The "Northeastern Boundary Dispute" aka The Aroostook War, officially started when the Lt Gov. of New Brunswick sent a letter to the Governor of Maine and said that Maine personnel operating north of the Aroostook River Valley were operating on his territory and threatened military action. This was on or about Feb. 14th, 1839. The conflict had been brewing ever since a series of incidents occurred in the fall and winter of 1825. Contemporary proponents say the issue was "timber" and that was a large part of the issue. Substitute "oil" and one gets a contemporary sense of how important timber was to both sides. The secondary issue was a new Queen, civil unrest in upper and lower Canada and a need for the government to have a year long route for its military personnel other than the Mississippi River to Great Lakes route. For the US, we were doing the same type of action in the south with Spain over the terms of the southern boundary that was set in the treaty of 1819 at the Sabine and Red River, but we wanted south to the Rio Grande except Mexico didnt want to sell it to us, so President Jackson was "working" on just taking the territory in question. In 1839 the total US federal troop strength was 1200 men and most of them were moving Cherokee to Oklahoma, thus Congress acknowledged it was their job but told us to handle our land issues and they would reimburse us. If you have the actual petition for pension, that would help a lot, if not, I can get a copy of it for you. There were four components to the forces serving during the years 1838-1842: the original sheriff's posse, the volunteer reinforcement posse, the Drafted Militia and the Armed Civil Posse which was the largest component serving from May 1839 until the end of 1842. I have the records of the second and third groups as well as one of the rosters for the first group and several rosters for the last group as well as a variety of pension records, certificates of discharge, travel records etc. The first and last groups were under the direction of the State Land Agent's office per an agreement negotiated between Washington and Frederickton and were not preserved in the Maine State Adjutant General's office. Many remained within the personal papers of the various company clerks or as with the volunteer reinforcement posse records, they were put into a subbasement storage area and forgotten until the mid 1960s when Viet Nam issues resulted in the need for additional office space at Camp Keyes and someone remembered this room. Once opened, the room contained boxes of moldy, rotting papers which were sorted and either sent to the state archives or thrown away as not salvagable-a lot of great information was thus lost. I will look through my indexes to see if I can find those with your surname. It would be easier if you could email me directly with as much information as you have on where he lived, served and when plus when he petitioned and when he was awarded the compensationand any other particulars you have on your relative. I have obtained pension requests from as late as 1883 out of New Hampshire from a soldier who received a gunshot wound in his knee but didnt file for the pension until he was unable to do manual labor. People were either hardier or more socially aware of where their money was coming from so didnt ask until they absolutely needed it.
My email address is firstname.lastname@example.org
As for the designation. Our Legislature passed a resolve directing our Congressional delegation to acquire it and they designated Sen. Snowe as the ranking member, to draft the legislation. We were "tweeking" a second draft and doing research when the 2012 election arrived and She unfortunately did not seek re-election. Her successor, Angus King has not responded to my requests for an appointment and Sen. Collins' office is not interested in pursuing the action so..... we tread water while working at more information,keeping the interest alive and before we go shopping for a candidate that will assist us next election. In the meantime we have identified and gotten approval in Augusta for several historical markers to be erected.
I hope to hear from you.