Penobscot River
Anecdotal descriptions of Penobscot River fisheries, 1700s and early
1800s.
Excerpts from:
Godfrey, John E. 1882. The Annals of Bangor, 1769-1882, in History of Penobscot
County, Maine with Illustrations & Biographical Sketches. Williams,
Chase & Co. Cleveland, Ohio.
1790s:
"Fish, too, began to be a marketable commodity. The streams were full
of them. Salmon, shad and alewives were taken under Lover's Leap, at the
mouths of the Mantawassuck, Segeunkedunk, and Sowadabscook Stream and at
Penobscot Falls. Vessels began to frequent the river, and the surplus lumber
and fish of the inhabitant were taken at renumerative prices.
"No record was made of the quantity or value of the fish taken at Bangor
in any one year, but between thirty and four hundred barrels of shad and
alewives were usually taken at one tide at each of the several fishing places
or eddies -- the average would be from seventy-five to one hundred barrels.
At Treat's Falls sometimes forty salmon were taken in a day.
"The fishing season, in the spring, continued about five weeks; time
of greatest plenty, two weeks. Salmon were taken during three months at
least, but they were not abundant.* From $1 to $1.25 per barrel were paid
from the vessels for alewives, and what were then considered fair prices
for shad. Newburyport vessels were engaged in the trade and took large quantities
of fish to the Southern markets and the West Indies for plantation purposes.
"In 1795 William Hammond and John Smart erected a saw-mill at the heaed
of the tide on the Condeskeag, where the Morse & Co. mills now are.
There was a great supply of good lumber upon the stream, which continued
to supply the mills there until about the year 1850.
"Game was found in great abundance along the banks of this river. There
are those living who had the fine sport in hunting moose and the larger
animals of the forest, as well as birds and smaller game. Besides the fish
mentioned, bass were plenty in the Penobscot, and sturgeon, where were esteemed
of no value for food, made havoc with the seines of the fishermen. They
were, however, made use of in furnishing sport for the boys. When caught
a rope would be attached to the their tail, and they would be returned to
the water and used as a motive power for boats, which they drew very swiftly
until they became exhausted, and then, like any other tired draft animal,
had to be urged forward with sticks."**
Fn: "* McGaw's Sketch; ** Bangor Centennial, 81."
1825:
"For a fortnight fires were raging in the forests north of Bangon.
At one time nearly the whole country from Passadumkeag to Mattanawcook,
on both sides of the Penobscot and Piscataquis, was a sea of flame. The
roaring of the fire was like thunder, and was heard at a distance from twelve
to fifteen miles. The islands in the river were burnt over. The country
between Passadumkeag and Lincoln was devastated. The towns upon the Piscataquis
suffered from loss of buildings, cattle, fences, crops. The house, barn
filled with hay, and store and toolhouse of Joseph McIntosh, of Maxfield,
were burned and the family driven to the river for safety. Other houses
and barns, and saw-mills and grist-mills, were destroyed. A lad returning
from school through the woods was so badly burned that his life was despaired
of; hawks and other birds were killed by the fire; and the fish in the Piscataquis
River were killed by the heat. Twenty bass, weighing from twenty to forty
pounds, many young salmon, shad, trout, and other small fish, were found
dead in the shoal water and on the shores. The fires were running in Bangor,
doing much injury in the woods, and the whole country was filled with smoke."
October, 1826:
"Mr. Timothy Colby, who by trade was brick-maker, was also a rare lover
of the piscatory profession. He was famous for "drifting" nights
on the Penobscot, and in the morning was proud of exhibiting the plump salmon
and shad with which his labors were rewarded, in West Market Square, to
which all good husbands resorted for a good dinner. In the early part of
October he achieved quite a reputation among the good-livers by bringing
into the market one hundred and eighty shad which were deemed superior to
those taken in the spring. As the Register made this unusual advent of these
delicious fish a matter of congratulation, the Kennebec Journal attempted
to detract from "Uncle Tim's" laurels by calling them "outward
bound," in other words "run-down shad." Mr. Burton's indignation
was aroused at this, and he called it "gross libel on our taste and
judgement," and undertook to show from Ree's Encyclopedia and a little
argumentation that, although the visit of these sea shad to the Penobscot
was an unusual even, yet that for six months, from May to November, they
were about the capes and the mouths of our large rivers, and there was no
good reason why they should not take a turn up the Penobscot, a large river,
occasionally. Thus was Mr. Timothy Colby's averment that they were fine,
fat, delicious sea shad, fresh from the ocean, verified."
"1828 .... Mr. Timothy Colby, the notable fisherman, while fishing
for frost fish in the Kenduskeag, on the 3d of January, caught a fine, fat
salmon weighing five and a quarter pounds. This was the only salmon, probably,
even caught in that way through the ice in that river."
1836 or 1837:
"In the spring of this year the salmon, shad and alewives prepared
a representation to the Legislature to the effect that although at their
last session they had passed a law whereby they "could more easily
pass up the river," yet that they had not half done their work. They
now could not get up the river by reason of the obstructions, which they
could not see till they got to them for the sawdust; and therefore requested
that all the saw-mills be annihilated, as their (the fishes') greater an
value "as a source of wealth was well known."
"Had Commissioner Elias M. Stilwell and his coadjutors been there in
that day, the poor fisher would have been inducted to let the saw-mills
stand, by having secured to them fish-ways for their own especial use, notwithstanding
they still have to run the gauntlet through hordes of thieving poachers."
From:
"The Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Bangor, September
30, 1869." 1870. Published by Direction of the Committee of Arrangements.
Benjamin A. Burr, Printer. Bangor, Maine.
p. 79-81. Statement of Capt. Jacob Holyoke of Brewer. Born March 27, 1785
in Brewer. Died in Brewer, May, 2, 1865.
"I was born March 27, 1785, in the town of Brewer, my parents were
living at that time in a log house near the small school house, just above
John Holyoke's brick house, where the old cellar hole may now be seen ....
"Mr. John Emory lived at Robinson's cove, about one down river; Henry
Kenney and John Tibbetts the only other settlers between our house and Col.
Brewer's. There were no settlers back and no roads leading back from the
river ....
"For many years the Indians were in the habit of making a camping ground
of the flat between our house and the meeting house, near the present ship
yard, every summer, in going to and returning from the seaboard, where they
principally went after porpoises and seals. I have seen often thirty or
forty wig-wams, built principally of birch bark, inhabited by two or three
hundred Indians.
"There was a beautiful spring of water on the bank of the river, now
covered up by John Holyoke's wharf, which the Indians used, and was also
used by us.
"This flat of one or two acres was cleared, when my father first came
to Brewer, and from the number of Indian stone implements found there in
improving the land, was doubtless a very ancient Indian camping ground.
When my father built his framed house he cleared up about six acres around
it, and upon every side except the river it was a thick, heavy forest.
"Salmon, shad and alewives were very plenty, and in their season many
people came here to catch them -- bass were also plenty, and in the fishing
season, we could fill a batteau with fish at Treat's falls in a short time;
we would sometimes take forty salmon in a day, and I think as many as five
hundred were taken some days, in all. My father had a large seine in the
eddy, just above the Bangor bridge, and we had much trouble with the sturgeon.
When a large sturgeon was captured, the boys used to tie the painter of
the boat to his tail and giving him eight or ten feet length of rope, let
him go, and when he grew tired or lazy would poke him up with long sticks
and so be carried all around the harbor
"(Signed) Jacob Holyoke. Brewer, Dec. 1860."
p. 78. From the 1786 account book of Robert Treat, with James Budge,
who owned one hundred acres of land on the east side of the Kenduskeag:
"Man's labor, 4 shillings per day.
Sawed pine boards, 24 shillings per thousand feet.
Pine ton timber, 12 shillings per ton.
Pine shingles, 6 shillings per thousand.
Clapboards, 43 shillings per thousand.
Fresh salmon, 2 pence per pound.
Fresh moose meat, 2 pence per pound.
Beaver skins, 12 shillings per pound.
Otter skins, 12 shillings apiece.
Bear skins, 12 shillings apiece.
Sable skins, 3 shillings apiece.
Moose hide, 6 shillings apiece.
Musquash skin, six pence.
Mink skin, one shilling and six pence."
p. 131, 135. From statement of Joseph Carr, Esq.
"Gentlemen --
"Not having had the pleasure of being present at the Centennial celebration
of the city, I am unwilling, as a Bangor born boy, to let the occasion pass
without contributing my mite towards the commemoration of the even. Some
few of my early recollections may be of interest now, and of value hereafter.
.....
"In the year 1806 my father built a wooden store now standing on Washington
Street at the City Point, between the brick stores built by Zadoc French
and Joseph Leavitt, and the wharf known as 'Carr's wharf,' which was the
first wharf built on the Penobscot River. In this store my father traded
until about the year 1842. All sorts of goods were kept for sale, and Saturday
was the great day of trade, and Saturday afternoon (my just holiday) was
usually spent by me on compulsion in waiting on my father's customers. On
this day there came to the store men from celebrated families of Harthorns,
McPhetres, Spencers and Inmans, bringing with them shingles, salmon, shad,
smoked alewives and credit, for which they wanted tea, tobacco, calico and
rum. It was one if not my chief duty to quench the thirst of these most
thirsty customers. Innumberable gills, pints and quarts of good old 'Santa
Cruz' have I drawn and delivered to these genial souls, of whom I can truly
say none were drunk, but 'all had a drappie in their' ee.' I have now in
my possession the original copper gill cup, which furnished those hardy
pioneers what they considered to be almost their 'meat and clothing' and
their drink it certainly was.
"Santa Cruz rum was one dollar a gallon; New England rum two shillings
and sixpence; tea was four shillings and sixpence per pound; tobacco one
shilling and sixpence; seven yards of calico made a dress for any ordinary
sized woman; salmon sold for four pence halfpenny each; shad and alewives
a cent apiece in small lots, or fifty cents a hundred by the quantity; but
these last had no pecuniary value so far as a dozen went for any one's individual
consumption. I have often seen nets drawn full of shad and alewives in Kenduskeag
Stream, both above and below the bridge, and before any wharves were built
in the stream."
From:
"Historical Collections of Piscataquis County, Maine consisting of
papers read at meetings of the Piscataquis County Historical Society."
1910. Dover, Maine. Observer Press.
p. 207:
"The Piscataquis River runs through the farm on the north, and in the
days of which we are writing, salmon abounded in plenty in the old river.
They must have been plentiful, as this delicious fish then retailed at three
cents a pound." (referring to late 1700s).
From:
"Historical Sketches of the Town of Hampden, Maine." 1976. Hampden
Historical Society. The Ellsworth American. Ellsworth, Maine.
"In 1786, Jonathan Stone was sent by General Knox, one of the Waldo
heirs, to make surveys of 'explorations' of the town.
"Stone's Survey
"'No. 1 in the first range (now Hampden) containes twenty-one thousand
four hundred sixty-two acres, and is bounded as follow, viz: On the Waldo
Patent on the south, On No. two in the same range on the north, and on the
Penobscot River on the east, which affords a fine navigation the whole distance,
having from four to six fathoms of water at low water, and is well supplied
with salmon, shadd and alewives.'"
Early Fisheries at Bucksport
"Other Items of Interest
"The principal business of the first settlers of this town was fishing
and little attention paid to farming. The amount received for lumber was
small being confined chiefly to raft lumber such as shingles, staves, etc.
Cordwood and bark were of little value in those days. The Penobscot River
abounded with salmon, shad and bass and all the small streams with alewives.
They were first taken by spearing and nets and then by what was called half
tide weirs. These were laid from point to point across deep coves and great
numbers of shad and bass were taken in them. The bass were salted and dry
cured and sent to Boston for market. In 1811 one Harnley Emerson came here
from Phipsburg and built the first three pound weir at the mouth of Marsh
River on Treat's flats. Sorel Emerson claimed to be the inventor of such
weirs and first built them on the Kennebec River. Some improvement was made
on Emerson's plan and in a few years twine was used instead of brush making
them more deceptive to the fish. From this time the fishing interest became
one of the most important sources of income to the inhabitants of this town,
amounting at one time (in the year 1820), to $30,000.
From: Buck, Rufus. History of the Settlement of Bucksport (Maine) 1763 to
1860. Photocopy of handwritten manuscript available at Maine State Library,
Augusta, Maine. No publication date. Rufus Buck born in 1797, died in 1879.
Most likely written in 1860s era.
1811 document from town of Orrington found in papers of David Wiswell
of Orrington.
"To all people to whom these presents shall come. Greeting.
Whereas an Act of the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts entitled
'An Act to Prevent the Destruction of the Fish Called Shad & Alewives
in their passage up and down the River and other streams in the Town of
Orrington in the County of Hancock & for regulating and disposing of
said Fish," was passed on the sixth day of February in the year of
our Lord eighteen hundred and seven. And whereas we Warren Ware, Samuel
Stone, Richard Godfrey, Ephraim Doane & John Wilkins all of said Orrington,
were by virtue of the Act aforesaid appointed a Committee in and for said
Town of Orrington for the current year agreeable to said Act. And whereas
we the said Committee by the authority vested in us by said act have agreed
to Lease unto David Wiswell of said town, yeoman, the following place or
fishing privilege situated in the Town of Orrington aforesaid to wit, Beginning
at John Wilkin's south line, thence to Josiah Brewer's south line.
Now Know ye therefore that we the said Committee in our said Capacity do
by these presents Lease and let unto the said David Wiswell for the ensuing
the place or fishing privilege aforesaid for and in consideration of the
sum of one tenth part of the amount of the sales of all shad and alewives
they may catch in said place during the aforesaid term to be paid to us
by the said David Wiswell in sixty from this date the receipt whereof we
do hereby in our said capacity acknowledge. And we the said Committee do
covenant in our said capacity to & with said David Wiswell that the
several provisions of the Act have been complied with. And we do further
in our said capacity covenant to and with the said David Wiswell that he
shall and may quietly enjoy and improve the place or fishing privilege aforesaid,
for and during the term aforesaid without any suit hindrance or molestation
from us in our said Capacity or from any person or persons having lawful
right to the fishing privilege aforesaid.
In witness whereof we the said Committee in our said capacity have herewith
set our hands and Seals this ninth day of April in the year of our Lord
eighteen hundred and eleven.
Signed, Sealed & Delivered in presence of:
Abiel Perry, Benjamin Nourse, Samuel Stone, Richard Godfrey, Ephraim Doane,
John Wilkins."
From: Swett, David L. editor. Miscellaneous Records of Orrington, Penobscot
County, Maine from the Wiswell Journals and Account Books, 1786-1866. Volume
7. Picton Press. Rockland, Maine.
Back to Penobscot History home
page.