Sketches of Some Revolutionary Soldiers of Piscataquis County. 
By Edgar Crosby Smith
pg. 154

SHARON WICK'S NOTE:   These will be transcribed upon request HERE

     DURING the period covered by the Revolutionary War the territory which is now Piscataquis County was but a wilderness, visited only by the Indian and an occasional trapper; hence hers could not be the honor of furnishing any of her sturdy sons to her country.  However, a number of the veterans of that war were among the early settlers of the county.
     In the sketches which follow, will be found chronicled some account of the lives of a number of these pioneers, but at present the writer has been unable to obtain data to any degree of completeness regarding them all.

PHINEAS AMES.
Sangerville.

     Phineas Ames was the son of Samuel Ames and Sarah (Ball) Ames, and was born in Rutland, Mass., October 26, 1757.
     His first service in the Continental Army appears to have been eleven days, commencing August 20, 1777.  The battle of Bennington occurred August 16, 1777, and although the result was a complete victory for the Americans, the whole northern country was up in arms.  Men poured in from New York and New England.  A company was detached from Rutland to march to Bennington, and Phineas Ames was a member of this company.  The captain was David Bent, and he was in Col. Nathan Sparhawk's regiment.  As the British were so completely routed it was not deemed necessary to keep a large force at the place, and most of the companies ordered out for this special service were discharged and sent home.  Ames returned to Rutland with his company after a service of eleven days.
     His second service of which he have any record is that of his enlistment of September 27, 1777.  After the battle of Bemis' Heights, September 19, 1777, reserves were hurried on to Saratoga to assist Gen. Gates.  Ames enlisted in Capt. John Boynton's company, Col. Sparhawk's regiment, under the command of Major Jonas Wilder, and this regiment was ordered to join the army of the Northern Department.  It is probable that he arrived at the seat of war in season to participate in the battle of October 7.  Burgoyne surrendered and laid down his arms Oct. 17, 1777, and many of the militia companies were then discharged.  Phineas Ames' discharge was dated Oct. 18, 1777, the day after Burgoyne's surrender.  Service, twenty-nine days.
     This is all the recorded service that can be found on the rolls credited to Phineas Ames, but he undoubtedly saw other service as he frequently used to relate his experiences, "while with the army in 'Jarsey'."
     About 1780 he removed from Rutland to Hancock, N. H., and in 1785 he married Mehitable Jewett, of Hollis, N. H.  During the years 1781 and 1782 he was one of the selectmen of Hancock.  His two oldest children, Daniel and Samuel, were born here.  In 1796 he moved to Harmony, Me., and was one of the first settlers there.
     It was 1801 or 1802 that he first came into Piscataquis County.  He then came across from Harmony and cleared an opening in Sangerville on the north side of Marr Pond, near Lane's Corner.  In the fall of 1803 he moved in with his family, and became the first settler in Sangerville.  His trip here, like all others of those early settlers, was attended with hardship.  He came by the way of a spotted line, his wife on horseback, carrying in her arms a babe only a few months old; but they reached their destination in safety, and went to work with a will to make for themselves a comfortable home.  The township was then called Amestown.
     From 1803 to 1810 were busy years for Mr. Ames; besides clearing his farm and getting a number of acres under cultivation, he built a grist-mill on Black Stream, on the upper falls, and sometime before 1807 he surveyed Col. Sanger's lots in the town.  On account of the crude construction of the mill it was not a success, and did not prove to be a source of profit to the owner.  About 1810 Mr. Ames exchanged the mill and privilege with Col. Sanger for three lots of land.  On one of these he settled, leaving his place on Marr Pond.  He lived here but a short time and then exchanged with Edward Magoon and settled near Knowlton's Mills.
     Mr. Ames was always prominent in the deliberations of the settlement, plantation and town.  He was called King Ames, and his counsel was frequently sought, and generally accepted in affairs of moment.  It was he who advised moderation when the Indian scare pervaded the settlements at the declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812.  The settlers all along the Piscataquis River were much alarmed, fearing the Indians, incited by the British, would take to the tomahawk and scalping-knife.  A mass-meeting was held at Foxcroft in August, 1812, to see what means should be taken for mutual defense.  After listening to the remarks of various settlers expressing their views, who had as many ideas as there were speakers, King Ames was called for.  He told them that the Indians, if they took any part at all in the hostilities, would undoubtedly attach themselves to some portion of the enemy's army, and that in his opinion little need be feared at present from the red men.  His view of the situation was generally accepted and the people retired to their homes with their fears somewhat abated.
     Mr. Ames lived at Knowlton's Mills until 1824, when he, with his son Samuel, moved to West Dover and settled upon what is now the Dover poor farm.  Here he lived for a number of years, but his last days were spent in the family of his daughter Betsey, who married James C. Doore, and lived near South Dover.  He died in 1839, at the age of 82, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the South Dover cemetery.
     Phineas Ames was a man of many occupations; the record of Hancock, N. H., give him as a carpenter; he was also a farmer, blacksmith, land-surveyor and millwright.  He reared a family of eight children.  The town of Sangerville was know as Amestown until its incorporation in 1815, and it is said that Col. Sanger made Mrs. Ames a present of quite a substantial sum in cash for the privilege of changing the name to Sangerville.

ENOCH BROWN,
Sebec.

     Enoch Brown was born in the year 1751, but of what place he was a native it is impossible to obtain any information.  It may have been Arrowsic, as he was a resident there in 1777, but this is mere conjecture.  Of his ancestry, like that of many of our pioneers, time has obliterated the last trace.  Interviews with all his living descendants fail to bring to light a thread which it is possible to take up and unravel to any solution.
     Arrowsic settlement is one of the oldest in Maine, yet but little is preserved regarding its early families, and it has been impossible to glean any information relative to Mr. Brown's family from any obtainable of his service in the Continental Army is that over his own signature, made in his application for state bounty in 1835.  It is as follows:
     "I Enoch Brown of Sebec in the county of Piscataquis and State of Maine, aged eighty-four years, do, upon oath declare, in order to obtain the benefit of a Resolve of the Legislature of Maine, passed March 17, 1835, entitled a 'Resolve in favor of certain Officers and Soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and the Widows of the Deceased Officers and Soldiers,' that I enlisted in the year 1777 for one year into and joined a Company in Portland, Commanded by Capt. Blaisdell, went to Ticonderoga in Capt. Johnson's Company and Col. Brewer's regiment.  At the close of hte year I was discharged at Albany.  In the month of December following, I enlisted at Ticonderoga under Lieut. James Lunt, for during the war and joined Capt. Stetson's Company and Col. Alden's regiment, and employed William Wallace to take my place by giving him two hundred dollars, who was accepted in my place, and who fulfilled my time, for during the war and I was then discharged.  I am now upon the U. States pension roll of the Maine agency.
     "I do further on oath declare that at the time of my said enlistment, I was an inhabitant of Rousick Island (Arrowsic) in the then district of Maine, and was on the 17th day of March, 1835, have been ever since, and am now an inhabitant of the State of Maine, residing in Sebec aforesaid, where I have resided for several years past.  That neither I, nor anyone claiming under me, has ever received a grant of Land, or money in lieu thereof, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for my said service, or any other other service during the Revolutionary War, and that I am justly entitled to the benefit of said resolve.
     Witness: 
            Joseph Lamson
            George P. Logan

            Enoch X Brown
                  his mark

       Dated September 12, 1835."

     From the Massachusetts Archives we find Enoch Brown credited to Capt. Samuel Johnson's company, and Col. Wigglesworth's regiment.
     After his service in the army he returned to Arrowsic, and he probably lived there until his removal to Sebec.  Here we again at a loss for accurate information; just when Mr. Brown came to Sebec it is impossible to determine.  His son Samuel came there quite early, probably not far from 1820, and took up lot number one, range eight, being the lot just across the road from the old town farm.  After the son had made a clearing and built a cabin he brought his parents from Arrowsic to his new home.  Samuel at this time was unmarried; he afterwards married Mary Angove, and their first child was born in 1829.  This child, Mrs. Sarah Bartlett, is now (1908), living in Dover.
     The remainder of his life, Mr. Brown lived with his son Samuel, on the homestead that their labors had rescued from the wilderness.  The simple, rugged life of the pioneer combined with a strong constitution meted out to him a long span of life; he lived to the age of 93 years, and died Dec. 17, 1844.  His ashes rest in the little cemetery just south of his old home, but there is nothing to mark the grave, and its exact location has now been forgotten.  He received a pension for his Revolutionary service January 8, 1819.
     Where or when he married, or the maiden name of his wife, are not known.  Her Christian name was Phebia.  She died March 10, 1843.

EZEKIEL CHASE,
Sebec.

EBENEZER DEAN,
Blanchard.

ALLEN DWELLEY,
Dover.

JOHN HART,
Atkinson.

NIMROD HINDS,
Dover.

ENOCH LEATHERS,
Sangerville.

HENRY LELAND,
Sangerville.

ZACHARIAH LONGLEY,
Dover.

JEREMIAH ROLFE,
Abbot

ISAAC ROYAL,
Dover.

ELEAZER SPAULDING,
Foxcroft - Dover.

SAMUEL STICKNEY,
Brownville.

ASA STURTEVANT,
Dover.

ICHABOD THOMAS,
Brownville.

THOMAS TOWNE,
Dover.