John Cochran was born in 1749 in East Boston, then called Noddle’s Island. He was among the first settlers in Belfast, arriving in May of 1770. Known as” Boston John” he was remembered as a learned man; many children came to his house for lessons. He was already settled in Belfast in 1770, when he responded to the call to arms. In the early years of the American Revolution, he was a participant in the December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party. For most of the war, he and the other 109 settlers of Belfast, were obliged to abandon their homes and return to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Many remained away for five years until the war was over. Cochran, beside taking part in the Boston Tea Party also fought in the war, receiving an honorable discharge at its close.

John Cochran, was honored in Grove Cemetery on October 5, 2022 with a ceremony sponsored by the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, a group dedicated to recognizing all members of the December 16, 1773 event. During the ceremony a commemorative plaque was placed on Cochran’s gravesite.

In February 1855, the obituary of Mrs. Jane Brown Durham appeared in the Republican Journal. Jane, or Jean, as she is sometimes referred as, was the daughter of John and Mary Brown and the widow of Deacon Tolford Durham. Both the Brown and Durham families are among the first settlers in Belfast. At the time of her death, at age 97, she was the oldest person living in Belfast.

Jane is best remembered as having a clear memory of many events which transpired in the early years of Belfast history. Her obituary notice reads: Events which transpired over three-fourths of a century since, were fresh in her memory. Among those memories, in addition to the removal of the settlers here from New Hampshire, were her recounting of the reception of the news of the various battles of the revolution; the solemn reading of the Declaration of Independence in church, by order of Congress; the first celebration of the Fourth of July; and other events of a historical nature.

The Declaration of Independence, which passed on the 4th of July, 1776, was printed and sent to all the ministers of the gospel throughout the State, to be publicly read by them on the first Sunday after its reception and to be recorded by the town clerks as being read. According to the History of Belfast, no record of the kind exists on the books in Belfast. But we do know, according to Mrs. Durham, the following year on the first anniversary” the people from all parts met at Deacon Tuft’s, had a good time, and trained round all day.”

She was among those who watched from the heights of the eastern side of the harbor and was a witness to the first engagement between the American and British forces at Castine, located at the mouth of the Penobscot River. She recalled the first moments of the defeat of the fledgling American navy on August 13, 1779. “I saw the American fleet when it came up the bay and the vessels attacking each other. The sound of the guns was distinctly heard.”

Following this defeat and menacing presence of British troops, 109 inhabitants consisting of eighteen families, most of them women and young children, fled. All left in boats and gondolas and following the shore, proceeded down the bay without interference. Among those leaving by sea were Tolford, Jane, and one child – a daughter, Mary. The Durhams were among the half dozen Belfast families who remained in Camden and were housed on the borders of Chickawakie Pond for a year. When the Durhams returned home in 1780, they found everything in ruins. Cattle gone, crops destroyed, houses stripped of doors and windows and the items stored for safekeeping in Samuel Houston’s barn were destroyed by the British who burned the barn. A bed which Mrs. Durham hid under some logs had not been removed.

Let us keep in mind that in 1776, Jane was eighteen years old. She was born February 1, 1758 in Londonderry, New Hampshire. She had arrived in Belfast with her Brown family, which included one son and eight daughters. The Browns settled on the east side of the harbor. Her husband, Tolford, was born in Chester, New Hampshire in 1744, and when a boy, the Durhams moved to Londonderry. In 1776 he was thirty-two years old. We know he first built a log hut on the east side of the harbor in 1779 and was married to Jane (Jean). A more substantial house was built at the east end of the harbor bridge in 1800. He died in 1836, aged 92 years old. They had eleven children, not all reached adulthood.

One last word about Jane, in her obituary it was written, “The life of Mrs. Durham was happy and profitable, spent in useful toil, and in the faithful discharge of her humble duties. She survived all her contemporaries by many years.”

Both Tolford and Jane Durham are memorialized on a Durham family stone in the old section of Grove Cemetery.