CSA Newsletter 7/3/19

     I have been having the hardest time burning this brush pile, I don't know what it is but I cannot get this sucker to go up – possibly the reason is that the wood is so green and the weather is so damp. The other day I was rummaging around in the old house for some paper to get it started and I found a folder containing some letters and a worn-yellow document called “A Children’s History of Limington” by Robert L. Taylor. It has no date on it but it was typed on a typewriter and is not a copy, the pages nearly fall apart when they are turned. Without much further ado I am going to just transpose a little of this gem because it is succinct and old and of interest:

Location

     Limington is one of the most easterly towns in York County. Beautifully located, it is nestled among the hills between the valleys of the Great and Little Ossipee Rivers. Its boundaries are Baldwin to the north, Standish to the east, Hollis and Waterboro to the south, and Limerick and Cornish to the west. The Saco River bounds the Town on the entire north and east sides, while the Little Ossipee River separates Limington from Waterboro on the south.

Francis Small – The Indian Trader

     The first trading camp in Ossipee was near where the Saco and the great Ossipee River come together in what is now Cornish Village. It was here, in the summer of 1668, that Francis Small sold goods to the Newichewannock tribe of Indians. Small sold goods on credit. The Indians were supposed to pay him back in furs trapped in the fall. But when it was almost time to pay the Indians thought it easier to kill Small than to pay. The Indians decided to burn his house and shoot Small when he came out to escape from the flames.

     The chief of the tribe, Nicksumbe or Wesumbe, was called “Captain Sandy” by the English. He was very friendly toward Francis Small. Captain Sandy told Small what the other Indians were planning to do. Since Captain Sandy could not stop the Indians from carrying out their plan, he advised Small to run for his life.

     Small thought Captain Sandy’s story over carefully. He decided it was just a clever trick to frighten him away without being paid the furs that the Indians owed him. But, just to be on the safe side, he hid among some pine trees on a hill near his cabin.

     Throughout a long November night, Small kept watch on his cabin to see if the Indians really would try to burn him out. With the coming of dawn, an orangey sheet of flames shot up into the darkness. Small’s house was destroyed.

     Small took to the hills as fast as he could go, and he didn’t stop until he got to the settlement. Without any doubt, he spoke the language of the Indians and had lived for long periods of time among them. The friendly chief of the tribe, Captain Sandy, followed Small into the hills. He paid Small for the Indians debts and for the loss of the cabin caused by the fire. He paid Small by giving him a huge tract of land – the entire Ossipee tract.

     This tract known as “Ossipee” meant all the land between the Great Ossipee. the Saco and the Little Ossipee and Newichawannock Rivers. It was 20 miles square or about 256,000 acres. The section now called Limington was known then as the Plantation of Little Ossipee.

     The original deed to that Ossipee tract was lost for many years but is now in the possession of the Maine Historical Society.

     Now I don't know how true all that is, seems a little reductive to me, but it sure is a wild story. If this story is true that means this Small fellow really lucked out even despite himself. And Captain Sandy the chief who gives him freedom and a small empire? I cannot fathom such incredible compassion and generosity. We have members of the Small family buried here at our house as this house was one of the first built in town so this stuff interests me.

     Also interesting is how stories cook down and reduce over time until all we have are the bullet points. When we lose the details we lose the real story and often the truth with it. What do you think of these tales that sound more like fables? Poor Native Americans operating on credit, Chiefs going rogue to appease the white man with grandiose tracts of land, does it smell fishy to you too?

week 3 vegetables
radishes
napa cabbage
lettuce mix
summer squash
cuke
scallion
tea bunch
kale