OCTOBER 19:

1864 St. Albans, Vermont - Confederate States of America Lt. Bennett Young leads 25 Confederate Civil War fugitives hiding in Montreal to St. Albans, where they rob three banks of $200,000, and kill one person, before escaping back across the border to St-Jean; thirteen are arrested a few days later, and held for extradition, but are released on a technicality by a Montreal police magistrate; northernmost engagement of the US Civil War.

October 19, 1841:  On this day Tallahassee Seminole Chief Tiger Tail (Thlocko Tustennuggee) surrendered to American forces based on the intervention of Seminole Chief Alligator (Hallpatter Tustennuggee).  Three months later Tiger Tail escaped from government detention in Fort Brooke.

October 19, 1607:  English settlers officially found "the other" English colony on North America. Unlike Jamestown, Popham is settled by just men and boys. Popham, northeast of modern Portland, Maine, is established on the bluffs overlooking the spot where the Kennebec River flows into the ocean. The colony lasts only a little over one year. The colony's second leader returns to England, taking the settlers with him, when he inherits a sizeable estate in England.
 
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From http://www.mainesfirstship.org/
 

The Popham Colony was the first organized attempt to establish an English colony on the shores of what we now know as New England. It was planted at the mouth of the Kennebec River in the summer of 1607 and lasted for little over a year until it was abandoned in the fall of 1608. Popham was not the first European colony in New England. The French were earlier with a brief settlement on an island in the St. Croix River between Maine and New Brunswick in 1604. Although Popham was the first claim of possession of what was then called Northern Virginia by the English, the honor of the actual founding of a "New" England belongs to the Pilgrims who established the first permanent settlement in Massachusetts Bay thirteen years later. Despite its precedence, the failure of the Popham Colony to endure has rendered it a nearly forgotten historical footnote. Its failure, however, was an important step in the ongoing experience of English colonization and the lessons learned contributed directly to the ultimate success of the Pilgrims.
 

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From http://lincoln.midcoast.com/~hgh/
 

Pemaquid Indians (a tribe of the Abenaki/Algonkian Indians) at one time inhabited this area and befriended the Europeans who came to fish along the coast around the 1600's and before. Monhegan Island is known to have had fishermen stay through the summer months catching and drying fish before returning in the fall. The attempts at settlement predate the Plymouth landing.

The Indians who camped along the coast between the Kennebec and St. George Rivers were the Wawenocks, a peaceful and friendly people. They spoke Abnaki. There is evidence that these Indians were preceded by an earlier people, the so-called Red Paint People. The shell heaps are believed to predate the Abnaki Indians. The name "Pemaquid" is of Abnaki origin and means "situated far out."

Pemaquid is noted in the early history of Maine. It is the area on the mainland nearest to Monhegan Island. It was natural for ships which stopped at Monhegan to sail the few miles west to Pemaquid to larger and safer harbors. Other local names, indicated in early records, are New Harbor, Long Cove, and Round Pond. A cove, named for the Indian Moxus, is known now as Moxie.

Norsemen and other European explorers were probably in this area many centuries ago. Of all the occupations carried on by Europeans in this hemisphere, fishing was the earliest. A Spanish record indicated that as early as 1610, settlements were established by the English at Pemaquid and Popham. Probably the earliest settlements by Europeans were seasonal for the purpose of trading and fishing. Both the English and the French claimed the area. One account indicated that between 1607-1622, 109 ships with cargoes of fish and furs entered Pemaquid and were cleared.

Pemaquid was part of the North Virginia Colony. Sir Francis Gorges of the Virginia Company knew of scattered settlements along the coast. Thus, Captain George Weymouth was sent out to survey the whole area, to keep a record, and to lay plans for permanent settlements. Previously, Gosnold, in 1602, and Champlain, in 1605, had explored the area. In the spring of 1607, the Popham Colony left Plymouth, England. Early in August, en route to the mouth of the Kennebec, they stopped one night at Monhegan. They spent four days at Pemaquid. In April of 1614, Captain John Smith arrived at Monhegan. He made many excursions on the coast. His records show that one day his ship was anchored near another English ship and that he sighted, to the west, two French ships. He added that another English ship was in New Harbor at Pemaquid. About two years later, he made a map of the coastline. His work increased the general knowledge of the country.

Captains Weymouth, Harlow, and Hunt had taken Indians to sell as slaves. Hunt took 27 Indians to sell in Spain. One of these, Squanto, was able to make his way back in 1615, to his native Patuxet.
 

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From http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/swsts/maine1.HTM#Extract
 

History.-The Abnaki and their neighbors claim to have immigrated into their historic seats from the southwest. Aside from possible Norse visitants in 1000-1010, John Cabot, during his second voyage in 1498, probably brought the first white men within sight of Abnaki territory, but he seems to have had no dealings with the people. From that time on, Breton, Basque, Norman, and English fishermen constantly visited the coast. In 1604 Champlain passed along it from north to south and visited several Abnaki bands, and in 1605 Waymouth penetrated the Wawenoc country. In 1607-08 came an abortive attempt on the part of the Plymouth Company to make a permanent settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River, but it is probable that English fishermen were on Monhegan Island almost continuously after that date. Pemaquid was also occupied at an early period. The Abnaki were soon afterward missionized from Canada and became attached to the French interest. For a time they were successful in driving the English colonists away but later they suffered several severe defeats- particularly the capture of Norridgewock in 1724 and the defeat of the Pequawket in 1725 -- were much reduced in numbers, and finally withdrew to Canada where they were settled at Bécancour and Sillery, and later at St. Francis, along with other refugee tribes from the south.