The Last of the Pigwackets: Molley Ockett Day

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MollyOckett Day. What is it? Is it just a day we have every year to earn money for the town? No. Is it a day that people who have booths, sell items to earn money for themselves? No. So, what exactly is MollyOckett Day? In this essay I am going to take you on a journey and tell you exactly who MollyOckett is, her background, what this day is for, and why this day is still around for people to celebrate.
MollyOckett was a woman who was born in 1740 in Saco, Maine. She was an Abenaki Indian of the Pigwacket tribe and was baptized by a woman named Marie Agathe. MollyOckett was the daughter and granddaughter of chiefs. MollyOckett befriended the settlers of Western Maine and had a very close relationship with the towns of Andover, Fryeburg, Poland, Paris and of course, Bethel, which took place during the 18th and 19th century.
When she died on August 2, 1816, she became a legendary figure, a subject of fireside storytelling, school pageants, and popular magazine articles which contained inaccurate information. “The last of the pigwackets” MollyOckett has been honored every year at the MollyOckett Day celebration now and for many years, her name is connected with lots of geographic landmarks, business ventures and community organizations around here. MollyOckett has a place nearby Bethel that is full of “Indian mystique” which is completed with romance, curses, buried treasure, and near-miraculous cures. She is known as “the great Indian doctress” and the cures she gives are recorded in local histories. She was accused of cursing the home of Hannibal Hamlin that lived on Paris Hill, which he was her most famous patient. MollyOckett found him almost dead. She saved his life by giving Hamlin prescribed warm cow’s milk. Hamlin became ...

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...thing that we celebrate every year due to the fact of what she did for this community and what she still continues to do for this community. MollyOckett is giving people in this community a chance to give back to the people that need help and that are sick. I’m glad MollyOckett Day is celebrated because if it wasn’t, then a lot of people in this community wouldn’t be where they are today and they would be more sick then they are today.

Works Cited

"Molly Ockett and Her World." Molly Ockett and Her World. Bethel's Historical Society, n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.

"Who Was MollyOckett?" MollyOckett DaysJuly 19-20, 2014Bethel, MainePresented By: Mahoosuc Realty & Rentals. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.

"Molly Ockett Days Festival Beginning to Truly Honor Native Namesake." Indian Country Today Media Network.com. Gale Courey Toensing, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 08 May 2014.

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