History of Belfast
by Tom Seymour
Ruth Brown died 61 years before Belfast and it's cemetery were officially established. The moving of her grave is a possibility or Ruth may have been resting in peace when the cemetery was established around her. The markings, the skull, angel wings and the stone's text are traditions dating back to the earliest colonial gravestones. The presence of the stone in the area indicates an early colonial settlement. At the head of a great bay and at the mouth of a great river, it was a likely place to settle for colonists and native Americans before them. Tom Seymour photo.
Part 1. – Early Days
From a prime fishing ground for Native Americans since time immemorial to the establishment of the first European dwellings, Belfast has a rich history of human habitation. But we will commence this narrative from the time in 1765, when John Mitchell, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, first visited Penobscot Bay and observed what is now Belfast, Maine, from the deck of a sailing ship bound for the Schoodic peninsula. Mitchell was working as a surveyor for the government of Massachusetts.
Mitchell, a so-called, “Scotch-Irish,” was a first-generation colonist, descended from Scottish people who had first settled in Northern Ireland in 1612 and from thence, in 1719, came to America and founded Londonderry, New Hampshire, naming it for the place where these wandering Scots had lived for so long.
As an interesting aside, according to The History of Belfast, Maine, Joseph Williamson, it was the Londonderry settlers who first introduced the potato to New England. Williamson also credits the Londonderry colony with introducing into general use, “…the hand-card, the foot-wheel and the loom, implements afterward common to every New England town.”
According to Charlene Knox Farris, Searsport, Maine, historian, in her book, Searsport’s Sam Huston (available from Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport), the original settlers of Londonderry had wanted to found a town on the seacoast and the following generation, Mitchell’s, shared that ambition and brought it to fruition.
The Passagassawaukeag
Farris goes on to point out that at the conclusion of his surveying duties, Mitchell returned to Londonderry and managed to persuade 35 proprietors to invest in Passagassawaukeag, about 15,000 acres of land at the northwest end of Penobscot Bay. Mitchell had previously learned from a visit to Fort Pownall in Stockton Springs, that the land was for sale. Mitchell wanted the township named “Belfast,” after the city of that name in Northern Ireland.
From these humble beginnings at the mouth of the Passagassawaukeag River, grew the modern city of Belfast. The scope of the town’s land area originally included far more than at the present day. In fact, the town of Searsport was sectioned off from Belfast and incorporated as a separate entity in 1845. The original layout for Belfast was commenced on May 12, 1769, when individual lots were drawn up.
The process of drawing lots, or assigning parcels, was fairly complicated and at first, only the harbor lots were allocated, after which, the proprietors began plans for actual settlement and all the activities that accompany that process. This process included hiring a minister, establishing routes for roads and building water-powered mills.
And finally, on December 12, 1769, the plantation was named, no doubt to Mitchell’s delight, “Belfast.”
The mortar pictured here was found by Tim Fogg along the Belfast waterfront in 1977. Interestingly, the stone does not resemble anything naturally occurring along the Belfast shore. It may have been something the Indians carried with them from place to place. Tom Seymour Photo
Disputed Territory
In its second year, Belfast began the process of dividing up land into lots and these were drawn by individuals. In the end, this process included four divisions. At that point, everything seemed well and good, but in 1793 something occurred that would cause consternation for some time. The proprietors realized that an error in the survey of the original parcel was in error and that around 2,000 acres which the original deed was supposed to cover were left out.
So the proprietors directed that a new survey take place and it was conducted by Alexander Clark in the year 1794. The Waldo heirs, from whom the original parcel was purchased, were notified of the error and of the corrections.
However, the owner of remaining unsold lands in the Waldo Patent, Revolutionary War general and hero, Henry Knox, took issue with the findings of the new survey. Knox wrote a letter to the proprietors of Belfast, claiming that “upwards of 2,800 acres” of his land were usurped by Belfast by way of the new survey.
Knox closed his letter by suggesting yet another survey, intending to reinstate the disputed land to his holdings. He also mentioned that failure to comply would result in him taking legal steps.
The controversy appears to have simmered until 1806, when Knox wrote the proprietors again, this time offering to pay the expense of another survey. Knox had since moderated his rhetoric, saying, “I persuade myself that you want only your just quantity and no more. I am perfectly willing that you should have that quantity.”
So the Belfast proprietors voted to send Alexander Clark, along with General Knox’s surveyor, out to “perambulate the lines of the town.” But upon learning of General Knox’s death two days previous, that process was postponed. Later, the Massachusetts legislature established the bounds in accordance with Clark’s survey and including the roughly 2,000 acres of disputed area.
Belfast Settled
Settlers spread throughout the region, building at first rough cabins, then more substantial dwellings. But for some time, the place remained wild and settlers lived in relative squalor. In fact, new arrivals feared for their lives at the hands of Indians, a fear that was probably unwarranted.
In time, roads became established (although the best of them were subject to becoming mud-clogged and impassable), bridges built, landings built on the Passagassawaukeag River and land cleared for meadows and hayfields. The hand of Europeans was on the land and in time, the view of Belfast from the shore would bear absolutely no resemblance to that which so enchanted John Mitchell in 1765
In fact, the late Colby Whitcomb of Waldo once described to the author of this article the story of one of his Scottish relatives arriving in Belfast about 100 years after the first settlers.
“Where are all the trees?” was the first question Colby’s ancestor asked upon seeing Belfast for the first time. After all, Maine had a reputation of being highly forested, a lumbering district with great and immeasurable forests. But of course the trees, except for a few ornamentals remaining in town, were long since cut for firewood and as building material.
In June of 1773, the town became officially incorporated. Interestingly, the name was left off of the first draft. Some considerable acrimony developed over the choice of a name. According to tradition, many of the settlers petitioned for Londonderry, but James Miller was equally vocal and even forceful in his choice of Belfast. The final decision was determined by a coin toss. Miller won.
On November 11, 1773 Belfast conducted its first town meeting.
Belfast cemetery. When towns were established in the 1700's cemeteries were among the first public works projects. Churches set out their own and those were called graveyards. The American Revolutionary War service medallion lower left indicates military service. The Tea Party notation suggests early involvement in the lead up to the revolution. The medallion may also mean that Mr. Cochran was rewarded for his service with land in the Belfast area. Tom Seymour Photo
Early Cemeteries
The early settlers were quick to establish a burying ground and the first was on a point on the east side of the Passagassawaukeag River. This initial effort was rightly called a graveyard, or churchyard, rather than a cemetery, since it was so near the Meeting House (this infers that religious services as well as town functions were held at the Meeting House). Also, as a point of interest, the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard is that while cemeteries can be run and operated by a municipality, graveyards are always connected with a church.
The first graveyard was established in 1769 and the first interments occurred in 1770. A second graveyard, began in 1802, was very near the site of the original settler’s burying ground. In 1785, the proprietors voted to construct a cemetery on the west side of the river. The first interment there was in December, 1790.
Grove Cemetery, the present City of Belfast municipal cemetery, was laid out in 1830, with the first interment in 1837.
The original 1769 graveyard has been restored and now open to the public. Of considerable interest, one gravestone there, that of Mrs. Ruth Brown, dates to 1708, 61 years prior to the graveyard being established. It is presumed that Mrs. Brown’s remains were disinterred and removed to their present resting place.