Joshua Crooker of Minot, Maine "An Aroostook War
Soldier" newspaper clipping dated 28 Feb 1901


Contributed by Androscoggin Historical Society
http://www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Tells the Story of His Military Experience, and
Describes the Building of Fort Fairfield

Joshua Crooker of Minot, who is in his 84th year,
was a volunteer in one of the first companies
organized  to defend the Maine frontier, during the
Madawaska trouble in the forties, (1840's) during
the so-called Aroostook War  many ludicrous
incidents took place when the drafts were made from
the militia companies of the different towns, of men
to go to the front. Many people at first thought
that the soldiery of the State alone would have to
contend single-handed with the troops from the
British provinces. Capt. Amos P. Noyes of Norway who
raised three companies of volunteers for the civil
war, two of which he commanded, was a lieutenant
colonel during the trouble over the boundary lines
between Maine and the provinces. He is now nearly
ninety  he relates that while the people of North
Norway were attending  meeting one Sunday, they were
startled by the loud ex- clamations of a militia
officer from Paris Hill, who sat on his horse in
front of the door of the schoolhouse where religious
services were being held, shouting; 'To arms! To
arm! The Bluenoses are  coming!

Men shrieked. Boys yelled. Women screamed and
fainted. His business was merely to notify the North
militia company of the town that a draft would be
made on a certain day for soldiers to go to Augusta,
there to & wait the order of the Governor and
commander-in-chief. Similar scenes no doubt took
place, in the other parts of the State.

Mr. Crooker in a grandson of Daniel Packard, one of
the early settlers of Buckfield, who served through
the Revolutionary Wax, and was at Saratoga., Stony
Point and 16 other battles and Sieges. On the
authority of Sec. Lang of the Navy Department, he
was the original Sergeant Hollister in Cooper's Spy,
as his. wife was the other principal character in
this srory: Betty Flanagan.

But I will let My. Crooker tell his story in his own
way:

"In the winter of 1841." says Mr. Crooker, "my
brother-in-law, Salomon Cole. being on it visit to
Buckfield strongly urged me to return with him to
his home In Parkman, which I did. I  had been there
but a  short time when rumors floated freely of
British invasion of the Aroostook country  for the
purpose of cutting ship timber, an the banks of the
winding Aroostook, Whence it was floated down the
river when the ice broke up in the spring. I was at
a religious meeting on Sunday. when an officer
appeared at the church soliciting the enlistment of
a company of soldiers, to go immediately to the
scene of the depredations in the northern
wilderness. This stirring and unusual event awoke in
me the war like spirit. that ties inherent; in every
true American breast. Often had I listened to my
grandfather's recital of the scenes he had witnessed
in the  revolutionary  war the picture of Arnold's
valar  Sataratoga. the midnight charge at Stony
Point, Washington turning the retreating troops at
Monmouth forward to a victory, until, in the
imagination, and enthusaiasm youth. I feared the, no
opportunity would present itself, in my life time.
for millitary, service for my Country against
England which by  hereditary instinct had always
been regarded as our natural enemy.

My grandfather Daniel Packard (a native of
Bridgewater, Mass had courted a pretty Irish girl
who was stolen from her home in the Cove of Cork,
Ireland, and brought to this country. My grandfather
married her and she followed him into the army, and
was with him through the war.) 

As I was saying, an enlisting Officer uppeered at
the church meeting and when the services were over
began recruiting. I was the first man to put my name
on the roll. Others rapidly followed and by night a
company visa formed. We had orders to be at
Sangerville the next morning for Immediate marching
We reached there at 2 o'clock by team and stayed at
the tavern, where   we went through the process of
being mustered. We, formed in front of the door and
passed singly into the house where each man was
examined. The most prominent qualfication was that
each man should be warmly clothed. We took dinner at
this Inn and started over the snowy road for
Lincoln, which we reached that night, cold, hungry
and tired. The next morning we received our guns of
which there were great stack in a large building and
then we resumed our march on foot. We passed along
the Penobscot, through Winn to the junction of the
Mattawamkeag with the Penobscot. From the town of
Mattawamkeag we turned north, where the townships
were designated by the numerals, 1 2. 3. 4, 5, etc.
On, arriving at the 8th township we struck the head
waters of P. branch of the Aroostook' river. Here
was our outpost camp. The soldiers who were
stationed  or had arrived there came out to recieve 
us and chested heartily. We round quite warm and
convenient quarters In rude buildings which had bee
constructed. I think that it was on  Friday that we
reached the camp and on the next Monday morning we
mustered, on the ice and started down river

The picture presented has eve left my memory. The
now land agent Jarvis was the commanding officer and
mounted on black charger be addressed the troops  in
fiery spirit of war.  He gave command  that every
bayonet be fixev and finished  by saying if there
was a soldier among us who would hesitate to run his
bayonet throughg   a British invader he did not want
him,, and called upon Such to lay his arms and
return home, While the others were ordered to
"forward march." Three soldiers gave up their guns
and left the ranks. . - , 'the drums beat, the fifes
piped strains of war With colors flying  the first
war began under a   the of fall silent slow-
descending flakes of snow falling upon them. My
company was about middle way of the command. And
before and behind were companies following each
other, Interspersed with horse-teams haul- 36 cannon
and military stores and ord- required for soldiers
entering a wilderness In the depth of winter, Fully
a mile was taken Up In the line of match and the-
distance to be travelled over by the winding
Aroostook War estimated  at 72 miles. We halted at
noon only long enough to eat our  nations of hard-
tack and boiled pork. Our tea was the  uncooked
water of the river draw through a hole in the hole
in te ice. By night-fall we reached the half-way
place, where some prepara- been made for us. The
next day was clear and cold and we had to beat
ourselves and rub our faces and ears to keen them
from freezing It was growing dark when we halted at
a place where the river made a band and the too was
covered with hewn timber. Hers was the cause of the
war. These innocent 'Sticks of timber' that lay Cold
and half-covered with snow had stirred the counsels
of nations to en- Here was the 'bone' over which the
dogs of war were contending. Here Was. the scene
where Macintosh, our land agent, was seized and
carried away into the British Dominion, bound on a
horse. Our company Was stationed as the picket guard
that night to watch for any advance I of the toe, as
they might come out or the blackness of the forest
shade. But the cold winds-only came up the river
chilling the  ' very marrow of our bones to disturb
our cheerless vigil, Never have I passed so severe a
trial front wind and weather In the 83 years of my
existence as in that first night In the wilderness
of the Aroostook, Once in a While through that long
night the sounds in the tree-flopsing in the winds
were chorused by the dismal hoot of the owls , and
the fierce snarls or shrieks of the wild denizens of
that ~vast wilderness," their protest. no doubts, to
our Invasion.    

The next morning the plans of the campaign had been
formed and were being executed. A fort was to be
constructed on  the left bank of the river and with
Yankee availability, we used in its construction the
ship timber that the British had got out on the
river. And how rapidly the fort grew Into, shape.
Horses drew the ship timber upon the bank and
skillful hands adjusted it readily into a redoubt
and the angry-mouthed cannon boldly looked out
toward approach.

Seventy-five acres, of forest were  to be cleared
and our guns were, exchanged for axes. The snow was
four feet deep in the woods but the cutting up of
the fallen trees and burning them. melted the snow
and soon there, appeared from our hands a campground
snowless and treeless and stumpless and almost as
level  as a garden plot. Streets were laid out,
barracks, of officers' quarters, hospital and all
the paraphernalia of the camp appeared. In honor of
the Governor of the State the place war named Fort
Fairfield which name it has ever since retained.

Besides the general hard work and millitary drill
there was little remarkable to relate. Once in a
while a man found in the wood cautiously looking at
our camp was brought in blindfolded. The officers
examined him and invariably sent him away In the
sane manner as he came. One day it was announced
that the State land agent, who had been carried off,
bound an a horse sled into "Bluenose-dom," was to be
releases and allowed to come back. Several officers
with a file of men went down the river to meet him
and escort him Into camp. When the detachment
containing the heroic agent, appeared in sight the
cannon mounted in the fort belched forth flery
flames and the whole camp shook as in an
earthquake's throe. Thus he received military honors
of a returning hero. The first-troops went up as
volunteers under command of Land Agent Jarvis, who
was appointed in Macintosh's place after his
capture, but now soldiers drafted from the militia
of the State began to arrive under command of Gen.
Houlton, if I remember correctly. There was a little
friction between the land agent and Gen. Moulton,
the volunteers maintaining that they owed command
only to the land agent. We were discharged after
having served there forty days. The volunteers had
done their. work, and it remained for the drafted
men to 'hold the fort.' At  the time the land
warrents were given to the soldiers for serving in
the Madawaska was a man came to my house to buy
mine. He said the captain in my company had given
him my name. He paid me five dollars down and what
to strange I never heard from him again." 

Norway, Maine        A. C. Whitman

(N.B.  For more on the "Aroostook War" see "Ties of
Common Blood: A History of Maine's Northeast
Boundary Dispute with Great Britain, 1783-1842 by
Geraldine Tidd Scott published in 1991, 445 pages)