will have upwards of 150 antique farm tractors collected in one area, including Farmall, Allis Chalmers, Ford, Cockshutt, John Deere, Case, Oliver, and more. Pulling demonstrations in many weight classes, antique lawn and garden tractor demonstrations and the doodlebugs, known as the “poor man’s tractor” or “homemade” tractor are scheduled.

Antique equipment demonstrations such as that of the 1940’s rock crusher, a working blacksmith, a cedar shingle mill and a Windlass, are just some of the working attractions.

Students named to Colby-Sawyer College dean’s list for Fall 2017

Colby-Sawyer College, in New London, New Hampshire, recognized 254 students for outstanding academic achievement during the 2017 fall semester. To qualify for the Dean’s List, students must achieve a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale while carrying a minimum of 12 credit hours in graded courses.

Ross Sirois, of Norridgewock, a member of the class of 2018, majoring in biology.

Haley Carver, of Sidney, a member of the class of 2020, majoring in sociology.

Chelsea Perry, of Oakland, a member of the class of 2021, majoring in business administration.

Local residents named to dean’s list at RIT

The following local residents made the dean’s list for the 2017 spring semester at Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York:

Bethany Hartley, of Whitefield, who is studying mechanical engineering technology, and Anna Lorette, of Norridgewock, who is studying packaging science.