Gammon, Joseph

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military: Veteran of the American Revolution
• Tombstone Photo: Norway, Oxford Co., ME; Pikes Hill Cemetery

Notes:

From: "History of Gorham, Me", by Hugh Davis McLellan, 1903
Joseph, b. in Gorham in August, 1758, was a soldier of the Revolution, and a member of Capt. McLellan's company in the expedition against Bagaduce. After the defeat, he and John Lombard made their way to Gorham through the wilderness; they were without arms, and suffered great hardships, but finally, after a long time reached home in safety. Mr. Gammon and Mr. Lombard went together from Gorham to Otisfield, and afterwards to Norway, where they settled on adjoining farms, and there spent the remainder of their days. Mr. Gammon m. in Otisfield, Drusilla Reed, who was b. in Groton, Mass., in 1769. Ch: Charles, Harriet, Seba, Maria, Pomelia and Joseph. Mr. G. d. in Norway, in 1855, ag. 97.

From: Charles F. Whitman, "A history of Norway, Maine: from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922" (Norway, Me.: unknown, 1924). Pages 82-83
Joseph Gammon left an account of his and John Lombard's tramp home to Gorham through the woods, on the disastrous failure of the expedition against Castine (Bagaduce) in 1779. Seven others from Gorham and Gray, who were afterwards early settlers in Norway, were also in that expedition, but nothing relating to how these seven reached their homes has come down to us. On the breaking up of the expedition through the cowardice and incompetence of Commodore Saltonstall of Connecticut, and the destruction of the American fleet by the marines to prevent the vessels from falling into the hands of the enemy, the soldiers with the exception of four companies which were collected by General Peleg Wadsworth, and marched to Camden, were told by their officers to separate into small squads and make their way to their homes as best they could with Indians as guides. Gammon and Lombard chose to go by themselves. With others they had jumped from the transport they were on, the day before they began their long tramp, into the Penobscot, from fear of being captured by the British, and swam ashore without their guns or any rations. To travel from an hundred to an hundred and fifty miles, through a trackless forest, subsisting on berries and roots, with an occasional meal of raw flesh from small animals and birds, which they were fortunate enough to kill; wading and swimming streams, plunging through swamps and miry places, in summer was a very serious undertaking even for old hunters, skilled in woodcraft. After a tramp of about three weeks they reached their homes in Gorham. Their clothes were in tatters; their feet nearly naked and covered with blisters; their flesh lacerated and bruised; but with a joy in their hearts that is indescribable

Joseph married Patrick, Polly on 01 Mar 1795. Polly was born about 1775; died between 1801 and 1869. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joseph married Reed, DrusillaNorway, Oxford Co., ME. Drusilla was born in 1769; died in 1835 in Buckfield, Oxford Co., ME; was buried in Norway, Oxford Co., ME. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gammon, Harriet was born on 19 Dec 1801 in Otisfield, Oxford Co., ME.
2. Gammon, Charles was born on 6 Nov 1803 in Otisfield, Oxford Co., ME.
3. Gammon, Seba was born on 30 Jan 1806 in Otisfield, Oxford Co., ME; died on 6 Apr 1889; was buried in Paris, Oxford Co., ME.
4. Gammon, Joseph J. was born on 02 Sep 1809 in Otisfield, Oxford Co., ME.

Notes:

From: "History of Gorham, Me", by Hugh Davis McLellan, 1903
Philip and Joseph Gammon, brothers, came from England to America, when quite young, and lived for a while in Cape Elizabeth. In 1757, Philip, then of Scarborough, moved to Gorham, where he bought, July 7, 1757, the hundred acre lot, 45, of David Gorham. His wife was Joanna_____. We find no perfect record of his family...

Aug 10, 1770, Phiip Gammon sold to David Gorham his hundred acre lot 45, and bought of Gorham the thiry acre lot 96 and the hundred acre lot 49, and apparently moved on to the former lot, for in 1784 he deeded to his sons Jonathan and Benjamin one-half of the lot with half of his dwelling house and barn. The hundred acre lot 49 he sold in 1771 to John Brackett of Falmouth. He afterwards owend and lived on the seventy acre lot 63, which lot he and Thomas Clay bought of David Harding, Jr. in 1797. His half he and his wife Joanna gave in 1801 to their daughter Ruth Clay, "in consideraton of the love he bore her." Philip Gammon moved to Windham, where his old cellar may still be seen. From Windham he went with his son Nathaniel to Raymondtown.

Philip married Gatchell, Joanna. Joanna was born in 1712; died in 1782. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]