The Hunt for ANDERSON’S Garrison

aka the  JACOB ANDERSON Dig Site, Flying Point, Freeport (formerly) North Yarmouth, Maine, USA

PART 1: May, 2024

The water line trench that miraculously uncovered an old stone foundation corner was filled in for the winter in the Fall of 2023. We are back on site, ready to begin a formal archaeological excavation of the old cellar hole. We have laid out 7, one-meter square units starting at the location of the northeasterly corner of the cellar and running westerly in line with what I believe will be the south wall of the stone foundation. If the alignment is correct, we should get a good look at the cellar wall as well as any artifacts or features adjacent to the wall inside the cellar, and find the length of the wall.

Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth 1636-1936 by William Rowe Hutchinson states “During this period of the Indian wars there were in North Yarmouth nine or more fortified house or garrisons, affording protection in a greater or lesser degree to one hundred or more families who now lived here” including one at Flying Point. Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine by Florence G. Thurston and Harmon S. Cross states that “the original house (on the Collins farm) was no doubt the garrison house, to which the Means family should have gone to escape death. There is no record of the plan or materials of the garrison house, but if it was that on Torrey’s Hill it did not differ from other houses externally but was built with solid walls of hewn timber thick enough to stop the bullet of that day.”

Deed research indicates that the site we are investigating is indeed the former homestead of Mr. Collins. Likewise, oral tradition among local families states that this is the site of Jacob Anderson’s blockhouse or garrison. Our work this season should begin to answer many questions about the building where the remains of the Means family fled after the attack at the Means’ site in early May of 1756 and where Thomas Means (junior) was born seven months later.  ~JTM. 12-28-2024 MUSP Archaeological (surveyor’s) Report