Means massacre

A violent encounter struck the Means household of North Yarmouth in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in what is now Freeport, Maine, on May 10, 1756, when Native Americans assaulted the family during the ongoing French and Indian War, leaving two people dead.

Word had circulated that an Indian raid was underway nearby, and settlers living outside the main defenses had been urged to take refuge at the closest garrison house. Despite this, the Means family chose to remain where they were for the night, planning to head to Flying Point come morning. Their home was a log cabin near the water's edge. The household included Thomas, a 33-year-old farmer, his wife Alice, married to him for seven years, their daughters Alice and Jane, an infant boy named Robert, and Thomas's 16-year-old sister Molly, also called Mary. Alice was carrying another child at the time, a boy who would later be given the name Thomas.

Just after sunrise, the family was pulled from their dwelling. Thomas met his death by gunshot and was scalped. Alice fled back inside clutching her infant son and tried to seal the entrance, but an attacker fired a shot through a gap in the wall, killing the baby and wounding her in the chest. John Martin, asleep elsewhere in the house, returned fire and drove the assailants away.

Before leaving, the raiders seized Molly and forced her to march with them overland to Canada. Once she reached Quebec, she was sold into slavery. Months afterward, Captain William McLellan of Falmouth, Maine, present-day Portland, arrived in the city overseeing prisoners set for exchange. He had known Molly prior to her abduction and quietly organized her rescue, standing beneath her window and tossing up a rope for her to climb down. He then carried her home to Falmouth aboard his ship, and not long after their return, the two wed. A separate account claims McLellan already understood, at the moment of her capture, that she would end up in Quebec, and that he sought her out deliberately once he got there.

Alice, the widow, later married Colonel George Rogers. Thomas was laid to rest in Freeport's First Parish Cemetery beside his infant son, while his wife now shares a grave with her second husband at Flying Point Cemetery. Daughter Alice rests at Old Harpswell Common Burying Ground next to Clement Skolfield, whom she wed in 1773. Jane went on to marry Joseph Anderson of Flying Point.

This attack marked the final instance of violence committed by indigenous people within North Yarmouth's boundaries.

Born in December 1756, just months after his father and brother perished, the younger Thomas Means came into the world at the garrison house in Flying Point. He rose to the rank of major while serving in the Continental Army and lived until 1828, dying at either 71 or 72 years old. He too was buried at Flying Point Cemetery.

A staged reenactment of these events drew a sizable crowd in 1932, with nearly every performer descended from a member of the family involved in the original ordeal.

Freeport Historical Society, headquartered at Harrington House, hosted an exhibit remembering the incident during July and August of 2006.

Nearby stands a former one-room schoolhouse that bears the name Thomas Means Club, honoring the family's patriarch.

Maine Ulster-Scots Project

A group dedicated to uncovering the story of early Maine settlers with Ulster-Scots roots came together in 2006, timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Means massacre. Known as the MUSP, this organization digs into the past quite literally, conducting archaeological excavations aimed at understanding early homesteads and garrisons. Its members maintain a broader curiosity about Ulster-Scots heritage and traditions, and they have put out publications sharing what their digs have revealed.