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Benjamin Church - Documents
1690 Expedition to Androscoggin
December 1997
Note: these documents contain links to a Glossary of Terms - but you MUST USE THE BACK BUTTON of your browser to return to the document text.
The event that took place in the year 1690 on the Androscoggin River has been told and retold many times. In most cases the writers relied on one particular document without searching for any other account. Often the writers were more interested in telling a good story than in accurately reporting an event that occurred well before the time of any of their readers.
Some writers took a great deal of liberty in describing the event. The story needs to be told in an unbiased and more complete way.
In all fairness to those other writers, we have not been able to determine the truth. Therefore, we offer you the original sources we have located during our research. Judge for yourself, what happened at Laurel Hill in September 1690.
Church's Orders - The first document has the orders received by Maj. Church just prior to setting out on the expedition. [rather harsh - but it was a different time and most people truly believed that it was their "Duty to God" to tame the savage wilderness!]
The Official Report - This document is a letter (or formal account) written by Major Benjamin Church, shortly after the event occurred. As it is a detailed military report to his superiors, it should be considered "the true accounting of the expedition". However, by the time he writes this report, he has experienced "many cross things falling" and some of his actions may already have been questioned.
He may be trying to make a "good" account by this time. In any event, this letter is the only document found that can be considered a "first hand" account.
His Son's Version - This document is found in a book originally written and published in 1716 by Thomas Church, son of Benjamin Church. It was reprinted in 1772, and again in the early 1800's with extensive notes by Samuel G. Drake. The transcript that we provide you here comes from the 1989 Heritage Books reprint of the 1829 second edition by Samuel Drake.
Needless to say, it may not be true to the original, which no longer exists. Thomas Church supposedly had access to his father's journals, letters, reports, etc. and to his father, who was still alive but quite aged.
The Mysterious Document - The source of this document is a true mystery, by all accounts. It appeared in the Lewiston Journal in 1881 and provides us with a new picture of events just prior to the skirmish. However, it creates more questions than anything written before or after. The writer takes liberty to create dialog for Church, which does makes all other dialog in the article suspect.
But, would this writer have been so bold as to create an entire event? We think not. He may have discovered some journal or account of the soldiers from Fort Loyal, now lost to time. Perhaps the writer was a descendant of one of them. But why are these two soldiers not mentioned in any other account? Or were they? If there is anyone out there that can shed light on this document or it's writer, identified only as H.F.B., PLEASE ! contact us.
What the early Historians had to say - The last document contains accounts written by early historians.
Brief background of Benjamin Church with comments by Ne-Do-Ba
