Articles collected on the curse

History of the Curse in Print

A Textbook account of the true Revolutionary Hero, and ship builder. A better tribute to be remembered by, written by a well known local historian of the times Rev. A.G. Hempstead, Pastor of the local Franklin Street Methodist Church:

The true story of Jonathan Buck's purposeful life is an intergral part of the history of Penobscot region of Maine during his lifetime. It is paritcularly ironical that his personal history should have become distorted by the trivial circumstances of a flaw in a stone because, as a pioneer, Buck himself did much to document the founding and developing of Bucksport.

     He was born on February 20, 1719-long after the era of witch burning had passed-in Woburn, Massachusetts, although the inscription on his monument is erroneously states he was born in Haverhill. In 1723, he moved with his father to Haverhill, where , before coming to the province of Maine, he was a surveyor and a builder of ships.

     Jonathan Buck was a meticulous keeper of brief but accurate accounts, which include his Memorandum Book, a highly prized historical document.  It was made of imported Italian paper, which cost a shilling a sheet-and which might help to explain its brevity-and its records, among other things, Buck's first trip of exploration to Maine in the sloop Sally.

     Eight sloops, with sixty men aboard them, sailed from Haverhill in June 1762 and met off Fort Point, not many miles down the opposite shore from what would later be Buckstown. The next day they sailed to Naskeag, where lots were drawn to determine which sections of land each of the different groups should inspect and survey. The group led by Jonathan Buck drew the six townships to the west on Mount Desert River (Union River, Ellsworth). Township No. 1 was what is now Bucksport, and what became Orland was Township No. 2. The numbers served as names for many years.

     The expedition was back in Haverhill in August, 1762. The following year the Sally made another trip, this time the township lines were settled, and lots were laid out. In 1764 the settlement was begun with the building of a sawmill, on the stream just above Verona Bridge. In all of this Jonathan Buck was the moving spirit.

     As soon as he was equipped to do so in the new settlement, Buck naturally turned to shipbuilding. In 1771, he launched the sloob Hannah, the first ship built on the Penobscot River, which Captain Abner Lowell took to the West Indies that same year.

    An industrious pioneer, Buck was resentful of British rule and became the outstanding rebel on Penobscot Bay, where the settlement had largely been loyalist. Commisioned a Colonel by the General Court of Massachuesetts, Jonathan Buck raised his own troops and in 1779 led them to a so called storming of the British at Castine. They met with defeat and fled back home, followed by the British in the ship the Nautilus. Colonel Buck sent his family to stay with friends in Brewer until they could join him, while he proceeded to Haverhill on foot. The British spared the property of the Loyalists, but destroyed by fire everything in Bucksport belonging to Buck and his followers.

    After the Revolutionary War Buck and others returned to Maine in 1784 to make a new start. Buck rebuilt his house, which is now incorporated in the ell of the house at the corner of Main and Mill streets. He also rebuilt his sawmill. Sloops kept bringing new settlers to township No. 1 until in 1792, the population was sufficient to warrant incorporation. The settlers took the name of Bucktown, which was changed in 1817 to Bucksport.

    Jonathan Buck was described in the Bangor Historical Magazine by William D. Williamson, author of a History of the State of Maine, published in 1832: "He was a man of strong mind, retentive memory, and steadfast purpose. In his person he was well proportioned, not large, his complexion was dark; his countenance sedate and expressive of sense, and his manner commanding. He was distinguished for his piety, and much respected for the excellent qualities that give character to the righteous man."

    Few righteous men who have made and honored place in the regional history of their times have been dealt with so unfairly by succeeding generations. But as long as the Buck monument stands, the leg which defaces it will catch the eyes of passerby; and undoubtedly the legends have been built around it will be told and retold for generations to come. A few may feel, as Mrs. Swazey did so vehemently, that the reputation of a good man was sold for the price of a magazine article. But more will remember only a fantasy of a witch's curse.

Item:

First written account:

In 1852 the great grandchildren of Jonathan Buck, feeling that his gravestone was too inconspicous for the founder of the town erected a sizeable granite monument to his memory. He is in fact buried some distance(avoiding the term feet) behind the current stone. A "fault" appeared in the stone. This marking might resemble anything, according to the imagination of the beholder. One day after someone had seen it as a stocking or a leg, stories and explanations started and grew, based upon fancy not on fact.

In the September 1902 issue of "The New England Magazine", was printed, "The Witch's Curse,a Legend of an Old Maine Town", by J.O. Whittemore. According to the Whittemore version of the legend, Colonel Buck was Judge and condemned a witch to be hanged. She pronounced a curse and prophesied that her foot would appear on his gravestone. Mr. Whittemore's article closed with the paragraph (which should always be attatched to the legend, but almost never is): "More Practical and matter of fact persons discredit the story and call attention to the historical discrepancy between the date of the witchcraft era and that of Colonel Buck's era. They say that the tracing is entirely accidental, a fault in the granite which was either hidden by the makers, or developed after the monument was in place, and that the legend was made to fit the foot and not the foot to fit the witch's curse."

His gravestone should read 1719 - 1795

Item:

The Native

by Ester E. Wood

Kenneth Roberts wrote, "Local tradition spits on the truth and tramples the gown of common sense." It could well be said. "Local tradition feeds upon lies and flies far and fast on wings of nonsense."

The best known piece of local tradition in eastern Maine is the story of Jonathan Buck of old "Buckstown" and his tombstone. This is the tale as told by local tradition: Jonathan once condemned to death a woman found guilty of being a witch. Before the hanging the woman put a curse on Buck. After the death and burial of Buck the outline of a woman's foot and leg appeared on the granite monument over his grave, the curse of the witch.

These are the facts: The witchcraft scare came in the late 17th Century long before Buck was born. Buck was not a judge. No person living in Maine was put to death on the charge of being a witch. Sometimes a granite monument will have a hairline crack that is invisible. In time the cracks will fill with dirt and widen due to the frost and rain and cold. Then the cracks will be visible and may well make a pattern. I have seen old grave stones bearing the mark of an arrow or a cross or breaking waves. The cracks on the buck monument outline a leg.

A few slight corrections: First, the discoloration was formed when the granite was in it's molten state, and is through the stone. Granite is comprised of several differing minerals all of differing colors. When super heated and mixed unevenly, swirling patterns of different shapes and colors are formed. If you took a stone saw, and cut the face of the stone in half, you would have the same image of the leg for as far as the mineral ran through the stone. After the granite is quarried, the rough part is sanded off, thus temporarily hiding the flaw. Not to point blame on the stone cutter himself, the flaw might not have been readily apparent. But once the cut was opened to time, oxygen, and the elements, it would almost seem to appear or materialize on the stone like invisible ink held to a flame. Second, the author states, there was never any witches executed in Maine. Statement of fact, unless you take into account, that Maine was part of Massachuesetts at the time of the Salem Witch burnings, trials, and therefore could be counted as having actually participated in the executions. Some of the executed were captured in the wilderness of Maine, and hauled back to Salem in leg irons to face Mr. Mather. Including a prominent Reverand George Burroughs, who was a hero of Casco Bay, and Wells, later to become Portland. I nice write up on him can be found here "Reverend George Burroughs, Confederate of the Devil." including a tale of when he was captured and brought back to Salem on the way, he supposedly summoned a lightning storm and ball lightning surrounded him with a blue glow.

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