LA CROSSE COUNTY HiSTORICAL SKETCHES


Falmouth, and the first in Maine east of Wells. He served as pastor
of the First Church of Portland for a little over sixty-eight years, oc-
cupying the pulpit after he was ninety. During much of his life he kept
a diary which throws much light upon the life of those days. The first
edition of it was published a little over one hundred years ago. In it
is a wood cut of the dominie of which this is a photographic reproduo-
tion. The original sheets are kept in the safe in the historical library
on Congress street in Portland, in the same yard as the Longfellow
home which many of you have doubtless visited. Visiting that library
some years ago with Miss Hanscome we saw in one of the cases the
staff used by the Rev. Thomas Smith which we desired to examine.
When the librarian upon inquiry learned who we were not only put
in our hands the staff but she brought from the safe the original man-
uscript of his -diary, and said that since Miss Hanscome and Mrs. Bird
were his direct descendants we ought to have some of the sheets and
gave us each some. Thinking some of you might be interested to see
it I brought one of them over. As it is much more than one hundred
years old and very frail it has to be handled with care. The scarcity
of paper at that time and place accounts for the very small script in
which it is written.
     It is difficult for us to realize that the beautiful city of Portland
was then only a little, straggling frontier settlement much exposed to
Indian attacks of which frequent mention is made in the diary. Peter
Thatcher was the greatly beloved pastor of his college days at Cam-
bridge and it is not strange that he named his first born son Peter
Thatcher Smith. He in time was also graduated from Harvard and
became a preacher. Among other places he preached one or more times
at the little wilderness settlement of what is now Windham, Maine,
then New Marblehead as its chief settlers had come from that place.
The settlers were so pleased with him and his preaching that they ex-
tended a call to him to become their pastor. After long consideration
he accepted and entered on the work. It was a frontier settlement,
about the size of Midway, and much exposed to Indian attacks. The
church built a house for him with a stockade for protection. He then
went to Boston for his bride, Elizabeth Wendell, daughter of Jacob
Wendell a prominent merchant of Boston. Among her wedding pres-
ents was a one-horse chaise. In this chaise they made their wedding
journey from Boston to New Marblehead. That was "The Wonderful
One Horse Shay" of which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote so entertain-
ingly. They had a daughter, Lucy, who married Abraham Anderson
and when a son came to them he was named Abraham for his father
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