General John Parker Boyd and Judge Henry Orne, the Original Proprietors of the Town of Orneville, Maine printed in John Sprague's Journal of Maine History (1913) Vol 1 #2, 43-47 Courtesy of Androscoggin Historical (c) 1998 Vol. I JULY, 1913 No. 2 General John Parker Boyd and Judge Henry Orne, the Original Proprietors of the Town of Orneville, Maine Read Before the Piscataquis Historical Society by John Francis Sprague There are many towns in the State of Maine of historical interest by reason of the fame of the first purchasers or proprietors, of the original townships, and none more so than the town of Orneville in the County of Piscataquis. The first owner of the township was General John Parker Boyd, who also owned a part of what is now the town of Medford. The settlement was first called Bovd's Plantation. He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 21, 1764, and died in Boston, October 4. 1830, and was the son of James and Susannah Boyd. James was a native of Scotland, and his wife was a sister of Reverend Paul Coffin of Newburyport, who was a descendant from Tristram Coffin, the first of the name, who came to this country. John, with his two brothers, Robert and Joseph, were when boys placed in stores in Boston and learned mercantile life. Robert and Joseph and their brother, Ebenezer L. Boyd,' settled in Portland, Maine, in 1774, and were extensive traders there for many years and became prominent in the affairs of that city. The life of a merchant, did not, however, appeal to John Parker as he was possessed of a spirit of adventure and a strong desire for military life. He entered the American Navy in 1786 as ensign in the second regiment. In 1789 he went to India and engaged in a kind of guerilla ---------------------------------------------------------- (a) Ebenezer L. Boyd evidently became a clergyman, as the title of Reverend is affixed to his name in early conveyances of land. (Note) Cleophas Boyd, who for many years was a practicing lawyer in Harmony, Maine, was a son of Ebenezer L. Boyd. ----------------------------------------------- 44 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY service under and by authority of the English government, and gained considerable renown in the wars in India at that time. In a letter to his father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says, "Having procured letters recommendatory to the English consul residing at the Court of his Highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hydrabad, 450 miles from Madras. On my arrival I was presented to his Highness in form by the English consul. "My reception was as favorable as my most sanguine wishes had anticipated. After the usual ceremony was over, he presented me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each of which consists of 500 men." The English evidently had confidence in his bravery and ability as a military officer as he commanded alone, at one time, more than ten thousand men. He returned to his home in Boston in 1808 and immediately upon his return, October 7, 1808, was appointed Colonel of the Fourth Infantry and Brigadier General, August 26, 1812, and honorably discharged June 15, 1815. He was at the capture of Fort George and in the engagement at Williamsburg in Canada. In 1816, he went to England to obtain indemnity for the loss of a valuable cargo of saltpetre, captured by an English cruiser while on its way to the East Indies. In this venture he sustained a considerable loss as he only recovered one installment of thirty thousand dollars, estimated to be less than one-half its value. President Jackson appointed him Naval Officer at Boston in 1830, only a few months before his death. General Boyd's ancestors being Scotch it is evident that be inherited a love for Scottish history and tradition as he caused what is now the town of Medford to be known and called by that beautiful and poetic Scotch name of Kilmarnock. This town adopted this name when incorporated January 31, 1824, and re- tained it until by an act of the Legislature in 1856 it was changed to the present name of Medford. What could have induced the people of this town to desire this change is incomprehensible. Kilmarnock in Scotland is the largest town in the county of Ayr, which county gave birth to one of the sweetest of earth's singers, Bobby Burns. Its very name is an inspiration from that ------------------ GENERAL JOHN PARKER BOYD 45 land of poetry and romance and it was lamentable that it should ever have been cbanged for the present prosaic Dame of Medford, which is suggestive only of a New England town that once pro- duced what our fathers loved perhaps rather better than we do and which was undoubtedly a most excellent quality of rum. General Boyd became the owner of the lands above referred to in 1805 and prior to his return from India and England, but there is no evidence extant today that he ever resided there, although it is known that he paid frequent visits to Boyd's Plantation. General Boyd derived his title to Orneville as follows: On the fourth day of September, 1805, John Read and Wm. Smith, agents for the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, under a resolve passed by the General Court, March 15, 1805, conveyed by deed to John Parker Boyd of Boston in the county of Suffolk in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in con- sideration of six thousand, two hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-nine cents, (balance then due) paid by John Parker Boyd under assignment of John Peck, who was assignee of Calvin Austin, "a township of land six miles square lying in the county of Hancock, said township being number one in the sixth range of townships on the west side of the Penobscot river and north of the Waldo Patent and the same conveyed by Ephraim Ballard and Samuel Weston in the year 1792. " This deed was recorded in the Hancock Registry of Deeds office, May 21, 1836, Book 30. Page 435. By this deed it appears that the original contract for the sale of this land to John Peck was made November 12, 1793. On the twenty-seventh day of March, 1816, William Smith, acting as agent for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, conveyed to John Parker Boyd "a half township of land lying in the County of Penobscot, being the one half of a township six miles square called number two in the seventh range of townships north of the Waldo Patent as the same was surveyed by Samuel Weston in the month of November, 1794," this being what is now the town of Medford. General Boyd's will as appears on the probate records of Suffolk County in Massachusetts is as follows: ------------------- 46 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY "I, John Parker Boyd of Boston, in the County of Suffolk and Common- wealth of Massachusetts, being of sound mind and memory, conscious of my dependence upon the Supreme Being, and convinced of the uncertainty of human life, being now about to depart for Europe, do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament, revoking and annulling all by me hereto- fore made. "Inprimis- After my legal and just debts are paid, I give and bequeath One Quarter of all of my Estate to Frances Boyd, my natural daughter by Housina, a Mahometan lady, born in my camp in the vicinity of Ponah, in the month of June and fourth day, 1797, and christened the same year in Ponah by the Revd. Father of the Roman Catholic Church of that City, Major Tone being Godfather and Mesdames Franswa and Finglap, God- mothers. "But in case my daughter, the said Frances Boyd, shall decease without lawful issue, my will is that my brothers and sisters shall be her heirs to the property I have thus bequeathed her, and not her relations in India, to be divided between my said Brothers and Sisters in the same proportion as the property I have herein bequeathed to them, is distributed. "Item. I give and bequeath One Quarter of all my Estate to Wallace, my natural son by Marie Rupell, born in the month of October and day in the year 1814. But in case this child Wallace should die without lawful issue, my will is that my Brothers and Sisters be heirs to the property I have herein bequeathed to him, in like manner as I have stated with respect to my daughter, the said Frances Boyd, now in India. "Item. I give and bequeath One half of all my estate to my own Brothers and Sisters in the following proportions, viz. "To my brother, Robert Boyd, one tenth of the aforesaid one half of all my Estate. To my brother, Joseph C. Boyd, two tenths of the aforesaid One Half of all my Estate. To my brother, E. L. Boyd, Two tenths of the aforesaid one half of all my Estate. To my sister, Margaret Storer, Two tenths of the aforesaid one half of all my Estate. To my sister, Frances Little, Three Tenths of the aforesaid one half of all my Estate. "But nevertheless I will the following legacies be first paid out of the whole of my Estate before any dividend shall take place; viz: One Hundred Guineas to Miss Maria Smith of Philadelphia to purchase a Ring which she is requested to accept as a testimony of my ardent and unchangeable affec- tion. I commit the care and guardianship of my son Wallace to my Sister Little & would recommend that he should be educated for the army or navy. "I do constitute my brothers J. C. Boyd and E. L. Boyd, Executors to this my last Will and Testament. "In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 3rd day of November A. D. 1816. Jno. P. Boyd. (L. S.) "Signed and delivered by the testator in presence of us three subscribing witnesses. "William White, Jr. Wm. Little, Junr. Marcellus Little." ----------------------page 47--------------- Lossing's History of the War of 1812 quotes William Willis, who was an intimate friend of General Boyd, as saying that he was " a tall, well formed, and handsome man; kind, courteous and generous. " I find no evidence that General Boyd was ever married. In 1820 only two persons are returned as residing on what was known as Boyd's Plantation. This town was incorporated as the town of Milton in 1832, changed to Almond in 1841, and to Orneville in 1843, in honor of Judge Henry Orne. who had married Frances Boyd Little, a niece of General Boyd. The Boyd land interests in that town having passed into his possession he moved there and made it his permanent home in 1841. (Part second of this paper which relates to Judge Henry Orne for whom the town of Orneville was named will appear in our next issue.) -------------------- Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. I OCTOBER, 1913 No. 4 General John Parker Boyd and Judge Henry Orne, the Original Proprietors of the Town of Orneville, Maine Read Before the Piscataquis Historical Society by John Francis Sprague Henry Orne, from whom the town of Orneville derived its name, was one of the Ornes of Marblehead in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They were among the most prominent citizens and early patriots of the Colony. He was a descendant in the fourth generation from Joshua Orne, who was a merchant and frequently a town officer in Marble- head. Colonel Azor Orne, son of Joshua and the grandfather of Henry, was born in Marblehead, July 22, 1731. He began his public career in 1773 as a representative to the General Court; but he gained the most renown in 1775 at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. He was active as a member of the Committee of Safety. He was a member of both branches of the General Court and a delegate to the Provincial Congress. With Elbridge Gerry and Jeremiah Gerry he was elected a member of the First Continental Congress. Roads " History and Traditions of Marblehead " (1880) page 217 says of Colonel Orne: "He was an eminent patriots freely giving his time, and loaning his money for the cause in which he was engaged." He was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Conven- tion and also of the convention called for the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788. He was a member of the Council in 1780 and 1788, and in 1792 was chosen an elector of President and Vice-President of the United States. On the twenty-eighth of October, 1771, a town meeting was field in Boston to consider what action should be taken in regard 132 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY to British usurpation. At this meeting, which was undoubtedly the most important one of the kind ever held in the colony, John Hancock presided, and it has been said that then and there "the foundation was laid for the American Union." It was at this town meeting that Samuel Adams made his famous motion that "a committee of correspondence be appointed, to consist of twenty-one persons, to state the rights of the colonists and of this province in particular, as men and christians, and as subjects; and to communicate and publish the same to the several towns and to the world, as the sense of this town, with the in- fringements and violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be, made." James Otis was chairman of this committee and a letter was prepared and sent to every town in the province. One of the first towns to respond to this spirited call was Marblehead, which they did by calling a town meeting. Thomas Gerry was moderator and a committee was chosen, of which Colonel Azor Orne was chair- man; the other members being Elbridge Gerry, afterwards Vice- President of the United States, and Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gerry, Jr., Joshua Orne and Captain John Nutt. Colonel Orne was subsequently made chairman of another committee known as "a committee on grievances, " Colonel Orne was active in the affairs of the colony which led up to the Revolu- tion, served in the war and was at the battle of Lexington. (a) He was the friend and intimate associate and valued advisor of such renowned patriots as James Otis, the Gerrys, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Colonel Azor Orne married Sarah Gerry in December, 1785. She was a niece of Elbridge Gerry. Azor Orne, Junior, son of Colonel Azor Orne, was born March 1, 1762, and died April 17, 1795. Very little regarding his life is obtainable, he having thus died at the early age of thirty-three years. Judge Henry Orne, son of Azor Orne, Junior, was born in 1792 and died at Orneville, Maine, January 2, 1853. In the early thirties of the last century there was a frenzied speculation in Maine lands. They were bought and sold at (a) Roads History of Marblehead, p. 89. JUDGE HENRY ORNE 133 fabulous prices and when the inevitable collapse came it left many poor and struggling towns like Milton in a most deplorable con- dition. (a) The greater portion of these lands which had passed through the hands of mad speculators were now held by non-residents who refused to pay any taxes assessed upon them, and, as the State of Maine did not then have, any more than at the present time, just and efficient laws to enforce the payment of such taxes, the munici- pal burdens fell upon the inhabitants; in the case of Milton, incompetent and indiscreet men were often chosen town officers, who did not manage town affairs with prudence and judgment, and consequently, in 1837, a crisis in the finances of Milton was imminent. At this time Loring (b) says that: "An individual voluntarily came to the rescue. Judge Henry Orne of Boston, who had married a niece of General Boyd, who had a large estate, who was unwilling to see all the land interest of the late proprietor rendered worthless, and who was willing to make a name and a place for himself, stepped in and undertook a work of recovery. He obtained possession of the greater part of the late proprietor's un- sold land. Ile encouraged the town to raise and assess in a lawful and equitable manner, money to commence the payment of their debts, and readily paid his proportion. He beggan to erect mills at the outlet of Boyd Lake, and drew in business men. A sawmill and a first-class gristmill were a great convenience to the settlers. Judge Orne selected an elevated and pleasant tract of land, which commanded a splendid view of the lake, cleared it, and laid out an old-time 'baronial Manor'. Buildings, fields, orchards, gardens and ornamental trees were all on a large and elegant scale. A piece of primeval forest was reserved for a deer park, but this was never stocked with them. (a) In remarking upon this condition of affairs which prevailed throughout Maine, John Hodgdon, the Land Agent, in his report of 1836 says: "The wild spirit of speculation, which so recently swept like a desolating pestilence over the whole community, turning industry and capital from their natural channels, has at length spent its fury, and men are beginning to return to their respective occupations." (b) Loring's History of Piscataquis County (1880) p. 199. 134 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY "He was thoroughly educated and a man of refined taste. In his culture and bearing he well represented 'a gentleman of the old school,' capped with a large share of high-bred aristocracy. So in social life he had a kingdom of his own, and business alone forced outsiders to invade it. The workmen employed upon his farm had a separate house, table and style of living. He lived upon his magnificent estate until his death and departed, revered and grate- fully remembered." After the municipal regeneration of the town, prosperity re- turned to its chastened and wiser inhabitants. Land became saleable, population increased and schools were revived. (a) Some of the older residents of Orneville and vicinity are yet living who remember him, and their recollections of him coincide with the foregoing. His home was known as the "Orne Mansion, " where he lived in grand style for those days, entertained brother lawyers from Dover, Foxcroft, Sebec and other places hereabouts, and exchanged visits with such prominent families as the Crosbys of Atkinson and friends from Bangor. His hospitality was proverbial among his chosen friends and associates. When he entertained, his tables were laden, not only with the products of the farm and wild game and birds from the surrounding forests, but he had the best eatables and provisions and the choicest wines and liquors that were obtainable in the Bos- ton markets. These were shipped to him by vessel to Bangor in large quantities and thence by teams to his home. The late Honorable Alexander M. Robinson was for many years an intimate friend of Judge Orne and his attorney. At the time of his death he contributed the following tribute to his memory for the Piscataquis Observer in its issue of January 13. 1853. "Judge Orne was a man richly endowed by nature and of a refined and cultivated intellect; he was descended from a distin- guisbed ancestry; Azor Orne of Marblehead, one of the most prominent and active men of the 'OLD COLONY' at the com- mencement of our revolutionary struggles, was his grandfather, and (a) Loring's History of Piseataquis County, p. 199. JUDGE HENRY ORNE 135 his mother was a niece of the celebrated Elbridge Gerry. The Judge was educated for the bar, and commenced the practice of the law in the state of Kentucky. He soon, however, returned to his native State, and entered upon the practice in the City of Bos- ton, where he rapidly advanced to distinction. Here he entered upon the career of politics and was an ardent supporter of Mr. Crawford, and started the newspaper which has since become the Boston Post, to support the claims of that gentleman. "About this time lie was appointed a Judge of the Municipal Court for the City of Boston. After a residence of several years in Boston, he resigned his office, abandoned the practice, and removed to the State of Ohio, where be spent several years in the pursuit of agriculture, and then removed to a plantation in the South. "About twelve years since he came from the South to the town in this County, bearing his name, and in which he held a propri- etary interest, where lie has since busied himself in making improvements upon his property, and in cultivating and adorning the beautiful farm on which he resided, leading the dignified, but quiet and unobtrusive life of a country gentleman. He was a man of courteous manners and of a kindly disposition and obliging neighbor, a firm and indulgent friend, an honest man." Since preparing the foregoing, I have found in the files of the Lewiston Journal, the following interview with Mr. Robinson above referred to, entitled " The Founders of Orneville, " written by Holman Day when he was a reporter for that paper: In the law library the other day the lawyers were talking about the romantic retreat of old Squire Orne years and years ago. The Squire was the General Knox of Piscataquis County. Some one said I believe that it was early in the forties when he came to Maine from Boston, a disgruntled, disappointed politician. He was a nephew of the famous Vice-President Elbridge Gerry, he was a descendant from the old aristocratic stock, a man of refined literary tastes, a dignified, quiet demeanor, a large, fine looking gentleman of the old school. But he failed to get a place in Jackson's cabinet, and that failure soured him. He became a Jackson hater and sought for a corner where he might retreat from the world of politics. In those days Maine afforded plenty of favorable spots or retreats for any man who was sighing for a lodge in some vast wilderness. Mrs. Orne was a niece of General Boyd, the famous Indian fighter, who received a fortune from the British government in the recogni- tion of his services. To the General were granted certain tracts of land in 136 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Maine. Thus it came about that to Mrs. Orne came as a heritage lands in Piscataquis County, and to this place her husband removed their home when his political disappointment came upon him. There's a pretty little lake in the tract. The line of the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad* skirts it now. This body of water the Squire named Boyd Lake, a name it still bears and the township was called Orneville. The house that he erected was a mansion in those days and here he entertained lavishly all who came into the wilderness to visit him. There were many visitors, too, even though the stage coaches came no nearer than Bangor, two score miles away. But Mr. Orne had teams in plenty and brought guests to his house in style. I stood at the site of the old home some months ago, remarked Mr. Robinson, and a peculiar lonesome feeling came across me. I used to attend to the Squire's legal affairs and was the executor of his estate. I used to have occasion to visit the place when everything was blooming there. But now there is only a cellar with woodbine charitably hiding some of the gaping chasm. After the Squire died and his wife went to Boston there was a fire that completely wiped out the buildings. I have sold that farm twice, once for $3,000 and again not long ago for $300. You may see how real estate slides down the incline. The "Squire," we always called him by that name, brought about $40,000 to Maine with him; that was a comfortable fortune in those days; but after he died and the estate was settled I was able to rake together barely $10,000. He tried to be a business man but he was eminently unfit- ted for business. He had a magnificent farm that he cleared up at a great expense, but he hired large crews to work the place, and the theories that he tested were pretty expensive. He built a mill at the lake but did not give it much attention. He spent most of his time writing poetry and novels though I don't think any of them were ever printed. To some men that life in the woods would have been monotonous but he seemed to grow happier every year. I was with him when he died and he passed with the calm content of a Philosopher. (*) Now Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. (Note.) I am indebted to Mrs. D. H. Danforth of Foxcroft, Maine, for some of the data herein relating to Judge Orne.) * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. 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