Western Lakes & Mountains
26
The Falls Of Skowhegan From The Journal of Isaac Senter by Brian Swartz
I
saac Senter and J.W. Hanson visited the waterfalls at Skowhegan 74 years apart — and came away with diametrically opposed observations about the town’s most prominent geographical feature. Born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in the early 1750s, Senter studied medicine with Dr. Thomas Moffat, “a Scot physician of repute,” in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1775 Senter joined the other Rhode Island militiamen in the siege lines around British-held Boston, and that “September was appointed surgeon to Benedict Arnold’s forces,” according to The Journal of Isaac Senter, published in 1846.
Not yet the American hero who would morph into a traitor, Benedict Arnold believed that a military expedition could travel the Kennebec River to its headwaters, cross the height of land between the District of Maine and the Province of Quebec, and attack Quebec City. The expedition’s route looked direct on the available maps, and Arnold did not know about the many topographical obstructions in his path. For Isaac Senter, the Arnold Expedition began in Cambridge, Massachusetts at 5 p.m., Tuesday, September 12. He and three comrades “marched … seven miles on our way to Newbury Port,” camped that night “with some
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part of the army,” and kept walking until reaching Newbury in early afternoon on Thursday. An innkeeper running “a very agreeable place” put the men up until they boarded the transport “Broad Bay, a topsail schooner” on September 19, Senter noted. Carrying “1,100 men, officers included,” the 11-ship fleet sailed with the tide. Wind-driven rain raised a heavy swell that night, and “most of the troops” heaved their last meals overboard, observed Senter, not indicating if he joined the rush to the rails. The Broad Bay entered the Kennebec River as “the wind and rain continued exceeding hard” the next morning,
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