Maine History - Maine Ghost Hunters

Seth Sturtevant: George Washington’s Body Guard

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:13:00 +0000

Seth Sturtevant: George Washington’s Body Guard

Corporal Seth Sturtevant was born in 1760 in Halifax, Massachusetts. He joined the cause for the American Revolution at the ripe old age of 16 when he enlisted for an initial 5 month tour in Captain James Harlow’s Company of Plymouth, Massachusetts. After getting a little taste of military life, and taking some time off to heal from his battlefield injuries, he wound up re-enlisting in 1777 for a much longer stint. Among the conflicts he was a part of in the latter part of his service were; The Battle of Long Island, The Battle of White Plains, The Battle of Saratoga, and The Battle of Monmouth.

Corporal Sturtevant’s real claim to fame here in Maine was his service in George Washington’s elite “Life Guard” unit at the age of 18. Seth was a good sized young man, but George Washington was so much bigger. One day, in the midst of the infamously trying winter at Valley Forge in 1778 – 1779 Seth decided to challenge some random stranger (any random soldier at the encampment) to little friendly bout of wrestling to lighten the mood. Things weren’t going well at Valley Forge and soldiers were dying every day from various diseases that swept through the camps. From December 1777 to June 1778 roughly 2,000 soldiers died of illness, and causes completely unrelated to battle. To say the vibe around the encampment was low would not be doing the situation justice. So, Seth thought he’d brighten the spirits of nearby folk by challenging the first guy he saw to a wrestling match. The man he unwittingly invited to grapple was a towering George Washington. This didn’t matter much to Seth, though, because he’d never laid his eyes on the great General, so he had no idea that’s who he was getting pinned by. That’s right, Seth was pinned both times he tried to give it a go with Washington.

General Washington must have liked Seth’s spunk because a short time later he was invited to join the “Commander-In-Chief’s Guard”, otherwise known as George Washington’s elite “Life Guard”. The soldiers in this unit were responsible for safety of the Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army. Seth served in the “Life Guard” until he was mustered out of service in 1780.

The post Seth Sturtevant: George Washington’s Body Guard first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

[1775] Augusta, Maine’s First Murder

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:16:50 +0000

[1775] Augusta, Maine’s First Murder

September 24, 1775 – a time when Augusta was little more than Fort Western and its military inhabitants – right here near the Eastern bank of the Kennebec River occurred the city’s very first recorded murder. The murder was perpetrated by a man named Private James McCormick on a fellow soldier named Reuben Bishop.

James McCormick, sometimes misprinted as ‘John’ in historical documents, was a private in Captain Goodrich’s company. He was described as a simple and ‘ignorant’, yet ‘peaceable’ man from North Yarmouth, Maine.

Reuben Bishop, on the other hand, was born on November 2, 1740 in Amherst, Massachusetts. He married his cousin Hannah in New London, Connecticut in 1761 and was the father of five sons. He was commissioned as an ensign in 1771 and served as a sergeant under Benedict Arnold’s command of 1,100 men. Bishop was described as “a civil, well-behaved and much beloved young man.”

So what happened on that fate ful night? The regiment had spent the day getting 1,110 troops and provisions to Fort Western from Gardiner. Despite the fact it was cold and rainy, most men at Fort Western slept either outside without any covering at all, or outside under crude structures they made for themselves with the extremely limited resources available to them. However, some of the men were lucky enough, or ranked highly enough, that they found themselves bedding down either in the Fort where Captain William Howard resided, or at Captain James Howard’s residence known as “The Great House”, or … at a nearby house where Captain Daniel Savage resided.

Inside these houses it was warm and there were good fires going. Being inside was important because it was raining and cold outside. At some point in the night John McCormick – who was initially inside the house of Daniel Savage with other soldiers (mostly Captains in the regiment), became very drunk and belligerent. He got into a fight with Captain Goodrich and was kicked out.

A short time later McCormick returned to that house and made a ruckus loud enough that Captain Simeon Thayer opened the door and yelled at McCormick to knock it off. McCormick responded by shooting at the door. After McCormick shot his gun toward the house Captain Thayer woke up Captain Topham for help. Captain Topham yelled out to McCormick to knock it off.

McCormick seemed to have left so Thayer said he and Topham went back to bed. But McCormick returned ‘pre-dawn’ the following morning, unlatched the door and fired off a random shot into the house which hit Reuben Bishop who was laying down by the fire at the hearth. McCormick said he was aiming to shoot Captain Goodrich but he missed and hit Bishop instead.

Reuben Bishop lingered in agony – hemorrhaging internally – for almost 12 hours before finally dying. Many of the men wrote in their journals that Bishop was in agony and fear over dying. It struck the men deeply. Reuben Bishop was treated by Dr. Isaac Senter.

And what happened to John/James McCormick? He panicked after he realized what he did, and bolted. He swam across the river in an attempt to make his getaway but a sentry (a sergeant) saw him running through the area and stopped him. The Sergeant thought he was a deserter and quickly surmised he was guilty of something by the way he was acting. He took McCormick in to be questioned and eventually the truth was revealed.

McCormick swore he didn’t intentionally kill Reuben Bishop and stuck to his story that he intended to shoot Captain Goodrich, the man he had a fight with the night before. Apparently it was quite the row. He was tried by court martial, found guilty of murder, and condemned to hang on September 26, 1775 according to Caleb Haskell’s diary.

Soldiers built the gallows and McCormick was brought to stand before the entire company of men with a halter around his neck, at Fort Western, for about a half hour. The entire time he was professing his innocence. The chaplain had a quiet chat with McCormick and he finally found it within himself to confess.

Colonel Benedict Arnold stayed the execution and made arrangements for McCormick to be transported on the schooner “Broad Bay” to Boston so General Washington could pass final judgment. Colonel Arnold recommended mercy and hoped Washington would agree. He wrote, “I wish he may be found a proper subject of mercy.”

McCormick’s execution was stayed and he was sent to a military prison in Boston where he died of natural causes.

So where is Reuben Bishop buried? He was initially buried just outside the Fort’s burying ground which is somewhere at the East end of the bridge – so near the road on the Fort Western side of the bridge or over where the old Jail was – where the senior living facility is currently. He was disinterred and moved into the Fort burying ground but Willow Street runs over his burial site. So he may have been moved, again, up to Riverside Cemetery on Bangor Street.

The post [1775] Augusta, Maine’s First Murder first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

Silent Sentinel: The Roadside Grave of Nathaniel Morrison

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 13:16:00 +0000

Silent Sentinel: The Roadside Grave of Nathaniel Morrison

The story of Nathaniel Morrison is a short one. Partly because he was so young when he died and partly because there’s virtually no documentation of the young soldier left behind that makes reference to his life. Maine Ghost Hunters tracked down what little information is available about Captain Morrison and then we took a drive out to his roadside grave site in Phippsburg, Maine with our video camera. You can see that video on our Maine Ghost Hunters YouTube channel.

The peculiar nature of Nathaniel’s final roadside resting place has, no doubt, raised questions as to how he arrived at this peculiar place for all eternity, and the answer is a pretty intriguing one we’re eager to share with you. The basic facts of the matter are; Nathaniel Morrison was a Captain in (very likely) the US Army who died of the flu and was buried very close to the road on Route 209 in Phippsburg, Maine. How he came to contract the flu was wholly due to an outbreak at the Cox Head garrison, where he was stationed with a good number of men local to the area. The Cox Head garrison housed 105 men in close quarters so once the flu arrived it swept through the encampment and a number of deaths resulted, unfortunately including young Captain Morrison.

The question most people want to know is “why was be buried so close to the road?” and the answer is almost certainly “because there was no road there when he was buried”. You see, back in 1814 when Nathaniel died, this part of the state wasn’t all that developed. Nathaniel was from Sebasco and while there were established roads to get from the Cox Head garrison to Sebasco the amount of time it would take to traverse the length “from here to there” was discouraging to the men responsible. So, they decided to make their own – more specifically ‘direct’ – route “from here to there” and they traversed it to utter exhaustion before laying him in the ground where he still rests today.

The circumstances of the situation were personal to the men who buried him where they did, and we really want to make this clear. Nathaniel Morrison could have been buried nearer where he died, but he was serving with a few of his local friends and they were so personally distraught over his death they insisted he be brought home to be buried. The problems they faced when executing their plan to get him home were plenty, including an unseasonably warm spate of days, uncut wilderness and marshlands, and the ungodly number of bugs that arise from both when combined. These young men were passionate about carrying Nathaniel Morrison’s rapidly decomposing body (due to how incredibly warm it was) to Sebasco, but the state of his condition had deteriorated so thoroughly in such a short period of time the stench became unbearable and they had to bury him where we find him today. They chose this spot because it was “a high point” in the land and it was only discovered that his body was there, by accident when the roadway was put in.

If you’d like to go see the roadside burial site of 28 year old Captain Nathaniel Morrison of Sebasco, Maine all you have to do is take a drive on Route 209 in Phippsburg, Maine on the way to Fort Popham.

The post Silent Sentinel: The Roadside Grave of Nathaniel Morrison first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

Colonial Pemaquid: Fort William Henry

Maine Ghost Hunters — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 14:12:00 +0000

Colonial Pemaquid: Fort William Henry

The history of human activity at present day Fort William Henry started as far back as the early 1600’s in terms of English settlements, but actually extends back even further if we include the presence of Native American and seasonal pre-British colonial establishments.

The first fort built on the site present day Mainers call “Fort William Henry” was constructed in 1630 under the supervision of a man named Abraham Shurte, and was aptly referred to as “Shurte’s Fort”, as well as “Fort Pemaquid”.

Abraham Shurte was one of the earliest British settlers to the region and he was heavily involved in the Pemaquid fishing and fur trading industries. He was a single man in his 40’s who was wholly dedicated to establishing his own prosperous business, and was also someone the local native populations found very likeable and trustable. At the heart of Shurte’s enterprise was his remarkable ability to forge connections, serving as a trusted intermediary between English settlers, Native American tribes, and even French counterparts. His keen sense of diplomacy not only fostered amicable relations but also paved the way for a flourishing trade-network that transformed Pemaquid into a coveted trading post. Simply put, Abraham Shurte spearheaded the effort that made the Pemaquid Region a highly lucrative Northeastern trading dynasty in the 1600’s.

Abraham Shurte’s leadership helped attract year-round settlers to the area and by 1630 there were 15 faming families permanently residing in the Pemaquid region, all of whom stood to benefit from a community fort. So a fort was erected, mainly by the settlers, and it was named Shurte’s Fort, or Fort Pemaquid.

Fort Pemaquid was a basic palisaded trading post with a very simple blockhouse design. It had a door and gun ports, but no windows. It offered a safe place to take cover during times of conflict, and also served as a symbol of prosperity and community cohesiveness. It’s because of these very reasons it was also seen as a primary target for destruction when attackers came to town. Pemaquid was the center of the fur trade industry in the Northeast so it was an attractive place to consider sacking, raiding, and looting.

This might be why pirate Dixie Bull sailed up the coast from Boston Harbor to plunder the Pemaquid region over the course of the summer of 1632.

The Pirate ‘Dixie Bull’ is a legend in the Pemaquid region. He was born in England in 1611 and entered into a 9 year-long apprenticeship as a “skinner” for his brother in 1627, at the age of 16. A skinner is someone who works with animal furs; they would perform tasks like skinning an animal, removing, curing, and dressing the fur, . Historical documents tell us he didn’t finish that apprenticeship, at least not right away, because he arrived in the colonies in 1632 at the age of 21. He was offered a land grant and was put in charge of a fur trading ship that did business up and down the Northeast coast. He did a lot of business with different Indian tribes in the area of what is now Maine, and on one of his runs he decided to head further downeast than was likely advisable, where he ran into the French at Castine. The French and Indians had developed a close working relationship in the region of Castine over the past couple of decades, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that he’d run into French fur trade competitors. The French wound up confiscating Dixie Bull’s ship and taking everything inside; all his furs and trade goods; basically his livelihood. They took it all and sent him packing.

He arrived back in Boston with a chip on his shoulder and a bone to pick, but there really wasn’t anyone he could turn to for legal retribution and compensation. So he riled up a good number of local sailors, 25 men in 3 ships, and together they sailed up the coast of Maine to recoup his losses. But instead of bringing his vengeful grievance to the French at Castine, the people who actually stole from him, they all stopped at Pemaquid and began their ransacking there.

They initially attacked Shurte’s Fort with the aim of disabling it so they could freely plunder all the ships in the area.

Pemaquid was a booming economic front, so their attack had much to gain if they could render the settlement defenseless.

After knocking the fort out of commission and rendering it useless for defensive purposes Dixie Bull and his men raided, plundered, and looted ships, farms, and houses throughout the entire summer. They even captured a few ships. In total, they walked away with between £25 and £2,500 before – the New England region’s – very first “Naval Fleet” – so to speak – of 40 men in 4 shallops arrived to render aid.

To be clear, a shallop is not a war ship, and there was no official “Navy” when the sailors oared their shallops up the coast to take on Dixie Bull and his band of pirates.

When the fleet arrived at Pemaquid a wind storm kicked up and stuck around for almost an entire month, meaning the boats couldn’t be maneuvered as cleanly as would be necessary to take on Dixie Bull and his men.

However, the mere presence of these shallops in the area was enough to scare Dixie Bull into sailing off into the sunset, never to be seen or heard from again. There is much conjecture about what happened to him; theories range from him never being caught, to him being caught, tried, and hung. But the historical documentation all but proves he completed his apprenticeship under his brother and was entered into the Worshipful Company of Skinners in 1648 at the age of 37.

Resident settlers promptly rebuilt the fort and Pemaquid went back to business as usual, remaining generally prosperous and free from attacks until 1676 when the fort was destroyed by Indians in King Philip’s War.

As a result of the destruction of Fort Pemaquid by Indians in 1676 another Fort was built in its place. The new fort was a wooden redoubt and stockade with 7 strategically located cannons. It was built by order of Sir Edmund Andros, the Governor of New York, and was named Fort Charles after King Charles II, the current King of England during that time. He also named the settlement around the fort “Jamestown” after King Charles’ younger brother James, the Duke of York. He would later become King James II. It’s pertinent because there were many towns, cities, and places named after Charles and James during this period, from the furthest reaches of the Northeast Region straight down the Atlantic coast. The originally named “Jamestown of Pemaquid” is now called Pemaquid Beach.

Pemaquid was lawless. It had issues. There was infighting and debauchery among settlers. There was also outside conflict with local Indian tribes, on occasion.

“Jamestown of Pemaquid” had a customs house and a thriving village. It was a booming metropolis, the only one in New England, and due to constantly shifting geographical boundaries, was the only settlement in New England ever governed from New York.

There were a ton of political maneuverings going on during these early colonial years, with boundary lines being drawn and redrawn, and entire regions being reordered and remapped.

A large hunk of Maine, which had previously been wrapped up in the New York region was, by the late 1690’s, clumped in with Massachusetts. Settlers in the booming economic front of Pemaquid were worried Boston would replace its importance in the Northeast Region. Pemaquid was recognized in all levels of colonial government, straight up to the Royal Court, as being an economic hub of promise and prosperity. There was a lot of personal and business investment at stake here, and the concern was palpable.

Sir Edmund Andros, who’d been the governor of New York from 1674-1680 was somewhat unpopular so he was recalled in 1680. In 1686 he was promoted to the position of Governor of the Dominion of New England, which included all lands from New Jersey through Maine, except Delaware and Pennsylvania. This did nothing to improve his popularity because the Dominion of New England wasn’t popular, so he was deposed 3 years later, in 1689, at the request of a local born, and legendary Mainer, William Phips, along with another historical character, Dr. Increase Mather. Andros was imprisoned at Castle Island in Boston before being shipped back to England.

The removal of Edmund Andros gave way to political division and instability in all of New England, and definitely in the Pemaquid region.

The soldiers garrisoned at Fort Charles abandoned it. 30 agreed to stay, but only if they were promised guaranteed pay for doing so. During this time the fort was defensively weak and highly open to assault. This is when it was attacked and destroyed by Indians from Castine in August of 1689.

Their reasons for attacking the fort were many, but they carried out the attack on the orders of the Baron de Saint-Castin, a legendary figure in Maine’s history who was born in France, but immersed himself so deeply within Wabanaki culture that he actually became an Abenaki chief. He is thickly associated with the history of the Penobscot Region of Maine.

British boundary issues with the French plagued the entire region of Maine for 150 years and in these earliest of colonial times it really was, to a large degree, an ongoing proxy war between French Catholics and English Protestants. The French had allied with the local Wabanaki Indians by way of proselytizing Catholicism, which the Natives weren’t averse to, and then attaching political and economic ideologies into the mix. This had been going on for almost 100 years by this point, so the foundation of trust between the French and Indians ran as deep as the Indians’ distrust for all things British.

The Indians had been taken advantage of by British merchants many times in the past and had a long list of reasons to be aggressive, distrustful and violent towards the English – on their own – without religious reasons or French ideological influence.

A few short months before the attack that destroyed Fort Charles, the English had fired Governor Andros and essentially redrawn the map in a way that seemed to favor Boston over Pemaquid. The English also forbade settlers from bartering or trading with the French or Penobscot Indians. Violators were dealt with harshly. The Baron de Sainte-Castin, who was the French version of Governor Edmund Andros, was warned by the British to stop with the ongoing violence, killing, and debauchery or face stark consequences. The British also enticed local Pemaquid area tribes with bounties of “8 pounds per head” for the scalps of their enemies, so – from the viewpoint of the French and Indians residing in the Penobscot Region – this made Pemaquid a target, and anyone living there an enemy of the highest concern.

10 days before the attack on Fort Charles Lieutenant Weems, the commander of the fort, requested to be supplied with 12 more soldiers. He was acutely aware of the widespread political tension brewing its way toward an eventual conflict, and he knew Fort Charles was in no condition to defend itself, nor the people who needed it.

On August 2, 1689 a force of 200-300 Indians descended into Pemaquid, destroyed Fort Charles and all the nearby houses around it, taking prisoners and killing resistors. They completely routed the village nearest the fort. The Indians shielded themselves behind a really big rock that was perfectly positioned as a defensive point while they volleyed their attack for roughly 2 straight days. When it was over Pemaquid was gutted and England was forced to abandon the mid-coast region in favor of the Casco Bay region for the next 3 years.

In 1692 the British returned to Pemaquid and erected Fort William Henry; the first stone fort and, at the time, the largest of its kind in New England. Fort William Henry was built by order of Massachusetts Governor Sir William Phipps, local Maine native and “the first American chosen to rule over the colonies”.

The fort was as monstrous as it was expensive. It had walls that were between 10 and 22 feet high, built by more than 2,000 cartloads of stone. It had a bastion, more commonly referred to as “the castle tower”, 29 feet tall with 28 gun ports which was built around the same large rock the Indians used as a shield during their siege on Fort Charles 3 years earlier. Where previously, Fort Charles had housed 7 cannons, Fort William Henry now housed 20. It also garrisoned up to 60 soldiers. The price point for the building of Fort William Henry in 1692 was around £20,000, which equated to roughly two-thirds of the colony’s budget. It was a hugely significant investment that would ultimately face destruction just 4 years later when the French and Indians attacked from land and sea. The entire fortification was surrendered, destroyed, and abandoned for the next 30 years.

In 1729 colonial-era settlers requested a fort be built for their safety and protection against raiding Indians, so England responded by building Fort Frederick.

Fort Frederick was comparable in size to its predecessor, Fort William Henry. It had 28 gun ports, 14 cannon, and room enough to garrison 100 men. It was the only fort constructed at historic Fort Pemaquid that never saw battle and was eventually destroyed by the same citizenry of Pemaquid who requested it be built on their behalf – because they were afraid the British would use it against them during the Revolutionary War.

The post Colonial Pemaquid: Fort William Henry first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

Mackworth Island Pet Cemetery

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 13:16:00 +0000

Mackworth Island Pet Cemetery

The History and Legacy of Mackworth Island

Mackworth Island, known as “Menickoe” or “Clump of Pines” by the Native Americans, has a rich and varied history. The island was originally owned by local Native Americans until 1631 when it was ‘bought’ by an early settler/colonizer named Sir Ferdinando Gorges. 3 years later he gifted it to a man named Arthur Mackworth. After Mackworth’s death, the island changed hands many times before finally being purchased by James Phinney Baxter, the father of Governor Percival Baxter, in 1885.

James Phinney Baxter, a canning magnate and six-time mayor of Portland, built a large summer home on the island for his family, which included his wife and seven children. The island, teeming with horses and Irish Setters, was a haven for these animals, living their best lives in an open-range existence.

In 1921, Governor Percival Baxter came into possession of Mackworth Island following the death of his father. That same year, he became Maine’s 53rd Governor, a position he held until 1925. During his tenure, the governor donated vast tracks of land to the state of Maine, which is now known as Baxter State Park; including the crown jewel of the Maine wilderness, Mt. Katahdin.

The Legacy of Governor Percival Baxter

Governor Baxter was a staunch advocate for animal rights and belonged to numerous Humane Societies across the US. He was once named “America’s Greatest Humane Governor” by the New England Anti-Vivisection Society.

In 1953, Governor Baxter sold Mackworth Island to the state of Maine for $1.00. He also donated $500,000 to help build the Baxter School for the Deaf, and an additional $175,000 for the causeway between the mainland and the island. The only provision he attached to the sale was that the Pet Cemetery on the island be left untouched and maintained forever.

The Pet Cemetery

The Pet Cemetery on Mackworth Island was built for Governor Baxter’s 14 Irish Setters. He had been fond of Irish Setters since he was nine years old and even wrote a children’s book titled “My Irish Setter Dogs,” which told of his experiences raising Irish Setters from childhood through adulthood.

The last dog he buried in the cemetery was named Garryowen, nicknamed Garry II. Garry II was with Governor Baxter throughout his time in the State House. When Garry II died, Governor Baxter ordered all flags in the state of Maine to be flown at half-mast. This act, while controversial, underscored his deep love for his pets and his commitment to animal rights.

The natural history of Mackworth Island is intertwined with the legacy of the Baxter family, specifically Governor Percival Proctor Baxter. His love for animals and his commitment to their welfare is evident in the pet cemetery he deeded to the State of Maine, to be perpetually maintained and cared for, and to be enjoyed by those who take the time to visit.

The post Mackworth Island Pet Cemetery first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

[1897] Shiloh: The Cult in Durham

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 12:27:43 +0000

What is Shiloh Temple?

Shiloh Temple was built in 1897, and was considered the largest bible school in the world at the height of its existence. It’s 4 stories high but with a 7 story aluminum (golden) crowned turret in the front, called the “Jerusalem Tower”. This main structure was completed by unskilled & unpaid labor in a period of 6 months, and is the only remaining Shiloh structure existing today.

When Shiloh was in full-swing this temple complex was a compound on a high point in Durham, called “Beulah Hill”, overlooking the Androscoggin River. The Shiloh compound was built in a U-shape around the main Temple building comprised of 500 rooms able to house 1,000 members. It was designed to be a school to train missionaries, who would leave Shiloh to spread the word of God according to The Holy Ghost and Us Society, or more commonly referred to as “Sandfordism”. There were 2 buildings built separate from the main complex that were used as a hospital and a school. The hospital, which was named “Bethesda” – meaning “house of kindness” – was a faith healing hospital; meaning there were no medicines used there, only praying, and healing from divine intervention. The other building was named “Olivet” and it housed the colony’s private school for Shiloh Colony children. This private school did not permit outsiders.

The land Shiloh sits on was donated by a Durham resident to Frank Weston Sandford, the leader of the Evangelical Christian movement known as “The Kingdom”.

The name “Shiloh” pays respect to an ancient city in the Middle East that was known as a sanctuary for Israelites during biblical times. Biblically speaking, the name “Shiloh” means “place of peace” and Sandford believed God meant for the epicenter of his Earthly operations to be conducted from right here on Beulah Hill – at Shiloh.

To a large degree, the Shiloh Community was meant to be self-sufficient. It was almost 1,500 acres, which is about 2 square miles, and within it, conducting day-to-day business was a fully operational – and full-time – print shop; a shoe shop – which provided repairs as well as new shoes; carpenters, coopers, and blacksmiths. There was a post office, bakery, and the private school system mentioned earlier. Striving for ultimate self sufficiency, the Shiloh Colony was primarily agrarian in nature. There were farms and plenty of animals, at least at the beginning stages of the colony’s rise. A 1906 Livestock Census documented 50 horses and mules, 81 sheep, 81 cattle, 32 goats, and 586 chickens & turkeys that produced roughly 12,000 eggs a year. The main problem planting-farmers dealt with at the Shiloh Colony was the substandard soil around the compound. Beulah Hill was a barren area of land when it was donated to Shiloh Founder Frank Weston Sandford. Shiloh farmers quickly realized it would be a struggle to depend on the land to produce food due to the sandy nature of the soil; a realization which would haunt the colony in later years and potentially aid in its eventual downfall.

Shiloh Temple still stands but it’s no longer associated with Frank Weston Sandford’s established vision. In 1998 Shiloh Temple became its own independent non denominational Christian-based community church serving a small number of local families with worship services and Sunday School.

Frank Weston Sandford

Frank W. Sandford was an Evangelical Christian born in Bowdoinham, Maine in 1862. Early on in his childhood it was noticed he had this knack for capturing the attention of people by the way he spoke. His peers knew him as a go-getter; always the captain of the teams, or the coach. He was a natural born leader. His father died when he was 14 and by 16 he was a teacher at a local school. He had this gift that drew people toward him and a way of mesmerizing them into his world-view. He was educated as a young child in Bowdoinham and then went on to Nichols Latin Prep school in Lewiston before enrolling in Bates on a scholarship. At Bates he was a standout student; representing his class as “Class President”, giving the commencement speech at his 1886 graduation in which he graduated with honors, and making such an impressive name for himself as a catcher on the school’s baseball team (which he also coached) that he was heavily – and seriously – scouted by professional organizations. Despite the many offers he had to play professional baseball he decided the calling to do God’s work was more appealing, and this is when he started on the road that would eventually lead to Shiloh.

After college, he joined a church in Topsham and became ordained as a Free Will Baptist clergyman which led him to various missionary experiences. He traveled the world visiting Christian mission outposts in Japan, India, China, and Palestine where he developed this understanding that more people were being born than were being exposed to the glory of the word of God. Meaning, non-Christians were outnumbering Christians and the only way to really address this was to bring God to those who were either non-believers, or currently unaware of Christianity.

This mindset he developed was thrust into high gear when he named himself “Elijah II, The Living God” – the incarnation of Elijah and King David, from biblical times. Sandford had performed an exorcism on a friend and shortly after claimed to have heard the voice of God warn him about “Armageddon”. This was only one of many times Sandford claimed to hear the voice of God, directly. One particular incident when he heard this voice was so influential to him he completely altered his life direction. He claimed God told him “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” from the Gospel of Matthew. This single quote, he believed God spoke to him, was the catalyst for him abandoning ‘academic religion’ and setting out on a mission where he was in direct contact with God. Meaning, from that point on he would derive his spiritual and religious directives, not from biblical interpretation, but directly from the voice of God.

Early Shiloh Days

After this revelation Sandford received from God (that he was to receive the word of God directly from the source itself) he set out on his evangelical mission to spread God’s word worldwide. He and his very supportive wife liquidated their assets and hit the road to evangelize the state of Maine, spreading the word of God at tent revival type set-ups, anywhere he was welcome, but eventually focusing his efforts around the coastal areas of the state for reasons that supported his livelihood. All this evangelical work cost money – money he didn’t have, and so he and his wife went without. They very often found themselves completely destitute, broke, homeless, starving – all while Sandford was preaching the word of God without asking for anything in return. He had a solid belief that God would provide for him to continue this most important work, and eventually it would appear as though, to Sandford, that this support was materializing when people started donating to his cause without being asked. He started receiving support in the form of housing, money donations, and gifts of land and property. The hill The Shiloh Colony was built on was donated to Sandford by a Durham farmer who had no use for the land because the soil was not fit for planting or grazing – it was too sandy. So with 3 cents in his pocket, an old spade someone threw out, and a borrowed wheelbarrow, Sandford broke ground on what we know now as “Shiloh”.

For a couple of years directly prior to this Sandford had evangelized coastal Maine towns, on the regular, as a locally renown faith healer, and he even printed his own magazine in which he encouraged others to join him and his ministry. This led to him opening “The Holy Ghost and Us” bible school – a tuition free experience that offered no courses, no teachers, no course materials or books, and no building to hold classes; just Sandford and a bible. It was from these students, and calls for help printed in his magazine, that Frank Weston Sandford elicited his first construction project – done with free labor, and donations of materials, goods & monies.

Life at the Shiloh Colony

The Shiloh Colony was built to house 1,000 missionary students. Days consisted of mandatory bible classes, devotions, chores, and prayer; prayer that could be scheduled or unscheduled. Meaning, if a sudden need to pray was requested by Sandford then everyone would stop what they were doing and pray, sometimes for hours on end. Life at Shiloh was dedicated to receiving the word of God and acting on it. If The Holy Ghost requested prayer at some random time of night or day, the entire colony would pray. It was understood everyone at the Shiloh Colony existed to serve God on God’s timeline, not their own. They didn’t fit God into their daily routine. God would make it known when prayer was needed and Sandford was to lead his followers to answer that call on God’s timeline – not simply when it was convenient for members of his flock. Life under the spiritual leadership of Frank W. Sandford was strict, rigid, and demanded unquestioning loyalty to Sandford himself. He was the self-proclaimed incarnation of Elijah and King David and he believed himself to be in direct contact with God, so he expected everyone under his watch believe the same. In order to be accepted into the Shiloh Colony new converts needed to give all of their earthly possessions to The Holy Ghost and Us Society, or “The Kingdom”, as It was also called. If they had a home they were to sell it and give all the money from the sale to The Kingdom. When they entered the colony they were penniless in every realistic way, which became as problematic as one might imagine when people decided the Shiloh Colony experience wasn’t working for them. One of Sandford’s primary reinforced beliefs was that God would provide what was needed. If necessities weren’t being met it was justified that the flock wasn’t suffering or sacrificing enough to deserve God’s good will. So, when hard times hit, Sandford would rationalize harsh discipline – such as whippings, long periods of fasting, and extended periods of solitary confinement, even and especially for children – as necessary exhibitions of the Colony’s devotion to God. Sandford demanded complete and total obedience from his flock. It was his way or the highway, and nobody was immune to this treatment, not even his own children. These practices were known to all in-coming converts and every person within the flock signed a contract – a 10 foot long scroll titled “Pledge of Loyalty” – attesting, in explicitly worded detail, to that fact. Meaning every new member of the Shiloh Colony joined knowing this was a faith healing evangelical community whose leader demanded complete and total obedience as God’s chosen one here on Earth. He was convinced he was the incarnation of Elijah, King David, and referred to himself as The Living God – and his flock believed him without question. This blind loyalty led to cult-like reverence which, in turn, led to storied accounts of very bad times within the colony, and later on, out on the open seas. Once someone became a member of the Shiloh Colony they lost their identity and were trapped within its walls. Their only way out was to escape. At Shiloh, every single member of the flock was there to serve God through Frank Weston Sandford. So when something questionable was being demanded of them, even if it was clearly wrong, even if it was going to bring harm to another person, the flock would just let it happen, justifying it as God’s Will because Sandford was Elijah, The Living God. I’ll speak more on this, in depth, later. There is much to tell about how this unquestioned adoration and blind obedience led to the darkest of chapters within The Holy Ghost and Us Society; far too many instances to mention in this short video, but we’ll review some of the most controversial happenings and explore them in terms of how they led to the eventual downfall of Frank Weston Sandford’s Shiloh Colony.

Controversy, Discord, and Lawsuits

Throughout the building of the Holy Ghost and Us Society lawsuits were not entirely uncommon. People would prepare to move their assets into Sandford’s name, as was required for admittance into “The Kingdom”, and family members would take legal action to stop them – many times seeking legal recourse to declare these relatives insane. Severe treatment of children led to a child abuse case against him; the charges being ‘child cruelty’ toward his 6 year old son John, who Sandford forced to fast – without food or water – for what turned out to be 72 hours. Little 6 year old John was punished for speaking to fellow members of the Shiloh Colony his father did not approve of. His punishment was a whipping. While the whipping itself was not actually done to him, John had finally given in at the 2 day mark. He’d been secluded in his bedroom for 2 days, with food and water in plain sight; the only barrier between his lips and life sustaining water was his own acceptance of being whipped before drinking it. He cried a lot, which didn’t help his situation, and he begged – over 75 times – for permission to drink the water. After he submitted to his fate and asked his father for the whipping his father told him Jesus suffered for his sins and had taken the punishment for him, but he was forced to continue the fast through a 3^rd day. The only redeeming aspect of this scenario is, there was a doctor who visited Shiloh to diagnose – but not treat – ailments within the colony. This doctor cleared the way for John’s fast to continue, saying he was healthy enough to withstand a 3^rd day. The State of Maine disagreed and found Frank Weston Sandford guilty of child cruelty.

Another case involving a juvenile resulted in the death of 14 year old Leander Bartlett. Young Bartlett had been secretly planning to escape the Shiloh Colony shortly before he was struck with diphtheria, and Sandford had found out. While Leander was suffering of diphtheria in Bethesda, Shiloh’s faith healing hospital – he was being denied every manner of medical assistance to help him heal and recover. The Holy Ghost and Us Society believed in faith healing as much as they did “the will of God”, so medicines were strictly forbidden.

A different ‘case in point’ to reinforce this notion would be the tragic death of one Mrs. Maria Lombard, an older lady who had become sick and developed pneumonia. A doctor was allowed to diagnose Mrs. Lombard’s condition, and she was even provided bottles of medicine to help in her recovery, but after the physician left – the Bethesda ‘faith healing” Hospital staff, sent to her home to help her, dumped out the medicine and continued on with their prayer-based healing methods, and so she died. Her family blamed the Shiloh Colony staff but the doctor who prescribed the medicines refused to be a party to legal charges.

Fourteen year-old Leander Bartlett was suffering from diphtheria within the walls of Bethesda during a particularly trying time within the Shiloh Colony. Sandford had declared an extended period of fasting called the “Fast of Nineveh” which was a mandatory period of 48 hours without any food or water for all members of the colony, including the sick, animals, and children. Leander was being tended to by a Mr. John Swart, who testified during a trial proceeding that Sanders proclaimed in the chapel he would willingly see young Bartlett laid out dead before him and did not care to offer the child any prayers for his well being, as he had disobeyed God’s directive by planning to run away and if God demanded his punishment is death, then so be it – essentially. Prayer, according to the beliefs of The Holy Ghost and Us Society is as powerful a force as medicine, for the sick. Bethesda did not deal in medical treatments. The medical treatments offered at Bethesda were prayers. Sandford denied Leander Bartlett food, water, medicine, and prayer. Frank Weston Sandford’s grip over his flock was so strong outsiders and those who had left, fled, or escaped Shiloh called it a cult and claimed Sandford had a hypnotic power over his subordinates. Leander Bartlett’s mother did very little to disprove these theories when she testified that she was in control of Leander’s care and that he was never forced to fast nor was he ever deprived of food or water during his ill health. And, that he received as much health care as she wanted him to receive. Her testimony was in complete opposition to the testimony of Mr. John Swart, who was her son’s nurse and direct health care provider during his final days.

The case of manslaughter for the death of Leander Bartlett plagued Frank W. Sandford for quite some time. He was made to go to trial 3 separate times over the matter, twice with the result of “disagreement” among the jury and once with the result of “guilty”. However, the ‘guilty’ verdict was overturned on an appeal. During this same period of time Frank Sandford was also facing numerous additional “cruelty to children” charges.

Global Missionary Work

After the Leander Bartlett manslaughter case was over Sandford, his family, and 30 chosen Holy Ghost and Us Society members boarded a yacht, within Shiloh’s fleet of boats called “The Kingdom Fleet”, to realize his ultimate goal of spreading the word of God on a global scale.

The truth is, Sandford’s Shiloh Colony was incredibly successful, thriving in population and new membership, until sickness and death became commonplace among the commune. Frank Weston Sandford had received notoriety across the country for being a renown faith healer, so when Shiloh Colony members became sick with smallpox, typhoid, diphtheria, and/or died – the cult he was leading started falling apart. People began leaving the sect in numbers so large he had to ‘stop the bleed’, so to speak. This is right around the time he was given this revelation from God that he needs to take his mission-work to the open ocean – to spread God’s word globally by means of a fleet of Yachts.

Every single chosen member of this crew would have obeyed the self-titled “Elijah” to a fault. They would have died for him, and as time would eventually tell – some of them did. They all signed the Loyalty creed and they all lived by it, without fault or failure and if they did happen to falter they accepted the consequences on Frank Weston Sandford’s terms because he was the embodiment of “Elijah” and “King David”. He was “The Living God”.

The Holy Ghost and Us Society was incorporated at the very start of the Shiloh Colony endeavor as “The Kingdom Corporation”. Frank Weston Sandford had a vision of proselytizing the world with a fleet of yachts he would sail under the flag of “The Kingdom Yacht Club”. The fleet was comprised of a number of sizeable sailing vessels as well as a small fishing boat named “The Ripple”. Among the larger of the yachts were; The Wanderer, which was an almost identical replica of a slave trading ship with the exact same name; The Kingdom – a barquentine schooner (meaning it had at least 3 masts) that could easily accommodate 60 crew and a bulk of the supplies necessary to support the global mission at hand of the entire trans-oceanic fleet; and The Coronet – which was a world renown racing yacht, the flagship of the entire fleet, and the yacht Frank Sandford and his family called ‘home’. The Coronet was able to carry 30 passengers comfortably. The size difference between The Kingdom and The Coronet would be akin to comparing a Tractor Trailer Truck to a Ferrari. The Kingdom was a beast, able to accommodate large amounts of people and supplies simultaneously, but she was not fast. The Coronet was really fast but she wasn’t able to hold as much. That said, Sandford made sure she was decked out with a large harp he was learning to play, a bunch of taxidermy accessories for his planned hunting and fishing endeavors, and a taxidermist to make use of these accessories.

The undertaking to spread the word of God was an unusual one by normal missionary standards. Frank Sandford’s vision was to sail along the coastline of specific islands and countries, but not to make landfall at any. Instead, the crew aboard each vessel would essentially partake in the practice of “intercessory prayer”. Meaning, the people on board would pray for the people on land to receive the word of God and to be moved in a way that would provoke conversion. Simply put, The Kingdom Yacht Club fleet would do drive-by’s of coastal communities around the world, blaring music they played on brass instruments from their respective yachts, and praying for those on land to find their way to God through these efforts.

There were ‘Holy Ghost and Us Society’ land-based missionary outposts in a small number of places around the world, one of which was in Jerusalem, Palestine. From this Jerusalem outpost, during the time The Kingdom Yacht Club was sailing the world, word was received that Shiloh member Florence Whittaker, the wife of one of the missionary ministers, wanted to return to the U.S. with her children, regardless if her minister husband wanted to return with her. So Sandford ordered the Barquentine Kingdom to pick up everyone from the Palestine mission outpost and bring them home to Maine. Mrs. Whittaker had no complaints about her experience aboard The Kingdom until it arrived at the Maine coast and she was not allowed to disembark. Sandford refused to let anyone off the yachts and demanded she get back together again with her husband. She and her children were kept as prisoners aboard the Kingdom until a court order demanding her release was put in place.

This was only the start of Sandford’s “Kingdom Fleet” legal disasters.

After the release of Mrs. Whittaker and her children she pursued legal action against Frank Sandford on the grounds of ‘forcible detention’. In response, he sailed away and avoided being served by refusing to come close enough to land for the authorities to hand him the legal papers necessary to begin the process of holding him accountable. The news of his evasion – like much of Sandford’s history with Shiloh and The Holy Ghost and Us Society – made headlines in newspapers across the country.

This is a great time to highlight that Shiloh was the largest bible school in the world. Sandford sought out new students and members from all over the globe and he’d been doing so for many years by this point. He wanted the attention because he needed to get the word out to every corner of the globe that God made Shiloh to be the epicenter of his work here on Earth – and to send donations to help him achieve that goal, of course. News media followed Sandford. People wanted to know what was going on with the Shiloh Colony and its leader. In his time, Frank Weston Sandford was a celebrity.

In his quest to flee from the law he decided to send The Kingdom to Africa to set up a missionary outpost and he would lead The Coronet to Greenland to do the same. So, he gathered 70 members of his sect and split them among the two yachts. The Coronet could only hold around 30 people comfortably so the rest were sent aboard the Barkentine Kingdom; that slower bulkier member of the fleet. Bad times hit fairly soon after their journey began when The Kingdom crashed off the coast of West Africa and Sandford had to race The Coronet down to where the crew was. Long story short, all stranded members of The Kingdom were boarded onto the Coronet – and this is a decision that could very well be considered “the beginning of the end”.

There were too many people on board the Coronet – double the maximum capacity of the racing yacht – and not enough provisions to keep everyone healthy. Food and water became scarce very quickly but Sandford claimed to have heard the voice of God tell him to “Continue” so that’s what he did; he pointed The Coronet back toward Greenland despite all of the hardship the crew was facing when that decision was made. On the way to Greenland The Coronet passed numerous ships that could have helped with providing food, water, meat, and vegetables – necessities to keeping a crew healthy. Sandford refused to stop and refused help all but one time, when a passing ship was able to offer food, but not fruits or vegetables. Scurvy soon set in and people were, literally, starving to death. Sandford told the crew God told him he was not to stop at U.S. or Canadian ports, not mentioning as a part of his messaging – that he was a wanted man in the U.S. due to the “forcible detention” case of Mrs. Whittaker and her children, at the very least.

The Coronet had weathered a significant number of really bad storms and because of that she was battered and in super rough shape. Her hand-powered water pump needed to be manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For the longest time, Sandford himself did not help out with the manning of this pump. It was always a bunch of other men. Men who were expending energy they didn’t have by burning calories their body was not taking in, and without a dependable water source to keep them hydrated. This was a disaster through and through. The entire crew – all members except Sandford and his family – were severely rationed from what food was available on the yacht, and were forced into fasting whenever Sandford deemed it necessary.

Sandford, on the other hand, made sure his family ate at least twice a day – and always food that was different than what the crew ate. He and his family had their meals prepared and served to them while all other members were starving, suffering from scurvy, and wasting away by the day. He did, however, join the water pump crew toward the end of his time on The Coronet after 6 crew members, all men, died of either scurvy, starvation, or both. When on land, 3 more succumbed to their battles with scurvy and starvation.

Before the Greenland excursion was finished there had been at least 1 “quiet mutiny” aboard, and it’s important to mention because George Hughey, one of the men who developed scurvy during this trip and who was aware of his impending death, begged Frank Sandford – Elijah, The Living God, the reason George was aboard The Coronet spreading the reach of God’s messaging to all points of the globe their little yacht could carry them… the one person on the face of the Earth with direct communication to God itself – to please ask God to heal him so he may continue on with this missionary work. He knew he was dying. He knew Frank Sandford as a genuine, bona fide, world renown – by this point – ‘faith healer’. He was begging for Sandford to ask God to spare his life – and Sandford’s response was that George had offended Sandford, and in doing so, offended God; it was out of his hands, and God will deal with him harshly, just as he deserves.

George Hughey died shortly thereafter.

Sandford’s death toll at sea was 6 but 3 more were eventually transported off The Coronet – a couple by legal force – to the closest marine hospital where they eventually died of scurvy and complications of starvation. One man, John Bolster, who was a member of The Holy Ghost and Us Society for over 11 years, 5 of them at sea, had weighed 165 pounds on a normal day, weighed only 85 pounds on the day of his death.

The End of Shiloh

The end of Frank Weston Sandford’s reign came when he was convicted of manslaughter for the death of George Hughey. Sandford refused legal counsel, so he represented himself during his trial. He spent almost no time cross examining any of the prosecution’s witnesses, and he made it clear he was relying on God to give him the judgment he deserves – which wound up being 10 years in a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sandford was found guilty of manslaughter with points being made that he refused to seek help or to accept help when it was available to his crew during their time of need. He refused to anchor at visible land during many points along the journey telling his captain “how can we make port with these traitors on board?”; and, just as in Leander Bartlett’s case, he refused to offer prayer to help George Hughey during his final days. Shiloh was a faith-healing community. To members of the Shiloh Colony prayer – healing directly from God – was far more powerful than medicine. George Hughey was treated with the utmost cruelty in the clutch of his dying days.

Shiloh changed hands many times over the years after Sandford went to prison, eventually detaching from the church he founded, completely, in 1998. It’s now a completely independently functioning non-denominational church serving local families within the community.

Sandford eventually separated himself, physically, from his own creation and settled in a rural area of New York where he spread the word of God to a much smaller audience. He died without notice from the news media and he’d been buried in an undisclosed location for a few weeks before word was let out publicly that he had passed on March 4, 1948.

The post [1897] Shiloh: The Cult in Durham first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

[1835] The Last Execution in Kennebec County

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 22:24:56 +0000

Joseph J. Sager and Phoebe Sager

Joseph and Phoebe Sager were a middle aged couple residing in the city of Gardiner when the unfortunate incident involving Phoebe’s death, occurred. Phoebe was a 48 year old milliner and dressmaker at the time of her death, and 36 year old Joseph was a saddle and harness maker, and a shop worker. While Phoebe was often sick, she was also known to have a drinking problem that wasn’t at all under control. On the day of her death she fell violently ill after drinking a wine and egg mixture Joseph prepared for her, to have with her breakfast. A local doctor was summoned to help her, but despite his best efforts to help her over the course of the following 6+ hours, he could do nothing to alleviate the excruciatingly painful episodes of unstoppable vomiting, including “bloody vomit”, and she eventually died; the date of her death was October 5, 1834.

Phoebe repeatedly told people who were present with her, during her final few hours, that her husband made her drink the wine concoction. He insisted she drink it, and finish it. This caused the physician to become immediately suspicious. He then noticed a white powder residue in the wine decanter she drank from that morning, and also in the container that held the cream that was added to the wine. His suspicions would eventually lead to a startling discovery.

Another very important person in the murder case against Joseph Sager was a young woman named Ann Rafter. Ann Rafter was a Catholic servant of the Sager household at the time of Phoebe’s untimely passing. During this time in Maine’s history anti-Catholic sentiment was at its height. Catholics were persecuted, ostracized, vilified, and openly discriminated against.

Irish Catholic, Ann Rafter, became the principal witness in the case.

Joseph Sager accused Ann, their house servant, of poisoning Phoebe and there was rumored to be an actual confession by Ann, herself, to that effect but it was never found in any of the documentation or evidence.

But… … another compelling rumor was floating around that she never went to confession again after the trial.

Determining Phoebe was murdered

After Mrs. Sager died her body was sent off for an autopsy. The Doctor present at the time of her death had collected the cream container that had the white residue in it and requested the medical examiner send the contents of Mrs. Sager’s stomach to be analyzed, along with the residue, to Professor Cleaveland at Bowdoin Medical School.

Both contained arsenic.

Trial and Execution

The case of the ‘State of Maine vs. Joseph J. Sager’ started on Tuesday October 23, 1834 when Sager pleaded “not guilty” to the charges of murdering his wife.

The facts of the case were presented as follows;

Joseph Sager, aged 36, was accused of killing his 48 year old wife – Phoebe – by poisoning part of her breakfast – a drink he prepared for her made of wine, an egg, and white sugar. The visiting Dr. sent to treat Phoebe noticed the wine carafe she drank from at breakfast had a white sediment in it. The cream container on the dining table also had this sediment in it so the Dr. saved it and had it tested. The sediment was found to be arsenic, leading to a charge of murder against her husband Joseph.

Two Judges presided over the trial simultaneously, as Maine law at the time stated if the life of a person was at stake during a trial it was to be done with 2 Judges sitting on the bench. The 2 Judges were; Chief Justice Nathan Weston and Judge Albion Paris, who had also served as Maine’s 5^th Governor.

Prosecuting attorneys on behalf of the state were; Attorney General – Nathaniel Clifford (a future Justice of the US Supreme Court) and County Prosecuting Attorney – James W. Bradbury (a future US Senator).

The Legal Defense Attorneys on behalf of Joseph J. Sager were; the Honorable Peleg Sprague, who was the Primary Defense attorney and a current, sitting, US Senator from Maine, at the time; Frederick Allen; and George W. Bacheldor. Court proceedings were held in the old South Church in Augusta, Maine. Oliver Bean of Readfield was the jury foreman.

Joseph J. Sager was found “GUILTY” of the murder of his wife Phoebe Sager by a jury of his peers on Monday October 27, 1834, just 22 short days after her passing. Judge Weston sentenced Sager to death by hanging with the date of the execution to be carried out on Friday January 2, 1835 at the corner of State Street and Winthrop Street in Augusta.

The Trial was a full-house sensation every single day. The courthouse was mobbed with people and no seat was left open. The balcony was full, too.

Joseph J. Sager collapsed into his chair when the “guilty” verdict was read. He was sweating, shaking, and sort of hyperventilating. His representation filed a motion for a new trial based on the claim that material evidence had been suppressed at the trial but the motion was denied

The day of Joseph Sager’s execution, Friday January 2, 1835, was a very cold, snowy, and windy one.

The hanging took place at the gallows in Augusta on the corner of Winthrop and State Streets near the Southwest corner of the jail. Sager was Llkely walked from the jail, across the street to “Winthrop Street Square” where the gallows was erected.

His very last words were “Gentlemen, I am innocent” with a little hitch in the word “innocent” when they tightened the rope around his neck.

The Controversy

The controversy surrounding Joseph J. Sager’s execution had a lot to do with his persistent claims of innocence. Sager claimed his innocence until the very end, even blaming Ann Rafter, the family’s Irish servant for the murder of Phoebe; anti-catholic rhetoric was all the rage among certain political groups during this time, and so blaming an Irish Catholic girl was seen as quite the tactic of desperation. His claims of innocence persisted even though he had been caught pre-meditating his wife’s death on a number of occasions. One example of this was when he told a Kennebec River Steamboat crew member he knew that he’d be a widow soon. Not only did he say this with an odd sort of exciting anticipation, he actually handed this friend a hand written list of women he thought he might be interested in once his wife passes.

Another curious bit of circumstantial evidence that didn’t bode well for his case was that Joseph encouraged Phoebe to drink all of the liquid mixture he mixed for her, telling her “the goodness being all at the bottom” in the carafe the arsenic was found. The only witness to this act, however, was by their servant, Ann Rafter which, of course, Sager had a vested interest in discrediting. Another subject of controversy was that most newspaper articles and historical documentation said the Dr. who tended to Phoebe, as she lay dying, took a container with the arsenic in it with the intent of having it tested and studied by proper authorities, but curiously, there was also the rarer mention that it was Ann Rafter who was said to have carried out this deed. And one doesn’t likely need to be told how much of a conflict of interest it would be if Rafter actually *was* the one in possession of the carafe with the white powder in it, as she was considered the prosecution’s star witness and her influential testimony led to the hanging of Joseph J. Sager.

The Hanging of Joseph Sager

The gallows was constructed near the Southwest corner of the Kennebec County jail. There were between 8,000 and 12,000 people present to view the hanging. To give you a rough idea of what this might look like, in person; in 1830 the population of Augusta was 3,980. In 1840 the population of Augusta was 5,314. This was 1835. So, this singular area of the city of Augusta was a convergence point of 8,000 to 12,000 people – which is easily two, to three times, the population of the entire city at the time – all standing in one small space at the same time.

That day the weather was horrible – snowy, windy, cold, and raw. The crowd was belligerent – men were drinking until ‘plastered’ and treated this execution like it was some sort of entertainment. There were also lots of women, elderly, sick, and children present. People traveled from great distances and spent the night to see the hanging.

There were armed soldiers present – the Augusta Light Infantry – surrounding the gallows. The day was chaotic and at many times, a dangerous place to be. A sea of 8,000-12,000 people pushing forward toward the gallows, to the point the soldiers had to get under the platform for safety. In one instance, someone hollered “FIRE!” which caused the mob to panic.

Militia situated themselves to guard the gallows and then the Sheriff and 2 deputies went to Sager’s cell to bring him to the hanging spot. The Sheriff saluted Joseph Sager at his cell – it’s said to make him feel better about this situation. Joseph didn’t put up any kind of fight and when they led him to the gallows he was carrying the noose on his own right arm.

When this all started just 3 and a half months earlier in October of 1834, Sager was ‘built’ physically. He was a man with physical stature. But, by the day of his hanging he’d lost so much weight he was almost unrecognizable.

Sager’s last words proclaimed his innocence. He wrote them down but had to have been in a state of utter panic when doing so, and so the words were just a mash-up of incoherent gibberish basically pleading for his life. They were read by Reverend Benjamin Tappan who then turned to the crowd and warned them, basically, not to live a life that would lead to this. To look at Joseph Sager and to understand that life choices can have serious life consequences.

Joseph Sager’s mother was in the courthouse begging Governor Dunlap and his advisors to stay the execution, to no avail. Where they were situated inside the courthouse offered them a vantage point with a good view of the gallows when the execution was taking place. Joseph firmly believed his mother’s pleas would save his life.

A Quaker from The Society of Friends in Fairfield also made his way into the Governor’s presence to beg for Sager’s life but the Governor was too busy watching the crowd and the gallows that he didn’t even make eye contact with the gentleman.

George W. Stanley was the Kennebec County Sheriff at the time, and he was responsible to drop Sager where he stood on the platform.

Stanley led Sager to the platform, let his last words be spoken, then put a black hood over Sager, adjusted the noose, took his hand and humanely said “goodbye”. When Sager proclaimed his innocence Stanley told him “this is now a matter between you and your god”. Stanley then walked down the gallows steps and slashed the rope holding Sager in place.

When the trap door was released the words “sickening thud” were used to describe the ‘drop’ and it’s thought he died instantly.

Sager dropped over 10 feet and then just hung, twirling around lifeless, as people gawked – for 20 minutes before his friends and family were allowed to cut his body down and carry it off to be given a proper burial. Dr. Franklin Gage declared him dead. He was lowered onto a horse sled and driven as fast as possible to Hallowell.

The Mystery

Joseph Sager’s body was rushed off in a hurry, to Hallowell, where his friends had a master plan of electrocuting him back to life. The concept they planned to use on him was a much misunderstood version of “galvanism”. Galvanism is named after an Italian doctor named Luigi Galvani – a man who hooked up a dead frog to an electrical charge, and witnessed the legs moving. It was the basis for the plotline in Frankenstein when the mad scientist brings the monster to life by electrocuting it into reanimation.

These efforts failed, of course, and Sager was buried in a secret location on an island in one of the ponds in Winthrop. 50 Years later, January 2, 1885 a newspaper article printed by the Daily Kennebec Journal specified Joseph Sager was buried on Horse-Shoe Island in Cobbosseecontee Pond.

But still, there were people who persisted in their belief that he was brought back to life and ushered out of the state by friends & family, escaping to Texas to live out the remainder of his natural life.

Some say if you go to the spot Sager was hung and you ask aloud “Sager, for what were you hanged?” a voice would reply “nothing”. So this question of his innocence or guilt was clearly in the collective conscious of the local community.

This hanging bothered people and was ultimately the last execution ever conducted in Kennebec County.

The post [1835] The Last Execution in Kennebec County first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

[1884] The Murder at Fort Western

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:03:35 +0000

[1884] The Murder at Fort Western

On a cold November night in 1884, tragedy struck the city of Augusta, Maine when Police Officer Rufus R. Lishness, a dedicated servant of the law, was shot and killed while attempting to apprehend a suspect for disturbing the peace at a tenement called “Old Fort” on the east side of the Kennebec River (the old Fort Western). The perpetrator, Harry Burns, was apprehended an hour later and brought to justice. Officer Lishness left behind a grieving wife and four children, robbed of their husband and father by this senseless act of violence. The following is an account of “The Murder at Fort Western”.

Harry Burns and Rufus R. Lishness

At the time of the incident, Harry Burns was a 65-year-old man who was a prior patient at the National Soldiers Home at Togus and was addicted to the use of liquor. On November 11, 1884, he shot and killed Augusta Police Officer Rufus R. Lishness, as previously mentioned. Officer Lishness was responding to a disturbance call with another officer when they went to arrest Harry Burns. When they couldn’t gain access at the entrance, Officer Lishness shoved an unlocked window open and was about to climb into Harry Burns’ bedroom when Burns fired a shot at him, striking Lishness in the head. Lishness was able to walk to the police station with the help of another officer but soon afterward became unconscious, later dying of his wounds. His last words were “I did my duty, didn’t I?” It is unclear what led Harry Burns to murder Rufus Lishness, but his addiction to liquor may have played a role. Dedicated husband and father of 4, officer Rufus R. Lishness was a 45 year old, highly respected, man in the community. He was a table smoother, by trade, but had been put on the overnight police duty in the spring of 1883.

Brief History of Fort Western

Fort Western was built in 1754 during the French and Indian War as a British Colonial Outpost. It was built and maintained by the Howard Family. The fort was primarily built to encourage settlement along the Kennebec River region and to provide stores for the storehouse at Fort Halifax. Fort Western was commanded by Captain James Howard who had a unit of 23 men, including his four sons. In 1969, Fort Western was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1973 it was listed as a National Historic Landmark. By 1767, the military had no use for Fort Western and it was decommissioned. In 1769, Captain James Howard bought Fort Western and 900 acres of surrounding land. He and his sons remodeled it into a residence and trading post. Fort Western was a central meeting point for early residents as far away as Hallowell. On September 23, 1775, Benedict Arnold and his troops stopped at Fort Western on their way to invading Quebec. They spent a week repairing the fort and loading supplies before continuing north. In 1810, William Howard, one of Captain James Howard’s sons, died and the fort was sold out of the family. It was made into a tenement house and the surrounding area became known for illegal activity and low-class behavior.

Breakdown of the Murder

At 3:00am on November 11, 1884, Mrs. Randall, a tenement renter in Fort Western, went to the police station to ask for help. Neighboring tenant, Harry Burns, had been making noise all night and her sick son was trying to sleep. She had already addressed the matter with Harry, but he had rudely dismissed her.

Officers Rufus R. Lishness and Arthur S. Baker accompanied Mrs. Randall back to the Fort. They tried to enter through the front door on the Bowman Street side, but it was locked or blocked. From inside, they heard Harry Burns say “Don’t come in here, Warren!” Warren Bruce was a cop who worked the day shift and was not present that night.

This is a great spot in the story to mention that it was pitch black ‘dark’ outside. It was 1884 and there was no exterior lighting present. Officer Lishness realized the front door was latched so he shimmied over to the window on the right side of the door, opened it up, and quickly popped his head and upper body inside. Without any warning whatsoever, he was shot and fell out of the window onto the ground with blood pouring out of his head.

Officer Arthur S. Baker ran to help him and asked if he’d been shot. It was so dark outside it made seeing the significance of the injury he’d just incurred, almost impossible. He helped Lishness get up off the ground and walk back to the police station. Lishness managed to walk without assistance for much of the way, but soon began to exhibit the effects of being shot in the head at close range. His face and right side of his body became paralyzed.

The last words Officer Lishness uttered before dying were “I did my duty, didn’t I?” A doctor was called and determined that a blood clot was causing issues. Lishness needed to get home as soon as possible, so a carriage was called to take him to his residence at Cushnoc Heights.

Officer Warren Bruce and Marshal Frank B. Farrington were called to arrest Harry Burns. They arrived, kicked in the outside door and then the interior bedroom door. They immediately saw Burns in bed with a gun pointed at the door. They wrestled him hand-to-hand to get the gun away while Mrs. Burns snuck out of bed and out of the room.

Harry refused to get dressed and officers said he was out of his mind with drunkenness and likely hallucinating. They put him in jail.

Officer Rufus Lishness died at 3:40pm the following afternoon.

Harry Burns’ Story

On Saturday, November 8, 1884, Harry made a plan to go to Boston on the following Monday, November 10th. He had plans to see a ‘Dr. Williams’ in Boston and was awaiting a letter from Togus giving him the go-ahead as he was still considered an “inmate” – or ‘patient’ – of the National Veteran’s Home (aka “Togus”). He needed a furlough to go to Boston and it had to be mailed to him. Harry asked Mr. Story, a local shopkeeper in town, to write a letter to Harry’s sergeant asking for the furlough.

Mr. Burns prepared for the trip by getting a haircut at a local place called Gannet’s where he told the barber about his plans to go to Boston, and then to Lowell to spend time with family before returning home to Augusta. He then went home and laid out his ‘good clothes’ in anticipation of the arrival of the requested furlough letter. But the letter didn’t arrive and he was panicking, stressed and anxious. He put his money in the pocket of a pair of pants that he hung on a chair near the window in his bedroom. He also set out a gun to give as a gift to his nephew in Lowell at that same window.

Harry’s reasoning for seeking help from a doctor in Boston was thought to be directly related to pain management regarding the battle injury he sustained during the Civil War, and to get help with detoxing from his alcohol addiction. However, having received no word from Togus that he could leave on furlough, Harry started drinking again at 4:00pm. He drank 2 gallons of his homemade brew between 4pm-12am and ate nothing throughout the entirety of this drinking binge.

At 7:00pm, Harry realized half his keg was gone because he drank it. So, he went to the store, bought 1 pound of hops and molasses and later went out again for tobacco. On the way back, he ran into a small bunch of rowdy teens. They had a verbal exchange regarding a recent election and things got heated. Harry was emotionally invested in this election so he was triggered easily by these kids who were taunting him. They threatened him with chants of “drag him out!” and he feared they would steal his money and kill him because they had threatened him physically during their interaction.

When he was done brewing his homemade beer, he moved the keg he just filled, from one part of the room to another, basically dragging it across the floor and making a ruckus. The sound roused Mrs. Randall in a neighboring apartment and she asked him to quiet down because her son was sick & sleeping. A couple of other close neighbors who shared either a wall, ceiling, or floor heard nothing or were completely unbothered. It was just Mrs. Randall who had a complaint.

By the time night had set in, Harry’s clothes were set out, his $24 was in his pants pocket draped over the chair in front of the window and the revolver was on the stand in front of that same window. Harry didn’t move these items away from the window and was acutely aware of their importance in his life if he were to make a successful trip to Massachusetts and back.

The shooting of Officer Lishness happened on Tuesday November 11, 1884 around 3:00am.

According to Harry, someone knocked on the door and he asked what they wanted. They said they wanted to come in. Harry responded “you shan’t tonight!” and claimed to have never said “Warren”. Harry was quick to clarify he knew Warren Bruce very well, but was also very clear in his messaging he never heard anyone say they were cops.

Harry swore he never thought the people at the door were cops. He thought they were the teenage boys coming to “drag him out”. Harry was scared to find someone opening his window and believed they were going to take his money – literally all of his money was in his pants pocket – which he needed to get to the doctor’s in Boston.

Harry testified he didn’t know Rufus Lishness was the person in the window. He fumbled at the window trying to push the person out and close it but the person grabbed him back, so Harry got away, grabbed for his gun, stumbled to his bed in a panic and shot at the intruder. Harry said he tried to push Lishness back out the window before grabbing his gun in the bureau drawer at the window. He said he shot Lishness while standing away from the window, 2 feet from his bed, not at point-blank range directly at the window.

Mrs. Burns woke up at the sound of the gunshot. It was pitch-black-dark inside, and outside, so neither party could identify each other and neither could see the extent of the injury inflicted on Officer Lishness.

Harry Burns knew Rufus Lishness and all of the other police officers personally. He’d been arrested a few times previously by all. He had never once tussled with the law – and had either paid his fine or did his jail time without any issue.

Harry and his wife had lived in the tenement for the last 5+/- years, or so. He admitted to making and drinking his own beer, which was not illegal. But he’d never been involved with the law outside of drunkenness. The defense – his legal team – reiterated he had never hurt anyone nor intended to hurt anyone in his life and if he would’ve known there were cops at his door he wouldn’t have fired his gun. The Defense was really focused on pushing the “self-defense” angle. However, another cop testified that when he was arresting Harry for drunkenness, not too long ago, Harry threatened to “fix” the next officer who would try to arrest him.

After he shot Officer Lishness, Harry went back to bed thinking he’d scared off the intruders. When Officer Warren Bruce and Marshal Frank B. Farrington broke in through the exterior door and then the bedroom door to Harry’s room, they saw Harry had his gun in his hand, ready to defend his life. The officers had lanterns this time and Harry said the moment he saw their badges he let down his guard. They said they had to wrangle the gun away from him and he was out of his mind with drunkenness, so because of this, he didn’t recognize their badges. Harry said he could have shot them if he wanted to.

Mr. Burns claimed the gun was not cocked, yet the police said it was. He also said his door was not locked but the cops say they couldn’t just open it even though they tried repeatedly, so they determined it had to be locked. Marshal Farrington said Officer Bruce tried to open the bedroom door but it was locked, so they shoulder-slammed it open.

Harry claimed, emphatically and repeatedly, that he hadn’t had a hard liquor drink for around 2 years.

Trial-Wise it’s important to make mention that Mrs. Burns was present when everything happened the night Officer Lishness was killed, but Legal Counsel for the Defense never called her to testify. She could have cleared her husband of accusations made against him if they were lies, or corroborated witness testimony on her husband’s behalf, but she was never given the chance.

After the Shooting and Arrest

The day after the crime, police went to the scene and spoke with Mrs. Burns, who explained that her husband Harry often drank a homemade “hop beer” to excess, sometimes consuming 2 gallons a day. She also mentioned that he’d been speaking loudly about the election before the shooting but by the time the police arrived – directly before the shooting happened – she had already fallen asleep. When police later spoke with Harry in his holding cell, they noted that his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, suggesting he had consumed something stronger than hop beer. Regarding the legal case against Mr. Burns for the murder of Officer Rufus R. Lishness; The jury started deliberations on Tuesday December 23, 1884 at 4:50pm and by 9:15pm it had returned with the verdict. Harry Burns had been found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to 7 to 14 years in Thomaston State Prison.

The post [1884] The Murder at Fort Western first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

Fort Halifax

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 22:05:00 +0000

Fort Halifax

Fort Halifax was among the strongest and most extensive 18^th century frontier fortresses ever built in the District of Maine. Its layout included 2 main blockhouses, a barracks, and main building called the “Fort House”, all enclosed by wooden palisades. There were 2 additional blockhouses built outside the compound on a hill overlooking the palisaded fort complex below. The originally approved layout was designed by Major General John Winslow and partially erected by the 500+ men under his command. However, Major General Winslow was soon reassigned to another mission and Captain William Lithgow was brought in to preplace him in command of Fort Halifax. Lithgow had a vision that included a completely new layout and the restructuring of sections of the fort that had already been put in place. He considered that vision complete on May 30, 1756.

Fort Halifax was a bastion in the Maine wilderness and it attracted as much attention for those who needed it as those who were opposed to its existence. It was seen as a constant threat to the native Americans in the region, and to the French who had claimed the Kennebec Valley as a part of its empire. The Fort, and anyone associated with it, were in a constant state of threat and danger until the French and Indian War came to an end in 1763. Captain William Lithgow commanded this fort, initially garrisoned with 100 men, for 12 years.

Life at the fort wasn’t always easy. Hardships ranged from lack of food and clothes, to injury and disease, the constant threats of Indian attacks, and may other day-to-day concerns that oftentimes could have meant the difference between life and death. Daily concerns about safety and survival were often balanced with happier times that reminded residents that frontier life wasn’t all ‘hazard and struggle’. Yes, there were deaths at the fort, but there were also births, and marriages, social events, celebrations, and impromptu fun times that made for great stories. A few examples for your consideration; in the winter, Captain Lithgow liked to have his men clear the snow off the iced-over Kennebec River so the men could “slide the ladies” across the top. In warmer months the soldiers and their wives would take excursions to a nearby island for dinner outings and barbecues. Sporting men would wager their liquor rations for a chance to take home the big win with target practice competitions. And it was a nightly routine for residents of the fort, soldiers and family members alike, to gather around the fire listening to each other tell stories, play music, and to sing and dance.

The fort was functional in all ways and it existed, in large part, to support a community the British Empire wanted to see grow in the Kennebec Valley region. Having fun and bringing enjoyment to life at Fort Halifax was a major step in making this place feel welcoming to new settlers, and safe and normal to permanent residents.

Fort Halifax was abandoned by the military in 1767 and sold into private ownership by 1770. For the next 30 years buildings in the complex would serve the community as places to hold social gatherings and dances, church services and town meetings.

By 1800 all of Fort Halifax except the sole remaining blockhouse still standing today, was torn down and removed. The land and blockhouse were sold in and out of the possession of numerous deed holders until 1924, when it fell into the capable and historic minded hands of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a preservationist group dedicated to making sure this piece of Maine’s history is saved from further insults of time. In 1966 the blockhouse was turned over to the State of Maine for safe keeping and routine maintenance.

The beautifully preserved blockhouse on the grounds of Fort Halifax is original to the year 1754. It’s the oldest blockhouse still standing in America, today. A national treasure and a relic to the days of the French and Indian War.

10 Things to know about Fort Halifax

The reasons Fort Halifax was built

Fort Halifax was constructed at the very start of the French and Indian War. There were many reasons that are deeply rooted in British-Native interactions as to why a fort on the Kennebec River was necessary, but it was the French who lit the fire that spurned the British to build Forts Halifax and Western to protect the Kennebec Valley Region.
Native Americans in the District of Maine, generally speaking, had a bit of an issue with white settlers encroaching on their fishing and hunting grounds. They also had a difficult time embracing the seriousness behind the “white man’s” ideology of buying, selling, and owning land. Native Americans didn’t understand how anyone could ‘own’ land. It was as foreign a concept to sell land as it would be to sell the sky.
French Jesuit missionaries had been proselytizing Catholicism to Native American populations in the District of Maine for well over 150 years prior to the start of the French and Indian War. During that time French and English land claim boundaries in New England (for the purposes of this essay) shifted and changed a few times, causing confusion and instability for the people living within those boundaries.
1. France and England had been warring with each other in Europe for hundreds of years, and this was still ongoing throughout this period of pre-revolutionary U.S. history. The French were Catholic and the British were Protestant and the animosity between those 2 religious factions was stark. The fact that the French had been assimilating the local Native tribes in the District of Maine – specifically in the Kennebec Valley region since the early 1600’s – was a top-level threat to the British Empire.
2. Native American tensions on the Kennebec (speaking only about the Kennebec for the purposes of this essay) had heated up to a boiling point, and in the early 1750’s Captain William Lithgow, at Fort Richmond, was warned by a small group of local Indians that the French were fully prepared to attack the British to assert their dominance over all of the Kennebec River Valley. The French had claimed the Kennebec River as its western boundary and also had amassed a considerable allyship with tribes up and down the Kennebec River region. The British had no settlements above Fort Richmond at the time of the warning, and as a result of this warning decided to build 3 more Forts to stabilize the region and to help bring in settlers to populate the area.
  1. Those forts were; Fort Shirley in Frankfort, Maine (Now Dresden), Fort Western in Augusta, Maine, and Fort Halifax in Winslow, Maine. Fort Shirley and Fort Western being built as storage facilities to supply all manner of necessities to Fort Halifax in Winslow.
Directly put, Fort Halifax was built to bring stability to the entire Kennebec Valley region because the French and Indians were threatening the English Empire by harassing, warring with, and oftentimes, killing British settlers. Forts Western and Shirley were built, primarily, to be supply stations for Fort Halifax.

The Fort Halifax blockhouse is the oldest, still standing blockhouse, in America.

It was built between 1754-1755 along with the rest of the original Fort Halifax buildings which were no longer standing by 1800.
Despite warnings from local observers to tie down the blockhouse before the water rose too high, the blockhouse was swept down the river in the Great Flood of 1987.
- Hard work and blind luck led to the retrieval of 22 of the original blockhouse wood beams and it was painstakingly reconstructed.

Fort Halifax was not constructed ‘on-site’.

Fort Halifax was a massive frontier fortress, making it a very large establishment, the very nature of which placed it in an extremely precarious position along the bank of the Kennebec River.
The Plymouth Company (Kennebec Proprietors) agreed to build Fort Halifax, but because the region the fort would be settled was under constant threat of Indian attacks it was agreed that all the parts and pieces needed to complete the fort would be curated at Fort Shirley (Frankfort, ME – now Dresden) and then floated up the river to Winslow (Taconnet Falls) where it was fully constructed on-site.
1. Parts of Fort Halifax were actually built into the rafts used to float the materials up the river to Fort Western where it was then taken out of the river and arduously trucked through the wilderness to Winslow. When the location of the Fort was reached the rafts were deconstructed and the parts were incorporated into the building of the fort.
This entire process, from start to finish, took a grand total of 56 days. This included the carrying of the awkward - large, heavy, cannons brought upriver to defend the new fortification. An amazing feat by most standards.

Research suggests Fort Halifax was never directly attacked. However, the men associated with the fort were under constant threat of attack when they left the confines of Fort Halifax to engage in duties necessary for frontier survival such as; hunting, fishing, gardening, gathering wood, and the like.

On numerous occasions Fort Halifax soldiers were killed, captured, or mysteriously disappeared.
1. In 1754 white settlers killed 4 Native Americans. Two were killed in the District of Maine and 2 others were killed shortly thereafter in Boston, Massachusetts. Both of these events led to revenge attacks by Indians against the soldiers manning Fort Halifax.
2. In November of 1754 3 soldiers were ambushed by Indians while out cutting wood. One soldier was killed and 2 were injured.
In 1755 there were 2 more incidents of violence initiated by local Indians. The first was a settler who was shot just outside the fort walls, the other, a courier named Edward Whaland, was captured and taken prisoner while canoeing his way back from Fort Western with official dispatches expected to be received at Fort Halifax. He never showed up and the worst was assumed.
Edward Whaland was held captive and brought to Canada where he was kept as a prisoner for 4 years.

The last Indian encounter on the Kennebec River happened in 1757 when a small bunch of men went out for a group hunting trip. “Safety in numbers” didn’t quite play out as planned and 5 members of this hunting party went missing, never to be seen again.

Captain Lithgow, commander of Fort Halifax, sent 10 men down the Kennebec to warn Fort Western about the incident and to warn them there are hostile Indians in the area.
On their return trip the 10 men were attacked from the shoreline by Indians. Volleys were fired from the shoreline to the boats and from the boats to the shoreline. Two soldiers were badly injured and one Indian was seen falling and being carried away by comrades, and it seemed very likely that this Indian was killed in the exchange.

The importance of Fort Western to the success of Fort Halifax cannot be overstated.

It’s been said time and again, the story of Fort Halifax cannot possibly be told without also talking about Fort Western in Augusta.
Fort Western in Augusta held all the stores that Fort Halifax needed to conduct its mission of protecting the area, while also supporting the settlement the British hoped would grow around it. So Fort Western was absolutely vital to the success of Fort Halifax. Without Fort Western it would be hard to speculate if Winslow would have survived, let alone thrived.

There were a number of historically important people who spent time at Fort Halifax, the following three worked intimately with Benedict Arnold during the disastrously ill-fated Arnold Expedition. The Expedition’s goal was to take the British at Quebec, but as we all know, things didn’t go as planned and they were defeated. The 3 men of note were Henry Dearborn, Aaron Burr, and, of course, Benedict Arnold, himself.

Henry Dearborn who later became the US Secretary of War under Thomas Jefferson was among the 600+ men who actually made it to Quebec. Unfortunately, he was captured and held prisoner until spring of 1776 when he was finally involved in a prisoner exchange.
Aaron Burr was just 19 years old when he entered into his first military service, which was the Arnold Expedition. He was an incredible soldier who did some pretty heroic things for America. He left his military service behind to pursue a path in law and politics, and eventually managed to get himself elected Vice President under Thomas Jefferson.
Benedict Arnold, the leader and designer of the Arnold Expedition; By all reasonable accounts Benedict Arnold was an incredible military force for the Continental Army, which is probably why his traitorous acts came as such a blow to those he betrayed so intimately. Arnold tried to sell West Point, with a side possibility of directly leading to the capture of General George Washington, but he was found out before the plan could be executed. He evaded capture by fleeing into British custody. He was rewarded with a commission as a Brigadier General in the British Army but was looked upon with suspicion for the rest of his days. No one trusted him. His legacy, even when still alive, was very similar to how we view him today – he was a traitor who betrayed his country.

Artifacts found at Fort Halifax are housed at Fort Western in Augusta

Archaeological digs have uncovered evidence there were 5 major prehistoric villages present at the Fort Halifax site over the past 3,000 years.
There have been over 100 generations of Native American activity at the site and further physical evidences, including burials and artifacts, offer physical proof the aboriginal activity in this area pre-dates the building of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Fort Hill Cemetery

Even after the fort was de-garrisoned it still remained the center of the community. In 1770 the entire complex was sold into private ownership to Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, a very well-to-do physician, pharmacist, real estate mogul, and businessman.
Dr. Sylvester gifted the land Fort Hill Cemetery sits on, to the people of Winslow.

What happened to the Long House, or “Fort House”, after Fort Halifax was abandoned?

The Fort House was the largest of the buildings at Fort Halifax. It was 40 feet wide and 80 feet long, and it served many functions over the years. While the Fort was active it served as housing for Captain Lithgow on one end and Officer’s on the other.
Post Fort Halifax the Fort House functioned as a church, a town meeting locale, and an inn – the same inn Benedict Arnold stated at on his way to Quebec.
In 1798 the original Fort House was demolished by its new owner, Richard Thomas, and another Inn was built in its place, called “The Halifax House”.

The post Fort Halifax first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.

Major Reuben Colburn House

Maine Ghost Hunters — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 21:06:57 +0000

Major Reuben Colburn House

Reuben Colburn arrived here, in what is now Pittston, Maine in 1761. He was 21 years old and full of energy, focus, and direction so it came as no surprise he was recognized as a natural leader within “Colburntown”, a tiny village which his family helped start. The Colburns were no stranger to the hardships and success of frontier life. Their family ancestry in New England dates back to the 1600’s when they were directly involved in the founding of the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts. Reuben came here with his entire family to be a part of that same type of venture, hence, Colburntown. His family members were his; Father Jeremiah Sr., Mother, Sarah Jewell; 3 brothers, Jeremiah Jr., Oliver, and Benjamin; and 4 sisters, Sarah, Rachel, Lucy, and Hannah.

The Colburn family had emigrated from North-Central Massachusetts and they’d done so under the invitation of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, a wealthy land proprietor in the Kennebec Valley region. He was a physician by trade, but he made his money in real estate deals, importing drugs from Europe, and operating at least 1 hospital to address the ongoing Smallpox issue in and around the Boston area. Dr. Gardiner moved from Boston to the Kennebec Valley region, in the District of Maine, in 1766. He was here, in this region, physically. So, while Sylvester Gardiner was a real estate mogul in this region he was also selling off large chunks of his land to new emigrants he had invited to settle the area.

I bring it up in that way because the Colburns were the heads of their burgeoning little village. Their manner of carrying-on in their day-to-day lives mattered greatly to the people around them, who depended on them for leadership and survival. Reuben Colburn was surrounded by boat builders, but he was the only owner in a vast distance to have a shipyard large enough to become the primary place of employment for a dependent citizenry. His opinions mattered greatly to a significant number within their relatively small population of Colburntown.

Getting straight to the point – Real estate mogul and Kennebec Proprietor, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner was a wholly dedicated loyalist, which is someone loyal to England. And Reuben Colburn, leader of tiny Colburntown, was a wholly dedicated patriot who encouraged a separation from England. Reuben Colburn owned a shipyard – the Colburn Shipyard. He, like every other business owner and colonist in the new world, had been victimized to the point of oppression by England’s taxes and tariffs, and he had to watch all the best White Pines – on his own land – be branded with the king’s broad arrow, marked for the Royal Navy, cut down and carried off, all while he was a shipbuilder in need of the very same trees. The trees on his own land were being taken from him and England was still taxing the life out of him and his business. His dedication to revolution did not come easy, nor did it come swiftly and there’s proof of this within the Colburn House itself.

The English Crown had passed a law decades earlier in 1711 called the White Pine act, and it basically restricted anyone from cutting down trees that were more than 24 inches in diameter. These trees would be branded with the king’s brand and cut down to serve as masts in the Royal Navy. The largest boards found in the Colburn House – which was built in 1765, Fifty-Four years after this law was passed – are measured to exactly 24 inches.

Meaning, up until a certain, and fairly sudden point, this family was dedicated to following the rule of law as England expected them to.

English oppression via taxes, tariffs, and the aggressive exploitation of all the best shipbuilding trees in the area led to a Royal disdain in the Colburn household. Reuben decided to make that known to all by staking a nice fat Liberty Pole in his yard, for all to see, including Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, the man who invited Jeremiah Sr., the Colburn patriarch, to help settle this patch of paradise on the Kennebec River. A Liberty Pole was a visual dissent against the British Crown and a very clear representation of the population’s political leanings. Gardiner and the Colburns couldn’t be more polar opposites, and there was slightly less loyalty in the community at-large for the former, than the latter. Reuben Colburn’s shipyard was the heart and soul of this town’s economy. He put money in the hands of his townspeople, and indirectly, a roof over their heads and food on their table. His influence was not to be underestimated.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Gardiner was exiled from the region in 1776 when the British fled Boston. He ran off to Canada, had to move back to England where he’d previously studied medicine, and his name was associated with other Loyalists in the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778. So not only was he chased off by the very patriots he helped settle onto land he sold them, he also lost almost everything he owned, including all remaining lands still under his name when he fled.

Reuben Colburn was all-in when it came to the subject of separating from England, and so was the rest of his family. His brother Oliver started a small local militia with the foresight that declaring independence was on the table and militias would be necessary to forge the way forward. Oliver was a captain of this militia as was the eldest Colburn son, Jeremiah Jr., Younger brother Benjamin was a Lieutenant, but Reuben eventually rose to outrank them all, earning the title of “Major”.

Direct involvement in the Revolutionary effort by Reuben Colburn came in 1775 when King George decided Massachusetts Bay was in a state of rebellion and ordered Boston Harbor to be completely blockaded. This single act threw the rebel cause into a next-level situation. Planning for offensive missions were put into action, including and most importantly, the attack on Fort Ticonderoga which Benedict Arnold led. It was a success in that the mission goals were achieved; to take the fort and walk away with its cannons. The cannons were desperately needed to support the Revolutionary Cause.

Benedict Arnold returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts and he immediately started looking for General George Washington, who was stationed nearby. He wanted another command. He wanted a serious command and he wanted to make a real, and lasting, impact for the Revolutionary Cause.

At the same time, Reuben Colburn had arrived in Cambridge looking for a way to help the revolutionary cause in a manner that served the community he lived in. His primary concerns were safety and continued economic stability, both of which were threatened within the past year.

In August of 1775 these two forces, Colburn and Arnold, wound up face to face and the beginnings of a plan to attack Quebec by way of the District of Maine was hatched.

The post Major Reuben Colburn House first appeared on Maine Ghost Hunters.