Molly Ockett: Last of the Pigwackets

If you spend time in North Western Maine near the New Hampshire border, you might see the name Molly Ockett and wonder – is that a name, a plant, or a typo?

Molly Ockett (1740-1816) was indeed a person. She was a colonial-age Abenaki woman who spread healing and stories by foot in western Maine in the late 1700s and early 1800s. She was well known to both native Abenakis and the early settlers in communities such as Andover, Fryeburg, Poland, Paris, and Bethel. As she travelled widely, her name and legend grew and her legend lives on today. Many, many tales have been told about Molly, and it is likely that most are not quite true.

The Traveling Pigwackets

Molly was born in 1740 into the Pequawkets (Pigwackets), one of the Eastern Abenaki groups. Abenaki translated as “People of the Dawn” and the areas they lived in became known as “Dawnland.” The Pequawkets primary home was also called Pequawket (near Fryeburg). Her family was one of many interrelated families who lived and travelled together, doing an annual migration along the Saco River. They split their seasons hunting in the winter in the White Mountains, collecting seafood near the ocean in the summer, and planting and harvesting at their base near Fryeburg in the Spring and Fall. Molly was born near Saco on one of her family’s summer trips downriver for shellfish. During this time, she learned many of the old Abenaki stories which she would retell many times in later years.

Singing Bird = Marie Agatha = Molly Ockett?

Molly was born with an Abenaki name that meant “Singing Bird.” At some point, French Catholic missionaries baptized her and gave her the Christian name Marie Agatha. The Abenaki had trouble with the “r” sound and pronounced it more as an “l.” Supposedly, when English settlers heard her French name pronounced with her Abenaki accent, it sounded like “Mali Agget” which they turned into “Molly Ockett.”

Even though history seems to have settled on the spelling “Molly Ockett,” variations have included Marie Agathe, Mari Agat, Mareagit, Mali Agit, Molly Ockett, Mollyocket, Mollyockett, Molly Occut, Mollocket, Mollockett, Molly Lockett, Moll Lockett, Molly Orcutt, Moll Ockett, Molley Ockett, and Mollywocket.

War

Molly entered the world during turbulent times in New England. There were a succession of wars involving the French, English, natives, and ultimately with the new colonies. The Abenaki were caught in the middle and repeatedly forced to choose sides.

At the beginning of King George’s War (1744-1748), Molly’s parents were among a group of Abenaki who decided to side with the Protestant British and moved South of Boston near Plymouth. Molly’s father may have been one of the Pigwacket chieftains who made the decision. It was in Plymouth that young Molly learned English and became acquainted with Protestantism, which helped her later as she spent time with the settlers. They lived there for about 4 years and then were returned to Maine – and Molly was even present at peace treaty negotiations at Falmouth in 1749.

Adapt to Survive

When the French and Indian War broke out a few years later, Molly’s family group moved first back to the Bethel area, then were forced to flee North towards the French in Quebec when the English began their ethnic purge of Abenaki and destroyed villages and took scalps. When they were living in Quebec, 15 year old Molly barely survived the horrible attack by the English on the Abenaki village of Odanak which became known as “Roger’s Raid.”

You can read about another attack on Abenaki in this piece about the Norridgewock Massacre.

After the Treaty of Paris officially gave Canada over to the British, the Abenaki lost the protection of the French. Some returned to their ancestral grounds but needed to find a way to live peacefully among the settlers who were now free to spread and settle in all directions.

Assimilation

The American Revolution followed soon after, and the Abenaki were forced again to choose sides, siding with the colonies. By the time the fighting was over, their numbers had dwindled due to war and European diseases like smallpox, and their traditional way of life was all but gone. The Abenaki had been slaughtered, plied with alcohol for their allegiance, and had intermarried with the settlers. They had swapped their traditional migratory ways to focus on the lucrative fur trade. Others had become guides and craftsmen to survive and further assimilate themselves. The Abenaki culture was almost gone.

Molly, a Survivor and Healer

Molly was one of the Abenaki who found a way not only to survive but even thrive among the settlers. With her command of English, and her affable personality, she easily navigated between the two cultures. She maintained traditional Abenaki ways while moving all over Northern New England, dipping in and out of trusted settlements. Molly was primarily known as a frontier doctor, practicing Indigenous herbal medicine.

As a “doctress,” Molly treated wounds, fevers, served as a midwife for births, and is said to have cured many of dysentery with a spruce bark concoction of her own. She kept her recipes close and only disclosed the details to her closest friends. She usually created her healing potions and poultices in the woods and brought them to where she was needed.

Typical ingredients included willow bark, white pine bark and needles, joe pye weed, slippery elm, wintergreen, jewelweed, sweet birch, milkweed, and goldthread.

It was a testament to Molly’s abilities that she was welcomed into so many communities, when anti-Indian sentiments were so high.

A Typical Visit from Molly

Molly travelled by foot, typically revisiting various settlements that already knew her. She greeted those that she knew when she returned from her travels with a kiss – first on one ear and then on the other. She would sell her crafts, stay in their homes, eat a meal, drink their rum, and spin some long stories. In the morning, she would head out for the next spot. She was not unlike Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings in that manner. She even wore a tall pointy hat.

Molly traveled widely – from Vermont through New Hampshire, up into Quebec, and spent lots of time in Western Maine. She often travelled light, finding a way to subsist as she went.

Handsome Molly

Molly was described as a tall, handsome woman who carried herself well – a “pretty, genteel squaw.” She wore clothing typical of Abenaki of the period: a knee-length European-style dress, leggings embroidered with dyed porcupine quills, beaded moccasins, and, when it got cold, a peaked cap decorated with colored beads. The peaked cap is what is most noticeable in drawings and paintings of Molly.

Molly’s Love Life and Children

Molly was married at least once, and had children by a few men. When she was living in the Abenaki settlement in Quebec called Odanak, she had her first child named Marie Marguerite Joseph (“Molly Susup”), born 1764. Her husband and father of the child was Pierre Joseph (“Piol Susup”) who died shortly after.

By 1766, Molly was back in Fryeburg, living with a fellow Pigwacket named Jean Baptiste or “Sabattis.” Info is sketchy at best, but it appears she may never have married Sabattis, but did have multiple children with him. There was a son “Captain John Susup”; another son “Paseel” (Basil), who became well-known to the residents of Bethel in later years. There was a daughter who married a white man and lived near Derby, Vermont in 1800 and Molly would make the long trip to visit her. She may have had another daughter as well, father unknown.

Molly’s rocky relationship with Sabattis lasted several years, but hit a snag when his actual wife returned to Fryeburg to lay claim to him. Townsfolk witnessed a very public argument, and Molly ultimately left Sabbatis due to his fighting and drinking.

There were also rumors of Molly having intimate relations with settlers during her travels. She was handsome, after all.

Tall Tales

Molly was famous for her stories. She carried on the Abenaki tradition of telling long tales. She often retold old stories of Abenaki history and made it sound like she was around for many of them. She said that when she was young, the pine trees were only as tall as her. Because of this, folks thought Molly was far older than she actually was, and many claimed she lived to over 100 years old. It doesn’t sound like she did anything to dispel the rumors.

The Curse of Molly Ockett

During the winter of 1809, Molly was traveling through the town of Paris when foul weather forced her to seek shelter in Snow’s Falls. She was turned away and uttered a curse on the town which locals claim was responsible for floods, failures, and the failure of many businesses after.

Saving Hannibal

One of the more popular stories about Molly is that she supposedly saved the young life of Paris Hill’s favorite son Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s future Vice President.

After cursing Snow’s Falls, Molly traveled to Paris Hill where she was invited into the Hamlin home. Their infant son Hannibal was very sick and Molly used traditional herbal knowledge to treat and cure him. As the story goes, she proclaimed that young Hannibal would grow up to be a very important man. You can read more about Hannibal and other other politicians who came from Paris Hill.

Crafty Molly

Using materials she could find in nature, Molly created baskets, moccasins, leather-work, bark boxes, and pottery which she sold or gave away during her visits. A few of Molly’s crafts remain in houses and museums.

Molly’s Buried Treasure

Another story involving Molly is that she, like other Abenaki, accumulated money and jewelry over the years from their trades with the settlers. Rumors of “buried Indian treasure” were common.

The locals claimed that Molly had hid a substantial amount of money in a tea kettle outside Rumford. She left “directions” in the form of arrows starting at the Ellis River which pointed to other rocks with similar arrows that ultimately led to a large stone with a cross on it marking the treasure. Many searched, and there was a claim that it may have been found when some treasure seekers went digging on a Sunday.

There was a second buried treasure as well. Molly’s tribe buried a kettle of money on Hemlock Island in the Androscoggin River in Bethel. In the kettle was a whole lot of French, British, and Spanish money, gold, and jewelry. Molly returned to the island many years later but could not find the kettle, having forgotten exactly where it was because she was just a child when she was told the tale. The island was purchased and the new owner, Prof. John Locke, is said to have found and claimed the treasure years later.

Molly’s Last Days

In 1816, the now nearly 80 year old Molly was living with the Abenaki chief Metallak and his kin group outside of Andover, Maine. In the Spring, Molly took quite ill. The Abenaki brought her into town seeking the help of the townspeople as they needed to focus on their farming and couldn’t sit with her. Andover took Molly in and the Abenaki went back to their camp. Molly did not want to die in someone’s home and begged them to let her go back to camp to die saying “Me want to die in a camp, that is the home for poor Indian.” The locals built her a small camp outside town where she spent the last of her days. Molly died August 2, 1816 and was buried in an Andover cemetery.

Gravestone

In 1867, 50 years after Molly’s death, the women of the Congregational Church in Andover Maine decided that Molly needed a stone. So they raised money by holding a celebration in her name on the 4th of July. Using the proceeds, they purchased a gravestone and had it placed over her remains in Woodlawn Cemetery.  The marble stone is inscribed with “Mollockett” (yet another spelling), the “last of the Pequakets.”

The Name Lives On

Molly’s name has graced quite a few things in Maine including the Molly Ockett Middle School (Fryeburg), the Molly Ockett chapter of the D.A.R. (Bridgton) and even the Mollyockett Motel (Bryant Pond, currently for sale).

Bethel holds an annual Molly Ockett Day which includes a parade, food vendors, bands, and fireworks. The Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce had renamed the festival to “Summerfest” in 2020 but the Bethel Area Business Association took the event back over in 2025 and changed back to “Molly Ockett Day.” They say it’s the best day of the year.

You can visit “Molly Ockett’s Cave” in Fryeburg, Maine, which is a short distance from the site of the Abenaki village of Pigwacket.  Molls Rock is on the eastern shore of Umbagog Lake in New Hampshire, and Molly Ockett Mountain is in Woodstock, Maine.