File #6045: "ms158_b3f003_003.04.pdf"

[Entire page struck through with several pencilled diagonals:]

29

Molly Molasses

Mary Polasses or Molly Molasses as she was commonly called was the oldest and most famous woman of the tribe. When my grandfather first knew her she was an old woman, and she was probably forty five or fifty years old {more!} when he was married. She lived til around the end of the war, dying probably in 1865 {1867 aet 92}. She was not less than ninety years old {92 said she - by Charles Dillingham} at her death and she declared she was a hundred.

Her husband had always been drowned "just forty years Moosehead Lake". She said she could remember when the first white folks came, "talk jus' like blackbirds". She could remember when there had been a large spring "where camp 'um Abram", that is on the site of the Penobscot Exchange owned by Abram Woodward. She could also remember when they used to hunt moose on Thomas's Hill in Bangor "Where camp 'um Charles" = that is, Charles Roberts

Father says she never had a husband -

Molly's name was Baylehsee [?] - In Blake's roster Bellonses

Clara Neptune says she was m'teoulin & so the tribe were afraid of her

Very likely her real name was Mary Pelagie