Falls Where it all began

who learned of their intent. The lights were placed so that the Indians were swept to a watery grave in the turbulent rapids. Later an attempt was made to dynamite the rapids to make the river navigable. Around the same time, the falls were the subject of a court case between Massachusetts and the Pejepscot Proprietors — or more particularly one Josiah Little who held a controlling interest in the Pejepscot Patent. Little, the individual who had tried to blow up the falls, claimed they were a part of his company’s lands which Massachusetts disputed. Therein lies the story.

Josiah Little was the son of Moses Little. Moses Little, along with Joseph Bagley, had been one of the principal movers in bringing settlers to the area around the falls. Both were members of the Pejepscot Company which had been granted a five-square-mile tract of land in 1768 on the northern side of Twenty-mile Falls, provided fifty families settled there before 1774. The first settlers began arriving about 1770, and well before the deadline of 1774 the Plantation of Lewiston and Gore was a reality. The problem was that the bounds of the five-square-mile tract had never been clearly defined except in terms of an earlier grant, that of one Thomas Purchase. Unfortunately, it had never been clear what Purchase had actually claimed or where he had settled.

(cont. on page 40)

(cont. from page 39)

The matter came to a head after Josiah Little inherited his father’s shares in the Pejepscot Company.

The Littles were land speculators from Newbury, Massachusetts where they were influential figures in the political scene on both the local and state level. Moses Little was a shareholder in several proprietorships in Vermont and New Hampshire as well as the dominant figure in the Pejepscot Company. He passed on his holdings to his son Josiah who not only followed in his father’s footsteps by trying to expand the family holdings but also with an aggressive plan of improvements which included surveying, apprehension of timber thieves, and an attempt to blast the rapids of the Androscoggin. In the latter endeavor Little, who was personally supervising the blasting, lost a hand. It was when Little began to survey lots well above Twenty-mile Falls, however, that Massachusetts took the

Pejepscot Company to court.

The claims of the Pejepscot Proprietors in the area around Twenty-mile Falls were based on deeds Thomas Purchase had acquired from the Indians. Purchase had supposedly dug a cellar hole and built a house somewhere in the area of the falls. If the site where he had done this early in the 1700s could be identified, it would have substantiated the claims of Josiah Little and the Pejepscot Company, which meant that the company would realize a substantial amount for the sale of lots and timber there.

At the trial, which was held before the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1796, the Pejepscot Company presented some evidence as to the location of Purchase’s cabin. Josiah Little had secured depositions as to where Purchase’s cabin had been and even had some rusty nails he claimed to have dug out of the ground at the site of Purchase’s cabin to back up the company’s contention. The jury, however, did not think the evidence sufficient, and decided in favor of Massachusetts. However, the justices threw the decision out when it was learned that one of the jurors had made statements to the effect that he had dug the cellar hole in question himself. The second trial went pretty much as the first with the jury deciding in favor of Massachusetts. However, the justices again threw out the verdict based on technicalities. At this point, Massachusetts suggested using an arbitration panel to settle the matter, and the Pejepscot Company in the person of Josiah Little agreed. The panel accepted Little’s evidence as to the basis of its claims, which gave the Pejepscot Company exactly what Little wanted. However, the panel said that any settler who had already established himself only had to pay a modest sum for his claim.

Little accepted this and then proceeded to charge whatever he wanted for a lot. If the money was not forthcoming, Pejepscot Company agents moved against the settler.

Josiah Little was probably the most unpopular figure in the Twenty-mile Falls area. Whenever he visited there to search out alleged timber thieves, identify newly settled lots, or attempt to get money from struggling settlers, he was greeted with animosity. Several times houses he was staying in were fired upon. In succeeding years, when the Courts failed to throw out the claims of the Pejepscot Company, settlers resorted to out-and-out violence against the company’s agents and supporters, who had their property vandalized. Eventually, the furor died down as more people moved into the area and settlers began to have a larger voice in what was now the government of the State of Maine. Eventually, the original course of the Androscoggin was altered by the canal that powered the textile mills which became the base of the economy of Lewiston. During spring freshet sea- son, however, the ledges of Amitigonpontook again look as they did in the days when Josiah Little lost his hand trying to dynamite them.

The th ing about eye disease is, you may n o t know you have it. Some conditions are asymptomatic, and by the time symptoms do present we’re left with fewer options. An annual examination at GFVC can ensure that we diagnose any latent disease with cutting-edge technology. We’ll also check your vision and adjust your prescription. And while you’re here, you can check out the latest designer frames.