FARMINGTON – “Highwaymen Abroad!” read the headline in the Farmington Chronicle after a pair of assaults in November 1863.

The country was in the midst of the Civil War, the Union had recently defeated the Confederacy in the Battle of Gettysburg, and the residents of Chesterville were not safe on the road, or as it turns out, even in their homes.

“It is hard to believe that in our usually quiet neighborhood, occurrences like the following take place,” remarked the newspaper correspondent.

The highwayman’s victim was I.C. Richards who encountered a stranger walking along a Chesterville road one quiet evening. The stranger demanded that Richards give him a ride and then without warning jumped into Richards’ carriage and socked the innocent man in the face. As the pair tumbled to the ground, Richards got the upper hand. The man pleaded for mercy, and, surprisingly, Richards let him go.

That was not the end of the mysterious highwayman. A few evenings later, Jotham Bradbury was on the road to Chesterville village when he heard the click of a pistol. As he turned toward the sound, the gun fired. The explosion created enough light for Bradbury to get a look at the highwayman, crouched on the side of the road only a few feet away, his pistol aimed at Bradbury’s head.

The mysterious stranger didn’t manage to harm Bradbury but got away into the night again.

Perhaps that is the end of the story of the highwayman, but perhaps not.

In early December more news came out of Chesterville. “Bold Attempt at Robbery and Assassination” asserted the headline. Maybe the highwayman was at it again.

On a Saturday night a stranger entered the Whittier home. When the intruder lit a lantern, he awakened Mrs. Whittier who started to scream. The intruder told her he would shoot her if she kept making noise, but she kept screaming anyway and eventually woke her husband, David. The intruder fired a shot at David but missed. Unintimidated, David attacked and knocked the pistol from the stranger’s hand. He went for his knife, cutting David in the face and neck. Remarkably, David managed to knock the intruder over and grab the knife.

Just then, David’s uncle showed up, and in the dark, David mistook him for an accomplice and attacked, knocking the poor uncle into the wood stove before he realized his mistake. Meanwhile, the intruder threw himself out of a glass window and escaped.

Law enforcement officers determined that the intruder had rented a horse and carriage in Farmington where he also purchased some chloroform and rum. They traced him to Bangor and alerted authorities, who identified the culprit as Arel Thompson.

Thompson stood trial in Farmington in May 1864. He was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor at the state prison.

Luann Yetter has researched and written a history column for the Sun Journal for the past 10 years. She teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington and can be reached at [email protected]. Additional research by UMF student David Farady.