Mural depicting Wackwarreska, c. 1651 by Roger Deering, c. 1920

Uphannum was the daughter of Wackwarreska, Sagamore of Owascoag, and his wife Nagasqua. To early settlers she was familiarly known as Indian Jane, Jane the Indian or Jane Hannup. In 1651, Jane and her brother, as heirs of Wackwarreska, sold about 1,000 acres of land in what is now the Dunstan area of Scarborough to brothers Andrew and Arthur Alger. The purchase price of the land was traditionally believed to be a bushel of beans down and a bushel of corn yearly. One of the conditions of the sale was that Jane and her mother be allowed to live on the land for the remainder of their lives. Jane and her mother settled on the north side of Blue Point near the mouth of Mill Creek. Jane’s fireplace with its blackened hearthstone could be seen for many years until it was purchased and built into the chimney of a cottage at Prouts Neck. Her unmarked grave is near where her cottage was and further beyond is Jane’s Spring, a never-failing spring of pure water. Jane survived her family; and even through the Indian hostilities, she quietly remained in her lonely home until she died there at the age of more than 100 years.

Sources

Libbey, Dorothy Shaw. Scarborough Becomes a Town. Freeport, ME: The Bond Wheelwright Co., 1955.

Southgate, William. The History of Scarborough from 1633-1783. Portland, ME, 1853.