Mrs. Christiana W. Putman

In the person of Mrs. Christiana W. Putnam of Houlton, a venerable matron of 83 years, the mother of seventeen children, eleven boys and six girls, all of whom but one lived to grow up, we have one who was born before the foot of a Saxon settler had trod these wilds, and who, with her parents, came at the age of nine years to live in what is now the town of Houlton. From her life, we gathered interesting details of the early time. Her mother, her sister Sally, twelve years old, and herself came overland in the company of Judy Samuel Cook from Alfred, York County. They rested at the old Elm Tavern at Portland, on that eventful day next after "the sea fight far away;" That "thundered o’er the tide;" and standing on the steps, with childish eagerness and curiosity, she saw the solemn march of the soldiers as, with muffled drums and arms reversed, they bore the bodies of the dead captains, to lay them "in their graves, over-looking the tranquil bay." The party reached the import settlement October 10, 1813.

Contributed 2024 Aug 10 by Norma Hass, extracted from 1886-7 Agriculture of Maine ... Annual Report, by Maine Teachers' Association, pages 101-102.