Joseph Weare (March 9, 1737 – 1774) was a noted 18th-century fighter against Native American who was from

North Yarmouth North Yarmouth, officially the Town of North Yarmouth, is a town in Cumberland County, Maine. The population was 4,072 at the 2020 United States Census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...

(now

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

). He was nicknamed ''the Scout''.

Life and career

Weare was born to Captain Peter Weare (1695–1743) and Sarah Felt (1701–1768). His father drowned while attempting to cross the Royal River when Joseph was six years old; his mother lived for a further twenty-five years.''Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine 1636-1936: A History'', William Hutchinson Rowe (1937) Weare's hostility to the Native Americans (whom he "pursued at every opportunity with unrelenting hate") began when he learned that they killed his maternal grandfather, Joseph Felt, in 1722. He married Mary Noyes on March 20, 1760. They had one known child, Nathaniel, born that December, who was named for Joseph's paternal grandfather. Around 1760, Weare was splitting logs with an axe near his home when six Indians approached. They asked him if he know where "Joe Weare" lived. He responded that he did, and offered to lead them to him if they helped him finish his work. He asked the Indians to pull on each side of the log as he drove his axe into the wedge. With three of them on each side of the log, Weare drove his axe into the wedge, causing it to close on the Indians' hands, rendering them defenseless. He then hit each of them with his axe, shouting, "I'm Joe Weare, damn you; I'm Joe Weare!"

Death

Weare died, while in Boston, in 1774, likely during the early stages of

King George's War King George's War (1744–1748) is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in t ...

. He was 36 or 37. He was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery (also known as the Indian Fighters' Cemetery) in today's

Yarmouth, Maine Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, it was part of Massachusetts, and remained as such for 213 years. In 1849, ...

. His wife later remarried, to Humphrey Merrill of Falmouth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weare, Joseph 1737 births 1774 deaths People from colonial Massachusetts People from North Yarmouth, Maine People of King George's War