A Partial History of Little Chebeague Island 1813-2002

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Little Chebeague Island

1875-1881

Third Edition

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March 1995

Third Edition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; June 2011

Dedication To Frank W. P. Bailey (1900-1974), born and brought up on Little Chebeague, later a master woodcarver and cabinetmaker, teacher in school and out, Scoutmaster, and my Skipper in the Sea Scout Ship “Dash”, 1937-1940, without whom I probably would never have heard of The Island, nor of his daughter, now my wife for the past 48 years.

FOREWORD For an island of only 86 acres, Little Chebeague Island in Casco Bay, Maine, has had a relatively big history. Unfortunately, its smallness has meant that there were never but a few persons who took part in that history. Consequently, there are very few records available from earlier times, even that as recently as 100 years ago. The latest time when it was inhabited was fifty years ago, so that the last surviving one-time residents are now in their 70’s and 80’s, and are few in number.

Being one of that number (though having spent less than two dozen days there), I have tried to contact as many of the others as I could locate, and to search for such records as do exist, so as to make its history available to the island’s present owners. Those owners are the people of the State of Maine, as represented by the Bureau of Parks and Recreation of the Maine Department of Conservation.

Although purchased by the state in the 1970’s as a property for potential park use, no development toward that purpose has yet been done, nor is any planned at this time. When the time (which of course means the money) for that does arrive, one of the interpretive features of any such park should be some presentation of the island’s multi-stage past.

The primary potential historical theme for a park on Little Chebeague Island is its one-time use as a Maine-coast summer resort, for which it was very well-known when serving that function. In that capacity, it was only one of many resorts that then existed both on the islands and on the coastal mainland, but what is somewhat unique about this one is that it did not have the opportunity to advance much beyond that stage. Consequently its form at that time has not been overlaid with more recent development. The other side of that coin is that what remained of its active community not only was not maintained by continued inhabitation, but also was not protected from the ravages of weather or vandalism or war -- from either nature or human nature. Its former farm and cottages collapsed and are now represented only by piles of rotting boards and various kinds of masonry foundations. What else can be shown of its former state can appear in later years only in words, pictures, and models that are based on what we are able to learn now.

One of the major events that led to its demise was World War II. Although the fighting and nearly all of the destruction caused by that war occurred an ocean away, some of its effects did reach this quiet island, leading to it being depopulated for the past half-century. Being located near the anchorage of the U. S. Navy’s floating command post for the Battle of the Atlantic, and being small, it was deemed suitable and necessary for a recreation area for the crews of the naval vessels and shore facilities in the Casco Bay area. In that capacity, it became a summertime day-trip destination for thousands of Navy personnel for “lobster-bakes”, ball games, and other similar activities. One part of it was also used for a small naval fire-fighting school. While these were miniscule parts of the “war effort” of that time, an eventual park on the island could be a place for commemorating the Bay’s contribution to that war. The appropriateness for that comes from the same consideration that led to its recreational use, which is that it lies in the midst of the locations of the more warlike facilities, and in sight of the anchorages used by the combatant and support ships based in the Bay. Furthermore, it is the only public property so located, and is one where space for such a commemoration exists. The story of Casco Bay’s importance to the war effort at that time has never been given its appropriate recognition in any other form or location.

Another subject for which it is an appropriate location is for presentation of the story of the many and varied 19th and early-20th century steamboat lines that were an enthusiastic part of , and which both grew and fell with, the resort business. Not only was tiny Little Chebeague one of the earliest of the

resorts that were a major impetus for steamboat service, but even had, for a time, its own steamboat company dedicated to serving the guests of its one hotel.

The present volume is a beginning for what is intended to become a full story from the early 1800’s up to the present. No attempt has been made by me to reach back into older times. In those times, this island was considered a part of Great Chebeague Island, to which it is connected at low tide by a sand-bar. Its earlier history is therefore that of its larger neighbor, which has been sought out and told by others.

This partial history is meant to be given a small but strategic preliminary distribution on the grounds that who knows how much more I may be able to finish. Its facts are owed to libraries and historical institutions in Maine, Ohio, and Illinois, and to many individuals who have offered stories, papers, and pictures. Particularly useful contributions were made by Betty (Mrs. Ralph) Bailey or Cumberland, Maine during her last year, by Hilda (Mrs. Sewell) Noyes of Cundy’s Harbor, Maine, and by Roger Fogg of Saco, Maine. Various other relatives and members of the Bailey family. including particularly Mrs. Noyes, Philip Lee of Portland, and my wife Rachel (all descendants of Henry Bailey, the last and one of the longest permanent residents on the island), have also provided information available nowhere else. Some information has been derived from the first volume of Capt. William Frappier’s recent “SteamboatYesterdays on Casco Bay”.

No doubt there are some errors in this history, as there must be in all human endeavors. Some are due to faulty records, especially ones that depended on someone’s recollection of events long (and sometimes even not very long) past, others on misconceptions or mis-representations of what was going on at the time. The obvious social and political biases of the newspapaers of a century ago are one example of intentional distortion of records of contemporary events. Others are the “logical” conclusions made by the historian in attempting to interpret what the recorded statements mean. In regard to this last, the historian himself quickly learns the folly of implicitly believing such conclusions, as the uncovering of further evidence often demands that they be abandoned. (A parallel situation exists in planetary astronomy in our day, when we find that one spacecraft mission after another repeatedly shows us that our theories based on remote telescopic observations were often wide of their mark.) However, for so long as they are the best fill-ins for the gaps in the records, these conclusions (or theories) are mentioned, hopefully in forms recognizable as mere trial balloons.

For this and future history researchers, such conclusions are, at least temporarily, useful for guiding the research to particular sources which may prove, disprove, or alter those guesses.

Ann Arbor, Michigan 31 March 1995

THE EXTRACTORS (1813-1874) Maine became a state in 1820, when it was separated from Massachusetts. Most records pertaining to Little Chebeague Island in colonial times and the next three decades are therefore in the archives of Massachusetts. A 20th century history of the Town of Cumberland mentions several successive early owners of Great Chebeague, which then was considered to include Little Chebeague because of the low-tide connection of the two via an exposed sandbar. One of those owners -- perhaps only a part-owner -- was General Samuel Waldo, whose name will appear again later, when we reach a time when that name was commemorated by being used as the name of the island’s most impressive structure.

None of this history uses material old enough to have come from the Massachusetts records. However, one deed of 1813 date that is registered in the archives of Cumberland County contains information of interest here. In that, John Waite and his wife Sally, for $1800 paid to them by Samuel Chase of Brunswick, sold to Chase “A certain Island called little Shebeague situate in Casco Bay in the County of Cumberland ... ; said Island lays partly in the Town of North Yarmouth & partly in the Town of Falmouth containing about one hundred and fifty acres be the same more or less with all the buildings standing thereon.” (That description was followed by a one-and-a-half-inch flourish of the recording clerk’s pen.) The town of Cumberland was later split off from North Yarmouth and still includes part of the island, and the town of Falmouth referred to in that deed later became the Town, and then the City, of Portland. The division of the island between two governmental units continues to this day, the portion that was part of Portland becoming, in the 1990’s, part of the Town of Long Island. The 150-acre figure was an exaggeration that was not corrected in the records for over half a century, when a surveyor’s measurement, rather than some real-estate speculator’s eyeball estimate, determined the actual area to be 86 acres.

What is of the most interest here is the phrase “with all the buildings standing thereon”, since it indicates that there were buildings on it at that time. The nature and use of the buildings is not given, but their presence implies human activity there, and probably human residence. The activity might have been either fishing or farming, those being the most common ones at that time. If farming, a residence was likely, because it was then the custom of that area to live among the farmed fields (an imported European custom that contrasted with the Asian tendency to live in central villages and travel out to the fields by day). It might have been a seasonal residence, used only in the summer growing season, but if animals were kept, there is a greater likelihood that the residence was year-round. According the Great Chebeague histories, the Waites themselves lived on that larger island, but others, either hired by or renting from Waite, may have lived on Little Chebeague.

A dependence on water travel to and from an island would have had little effect on the residents’ opting for either seasonal or year-round residence. After all, water travel was then the common mode for nonisland people as well, there being few mainland roads, and especially few (if any) that were useable year-round.

So a need for islanders to use boats to communicate with the mainland was not different from the common mainland practice of using boats to go from one coastal point or river location to another. And although winter travel by boat was hindered or stopped by freeze-ups of the water routes, that again was not different from the winter isolation of mainland villages, both coastal and inland, from one another. Nor would the keeping of livestock on an island in the summer have deterred farmers of those times from moving their stock by boat two or more times per year. Placing livestock on small uninhabited islands to fend for themselves over a summer remained a comon practice throughout the 19th century.

Fishing was an early activity along the coast of what became New England, and continued to be one of the most important sources of both food and commerce for that area. Where farming was done, fishing was probably done also. As to Little Chebeague, there is one particularly strong argument for its having been farmed from early colonial times. That comes from the fact that, to any farmer familiar with the stony ground most common to Maine farmland, Little Chebeague was a nearly stoneless paradise to till. Although its existence depended, as does that of the other islands around it, upon underlying ledges to resist the ocean, what

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covered those ledges (and still does) was not only a layer of rounded glacial rocks imbedded in glacial sand and clay, but also, on top of those, a deep layer of sandy loam. This combination of porous sand over waterproof clay produced a sizable aquifer which gave rise to the names of both that island and its larger neighbor, Chebeague referring to the plentiful presence of springs on both islands. The native Indians are known to have frequented this island for their summertime shell-fishing and gardening, and probably for the taking of finned fish and of seals also. These circumstances can be expected to have led to some clearing of any native forest for camping space, fuel, and gardens. If any further clearing was needed by later European immigrant farmers, the fertility of this site was sufficient purpose for doing so.

The reason for dwelling so long on the matter of when farming began to be practiced is that, even if this island were forested in its natural state, most of that forest was completely gone by the end of the Civil War. Not only were the trees cut, but the stumps were either removed or had rotted and vanished. Except for a grove of old trees preserved on the island’s crown, about 90 percent of the island’s surface consisted of gently sloping farm fields or pastureland. That established fact was a major one of the factors that led to the end of this first period of the post-1800 history of Little Chebeague.

More solid evidence that the island was farmed at that time appears in the 1823 deed by which Chase sold the island to Samuel Porter of Freeport, for that document specifies “all the buildings thereon standing, and is the same I purchased of John Waite, Dec.3rd AD 1813, together also with all the stock , hay, and farming utensils of every description now on said island...”

There is no indication that either Chase or Porter ever lived on the island. Probably, instead, each took it as a real estate investment, both of them being businessmen in their home towns. Porter, in particular, was a member of a prominent Freeport shipbuilding family. The day after that purchase, he mortgaged either all of it or only the North Yarmouth portion of it to Robert Williams of Boston for only $295, but the description he gave to Williams was ambiguous and the island’s name was garbled to “Little Gebege”. A week later he got half of his $1800 back from Waite, but agreed to pay the other half at $300 per year. Apparently he made those payments, paying off his mortgage to Williams by 1829.

In 1834, Porter again mortgaged the island, along with a number of other lots of land in Portland, to Joel Hall. In the deed recording that transaction, Porter is described as “merchant and shipmaster”. Hall was not only another merchant as the deed proclaims him, but also was related to Porter by having married Mary Porter, one of Samuel’s two older sisters. (Mary and Sarah Porter also had 10 other brothers besides Samuel.)

When Samuel Porter died in 1847, the loan had not been paid off, so Hall became the (reluctant?) owner of Little Chebeague, which he apparently soon offered for sale in order to recover some of his money.

By 1849, he had found a buyer, one Abraham Osgood, Jr., of whom we will have more to say. The arrangement also took into consideration several of Samuel Porter’s heirs. They were “Jane M. Prescott, widow, and Mary Porter, spinster, Caroline Codman, wife of Randolph A. L. Codman and Eliza F. Dennison and Delia B. Dennison , spinster, Samuel P. Dennison, mariner... all of Freeport, children of the late Joseph H. Dennison...” Jane, Mary, and Caroline were daughters of Samuel and nieces of Mrs. Hall. (The younger Mary later married at age 45). R. A. L. Codman was a Portland lawyer. The other three heirs were the children of Delia Porter Dennison, another of Samuel’s daughters, who was, like her husband Joseph Dennison, deceased by then. (The younger Delia’s middle initial was actually A. instead of B.) There are two deeds involving the heirs, both dated Feb. 28, 1849. In one, Hall quit-claimed one-third of the island to them for $1 and their “discharge of all claims and pretensions” to the remaining part sold to Osgood. In the other deed, he paid them $400 in addition to giving his quit-claim. He made his deal with Osgood on Mar. 14, 1849, the latter’s 2/3rds costing him $1800.

The principal boundary between the parts was a line along the direction of a stone wall running about southwesterly somewhat inland from the east beach and diverging from the direction of the beach (see Frontispiece). It should be noted that the presence of a stone wall on an island which I have claimed to lack stones may mean either that the original clearers did a perfect job (unlikely because frost would have continued to bring up new ones) or that the stones were hauled up from either the south or the west shore, where they are (and presumably were) plentiful. Each deed mentions buildings, presumably some in each part. For the division to have been made as it was, some particular value must have been assignable to the beach area. It will

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take more research to establish the source of that value, but there is some anecdotal evidence that that part of the island was used in some period for menhaden or “pogie” fishing, and had one or two structures related to that activity.

The existing history of the menhaden fishery in Maine contains no mention of Little Chebeague. That history refers to an industry that was mostly located in the Bristol/Boothbay region in the 1870’s. By that time, the fishing was done with specially outfitted steam-powered seiners, and the catch was taken to factories which extracted the oil and then sold the remainder for fertilizer. That remainder was then called “guano”, because real guano (sea-bird droppings, which were “mined” from barren islands where they had accumulated in thick layers) was then a popular fertilizer. Fourteen of those operators had organized into the Association of the Menhaden Oil and Guano Manufacturers of Maine, which proved to be short-lived when menhaden abruptly disappeared from the Gulf of Maine in 1879 and continued to be unprofitably scarce for several decades.

However, long before that time, coastal farming and fishing folk had sought those fish for fertilizer, catching them in large numbers by setting seines off the beaches and hauling them ashore either with small boats or with ropes hauled from the shore by men or oxen. By the 1870’s, there was, on the beach in the Porter heirs’ part of the island, a building having some of the characteristics of a pogie-oil extraction plant, and, in the lore of one family closely connected with the island, the statement that this building indeed housed such a plant. We do not know when it was built. What makes it probable that it was used for a shore fishery is that it had no pier for unloading large vessels. Our earliest evidence that a wharf suitable for vessels other than small boats existed on this island is mentioned below. The suspected pogie factory was located several hundred feet down the beach from the wharf site. The question of whether that was indeed its function seems to be answerable only by perusal of many years of newspapers, to see if any mention is made of it.

In 1861, the Porter heirs (except for Samuel Dennison, who died in 1850) sold their 1/3rd to Osgood for $800. Osgood made what must have seemed like a good deal when he re-sold that part to Mary Jane Rockfellow of Portland for $3000 in December of 1868, giving her a mortgage. The property was described as “beginning at the SE point of a ledge lying at low water mark on the southeasterly shore ... said point being some 200 feet to the south and west of the only wharf now erected on said island...” This location corresponds to that of the known wharves. The description goes on to state “...thence running NW 400 feet, more or less, to a stake, thence running Southwest westerly in a straight line (some 400 feet of said line being along the center of a stone wall, the only wall running in that direction on that portion of said island) to low water mark, thence along low water mark round Thorn Tree Point to the bound first named, said tract containing about 35 acres, more or less, of upland and also the flats and beach to low water mark within the above mentioned bounds,...”

Notice that the beach/pogie parcel did not include the wharf. The large increase in value of the property suggests that the pogie-business building may have been added during that interim.

Rockfellow disposed of a two-acre parcel at the wharf end of her strip to Michael Conway in August 1869. His small lot reached from low water to the stone wall and was just under 400 feet wide. He appears in the 1871 Portland directory as “Farmer, Little Chebeague Island”, but that is the only such listing. By 1875 he is a “Farmer, Long Island”, but appears in no further directories. The one listing naming Little Chebeague implies that he lived there. Probably he built some kind of a house, because his parcel was assessed at $1500 in 1869 and in 1870. Rockfellow had been assessed that much on her entire “35 acres” in 1868.

Rockfellow’s and Conway’s investments were brief and perhaps costly to each of them. In May of 1870, Osgood sold his mortgage to Charles P. Ingraham, a Portland merchant and shipowner, who apparently was less lenient than Osgood. That October, less than two years after she had purchased it, Rockfellow (by then listed as a resident of Westbrook) turned it over to Charles P. Ingraham and Alexander P. Stevenson of Portland, with both the full $3000 and some interest still due on her mortgage to Osgood. There is a tidbit for us in this deed, since the description now says “...upland and flats with the buildings affixed, machinery and all improvements thereon...” The word “machinery” further supports the possibility of a factory of some sort, but this is the final clue that we have. Whether the machinery was provided during Rockfellow’s tenancy or was the reason her cost was $2200 higher than Osgood’s remains to be discovered. Our attempts to learn more about Miss or Mrs. Rockfellow (there was no Ms. then) have come to dead ends, she being mentioned in neither Portland nor Westbrook directories nor other records that we have searched.

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Meanwhile, Osgood had been busy with more than farming. In addition to an assessment of $2200 for “House and land, Little Chebeague”, the Portland assessment book for 1865 shows a pencilled notation, “New Hotel, unfinished Chebeague $600”. The 1866 entry has the same total amount, but the 1867 one says “New hotel $1000”, and also has a pencil note “Vessel $100”. Beers “Atlas of Cumberland County, Maine”, dated 1871, bothered to show only one of the structures on Little Chebeague. That one was labelled “A. Osgood Hotel”.

The extractive industries of farming and fishing were no longer the sole uses of Little Chebeague. The time of the tourism entrepreneurs had begun.

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THE ENTREPRENEURS -- PART 1 Osgood, Cleaves, and Jenks (1874-1881) We have not learned when the farm’s very large barn, which lasted into the 1940’s, was built. A representation of it or of a similarly large one appears on our frontispiece map of the island, which probably was drawn in the later 1870’s or early 1880’s. At that time, it apparently did not have a connected farmhouse; instead, that structure was some distance northwest of the barn, nearly halfway from the barn to the “back shore”. Frank W. P. Bailey, who grew up, from 1900 to about 1920, in the later attached farmhouse, said in 1970 that, even then, that house was “very, very old”.

There are also large gaps in our knowledge of Abraham Osgood, Jr. That “Jr.” is part of the problem, since both Sr. and Jr. lived in the Portland area at the same time, and some of the records do not distinguish between them. In addition, some records refer to an “Abram” Osgood, which probably actually refers to one or both of those two.

As early as 1827, and again in 1830, A.O. Sr. was listed in Portland city directories as “Joiner, Green St.” (A”joiner” was a craftsman in wood who did finish-carpentry, cabinetry, and/or furniture making.) In 1837, A. O. Jr. was “Trader, Green St.” with a “house at foot of Green”, but in 1844 he was “Joiner, h [house] 35 Green St.” In the 1847-48 edition, he was “Trader, 59 Green”. In 1852-53, after A. O. Jr’s purchase of Little Chebeague, the entry for one of them (called “Abram” with no Jr. or Sr. specified) was “Joiner, at 111 Fore [St.]”) By 1856-57, Abram was “Clerk, at 111 Fore”. An 1857 deed shows that Jr. sold “three lots near Ferry, Cape Elizabeth” [Ferry Village, now part of So. Portland] to Charles P. Ingraham, whom we heard of earlier as an owner of part of Little Chebeague.

In 1858-59, Abram Osgood was located in “CE [Cape Elizabeth] Ferry Village”, and Abram Jr. was “Farmer, Little Chebeague Id.” By 1863-64, Abram (no Sr. or Jr.) was a farmer but “bds [boards] 111 Fore”.

In 1865, Abram Jr.’s address was 35 Green St., Portland, on which he paid $60 in taxes. That was the year, mentioned earlier, when he also was assessed taxes on both real estate and his unfinished hotel on Little Chebeague. The 1866-67 directory again listed him as “Farmer, Little Chebeague”. In this last directory, there is also a listing for “Abr. Osgood, seaman, E’n [Eastern] Promenade” -- a third person of the same name, who will later be further (though tentatively) identified.

In 1869 and again in 1871, Abraham Jr. was “Farmer, Little Chebeague”. In 1875, Abraham (no suffix) was “Fisherman Long Island”. From the 1874 deed by which Abraham Jr.’s widow sold their Little Chebeague property to Nathan and Henry B. Cleaves, we know that her husband had died, so he was not the Long Island fisherman the next year. We do not know just when he died, and the Portland records do not help about that.

What they do show is that his father died close to that time, on 29 December 1872, of “old age”, according to the city’s death records. His stone in Portland’s Evergreen Cemetery also gives his birth date, 05 June 1783, and bears a Masonic emblem and the word “Father”. Beside it is a similar stone inscribed “Mother” and “Mary Fogg, wife of Abraham Osgood B. Nov. 17, 1790 D. May 15, 1841”. The lot was in the name of Nathan J. Davis (1812 -1875), whose wife was a daughter of Abraham and Mary.

The federal census record for 1840 lists the Nathan J. Davis household as consisting of one male between 20 and 30, one female between those same ages, and one female between 10 and 15. One person was “in mfg. and trades”. The A. Osgood family contained one male between 50 and 60, one female between 40 and 50, and one male 20-30. One person was “engaged in commerce”. The A. Osgood Jr. family at that time had one male 20-30, two females in that age group, one child 5-10, and two girls under 5. Again, one person was “engaged in commerce”.

Davis’s earliest city directory entry (of those available in the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library) was in 1844, when he was listed as “Victualer 157 Fore h 21 Union”. Continuously from 1847 thru 1866-67, he was “Landlord Commercial House, 111 Fore”, but in 1869 “boards City Hotel”. In 1871, he is “(of Fletcher & Davis) pork packers, 13 Silver St. h 36 Hampshire”.

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Portland took considerable note of the elder Osgood’s passing. In the Daily Eastern Argus for 30 December 1872 (p 3, col 2): STILL ANOTHER GONE Capt. Abraham Osgood, one of our old-time citizens, died in this city yesterday, at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. N. J. Davis, on Hampshire Street. Capt. Osgood must have been nearly ninety years of age. He was a prominent master carpenter in his active days, -- built the old State Arsenal, and many other well known buildings. His character was above reproach, and no one will think of the venerable man but with emotions of tenderness and respect.

On Tuesday, 31 December, there appeared (p 2, col 8): P. L. I. All active and paid members of the Portland Light Infantry are requested to appear at the Armory, in citizens dress on TUESDAY, Dec. 31st, at 1:30 P. M. to attend the funeral of the late Capt. Abram Osgood, an old commander of the company.

Per Order F. E. Dow, Clerk Also, (p 3, col 4): DIED In this city, 29th inst, Mr. Abraham Osgood, aged 89 years. Funeral this afternoon at 2 o’clock from the residence of N. J. Davis, 36 Hampshire St. Finally (p. 3, col 1, among miscellaneous other items of news) : The funeral of the late Capt. Abram Osgood will take place at two o’clock this afternoon, from his late residence, No. 36 Hampshire Street. .... Attention is called to notice of Portland Light Infantry in another column.

[The reader should note the above alternations of “Abraham” and “Abram” -- and keep that fact in mind in regard to all other old record references. Even records on paper are not to be fully believed, especially those in publications which have deadlines. More serious errors that are identifiable have also been found, and therefore there must be some that have not.]

Well, why all this atention to the elder Abraham? It is because of his apparently having been the builder of several large structures. Could he have had a hand in the building of Little Chebeague’s huge barn, or its wharf when one was not available on some larger islands, or its first hotel, or the “bowling saloon” that we shall soon learn about, or its pogie factory? We can, for now, only wonder.

One more item, this one from the 1850 census, is of interest at this point. This is to be found on microfilm roll 252, and on the first page shown on that roll. The information gathered at that time was more detailed than in 1840. It included the names of all individuals, their age, sex, color, and “profession”, also the value of their real estate, and their place of birth. At household #5, which housed family #5, the household members were: A. Osgood, Jr. Mary C. Emma Phoebe E. Abbie R. Abraham George C. Abraham

36 33 14 12 10 9 1 63

M F F F F M M M

-

Farmer $3600

Carpenter

Maine “ “ “ “ “ “ “

So there was a third Abraham Osgood, who may have been, 16 years later, at age 25, the “seaman”, and very probably was the Long Island “fisherman” at age 34. But did the above household live on Little Chebeague in 1850, in which case grandfather Abraham did also at that time? The record does not seem to say

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(but might that be cleared up on the previous roll of microfilm?). What may shed some light is the listing of the other households on the same page. There are 10 Chase’s, 3 of them mariners and one a fisherman; Alex Smith, fisherman; Robert Dyer, farmer; 8 Griffin’s, 3 of them fishermen; 2 persons at Henry Crediford’s, one a farmer; 6 at Charles York’s (or Jenks?), one a farmer; and 5 at James Merrow’s, one a carpenter. These were not the likely occupations of a whole street of families on Green Street in Portland, especially the farmers. It is more likely that these lived on some of the islands, probably ones near Little Chebeague. On the next page are more farmers and fishermen with names like York, Trefethen, Starting, and Blake, and one Edwd. T. Yeaton, who was “keeper of fort” -- perhaps Fort Lyon on Cow Island, near Great Hog Island (now Great Diamond), the nearest one southwest of Little Chebeague.

Although some of the Portland School Board reports list the students at various schools, that for the period that could include the above children at the school on Long Island lists only the teaching staff. The family (especially the school-age children) may have been summer-only residents -- the date of the census information was 01 June 1850.

Beyond the above, Abraham Osgood and his family remain a mystery at this time. But he is important because his hotel started the island’s next era. His hotel’s guests were not the only part of the public to take part in that new era. Another large part consisted of the day-excursioners, who went not only there, but also to other islands and to various coastal locations for recreation and entertainment. In this competition, Little Chebeague must have had some significant edge, in order to compete in a race in which it was, by comparison with most of the other islands in the running, not only little, but tiny. And it remained a serious participant almost up to the time when the whole Casco Bay resort activity began to fade, when the automobile began to provide mainlander’s with a convenient transportation option other than taking either rail-cars or steamboats to those commercial carriers’ limited number of destinations.

The popularity, in their heyday, of steamboat destinations including this island, is indicated by the items below, which were found via a quick scan thru copies of the “Argus” from 01 Aug thru 23 Aug of 1872, and are only a sample of many similar ones.

On Fri, 02 Aug 1872 (p 3, col 1, in a section called “:Odds and Ends”) : The Germans went on an excursion to Little Chebeague yesterday, and had a large party and a right good time.

In the same day’s paper were notices of two future excursions, one to a non-island location, but both with similar objectives for both the organizers and the excursioners:

AMUSEMENTS CLOTHE THE NAKED.

FEED THE HUNGRY. SECOND GRAND

Steamboat Excursion TO )5((3257

At the earnest request of a large number of Citizens, the steamer Charles Houghton will leave Union Wharf, at 9:30 A. M., for a Second Excursion to Freeport, FRIDAY, August 2d, 1872, passing among the beautiful Islands of Casco Bay. There is a pleasant Oak Grove near the landing of the steamer, also Berries in abundance upon the hills nearby.

The net proceeds of the Excursion for the benefit of the Allen Mission.

Refreshments will be for sale on board the Steamer, also, Dinner can be obtained at the Grove.

Tickets 50 cts, Children under 16 years, 25 cts.

For sale by Daniel Gookins at C. P. Kimball’s Carriage Repository, corner of Preble and Congress Streets, and at the Boat.

COMMITTEE -- Cyrus Sturdivant, W. C. Hatch, and Daniel Gookins.

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Where ample arrangements have been made to spend a delightful day in dancing, swinging, football, &c. There is also a bowling alley. After dinner the Steamer will make an excursion among the Islands. Ice Cream will be for sale. Music by Buxtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Quadrille Band.

Tickets 75 cts, Children 25 cts, including Chowder and Hot Coffee.

H. D. TODD, Chairman Committee On 07 August (p 3, col 2): The Scandinavian Association will hold their private annual picnic on Little Chebeague Island, Tuesday, 15th of August, 1872. Friends invited.

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On Saturday, 10 August (p 3, col 6) : Second Parish Society and Sabbath School on the C. Houghton cruise and then to Little Chebeague on Tuesday, the 13th (or the next fair day). “Those wishing can obtain chowder at the Hotel.”

The members of one of Maine’s Civil War Regiments went to some island on the 20th for the 11th anniversary of its mustering, but the Light Guard’s excursion “to the islands”, planned for the 14th, was postponed due to “unpleasant weather”. Also on the 20th, the Catholic Sunday School Union picnic was held at Little Chebeague, the participants going and returning on the Charles Houghton.

What style of vessel the Charles Houghton may have been is not known. It is not mentioned in Capt.

Frappier’s “Steamboat Yesterdays on Casco Bay”, perhaps because it did not serve within the bay on a regular schedule. In the Portland directory for 1869, it is shown under the “steamers” listing on page 306 as being 283 tons, built 1863, and owned by W. W. Harris and others. In the 1865 directory, its owner was Weston Milliken.

It is not in the 1866-67 directory. A steadily running ad in the 1876 summer editions of the Argus shows that in that year it was making scheduled runs from Rockland to Ellsworth and Winter Harbor, coordinating its Rockland departures with the arrivals of the Portland-to-Rockland steamer “City of Richmond”. Those vessels and another, the “Lewiston”, which also ran between Portland and Rockland, were then operated by the Portland, Bangor, and Machias Steamship Company. When the Argus noted the arrival in Casco Bay of the new steamer “Florence” in July of 1876, it was mentioned that she was “about the size of the Charles Houghton” and could carry nearly 1000 passengers. The PB&MS Co. ad also shows that Cyrus Sturdivant, who was one of the organizers of the charity-supporting excursion to Freeport, was the company’s general agent.

As mentioned earlier, after her husband’s death, Mary C. Osgood sold their portion of the island -farm, hotel, wharf, and all -- to Nathan and Henry B. Cleaves. Now it was in the hands of a real entrepreneur.

Nathan and Henry were brothers, two of the five children of Thomas and Sophia (Bradstreet) Cleaves of Bridgton, Maine. The family name of Cleaves had come to Maine from Essex County, Mass., and is not known to be related to the George Cleeves (1576-1667) who was a major landowner in the southern Casco Bay area in the early colonial days. While not wealthy, the Thomas Cleaves family could be called “comfortably well-off”. Besides having a farm, it was involved in a family-owned and operated lumber business, and Thomas had served in the state Legislature.

Nathan, second eldest of the five children, after preparing at Portland Academy, attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, graduating in 1858. He read law in the offices of a Portland firm, was admitted to the Cumberland County Bar, and practiced that profession thereafter. He was Portland’s city solicitor and then its state representative, then became a judge of probate court. He married, in 1865, the daughter of one of his law partners, but his wife died in 1875. They had no children.

Henry, fourth of the five children, attended North Bridgton and Lewiston Falls Academies and worked in the family business, in both the woods and the mill, until the Civil War was under way. In 1862, he enlisted in a “nine-months regiment” of volunteers, so-called because the war was expected to be over by that time. By the end of the nine months, Private Cleaves had become a sergeant, and when he re-enlisted in a new regiment for a further three years, he was made a 1st Lieutenant. Though participating in several battles not mentioned in the school history books, he emerged with no wounds but with a reputation among his men as a brave but cool head during a fight. Returning to Bridgton, he worked in a wood-products factory for two years before starting his study of law, but then gained admission to the bar only nine months later. After moving to Portland to practice, he too was elected to the Legislature (for the term succeeding Nathan’s) and then he also became the city’s solicitor. He then went on to be Maine’s attorney general, and finally its governor for two terms (18931897), refusing, because it would break a precedent, to accept a third nomination for that office. He never married.

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A little-known fact (never mentioned by his contemporary biographers) is that Nathan went into bankruptcy in 1871. It is my suspicion that he was a better lawyer and judge than a businessman. Henry, on the other hand, was without doubt an excellent businessman, and it is my further suspicion that his becoming Nathan’s law partner at about that year was a rescue operation and a guarantee of future solvency. In many business matters after that, until Nathan’s death in 1892, it was the firm of N. & H. B. Cleaves that held property, formed companies, etc., not either of the two individuals. Nathan was thereby personally shielded by the firm and by Henry’s business judgement.

When the firm bought the Osgoods’ two-thirds of Little Chebeague in 1874, Nathan was married and a legislator, but soon to be neither. Henry was about to take off on his political career. Their Little Chebeague purchase was an early item in his business career. Clearly, to a businessman with unclouded vision, recreation and tourism was a coming thing all along the coast of Maine, and the closer to Boston and New York by train or steamboat, the better. He also bought land on the east end of Long Island and the west end of Great Chebeague, the ends of those islands that were nearest to Little Chebeague. I have not yet tried to research the dates of those purchases, but have wondered whether those were simply what was available, whether he particularly like the locality, or had some business plan. One possible version of the latter could have been to ensure that no competitive hotels would appear that close to the existing one. A good businessman would have considered that risk. So would a person with military experience in the value of maintaining a defensive posture. Even a steamboat wharf on the protected inshore side of Cushing Point on Long Island’s east end (where Cleaves’ Landing later was built) or one on the inshore side of Great Chebeague’s Deer Point (where Chandler Cove Landing now exists) could have led to the rise of such nearby competition.

But how to manage their hotel? Certainly not personally, with their other commitments and goals.

Then who else? Enter Joshua E. Jenks

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Joshua E. Jenks at about the age when he managed Little Chebeague Joshua Jenks was another native of Bridgton, not so fortunate in family as were the Cleaves’, but energetic, ambitious, and versatile. Growing up on a poorly-situated farm outside Bridgton, he had managed to become a store owner there, then moved to Portland and began business as an insurance agent, also becoming a Justice of the Peace. In 1869, he and Annette (“Nettie”) L. Perkins of Brunswick, Maine, were married in Dover, N. H., that being his second marriage. He was then 37, she was 20. Sometime before 1876, he, like Nathan Cleaves, went into bankruptcy. In his case, that misfortune may have derived from the national business recession of 1873, which ruined many businesses. When he went to Little Chebeague, Jenks was not merely broke -- he owed creditors money that he could not then pay.

Bankrupty has a sound of failure, but like poverty then and now, it need not be due to any fault of the person so affected. Being in business calls for taking risks, and being a businessman therefore calls for the courage to take risks. Sometimes the risks overtake even a good businessman. But just as one can, by a mixture of courage, prudence, understanding, and industriousness, build up his fortunes from nearly nothing a first time, a bankrupted person can, given a new opportunity by that process, raise himself from nothing again.

The legal institution of bankruptcy was devised as a sensible alternative to the older and foolish institution of debtor’s prisons, which made it impossible for a debtor to earn the wherewithall to pay off his old debts.

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The papers of the time show how risky business was at that time, without many of the “safety-nets” now provided in addition to the bankruptcy provision. The summer-hotel and steamboat businesses were exceptionally vulnerable. The former, needing to make their profit during a very short season, had a small margin for error, and, with the common concurrence of wood construction, pipe smoking, and the use of oil lamps and gas lights, fire was the eventual fate of many, usually with only partial insurance coverage. For the boats, in addition to the threats of wind and sea, collision, fire, and boiler explosion, the over-abundance of companies in the business forced a continual rate competition that gave the public low fares but again made the investors’ profit margins slim and resulted in frequent sell-outs, mergers, and failures.

A person who can overcome one loss by becoming successful again in one of those businesses is one who indeed knows how to succeed. Clearly, Jenks was one of those. Even without outside assistance, he probably would have recovered, paid his debts, and prospered again. But he did get help, and from a source that reminds us that it pays to deserve friends.

So Jenks’ financial dilemma could have been part of the reason he was the one to whom the Cleaves’ leased their new island possession, giving him the opportunity make a new start by becoming both a farmer and a hotel manager without his having to invest in them himself, and also to have a home to live in. In the various biographies that appeared in public print during their lives and at their deaths, frequent mention was made of the Cleaves’ generosity to persons in need of assistance, Henry being particularly helpful to many fellow war veterans. Certainly Nathan and Joshua knew each other. In the same 02 Aug 1872 paper quoted earlier in regard to excursions, there was an article about a Democratic Party political meeting in which Jenks was the master of ceremonies and Nathan was one of the speakers, the paper estimating the attendance at between 2000 and 3000 persons. (In spite of their family relationship and their business association, Nathan supported the Democrats, while Henry was a Republican. Their father had been a Democrat before the Republican Party was formed, but he then had become a Republican, supporting Lincoln.)

Henry Cleaves must have judged Jenks to be a person who would manage this new Cleaves property properly. Nevertheless, the Cleaves’ arrangement with Jenks was very businesslike, as befitted a law firm and, of course, Henry, and we know what it said, because it was registered with the county (Cumberland County Register of Deeds Book 420 page 109). That lease document also gives us quite a picture of the farm as an already strongly going concern. It said, in part: "This indenture made the 6th day of March in the year of our Lord 1875, witnesseth that Nathan Cleaves and Henry B. Cleaves, both of Portland... hereby lease, demise, and let unto Joshua E. Jenks of said Portland, that portion of the island known as "Little Chebeague Island" situated in Portland harbor and being the same premises purchased of Mary C. Osgood and conveyed by her ... deed of warranty dated Oct 26, 1874 recorded ... together with all the stock, horses, hogs, sheep, poultry, hay, tools, furniture, crockery, beds and bedding, provisions, tools, carriages, farming implements, and all the property upon said island belonging to us, to hold for the term of three years, with the privilege of a further lease for two years additional to said three years from the 6th day of March, AD 1875, yielding and paying therefor the rent of $600 per annum and the said lessee does covenant to pay the said rent in yearly payments as follows: on the first day of October of each year, and to quit and deliver up the premises to lessors or their attorney peaceably and quietly at the end of the term aforesaid in as good order and condition, reasonable use and wearing thereof or inevitable accidents excepted, as the same now or may be put into by the said lessors and not make or suffer any waste thereof, and that he will not assign or underlet the premises or any part thereof without the consent of the lessor in writing on the back of this lease, and the lessor may enter to view and make improvements and to expel the lessee if he fails to pay the rent aforesaid, whether said rent be demanded or not, or if he shall make or suffer any strife or waste thereof, or shall fail to quit and surrender the premises to the lessor at the end of said term in the manner aforesaid, or shall violate any of the covenants in this lease by said lessee to be performed. And the premises shall not be occupied during the said term for any purpose usually denominated extra hazardous as to fire by insurance companies..." Signed; received Mar 11, 1875 by the registrar.

Note that no advance rent was demanded, and, although the anniversary of the signing would be March, the rent payments were due in October of each year -- at the ends of the tourist season at the hotel and of the harvest season at the farm.

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How much Jenks did in his first season on the island is not known, but his second season is unusually well documented, for during the first nine months of 1876, he kept a diary, and that diary was preserved in his family.

His grand-daughter, Betty (Leslie Elizabeth) Jenks Bailey, allowed it to be copied for our history. She also provided several other items of family mementoes, such as photographs of her grandfather, his and Annette’s wedding certificate, clippings, receipts, and a drawing of the island as it was in 1876-77. Mrs. Bailey died in July 1994.

The year 1876 began auspiciously, New Year’s Day being, Jenks wrote, “...Very calm and pleasant all day.

Warm as summer...” That day seems to have set the tone for much of the diary -- either Jenks was easily able to see the good side, or it was a very good year. From then until the final entry late in September, the phrase “warm and pleasant” appears over and over, being used on 153 of the 272 days covered by the diary, or 56% of them.

Joshua E. Jenks' Diary, Jan - Sep 1876 January1 Sat, 01 Went to Portland with my wife & John Ricker. Nettie got a clock at $16--. Came home on Ricker's schooner. Very calm and pleasant all day. Warm as summer. Bought 3 bags of meal & 3 bags shorts.

Had 7 bags corn of J. H. [or J. W ?]

Sun, 02 Warm and overcast. John Ricker went home with his father. Strout brought a mess of smelts from Gt. Chebeague.

Mon, 03 Very warm & pleasant. Nettie went to Portland today. Gave her 5.00. Worked thrashing all day.

Tue, 04 Pleasant and warm. Worked thrashing all day.

Wed, 05 Warm and pleasant. Finished thrashing today.

Thu, 06 Warm & pleasant. Winnowed the grain today with the horses and fixed the sheep pen.

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Only selected portions are in this main text. The entire diary is given in the Appendix following p43.

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Fri, 07 Warm and pleasant all day. Went to Portland on the new boat and stayed at the Cumberland House all night.

Sat, 08 Very warm and pleasant all day. Had a meeting of the creaditers today at 10 A.M. John H. Fogg chosen assignee. Every thing pleasant. Paid Charles Stanwood $5.65. Paid Sabin & Eliot $7.33 Leighton & Marsh $9.15 for meet [meat]. Settled with James S. Williams owed him $1.97 cts.

It is the "creaditers" (creditors) and "assignee" remarks that show that Jenks had gone into bankrupcy.

John H. Fogg was a Portland lawyer with an office on Exchange St. J. S. Williams appears later to have been a person hired by Jenks to work at the farm. Another hired hand was young John Ricker, a son of Capt. Stephen Ricker, a Great Chebeaguer of some consequence. Capt. Ricker is shown in directories as the owner of several sailing vessels -- a schooner of 117 tons, sloops of 30 and 23 tons, and another schooner of only 7.8 tons. The schooner referred to in the diary was probably the small one, useful for commuting to Portland and the other islands -- the family car of that time. He was also involved in providing early steamboat service between Portland and Great Chebeague, particularly that provided by the “Henrietta” in 1876, serving Little Chebeague as well. The younger Ricker was listed in the 1877 Portland City Directory as “laborer, Chebeague Island”, as was his brother Rufus. “J.H.” might have been either John Hill or John Hanaford, both referred to in later diary entries. “Shorts” indicates he needs feed for hens, and later entries do mention his taking eggs to persons he visited in Portland Sun, 09 Been warm and overcast all day. Rained and snowed last night. Gave Robert Wallace $6.00 on calf.

Mon,10 Went to Freeport and settled Oxnards [Labs?] for $500 [$5.00?] 20833 [??] for Westchester.

Came back to city and went to Catholick Church. Stayed with Edward Gould all night. Very pleasant and warm all day. Paid $13 for a large buck [ca??] Male full blood.

Tue, 11 Very cold this afternoon on schooner Island Queen.

Wed, 12 Very cold and pleasant. Cleaned up the barn and then plained some boards for a floor in the house.

Thu, 13 Cold and pleasant. Killed 2 hogs one of them very large.

Fri, 14 Warm & pleasant. Salted two hogs today. Worked on the House.

Sat, 15 Went to Portland with my wife and stayed at Elders on State Street. Warm and pleasant. Cared [Carried] one bbl [barrel] of vegetables to Judge Kingsbury and a little of the [Creter?] also to John H. Fogg. Sent $14.75 to Eliza M.[H?] Libby, 5 Temple Place, Boston by Swett's Express for Nettie.

Sun, 16 Warm and pleasant. Snowed last night about 3 inches, the first this month. [?a?] at Elders today.

Went to the New Church this evening. Subject heaven -- are we employed in heaven -- by Rev Wm. B. Hayden.

Mon, 17 Warm with snow and rain. Cold in the afternoon. R. [Wight?] paid me $20--, note for balance.

Bought me a pair of Ricker's shoes for $4.75. Bought [?] 5 yds of print at Vickery & Leighton for 5 cts yd. Came home to the island today with my wife.

There are answers to the question of his 1875 activities. He has grain on hand to thresh (“thrash”) and winnow, and hogs to butcher. “Creter” may have meant “critter” -- part of one of the hogs. Whatever he may have done in the hotel business, he was actively farming, and was using hired help Rev. William Hayden was pastor of the New Jerusalem Temple in Portland. The question of whether residents of heaven had jobs to keep them from being bored would have been a particularly appropriate one for a person as energetic as Jenks.

The reference on 07 Jan to “the new boat” probably does not refer to the “Henrietta”, since Frappier says that she had taken over the Great Chebeague service from the steam towboat “Charles A. Warren” on 10 May 1875. The schooner “Island Queen” is listed in the 1877 Portland Directory as being a 64-ton vessel built in 1858 and owned by a T. C. Lewis. This schooner is also mentioned in the 20 June edition of the Argus, being identified there as a fishing vessel commanded by a Capt. Hart. ( A sidewheel steamer of the same name had served in Casco Bay earlier, but had burned in 1859.)

“The house” used much of Jenks’s time during the winter and spring. We suppose that referred to the “hotel”. Under Jenks, its name was the Sunnyside House. At the end of his lease of Little Chebeague, when he

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moved to Great Chebeague and set up his own business there, he took the name (and the signboard) to use on his new establishment at what became Jenks’ Landing.

His handwriting and the pen he used do not make it easy to “translate” some of his entries. Few of his sentences end with periods, and many letters may be read as either upper- or lower-case ones. Forms of several letters are not as used in handwriting today, but are similar to the forms found on census pages, vital statistics, and tax records hand-written by others in that period. The modern reader has to learn those forms. Spelling was variable then, as it is with many of us now. Context solves many puzzles, but when names and numbers occur, the puzzles sometimes remain unsolved -- hence most of the question marks in the extracts above and below. A nearly complete “translation” has been made, but only samples from it will be mentioned here. Some mis-spellings are preserved, but in many cases it was impossible to be sure what the spellings were, and the words were partly divined by context. In the latter cases, modern versions of correct spellings are used. Then there are things like the word “Labs”, on the 10th, which seems quite clear, but also seems odd for the 1870’s.

The warm spell ended on the 20th and the weather remained “very cold” for a week. On the 22nd and on the 24th (Saturday and Monday) there are identical entries about going to Portland and carrying 2 dozen and 9 dozen eggs to different parties. We can suspect that he sometimes needed to catch up on his entries and may have got his days mixed. The Monday entry also mentioned that he called on his bankruptcy assignee “and was examined”. He apparently did not stay the weekend in town, since he says it snowed very hard on Sunday, the ground having “frozen hard” on Saturday. After returning home on Monday, he “had a road broke out round the field”.

Tue, 25 Tuesday quite pleasant but cold. Drove the black mare round the track several times. Took Mrs. Jenks out to ride on the island. Worked on the house.

Thu, 27 Very cold but snowed about all day. Worked on the house. Mrs. Jenks quite sick. Saw the moon out of the window.

Mrs. Jenks was pregnant with their first child, due in midsummer, so her illness may not have come from her cold ride. His mention of the moon is the only such “scenic” comment in the entire diary.

The end of the month brought what Mainer’s call a “January thaw”. As a result, it was “Very sloppy” on the 29th. The next day, a Sunday, offered nice weather, but a visiting neighbor was hot under the collar and unpleasant.

Sun, 30 Warm and pleasant. Bill Doughty came and claimed a dory. Said John Ricker stole it and he could prove it. Said that he left it at the wharf the last of July. I told him that he could have it by paying the expenses on it of 1.50 cts.

The next month began with rain, which continued for two days.

February Wed, 02 Warm and rained hard till about 3 P.M. Cleared off very cold. The water stands in high fields.

Thu, 03 Very cold and ruf. Looks like snow. Very slippery. All glare ice. The cattle can't hardly stand up. Worked on the House today. Black sheep had a nice ram lamb.

Sat, 05 Very Cold and pleasant. Steamer Henrietta could not get up through the ice. Went up outside.

Started to come down and got stuck in the ice.

Sun, 06 Cold and overcast. Found a very large ewe lamb at the barn this morning. Had a baked cock for dinner today. Very nice.

Mon, 07 Very Warm. The ice has all broak up so the steamer went up through this morning. Call on John Fogg and answered his question[s]. It has been very pleasant -- seemed like spring.

Tue, 08 Warm and pleasant. Seemed like spring. Took down the fence of the bowling alley.

“Went up outside” means that the steamer, instead of traveling in the sheltered water between the islands, where the calmer water had frozen over, went on the open-ocean side of Long Island and probably Peaks Island as well. The strong tidal currents entering and leaving the Bay between Peaks and Long, and also between Long and

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Great Chebeague, would have delayed or prevented freezing in those channels, allowing the vessel to re-enter the “inside”.

More evidence of the extent of the farming operation -- a flock of sheep. Thruout the coming spring there are frequent accounts of the arrivals of new lambs, with all of their usual survival problems, and of some calves.

The cattle were either allowed out of the barn or shut out of it. The bowling alley was being kept in shape. After working on that on the 9th, he went back to working on the house, in which he “put up the stairs” on the 11th.

Sat, 12 Very warm and pleasant like spring. Trefethen brought the hay press to the wharf today. Broke the roads and also a driveway round in the field.

Sun, 13 Very warm and pleasant. A real spring day. Drove the horses about an hour. Each was wide awake. Took my wife to ride also.

Mon, 14 Very cold. Looks like snow. Worked on the house what I can. Was not very well today. Nettie went to Portland. Commenced hailing and snowing about 4 P.M. Henry Mansfield and son came and called me up at 2 A.M. Put his horse in the barn.

Tue, 15 Very cold. Snowed and hailed all day with rain at 3 P.M. Worked on the house. Ase Dyer came over and got a pint of rum for Mrs. Wallace who is very sick. The wind blew very hard -- a perfect tornado this evening.

Wed, 16 Very cold and sloppy but pleasant. Worked on the house all day. Eck Hanady's Sch (schooner) came ashore last night in the gale. She parted chain. Got her off at high water and went to the city this P.M. My [grass?] went up today. Found a high stick timber on the shore.

Thu, 17 Cold and pleasant. Field full of ice in all the rows. Had a good hunt after my geese. Found them at Long Island. Worked on the house.

A hay press indicates money was available for investing in new farm machinery. It also suggests that he hopes to sell baled hay (which he does mention doing, much later in the diary, after haying time). The horses have been spending much of their time in the barn and need exercise, and they show that they are glad to be out and getting it, as would have the “black mare” back on 25 January. “Hail” at this time of year probably meant sleet.

Why Mansfield and son “called [Jenks] up” at 2 A. M. is an intriguing but unanswered question. To any young readers, that had nothing to do with a telephone, which did not exist on the island or anywhere else at the beginning of 1876. Alexander Graham Bell received his patent in that year. In this case, that term probably means that the visitors woke him up.

That Maine’s prohibition law, enacted in 1858, although in effect, obviously was not entirely effective, is illustrated by Jenks’ having rum on hand (for medicinal and other purposes). Other evidences that show up in the Argus are advertisments for “clarets...at the Family Wine Store” and an article and series of paid notices about the formation of a “Liquor Dealers Union” intended to “devise some means by which their business can be legalized”. The court reports contain frequent fines for “intoxication”, but not for possession or sale of liquor, although there are some news articles about “crooked” whiskey operations, which appear to have meant excise-tax dodgers. One advertisement for “Direct Importation of Ales, Wines, and Liquors...Holland Gin in bulk...Irish and Scotch Whiskey...Champagne...” appeared daily for quite a number of issues.

Asaph Dyer, according to the 1877 directory, was a Long Island fisherman.

The grounding of the schooner was also noted in the 17 February copy of the Argus (p 2 col 7) with the following item, which appeared twice in the same issue, once in the “Marine disasters” column, and also as a news item.

“The fishing schooner IDA GROVER dragged ashore on the beach at Chebeague Island, in the gale of Wednesday. Will probably come off without much damage.”

The 1877 directory says the “Ida Grover” was of 22 tons and built in 1871. It gives her owner as Charles L. West. The name “Hanady” above is my best guess from Jenks’ handwriting, and may have referred

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to her captain rather than her owner. The same day’s paper told of another shooner which “parted cable” off Richmond’s Island and was broken up on the rocky shore of Cape Elizabeth. Her crew escaped.

It may have been his glass drather than his grass that was “up”, meaning that his barometer showed rising pressure, hence that clearing weather would follow the storm, which did occur. A “high stick timber” may have meant a long log or a long piece of finished timber. It certainly meant that the waves came far ashore.

On the 19th, “Jim Williams went to Portland”. Williams was another of his hired hands, probably one of the “2 men” mentioned as working on the house on three successive days, and the “J. S. Williams” in the 08 January diary entry.

Mon, 21 Cold and pleasant. Went to Portland. Sold my wool for 30 cts. Came to $34.85. Paid Edward Gould $75.-- for mackeral. Paid Stearns & Co. grain bill. Got 6 yardsticks, set [matche plaines] [“match planes” ? possibly for shaping the edges of matched boards?] Lost a nice steer calf. Got into the spring and drowned. Paid 12 Dollars for him Dec 24.

Wed, 23 Very cold, wind blowing hard. Snow drifts bad. Pleasant overhead. Worked on the old house 2 men. Am a bit sick with a sore throat.

Thu, 24 Very Cold. Wind blowng hard. Coldest day this winter. Lost a sheep or lamb this morning.

Skinned him. Bad luck. (Don't feel very well.) Worked on old house with 2 men.

Fri, 25 Very cold this morning. Moderated down about noon. Worked on the old house with 2 men.

Quite pleasant this afternoon.

Sat, 26 Cold and pleasant. Went to Portland on Steamer. Carried Elder 6 doz eggs. Paid John Leavett & Co $140 [$1.40?]. Got 6 bags shorts, 5 bags meal, 5 bags corn, 5 boxes salt. Mrs. Abe McCallum and son came tonight. Had a nice ewe lamb come about 9 P.M. Bought 2000 larths [laths] for $175.

Sun, 27 Warm and pleasant. Looked like snow. [Haruld?] sheep had a pair of twin lambs, both rams.

One had a hard chance to live. Did not go to bed last night. Sat up with lamb.

Mon, 28 Cold. Looks like snow. Sow had 10 pigs smart and nice. All & John sat up tonight.

Tue, 29 Cold and pleasant. Tore down the partitions in the old house further end. Sheep had a nice lamb (ewe). Left the lamb and pigs alone tonight.

The 2000 “larths” were preparatory to plastering the walls of some building, as will appear later. Being thin sticks 4 feet long and about 1-1/2 inches wide and placed on the wall with about a half-inch spacing for the plaster to ooze thru and lock around the edges of the laths, that many could cover 167 linear feet of 8-foot-high walls. Allowing for some doors and windows and a little wastage, that would be enough for 4 rooms, each 12 x 10 feet.

“Haruld” seems incorrect, but was the best I could do at reading that name. What is significant here is that he was caring for some stock belonging to others. Other evidences of this also appear later. “All” probably refers to another hired hand, later called “Ally”, perhaps a boy who, as a man, would later be called “Al”.

March Wed, 01 Cold and pleasant. Worked on old house today. Bought a pair cart wheels of Peterson for $18-an old sleigh $3-Thu, 02 Cold and snowed in the morning. Cold all day. Had a nice ewe lamb. Came last night {extra}.

Framed a building for 4 sleeping rooms.

Fri, 03 Quite cold and pleasant. Finished larthing the old house.

Sat, 04 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Got a barrel of hard bread.

Sun, 05 Warm and pleasant. Staid at home all day.

According to Betty Jenks Bailey, both her father (who appears as a new-born later in this diary year) and her uncle were born in the one house (the “Yellow Cottage”) that was set back into the weather-protection of the grove of trees on the high ground of the island. The cottages of that time, meant for summer residences only, were all on the edges of the grove. Although Mrs. Bailey never knew her grandfather Jenks, she did know her grandmother, Annette Jenks, so had one first-hand source. The diary gives no clue as to where on the island the Jenks’s lived, but it also makes no mention of their moving from one house to another. We must presume,

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then, that they were in the Yellow Cottage during this diary year. We know nothing of the un-attached farmhouse shown on the map, nor of what is meant by the diary’s “old house”.

The new building with four sleeping rooms suggests a new cottage to go with the hotel. For this to be any of the cottages whose wreckage still exists, the best candidates from that description would be the Cleaves cottage (later Henry Bailey’s), which had bedrooms in each of the four corners of its second floor, or the somewhat similar next-door cottage first owned by E. L. O. Adams, then by Haskell. That the Cleaves Cottage was one of the earliest would be plausible from its location, for it commanded a view both southward toward Portland and westward toward the Falmouth shore. The remaining cottages were located outward from that site in two lines, one line extending inland with only a southward view over the farm fields, the other extending along the top of the high bank, having only the westward view directly over the water. The Cleaves cottage had the choicest “corner lot” location. The other two possibly that-old buildings, the “Fogg cottage” and the “Red Cottage” (also known as “Chiff Cottage”) did not originally have that many bedrooms. Yet the frontispiece map of the island, made slightly after the diary year, does not show any of the Cleaves, Adams, or Fogg cottages. The summer cottages that it does show are along the high bank on the northwest shore, where their positions accurately correspond, in their spacings from each other, the Yellow cottage, the barn, and the hotel location, to the Red, Sawyer, and Hamlen cottages.

Mon, 06 Warm and pleasant. Went to Peaks Island to vote. Water run fast. Went to Portland after water.

10 came home with me to supper from Long Island. Men hauled dung on sled.

Tue, 07 Warm and pleasant. Boys hauled dung. I worked on house. The fields are covered with water.

There may have been a bit of euphemism here. On election day, the water might have had a bit of fire in it, best disposed of by a large party on an island far from the authorities. This is speculation, not allegation, but there was never any real need to carry water from Portland to Little Chebeague, especially when the fields were covered with it.

Wed, 08 Very warm with rain, dreadful sloppy. Fixed cart axle for small wheels and worked on old house.

Sat, 11 Warm and pleasant. Lost lamb last night. Sheep would not own it. Went to Portland today.

Tue, 14 Cold but pleasant. Wind blew hard. Froze hard last night. Built an oxcart today and then worked on old house.

This was the purpose for the wheels. The versatile Mr. Jenks and his men (or boys) built his own ox-cart.

The mother sheep, on the other hand, was unaware of what to do about her lamb -- as sheep will be about a lot of things.

Sat, 18 Very cold. Wind blew hard. Had the tufest snow storm that has been this winter. Worked on old house today.

Sun, 19 Cold and windy. Blows. Snow flies. Had a lamb come last night. A nice one. Found an other one that came in the pen ded.

Mon, 20 Cold. Snow deep. Broke out road to wharf, went uptown. Set up with a lamb that the sheep would not own. Looks like a storm.

Tue, 21 Cold. Snow & rain commenced about noon. The rain in torantz. Wind never blew harder.

Started the roof of the barn. Cut the 4 pigs today. A dredful storm. The rain came through all the rooms in the house.

Wild weather indeed, for the present-day remains of the Yellow Cottage indicate that it was a well-built structure in the beginning. However, wood-shingled roofs could leak.

Wed, 22 Cold and pleasant with a little wind. Fixed some doors today. Halled 5 loads of kelp and rockweed. Very sloppy.

Thu, 23 Warm and pleasant. Some wind. Worked on doors. Boys hauled dressing from shore. Took celing out of boat.

Fri, 24 Warm and pleasant. Worked on bowling alley. Taped some trees.

Sat, 25 Cold and overcast in the morning. Went to city. Rained hard when I came home. A tuf storm.

Wind blew hard. Sheep had a nice lamb.

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Sun, 26 Warm and overcast and hazey. Worked with my three men and oxen on C. P. Ingraham's building. Also got Rufus Ricker to help me.

Mon, 27 Warm and overcast. Went to Portland. Carried 2 pigs. Got 10-- for them. Carried a [???] calf & sheep skin to A. Leighton. Mrs. Jenks went to Portland. Had 3 teeth out. Took gass. Had a good effect. Is going to Brunswick to stay a week. Told C. P. Ingraham about his house washing under it. He said he would pay what was right.

Kelp and rockweed (seaweeds) were for fertilizer. “Celing” was “ceiling”, the inner planking of a boat. Taping trees may have meant grafting fruit-tree twigs onto rootstocks. Rufus Ricker was a brother of John.

Ingraham’s building would have been one of the three just above the beach south of the wharf. Since it was called a “house”, it is likely to have been the former Conway farmhouse, nearest to the wharf. In an easterly winter gale, both wind and seas would have been directed onto the east shore where the wharf and those buildings were located. During the time of incoming tide, a fast current has to come thru the gap between Long Island and Great Chebeague to help fill the several square miles of inner bay behind Little Chebeague. That current, also aimed directly onto that shore, has to turn to go south of Little Chebeague at low tide, and has to split to go around both sides of the island at high tide. When additionally driven by wind, its momentum before making those turns would force it to rise up on the island’s sloping east beach and reach unusually far up onto the shore, possibly far enough to reach or even suround a near-shore building. On ground already softened by being saturated with rain, a building’s base could be undermined. Buildings put in that area by the U. S. Navy during World War II were later destroyed by one of the hurricanes that reach the New England coast in the autumns of some years.

Poor Mrs. Jenks! Five months pregnant and she had 3 teeth out at once! It was indeed a time to go home to her mother’s for a week, instead of cooking and house-keeping for at least three men-folks on an island with no other sympathetic ladies.

Tue, 28 Warm and pleasant. Worked on old house. Sold 2 pigs for 12--. Tore down the sleeping room on back of old house.

Wed, 29 Cold. Another east rain storm. Found one of my twin lambs ded. Woodside sheep had a nice lamb this morning. Repaired the big and R[ooler] today. Cleaned up the barn.

Thu, 30 Warm and pleasant. Worked on old house. Found a lamb ded. Choked with wool in its mouth.

Steve Ricker got a pig today. Will pay for it soon.

Fri, 31 Warm and pleasant. Old Strout came over today and got pretty full.

Old Strout probably did not have a mouthful of wool, but it may have felt that way later. Mrs. Jenks was still away at her mother’s, so the menfolks had the house to themselves. The bachelor cooking may have needed something to help it go down.

April Sat, 01 Cold and raw wind. Got ready to go to city. Steamer did not come in to wharf. Henry's wife and children, Mansfield, Hanaford, Doughty & Dyer were at the wharf, were all very mad. Fixed a Hhd [hogshead]and put the hams in to it to Smoak.

Sun, 02 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Basket Island to Geo. Williams. He gave me a door and came over and got a pig and some hay. Had a stray goos come to my yard. Caught him. Got an egg from one of the gees today.

Mon, 03 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Mrs. Jenks came home today. Williams paid me $6-- for his pig. Bishop came and got his pig and I paid him 50 cts balance on potatoes.

Tue, 04 Cold [some] storm[y?]. Snow and rain. Worked on oxcart and ground up the tools and fixed up the door Williams gave me.

Wed, 05 Cold and snowy & rain. Woke up with a sore foot. Think it is the reumatism or gout. It is in my left foot now quite sore. Worked on oxcart. Got it together. A good one.

Thu, 06 Warm and overcast this morning. Sun came out about 6 A.M. Then very pleasant. Was very lame. Confined in the house all day with my left foot.

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Fri, 07

Cold and cloudy. Staid in the house with lame foot.

At least 7 persons were expecting the steamer at the Little Chebeague wharf, but not all were residents of that island. Did the people on the near ends of Long and Great Chebeague come over to this smaller island to be able to board the steamers? Ponce’s Landing on Long Island (perhaps Cushings Landing, instead, at that date) was on that island’s far end, nearest to Portland. The new Littlefield’s Landing on Great Chebeague was half-way up on the far side of that island. One history of Great Chebeague tells of their being no road that ran the length of that island. To drive from one end to the other, one had to open and close 13 pasture gates. So island people traveled mostly by boat. Rowing or sailing over to Little Chebeague by small boat to take the steamer was better than using either of those methods to go all the way to town.

Jenks apparently had gout, a very painful condition caused when sharp crystals of urea salts form in the joints between bones of the foot. It must feel somewhat like having a sharp bit of stone in your shoe, but you can’t just take off the shoe and shake it out -- it’s inside the foot.

Mon, 10 Warm and pleasant with some wind in afternoon. Went to city in steamer. Settled with Leighton & More. Got $25 of H. B. Cleaves. Bought 4 bushels barley at $1-- and 4-- worth garden seeds. Sold pig to Mrs. Kennardy or Dan Foley for $6--.

Tue, 11 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland to the Stockholders Meeting of the Harpswell Steam Boat Co. Acted for Nathan & H. B. Cleaves. Everything pleasant. Got home at 7 P.M. Plowed the garden to day.

Jenks good relationship with the Cleaves’ is shown by their relying on him to represent them in one of their business dealings, albeit one that affected his interests as well. The “Harpswell Steam Boat Co.” was at that time, according to Capt. Frappier, a cooperative organized in 1875 by Great Chebeaguers, in order to provide themselves with some reliable steamboat service. Stephen Ricker was its agent and treasurer. An advertisement that ran steadily from October 1875 thru the summer of 1876 gave no name for the Henrietta’s owning organization. The Cleaves’ may have been members (hence investors) in the co-op, or may simply have had an interest in its providing service to Little Chebeague also.

Also spring has come; planting is about to begin, and the further entries show how extensive an operation Jenks had going on the farm.

Wed, 12 Warm and pleasant like summer. Planted some early peas.

Thu, 13 Warm and pleasant part of the day. Went over to Basket Island & got an old boat to repair mine with. Sold 2 pigs for $14 to John Hill.

Fri, 14 Warm and Foggy. Got up at [3 or 5] A.M. Sow had 11 pigs all smart and nice. This afternoon Wallace came. Had a heffer calf. Planted 4 bushels Early Rose potatoes and 1 quart of peas, Champions of England. Sent two men over to Basket Island and got 2 dory loads of dressing.

Sat, 15 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Got some paints. William Trefething took supper self and man and stayed till morning.

Sun, 16 Cold and overcast. Showers in the afternoon. David Peterson came over today.

Mon, 17 Warm and pleasant with cool wind in the afternoon. Mrs. Jenks went to Portland. I got 1686 ($16.86?) worth of dry goods. Bought 12 bushels of wheat for seed $2.25 a bushel. Beck cow had a nice stear calf.

I took it from her about 10 P.M. Sent $56 dollars to the Westchester Co. today by registered letter.

Tue, 18 Warm and pleasant. Set a kettle to boil swill with. Built a hen yard and painted oxcart body.

Wed, 19 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Petersons and got a plane and some fruit trees at 40 cts. 2 pear trees at 1.00, plums $2--.

Thu, 20 Warm and pleasant. Set out trees in garden. Slaked and made some morter for plastering.

Fri, 21 Warm and overcast with rain. Went over to Cousins island to [G??s] and got some iron work done. Sold my sportted steers to John Hill on the above mentioned Island for 110 dollars and a red heffer. Am to deliver steers on Littlejohns Island May 1/76.

Sat, 22 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland today. Got some plants for wife also some corn and meal.

Got $25 of H. B. Cleaves. Got a bbl of lamp chimbleys.

Springtime weather is making it possible to move around more. Small boats are in the water and convenient to use for more inter-island visiting. The pace of visits, trades, and borrowings is picking up. Multi-

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talented Jenks is “fixing up” a boat for his own use. The lease document made no mention of any boat such as the “vessel” that Osgood was taxed for in 1867.

The amounts of money being sent to Westchester Co. at this time and also back on 10 January suggest that they were some of his pre-bankrupcy creditors that he was trying to pay off now that he had the opportunity to make some money again.

“Swill” was often household garbage that was fed to the pigs, which will eat almost anything that can’t run away. But it was safer, especially in warm weather, to boil it first to kill the insects and bacteria that also liked to eat it. The mortar will be used with those 2000 laths. Plants for Nettie are likely to have been flowering ones. Chimneys for kerosene or whale-oil (or pogie-oil) lamps were of thin glass and easily broken.

However, a barrel (“bbl”) of them, packed in something like straw or sawdust (both very commonly available), was a lot more than would be needed for a family home. They were for the hotel, whose size we have not learned (except for our cover picture, from a source to be explained later).

Mon, 24 Warm and pleasant. Commenced harrowing for grain. Bought $47.80 dollars worth of grass seed today. Bought 2 bushels more of wheat and some peas and onions to set out. ["Let Strought have the oxen & cart" is crossed out.]

Tue, 25 Cold with wind. Looks like a storm. Sowed 3 bushels of wheat today and harrowed it in. Set out a bed of onions. Let Strout on Gt. Chebeague have the oxen for 2 days.

Wed, 26 Cold and raw with sort of overcast. Set out seed beets, seed turnips, carrots, & parsnips. Planted 3 quarts of peas early, and planted more Early Rose potatoes.

[Ex] Philadelphia peas first 5 rowes. Carters next 5 roes. First [Craf?] peas [N C Leows] little gem peas next 5 roes then two roes lot that came from Henry Mansfield. All next the wall where old house is.

Thu, 27 Cold and overcast most of the time. Wind blew quite hard. Sowed some beets 3 beds. Planted some potatoes.

Fri, 28 Warm and pleasant in the forenoon. Sowed 3 bushels of grass seed and sowed 1 bushel of wheat.

Brushed and rolled the grass-seed smooth.

Sat, 29 Warm and pleasant. Am very lame in my knee and foot. Sowed 3 bushels of barley on the potatoe peace [piece?]. Ruf [Rufus?] Ricker paid me $3.00 for amt due on pig. Commenced cold with light wind towards night.

May Mon, 01 Cold and windy but pleasant. Worked on the small boat. J. S. Williams went to Portland to have his teeth out.

Tue, 02 Cold and windy this forenoon. This afternoon it camed [calmed] down and was warmer.

Peterson came over at 130 [1:30] P.M. and hewed some timber. Went over to Cousins Island and bought a steer calf for $2-- to mate one of mine. Also bought a heffer calf, half Jersey for $24. Nice ones.

Wed, 03 Warm and pleasant with wind southeast blowing hard. Put in new timbers in boat and nailed it all over. Lewis Doughty commenced plastering the ketching [kitchen]. Henry Mansfield came on erand. Engaged 2 pigs boars. Petersen came and hewed timbers. Had a heffer calf.

Thu, 04 Warm and pleasant. Sowed 6 bushels of barley and sowed grass seed on it afterward. Had it all harrowed in. Plasterer hear yet. Promised 3 pigs to some men on Gt. Chebeague.

Fri, 05 Warm and overcast. Halled rocks and harrowed and brushed the ground. Plasterer here yet.

Awful slow. Set 3 hens on 13 eggs each. Also set a goos on 9 eggs Sat, 06 Warm and foggy. Went to Portland. Paid Cyrus Butler $25-- for stove. Ordered another and got 3 bags meal 3 of corn and 3 of shorts. John Ricker went to Portland and got his hair cut. Set a hen on 13 eggs. Paid Lewis Doughty $7.50 for plastering 250 ($2.50) per day. Out ragous. Am done with him.

Was Willams another youngster like John Ricker and Ally when he had to have his teeth out?

Doughty was less likely to be a youngster, if he knew how to plaster, but Jenks seems to have thought that he did not know it well enough. Jenks apparently expected others to be as ambitious and industrious about their work as he was. (Or was Doughty a careful worker and the busy Jenks a slap-dash one?) Several Doughty families lived on the east end of Long Island.

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Tue, 09 Warm and foggy. Rained in the afternoon. Sheered the old buck and halled of [hauled off] the rocks on barley peace. Commenced cleaning house. Mrs. Barker is helping.

Wed, 10 Warm and foggy. Pogy boats came and spread their seines out in field. Had John Ricker and oxen & cart 6 hours. Went over to Isaac Strout's and got a red steer calf. Paid $2.00 for him. 2 days old. Halled the bankings away from the house. Had a heavy rain last night, heavy thunder.

Thu, 11 Warm and raining. Foot is very sore. Can't do much.

Fri, 12 Warm and pleasant this morning. Went over to east end of Gt. Chebeague. Peterson sheared 10 sheep today. Can't step on my foot. Have concluded to stay in the house. 3 pogy boats came today. Team worked 4 hours.

Sat, 13 Warm and raining. Shearing team worked all day. Mansfield came over and see me today. Had a lamb today. An ewe from Peterson sheep. My foot pains me very much. Kept my bed most all day. The boys planted 3 bushels potatoes.

Sun, 14 Warm and pleasant in the forenoon. The sun is a stranger. It has been awful bad wether for 2 weaks past. Mr. Mansfield came over and [???] today. My foot is swollen badly. Woodside sheep died last night.

Boys found one missed and ded [???] under high head.

Mon, 15 Warm and foggy. Nettie went to city today. Mansfield got 2 pigs today. Mrs. Maddacks and Capt Boyontin came here and lodged at the house. Had 2 bbls of potatoes come today.

Tue, 16 Warm and foggy. Am still lame so that I can't walk. Team worked for Luther Maddacks.

Albion Briggs came today with Mr. Billingham from Gardner in a small boat.

Wed, 17 Warm and pleasant part of the day. Planted some potatoes Thu, 18 Warm and plsnt in the morning. Went over to Gt. Chebeague. Bought a 2 year old bull of John Hamblinton [Hamilton?] for $20 - an [?harce] trade. Got some plants of Wm. Peary. Briggs & Billington came over with me. Rained hard most all of the afternoon. Settled for the Poggy Bots for use of land. Freeman Boyonton gave me a draft on 3 days right for $1.92 on Luther Maddacks. Set out [Harr???] grass bed.

Fri, 19 Warm and pleasant. An other pogy boat came today. Bessie Snow, Capt. Esterbrook. Hauled up their seines. Briggs went about 2 P.M. in sail boat for Gardner. Planted cucumbers & squash. Sowed some beets.

My foot is very sore today.

Sat, 20 Warm and pleasant. Nettie went to Portland today. Have sowed 2 bbls (barrels) of oats and planted some red potatoes.

Sun, 21 Warm and pleasant. Rained in the afternoon. The pogie boat Bessie Snow paid me $20 dollars for labor and use of land. Had a calf from Nat Thompson for 1.80. Washed the lambs in tabaco. Killed the ticks.

The fields were not entirely free of stones at that time if he bothered to haul some away from a field to be planted in grain. A Charles W. Barker was (1877 directory) a fisherman on Long Island. Banking, on a house, was any kind of material, such as brush or straw, that was laid against it on the ground to help insulate the floors from winter cold. It was removed in the spring. The sheep found “ded under high head” may have fallen over the 20-foot cliff on the rocky point at the southwest end of the island, the only such place there.

There were two Isaac Strouts (father and son) on Great Chebeague. The older was born in 1822 and died in 1893 at age 71, so would have been only 54 at this time, hence perhaps was not the “Old Strout” who had “got pretty full” at the end of March. The younger was only 13 in 1876. Briggs and Billingham seem to have been hotel guests, though rushing the season.

The arrival of a number of pogie fishing vessels strongly suggests that this island was a place that they were familiar with. While it might have been thru a past relationship with the presumed pogie factory on the island, it may also have been simply because of its open fields, which gave them space to spread out their large seine nets to prepare them for the season. Since they were then steam vessels, the availability of a wharf at which to unload, especially directly onto a wagon or ox-cart, was another plus. Luther Maddocks had a canning factory on the waterfront at Boothbay Harbor, and may have owned some of the pogie steamers. Boyington was apparently captain of one. Capt. Easterbrook was from Round Pond, Maine, but his vessel hailed from Rhode Island, where a large oil-processing plant had been established on Narragansett Bay in 1860. Just before arriving, the crew of the Bessie Snow had had an adventure which got several mentions in the Argus.

First, in the “Argus Marine List” for Friday, May 12, page 3: Arrived, Port of Portland, Thursday, May 11 .........

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Brig Anna D Torrey (of Boston), Haskell, [from] Sagua [in Cuba], with molasses to F. Churchill & Co. Reports at 3 o'clock Thursday morning, off Wood Island, she collided with sch Mary A Rice, of Bangor, and lost flying jibboom, had bows chafed, fore yard and cat heads broken and foresail and jib split. The sch had both masts carried away and sprung a leak. The brig laid by the sch until separated by the fog. When last seen an unknown sch had the M A Rice in tow.

“Haskell” refers to the vessel’s master, not her owner. The tow vessel was not a schooner, though, but a steamer, which was identified in the Marine List in the Saturday, May 13 issue, page 2:

Arrived, Port of Portland, Friday, May 12 .........

Sch Mary A Rice, (of Bangor) Rice, Bucksport for New Haven. Was run into Thursday morning, off Wood Island, by brig Anna D Torrey (at this port from Sagua), and lost both masts. Was picked up 40 miles SE of Cape Elizabeth by porgie steamer Bessie Snow, and towed to this port. Had three feet water in hold when found, having been scuttled; both hatches off. Was plugged up and does not leak now. Has a cargo of dressed granite.

Steamer Bessie Snow, Easterbrook, Portsmouth, RI. The second item refers to the Bessie Snow’s arrival; these were but two of a long list. On the 16th, the following news item appeared on page 2: OUT OF THE DEPTHS Safety of the Captain and Crew of the Mary A. Rice Gardner, 15th .The Captain and his wife and child, and the crew of the schooner Mary A. Rice. of Bucksport, thought to have been lost, have arrived at this port, and thru the courtesy of Superintendent Tucker, of the Maine Central Railroad, have been forwarded to their homes.

Captain Rice reports that his vessel was struck on the morning of the 14th [!!] by the brig Annie D. Torrey, and was dismasted and so injured that, when abandoned, she leaked two thousand strokes [of a hand-operated bilge pump] an hour. The Captain’s family and crew were taken from the wreck by Captain Whittaker of the schooner Jessie Middleton, who brought them to this place. Before leaving the schooner, Captain Rice scuttled her, that other vessels, in the dense fog, might not strike her.

The only thing saved from the wreck was the Captain’s quadrant. The vessel was not insured.

The Captain was part owner, and his personal loss exceeds $1000.

A fourth item appeared on the 19th, the day the Bessie Snow arrived at Little Chebeague, this one not in the Marine List, but under the heading of Court Records.

ARGUS COURT RECORD U. S. District Court Before Judge Cox Coomer A. Esterbrooks and als., lib, vs. Sch. Mary A. Rice and cargo. This is a libel for salvage for towing in the schooner with her cargo of dressed granite. The schooner came into collision with the brig Annie D. Torrey as before reported in this paper, and was deserted by her captain and crew as it was supposed she was in a sinking condition, and was afterward taken in tow and brought into Portland by the steamer Bessie Snow.

James D. Fessenden for libellant. Nathan Webb for respondents. [Lawyers] Judge awarded four hundred and fifty dollars as salvage and costs, two-thirds to be paid by cargo and one-third by vessel. One-half of salvage for benefit of owners of steamer, the other half for master and crew, master to have three shares, Mate and engineer two shares each, and the crew one share each.

The Bessie had caught, not her usual little pogies, but a very big fish, indeed.

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In the above 12 May one-line item about the arrival of the Bessie Snow, there is no mention of her business. So if any of the other "porgie" boats that went to Little Chebeague are mentioned as arrivals in Portland, they may likewise not be identified as such. The Bessie Snow arrived at Little Chebeague a week after her published arrival in Portland. Her departure from Portland was not mentioned between those dates. Officially, of course, she was still in Portland, though she had left its commercial waterfront area. Had she not towed the Rice into that port, but gone directly to Little Chebeague as others probably did, she might have not been mentioned in the paper, either.

A further part of that story was printed on the 20th, page 2: Sloop M. M. Hamilton will take forward the cargo of granite of sch. Mary A. Rice (from Bucksport for New Haven), which vessel was towed into this port this week , dismasted. The hull of the M. A. Rice was found to be in rather a bad condition.

The M. M. Hamilton was one of the several “stone sloops” that operated out of Great Chebeague Island. These were specifically designed for loading and carrying cut stone (usually Maine granite) down the coast for use in heavy construction. By the 25th, the Rice had been towed to her home port of Bucksport by the steam tug Tiger, to be repaired there.

Something else was brewing at this time. On the 18th, the Argus had reported, (p 3, col 2): ASSOCIATION OF MAINE SOLDIERS. -- A meeting of the executive committee of the Association of Maine Soldiers was held last evening at Grand Army Hall, and in response to an invitation extended to the several regimental organizations, the following regiments were represented: 2d, 10th, 29th, 3d, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 17th, 19th, 29th, 27, 28th, 31st, 32d, 1st Cavalry and Artillery Association. The meeting was a very enthusiastic one, and it was unanimously voted to hold a grand reunion of all the Maine regiments and batteries at one of the islands in Casco Bay on Thursday, August 10th. On the evening previous there will be a grand campfire at City Hall. The arrangements are in the hands of the executive committee, who will in a few days circulate the full programme to every part of the State. The reunion promises to be the greatest gathering of soldiers and sailors ever held in the State since the close of the war.

Mon, 22 Warm and pleasant. Gave tearms [terms] for a clam bake Aug 10/76. Went to Portland. Sent order to Boston by Swetts Express for $12 on F. B. Wiley. Heavy thunder shower today.

Wed, 24 Warm and pleasant. Sterns & Peterson commenced planting beans. Went over to [Cass's or Carr's?] and Dyers and got some garden plants.

Thu, 25 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Gt. Chebeague Island. Got a bbl of molasses and some potatoes. Set out flower garden.

Fri, 26 Warm and pleasant. Went over to John Hanafords and got 7 maple trees and set them out.

The “tearms” were indeed for the soldiers’ reunion, of which we will hear more. Sterns and Petersen are new names of what seem to be more hired hands, now that the planting season is in full swing. Nettie will have some flowers, and Joshua is looking far ahead, for maple trees take many years to mature and produce either sap or shade.

Sun, 28 Warm and pleasant. The Magnett came down today with quite a crowd The Magnet was another steamboat that had been built in Deering (then a town separate from Portland) in 1871. She had served first in Casco Bay, then in the Kennebec River area, but had been returned to serve the islands and other points. From the Argus, 03 May, p 3: STEAMER MAGNET -- The pretty steamer Magnet, which was recently purchased in Gardiner

by Geo. W. True & Co., arrived here yesterday. [Actually, it was reported in the issue for 01 May as having arrived on 29 April, three days earlier than the claim above, which teaches us to be careful about believing everything we read. The earlier notice had referred to her as the “Steamtug Magnet”.] She was built here about four years ago, and sold to Gardiner parties two years afterwards. She will be thoroughly

25

repaired and will either be used as a passenger boat between this city and Freeport, or will run between Portland and Harpswell, where this firm’s large mills are located. The steamer is about 30 tons burden.

On the 29th, p 3: “The island boats were well patronized yesterday...”

Tue, 30 Warm and pleasant. Worked in Grand Army campground on west. Rained dredful hard all night.

Apparently Jenks’ terms were accepted by the veterans’ committee. Possibly Henry Cleaves had some hand in urging the veterans to hold their affair on his island. Although not an officer in the organization, he was very interested in veterans’ affairs, and popular among them. Special urging may not have been necessary, though, for this isolated location with spacious open fields, good steamboat wharf, and established reputation for entertaining large groups was well suited to that project.

June Thu, 01 Warm and pleasant. Planted corn and potatoes. Built a lot of rale fence. [Johnny ???Henry?] & Trust came down to see about the Oddfellows coming here in July. Calf died today.

Fri, 02 Warm and pleasant. Built fence today with all my crew. Went over to Cousins Island. Geo. Williams came over today with his cow and left her.

Sat, 03 Warm and pleasant. Mrs. Jenks went to city. Finished planting today.

Sun, 04 Warm and cloudy with rain. Sent over to Mrs. Barkers. Got a calf steer. Am very lame in my right foot.

Mon, 05 Warm and rainy. A. W. Perkins went to Portland. John Hill paid $80- for balance due on steers.

Ally had $15-- of it. John Swett collected $12-- for me in Boston of F. B. Wiley. Paid H. Mansfield $6-- for calf.

The Odd Fellows affair will show up prominently later. A. W. Perkins may have been related to Mrs. Jenks, Perkins having been her maiden name. And here is Ally, previously mentioned as All. Wed, 07 Warm and pleasant. Fixed closset for glassware. Halled some dung. Built some fence on flats.

Thu, 08 Warm and pleasant. Fixed [clothes ?] press. Commenced on reaper. Lost a sheep. Had a lamb in her. Libby cow calved this morning, steer. Osgood cow calved. Had a heffer calf, a nice one. Fixed fence.

Sowed the beet bed over to old house. Halled out 3 loads of dung. Rained just at night.

Fri, 09 Warm and pleasant. Went to city with John Ricker in open boat. Let him have $25-- dollars.

Sat, 10 Warm and pleasant. Shower in afternoon. Went to city. Got bbl hard bread 2 bbls flower and 50 lbs suggar some beef and things.

Sun, 11 Warm and overcast. Went over to Gt. Chebeague. Steamer Magnett came down twice but few passengers. Looked like rain all the time. [Le??] Hill came down or over. Also Geo. Williams. ……….

Fri, 16 Warm and foggy. Worked on reaper and in grane.

Sat, 17 Warm and foggy. Went to city. Bought bale of oilcloth for 38 cts 50?? yards. Magnett came today. Masonic Comity [(Committee] was down to make arrangments for a picknic.

Sun, 18 Warm and foggy as usual. Had a few on the boat. Took about [three] dollars. Machagon comity [committee] made arrgts [arrangements] to come July 5.

Flour by the barrel and 50 pounds of sugar at a time were not unusual for farms, but a whole bale of oilcloth would have been for a large number of picnic tables. Based on a possible later use, the bale could have contained 500 yards. The name “Machigonne” was later used for a post-1900 steamboat, one of the most luxurious (therefore well-known) to ply Casco Bay, but in 1876 that name designated an Odd Fellows chapter in Portland. The name derived from the Abenaki name for Falmouth Neck, where an Indian community was located before the white settlers selected it for what has become Portland. “Flats” referred to the beaches or dunes, as opposed to “uplands”, which were the areas above the reach of normal high tides.

The Argus carried, in its 19 June issue, an ad for a picnic of the Pine St. M. E. (Methodist Episcopal Church) Sunday School to be held on Great Chebeague on the 21st, going down on the Steamer “Gazelle”.

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Although the ad still appeared in the next day’s paper, a news item noted that that annual event had been “postponed indefinitely”. Perhaps the delay had to do with the nine consecutive days of fog that Jenks mentioned.

In any case, they ended up going to Little Chebeague instead, early in July.

Wed, 21 Warm and foggy. Hauled 10 load of rocks for clambake. Saw the deth of John Neal age 82 yrs 9 months 25 days. Capt. Robert Hambliton and Judge Hambliton came over and got some cabage & turnip plants.

Heavy showers with thunder. Mrs. Bell Brian had an atact of feaver. Got a bad cold, is awful feverish. Was up till 12 o'clock.

Thu, 22 Warm and pleasant. Worked on house. Went to Cousins Island Fri, 23 Warm and pleasant. Hauled rocks and rockweed for clambake.

John Neal was a self-eduated Portland lawyer whose small amount of practice gave him time to make quite a bit of his living as an author, instead. Hamilton’s were numerous on Great Chebeague, some being in the stone sloop business.

The Masonic picnic was part of a larger St. John’s Day event that was reported at great length in the Argus and other papers. The St. Alban’s Commandery of Portland had invited the St. Paul’s Commandery of Dover, N. H., and the Portland Commandery had invited one from Worcester, Mass. Both had accepted, and when they arrived on the train, they marched uptown. Lodges and other organizations of that time, including political parties, delighted in what might now be considered “para-military” displays, drilling and marching in uniform with sidearms (perhaps only swords, not firearms), banners, and bands, including travelling between their hotels, meeting places, trains, and steamers, both in the city and on the islands.

Sat, 24 Warm and pleasant. Masons came today. About 400. Had a picture of the house taken.

If only we could find a copy of that picture!2 The Argus’ 26 June story on the picnic mentioned that one of its “pleasures included the taking of a photograph of the entire party by Durgan, who says he has got an excellent picture.” Durgan was Joseph O. Durgan, a Portland photographer. That was before the days of personal cameras, so when one wanted a photo, the local professional was called on to bring his big glass-plate camera.

Since he and his bulky apparatus were at the island, Jenks took advantage of the fact. Possibly the group’s picture also included the hotel. On the 27th, the Argus reported that the Mechanic Blues had gone to Ernesto Ponce’s “Hotel de Ponce”on Long Island and had had Durgan take a photo which had included that hote In 1994, no copy of their 1876 picture was known of by the Portland Masonic organization. However, the “History of St. Alban Commandery No. 8 Knights Templar” contains this item: 1876 On June 23rd and 24th Portland and St. Alban Commanderies entertained St. Paul Commandery of Dover, N. H., and Worcester County Commandery of Worcester, Mass. The Commanderies embarked on the Steamer “Forest City” for Little Chebeague Island. A delightful sojourn was enjoyed by all.

Story telling included the “FLY STORY” by Sir Ira Berry and “PEPPER STORY” by Sir Gibbs.

At that time, there was a steamer “Forest City” that usually ran between Portland and Boston on alternate days, except Sundays, the “John Brooks” doing the job on the other weekdays. This group’s Saturday trip apparently was made on a special day-off from the Forest City’s runs to and from Boston. The food on the island was catered by D. K. Reed, who had a restaurant in Portland. As the Argus had put it in that day’s paper, “...a mammoth clam bake, with all the condiments, will be served, gotten up by Reed.”

Sun, 25 Warm and pleasant. Had 10 at dinner today.

Wed, 28 Warm and pleasant. Got home abut 11 A.M. John Ricker brought lumber down. Got 5 bags of corn of him. Comenced laying platform today.

Thu, 29 Warm and pleasant. Laying dance platform. Had a [?lut] party. Went to city. Got some boards.

Fri, 30 Warm and foggy. Went to city. Agred (agreed) to get up clambake for 21 at 100 ($1.00) per hed & breckfast.

2

See “Addendum” on pages 38 - 40.

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July Sat, 01 Warm and pleasant. Went to Cousins Island and engaged some wood [bed?]. 3 picknick partys today. Free St. Baptists, Wiliston Chappel, and Morrill's Corner. Everything pleasant.

Sun, 02 Warm and pleasant. Frank & Randal Whitten & Georgie Gardner came to stay over the forth (fourth).

Tue, 04 Warm and pleasant. Had but little company today. Rained hard tonight.

The recreational season is in full swing, and Little Chebeague is getting its share. Organizational picnics were not restricted to weekends -- there would not have been enough of those for everyone, anyway. All three of the picnics on the first of July were church groups. Tickets for the Free Street group’s affair included travel on either the barge Island Belle or the Magnet, and attendees were informed in the newspaper announcement to bring their own bowls and spoons if they wanted chowder.

Although there were newspaper ads stating that the barge “Island Belle” would go to Little Chebeague on the Fourth, the slack business for both it and Jenks was probably due to the big parade and entertainment being put on in Portland that day, and to the similar but smaller celebratory events in other cities and towns. Also, the steamer “Lewiston”, which normally ran on a schedule between Portland and Rockland (owned by the same company that also operated the Houghton), became a Casco Bay excursion boat for that first-centennial holiday.

Capable of carrying over 1000 passengers, its route on that day wandered among the islands, its only stop being at Little Hog Island (Little Diamond since the 1880’s).

This is one example of the decades-long competition that went on for the large, but not infinite, recreational business that gave the public an apparent benefit, although its excesses finally led to their temporary loss of all steamboat service in 1919. “Save now, pay later” can lead to a surprisingly high payment when the deficits finally catch up with the euphoria.

The operator of the “staunch and commodious barge Island Belle”, Charles Sawyer, advertised that his vessel definitely would not run on Sundays. “Barge” no doubt meant that she was towed by one of the steam tugs, some of which were operated by Sawyer. Her permit, notice of which was published in the Argus simultaneously (but not coincidentally?) by the “U. S. Local Inspectors of Steam Vessels”, allowed her to carry up to 800 passengers. The Henrietta’s regular schedule also gave her crew a rest on Sundays, and when she was advertised, late in June, as being also available for excursions, that exception was continued.

Apparently a high-volume excursion trip was sufficient excuse for dropping some scheduled week-day runs.

Wed, 05 Warm and pleasant. Got a large party today. 3000 of the Odd Fellows got a nice clambake.

Everything went off pleasant.

Thu, 06 Warm and pleasant but a high wind. Had a picknick today. Casco St. First Parish & State Street Sabath School.

Fri, 07 Warm and pleasant. Chestnut St. & Pine Street came on their picknick. Had a nice time.

The Odd Fellows affair was not just a members’ picnic, but a money-making project attended by the public. Their transportation was provided by the steamer “New Brunswick”. Again, D. K. Reed was the caterer.

The “high wind” on the 6th provided the picknickers some unplanned thrills. Said the Argus: “RATHER BREEZY -- Yesterday morning a decidedly strong gale from the northeast swept over our harbor lashing the sea into foam, and tossing the shipping about like so many egg shells.

“The several excursion parties to the islands found the sail down the harbor attended with considerable unpleasantness, and in nearly every instance a landing was made with no little difficulty. The barge Island Bel’, in especial, experienced some rather rough handling from the waves, before landing her party of Sabbath school excursionists on Little Chebeague Island.

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“Quite a number of the smaller vessels in the harbor dragged their anchors and drifted quite a distance... The awning of the steamer Magnet was torn from her...”

The Friday groups travelled on the Henrietta.

Sun, 09 Warm and pleasant. 18 (?) boats run today. Had a party of 10 to supper. Nettie is quite sick.

Will be confined.

Mon, 10 Warm and pleasant. Nettie dredful sick. Sent for Dr. [Vance ?] at 4 A.M. She had a little boy about 5:15 A.M. God bless them both.

Even without the “never-on-Sunday” vessels, the Sunday business was still brisk. However, 18 boats sounds like too big a number, even if it meant nine boatloads each way, but the writing is not entirely clear at that point.

This one mention of their baby is the only one in the diary. He was Betty Jenks Bailey’s father, H. H. Jenks, who later ran the Great Chebeague version of the Sunnyside House after his father died in 1894.

Tue, 11 Warm and pleasant. Congress Square Church picknick came today. Had a nice time. Went to city on Magnett.

Wed, 12 Warm and overcast. Had but little company today. Mr. W. B. Hayden & wife came today.

Thu, 13 Warm and pleasant. Forest City Shooting Club came today. Got dinner for 26. Had a nice time.

Fri, 14 Warm and pleasant with a lite breeze. New Church picknick had nice time. The black mair [mare] had a fine colt (mair) last night.

Sat, 15 Warm and pleasant but little company. Steamer Henrietta played another one of her nasty tricks in not coming in to wharf. There were 11 to go.

Sun, 16 Warm and pleasant. Had but a little company today.

Mr. Hayden was the minister who had dwelt on heavenly employment back in January. The “New Church” term was used by Jenks then in referring to Hayden’s New Jerusalem Church. If the Henrietta was on the last run that day, Jenks would probably have given further details as to how the 11 visitors managed to get to town -- or even leave the island.

With the other islands also catering to visitors, Henrietta may have had a full load already, perhaps an excursion charter. Or perhaps her mode of operation was the same then as it was with the Casco Bay Lines boats in the 1930’s, and for the same reason. A boat coming from Littlefield’s Landing (Central Landing in the 1930’s) had to cross the mouth of Chandler Cove to get near enough to Little Chebeague to see if there were passengers waiting there, which became a wasted detour if there were none. So Little Chebeague was sometimes a “flag stop” -- literally that, in the 1930’s, the signal being a large white sheet that hung from a pole that could be swung out sidewise from the wharf. For foggy days, an automobile’s brake drum mounted on the wall of one wharfhouse made a gong that could be sounded loudly with an iron bar that hung from it on a rope.

Some similar signals may have been in use in 1876 -- and may not have worked, in spite of the “pleasant” (i.e., clear) weather.

Mon, 17 Warm and pleaasant. Went to city on Magnett. Cutting up hay today.

Tue, 18 Warm and pleasant. Halled in 4 loads out of field front of house today.

Wed, 19 Warm and pleasant. Good hay weather.

Fri, 21 Warm and pleasant. Had the reunion of Grand Army. Had a nice time. Everything went off well. Furnished breakfast & dinner for the crowd.

Mon, 24 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Saw comitty about clam bake on Aug 10/76. Police paid me $30-- dollars for hay.

Tue, 25 Warm and overcast. Little rainy. Large lot of hay cut.

Wed, 26 Warm and pleasant. Had but little company today. Worked on hay.

Thu, 27 Warm and pleasant. Got all the hay in today. Went up town.

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The “reunion of Grand Army” at this time was only the reunion committee, making arrangements for the full reunion, which was then about half a month away. The baler would have been in use if hay was taken to Portland to sell to the Police Department.

August Tue, 01 Warm and pleasant. Went out afishing last night at 1 A.M. Visited Barker, A. L. Millett & [boys ?].

Wed, 02 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. [Received ?] $140. Grand Army Committee of Reunion came down to select place for clambake and tents.

Thu, 03 Warm and pleasant. Halling rocks for clam bake.

Fri, 04 Warm and pleasant. Went to Harpswell today in Jones yacht. Had a fine sail. Judge Cleaves, Virgin, Millett, [Mcaral?] & 2 sons.

Sat, 05 Warm and pleasant. Went to city today. Got a lot of boards for tables.

Sun, 06 Warm and pleasant. Very quiet.

Mon, 07 Warm and pleasant. Mr. [Mcaral] went home today. Went to city. Commenced building tables today.

Tue, 08 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Big tent came today.

Wed, 09 Warm and pleasant. Got tables all done and set 1872 guests. A large crowd came tonight and stayed all night.

Thu, 10 Warm and pleasant. A large crowd on the island today. [Seats OR tents?] all [loaded ?].

Everything quiet. Did not go to bed last night. Had a big clambake. 400 bushels clams, 400 doz eggs, 2500 ears corn. 3 [Melling?]. Seated 1910 at the tables. All seemed to be well satisfied.

Fri, 11 Warm and pleasant. Been cleaning up all day. Had 30 men to work. George Goodman, Mrs. [Boone?], Frank C. Whitten, William Dyer came tonight.

Judge Cleaves was, of course, Nathan. Virgin was William Wirt Virgin, who had formed the volunteer militia unit that H. B. Cleaves first enlisted in, and who was, in 1876, a Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

This event was the largest that Jenks handled himself that summer. For the earlier Templars and Odd Fellows affairs, he seems to have supplied only the space. 2500 ears of corn would have been about right for a total of 1910 persons, and 400 dozen eggs (hard-boiled in the same steaming seaweed that cooked the clams and corn) would have provided them about 2-1/2 eggs apiece. The 400 bushels of clams could have added up to over 100,000 clams, or over 50 per person, but the affair lasted three days. If the bale of oilcloth was for covering the tables, allowing a little less than 2 feet per person with seating along both sides of the tables, 500 yards (1500 feet) of oilcloth would have been just about enough.

Besides the “big tent” (probably for eating, in case of anything but the standard “warm and pleasant” weather) the veterans had a tent city on the island. The tents had arrived on the steam towboat Uncle Sam on the 8th and were taken away on the 11th, at a cost of $10 each way. The receipt, made out to the “Executive Committee of Soldiers Reunion”, was apparently kept by Jenks, because his granddaughter Betty still had it in 1993. In addition to the tent, a cannon was taken to the island, but the receipt does not show it as having been removed. In fact, it was not removed until about 1940, when certain parties (known, but not officially caught with the evidence) stole its 700-pound bronze barrel.

On June 8th, in an item about the “Soldiers National Reunion” to be held in Caldwell, Ohio in September, the Argus had mentioned that “The Secretary of War was recently directed by act of Congress to furnish cannon, tents, etc., in large amounts for the national reunion.” Two months later, on the same day that the Uncle Sam made its delivery to the island, the paper reported that “Orders have been issued to Mr. Bigelow, the keeper of the Arsenal, by Adjutant General Cilley, to provide the [Maine] veterans with a cannon and 100 rounds of ammunition, for sunset and sunrise firing at the camp on Chebeague Island.” Perhaps one of the reasons the cannon was never returned to the Arsenal was that it was not practicable to use up 100 rounds during a three-day encampment having only one sunset and one sunrise per day. In later years, it was

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sometimes fired on the Fourth of July. That could have accounted for as many as another 94 years, and only 64 of them had passed when the barrel was taken.

Above that item was one which quoted the letter from U. S. Grant, Jr. (son of the then President, who was his father’s secretary) thanking the Association of Maine Soldiers and Sailors for their kind invitation to the President to attend the reunion, but that “his engagements will not permit him to accept”. One item of the island’s folklore in the 1930’s was that water from the island’s spring was supplied for President Grant’s use in the White House. The legend did not specify whether that occurred once, occasionally, or regularly. However, neither the White House records in the National Archives nor the private White House Historical Association has any reference to such an occurrence.

Sat, 12 Warm and foggy. Magnet went ashore today at Long Island.

Sun, 13 Warm and foggy. But little company came today. Only one boat. William Thompson paid 10 dollars. Went town today.

Mon, 14 Warm and pleasant. Had a nice 2 year old heffer drownded in well today. Calamities of the [???]

Tue, 15 Warm and pleasant. Cut some of my wheat today. Went to city.

Fri, 18 Warm and foggy. Went to city. Had a small party at dinner today.

Sat, 19 Warm and pleasant. Went to city.

Sun, 20 Warm and windy. No boat today and no company. Capt. Wm. Thompson went home today.

Wed, 23 Warm and pleasant. Buchers of Lewiston had a clam bake here today.

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The veterans’ cannon in 1938 or ’39 (Note lack of trees in pasture. Long Id. to left, Gt. Diamond to right.)

This group was composed of not only butchers but also grocers, 300 of them, which must have closed the stores in Lewiston for that day. Arriving from their home city on a special Grand Trunk train and proceeding to the island on the Island Belle, they got right down to business. As the Argus put it, “...There was no speech making either before or after the bake, but a first rate time was had by all.” In keeping with the performances of other groups, some of them, “...in white frocks, to the number of 125, headed by Johnson’s cornet band...”, marched from the railroad station (the Grand Trunk station, on the waterfront, at the foot of India Street) to City Hall and then back to the station., receiving “...many compliments on their goodly appearance as they passed along our streets.”

Thu, 24 Warm and pleasant. Had a large crew on the grain today.

Fri, 25 Warm and pleasant. Got in 14 loads of grane today. Went to city. Had a picknick St. Lukes Allens Corner today.

Sat, 26 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Saw Lyferd about clambake. Finished getting in grain.

Sun, 27 Warm and pleasant. But a little company. [Gen. or Geo.?] Eaton & wife came today.

Mon, 28 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Mr. Dyer & wife left today. Also Mr. [Boomer OR Boone ?] wife Georgie Gardner & Frank Whitten.

Tue, 29 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Had a large picknick in the Florence.

While the picnic business continued at a more moderate level than in July, the hotel’s guests appeared more commonly in the diary in this later part of the season. As mentioned earlier, the Florence could carry as many as 1000 passengers.

Wed, 30 Warm and pleasant. Had the Temple of Honor or of disoner but a small crowd.

Could it have been the smallness of the crowd that led to this remark about the “Templars of Honor and Temperance”? Or was he intemperate of temperance advocates?

While the last day of August was also “warm and pleasant”, that is about the time to expect fall weather to show up, putting an end to most of the summer resort business. Sure enough, the next entries are: September Fri, 01 Cold and windy. Not feeling very well.

Sat, 02 Cold and rainy. Fixed the barn floor [over?].

Then follows a series of uninteresting entries, followed in turn by one intriguing one.

Mon, 04 Warm and pleasant.

Tue, 05 Warm and pleasant.

Wed, 06 Warm and pleasant.

Thu, 07 Warm and pleasant.

Fri, 08 Warm and pleasant. Went before grand jury.

What was the grand jury business about? Was he a witness or a defendant? Did it have to do with his bankruptcy, or possibly with his “bank draft” (i.e. a check) mentioned back in January? Since no answer is to be found in the newspapers, either, apparently Jenks himself was not in any serious trouble -- “all pleasant?”

Mon, 11 Warm and pleasant. Went to Peaks Island to election at Peaks Island. W’m Thompson had [Calf?] 10 went to election.

Until well into the 1900’s, Maine held its state election early in September, two months before the Presidential election in November, leading to the poll-watchers’ adage that “As Maine goes, so goes the nation” (which was not always true, but should have been about as reliable as are today’s pre-election sampling polls).

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The February election mentioned early in the diary would have been a city election, held at about the time when Maine towns began to hold their Town Meetings.

Tue, 12 Warm and pleasant.

Wed, 13 Warm and pleasant.

Thu, 14 Warm and pleasant.

Fri, 15 Warm and pleasant.

Worked on well today.

Worked on well.

Worked on well and digging potatoes.

Finished digging well.

Mon, 18 Cold and rainy all day. Magnett commenced her trips today.

Tue, 19 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club came tonight or this afternoon. 30 of them to supper & lodging.

Wed, 20 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club has commenced shooting match day. (Decided the chalenged bird.)

Thu, 21 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club got through about 3 P.M. Had a good time but a nasty one.

Sat, 23 Warm and pleasant. Dug potatoes today. Turned out well. Wm. F. Thompson paid 10 dollars tonight. Paid [Esther ?] Hambliton 27-- for work.

Sun, 24 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Gt. Chebeague.

Mon, 25 Warm and pleasant. Wife went to Portland. Finished digging potatoes and commenced on the well to stone it. Paid Nellie Strout $31.25 for work.

Tue, 26 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 6 men today. Rained hard all night.

Wed, 27 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 6 men. Mr. [Ra??dy] was here today.

Thu, 28 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 5 men.

A Nellie E. Strout, a daughter of the elder Isaac and sister of the younger one, was 15 at this time. She and Esther Hamilton appear to have worked for Jenks, probably in the hotel.

Well-digging was a dangerous job, with the possibility of a cave-in burying the digger, especially in the thick layer of sandy loam on this island. Timbers and planks might be emplaced to help prevent that, but they had to be withdrawn as building of the final brick or stone retaining wall progressed from the bottom up. The reference to “stoning” this new well suggests that it was the one still evident a few hundred feet from the surviving hotel cellar-hole in the direction toward the surviving foundations of the farmhouse and barn. No other known existing well-holes are stone-lined. In the Warner drawing of the island (see below), a person is depicted pumping water at about this location. But he also shows, behind the long narrow building that probably contained the bowling alley, another pump set on what could be a well-cover, with a tub full of water under the spout of the pump. We have not yet found any sign of this second well.

The diary ends here.

Joshua Jenks continued as farmer and innkeeper on Little Chebeague to the end of the five years of his lease in 1881. By that time, he had regained enough financial security to be able to purchase from Cleaves the Great Chebeague property on which he built his own Sunnyside House. When that burned in 1891, he rebuilt, and continued to operate it until his death three years later, of what the “Bridgton News”, in its obituary of him, called “rheumatism of the heart”.

During the 1877 season, one of the guests on Little Chebeague was a Joseph Warner, an artist who drew a birdseye view of Portland Maine, which was published. Copies of the lithographed copy of that drawing still exist, one of them belonging to the Maine Historical Society, and we know of another in private hands. While at the Sunnyside, Warner also drew a birdseye view of Little Chebeague as it was then, and gave it to Jenks. A copy of it appeared earlier in this document as our second frontispiece.

Publication of such drawings at that time was by advance subscription sales. When (and if) enough subscribers signed up (a hundred or more were needed to make the process pay), the original was turned over to a lithographic etcher who, by hand, copied a mirror-image of it onto one of the stone plates used for that process, and the subscribers’ ink-on-paper copies were printed from that master. There being no such large demand for a picture of Little Chebeague, it was never published. Nor was any other copy of it made until Jenks granddaughter, Betty, allowed me to photograph it for this history. Her original is 28 by 41 inches, on paper laminated to cloth, which was mounted on a figure-eight wooden frame. It was done in ink, some by pen and some apparently with

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one or more broader instruments that produced a kind of stipple effect. Since it contained much more detail than could be recorded in a single photograph, the copying was done in small sections in addition to one copy showing the entire picture with reduced detail.

Most of the features are probably more accurate than can be had from any other source, but there are some known inaccuracies representing at least “artistic license”. The most obvious is the total absence of the barn and farmhouse, even though much of the island’s area is shown occupied by farming activities and herds of livestock, but with no place to store the hay that is being harvested. Also, eight (or perhaps nine) nearly identical simple cottages are shown in a line along the top of the high bank in the center of the northwest shoreline.

Actually, there were never more than four there, and some of those may not have existed at that time. The extras may have represented Jenks’ hopes or intentions for the future. Jenks’ home at the time (the house in the grove, later known as the Yellow Cottage) is also missing -- it should have appeared about where the children’s swing, hung from two trees, is shown in the drawing, instead.

The island map shown in our first frontispiece was nearly contemporary with the drawing. That map shows the barn, the old (unattached) farmhouse (the “old house”?), three actual cottages on the upper edge of the grove, and Jenks’ house. These are shown in about their proper locations, although the overall map cannot be to scale, since it does not show the shape of the island accurately. The map does support the drawing as to the wharf, the existence and locations of the three buildings near it, and the stone walls (there was a second at a right angle to the one referred to in the deed property description). This map was obtained from the Public Works Dept of the City of Portland, and has no date. However, we can infer a date to within a few years from two facts: (1) the hotel is called the Sunnyside, which means the map was drawn after 1875, when Jenks took over the hotel and gave it that name, and (2) the map shows the owners of that part of the island as not only the Cleaves brothers but also E. L. O. Adams. It is also probable that the map was created in order to document the property at about the time it passed from the Cleaves’ sole ownership to that of a partnership or company. This last suggests that the map was made prior to November of 1882, when the Little Chebeague Island Company, consisting of Adams, the Cleaves’, and others, was formed and became the owner.

Features of the drawing that we cannot argue with (since we have no opposing information) are the hotel, wharf, and the three “pogie-area” buildings, one of them appearing as an oil-extraction plant of the time might have looked. An intriguing detail is the presence of three dories near that plant, two of them moored to poles that might have been emplaced originally to support a net. Such poles could not have lasted past a few winter seasons.

Dories were not pleasure boats, but working craft, frequently used by fishermen for hauling nets. .One has a covered well amidships, such as might be used to contain a net or, more likely, the catch. The presence of persons playing on the sand nearby says that the plant’s ill-smelling operations were not in process at or near that time.

However, that could simply represent better advertising for the hotel.

Both the Magnet and Henrietta are represented, one unloading passengers at the wharf, the other passing by (too closely to have simply been on its way from Great Chebeague to Long Island). Capt. Frappier says he knows of no other pictorial representations of those vessels.

The stone wall referred to in the property deeds is shown, along with the other section in the transverse direction. Most of the island is cleared and used as farm, with only the grove on the high ground remaining forested; this is as it continued to look until a decade or two after farming ceased in the 1930’s. Human figures abound, some working the farm (an army of hired hands!), others representing a large number of hotel guests promenading in pairs or bathing or enjoying boat rides. In the center of the picture, on a walk in front of the hotel, there is one woman pushing a baby carriage. Betty Bailey said that the woman was her grandmother, the baby being Betty’s father, then one year old. I like to think, also, that Wagner intended the be-hatted and gesticulating gent on her left to represent Mr. Jenks busily orchestrating the goings-on in his domain.

In the background, toward the Falmouth shore, are some steamers which represent pogie fishing vessels, a string of towed dories following each like baby ducks.

Not only did Jenks have other plans for himself by the end of his lease in 1881, but the owners of Little Chebeague had other plans for it also. Although called a hotel, it seems likely that the Sunnyside operation was more like a farm boarding house, somewhat like what is nowadays called a bed-and-breakfast establishment,

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although a three-meal-a-day one. A posh hostelry it was not, nor, to judge from existing photos, were the successors to that name at Jenks’ Landing on Great Chebeague. Fancy digs were not Jenks’ style, but he developed a clientele who liked his style, some of them returning for as many as 30 seasons.

“Pogy factory” area in Warner drawing.

Wharf area in Warner drawing.

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Left portion of hotel area in Warner drawing.

Right portion of hotel area in Warner drawing

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Pogy steamers in Warner drawing

But entrepreneurs looking for a high-return investment knew that truly rustic accomodations were not the way to their goal. Instead, imaginary rustication consisting of gracious living in a place where one could view the real rustics at work was what would attract the higher-paying guests, just as the modern well-to-do want condominiums as their in-sight-of-the-scenery homes. For that, they knew, the hotel must be enlarged and improved. That would take capital. It also would be wise to spread the considerable risk of such a new investment. That called for ownership by several individuals. They needed to form a company, which is what they did next.

-----oooOOooo-----

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Things to come: THE ENTREPRENEURS -- PART 2 Stockholders and The Waldo (1881-1893) ****************************************** INTERMEZZO A Tale of Two Veterans ****************************************** RETRENCHMENT Joseph B. Reed and Henry A. Bailey (1893-1942) ****************************************** BASEBALL BATS AND FIRE HOSES The U. S. Government (1942-1950) ****************************************** THE DESERTED ISLAND (1950-1995) ****************************************** This history is intended to be continued, according to the above list of sections, up to the present time, 1995 (although very little worth mentioning has occurred since 1950). After several successive short-term names and managements of the hotel, it finally became The Waldo, a prestigious and well-patronized hostelry with, for a time, its own steamboat service. That era ended when the hotel went up in flames in 1893. The farm persisted, and one of the hotel’s former organizers and managers tried to keep the rest of the island going, probably with the hope of re-building, but the initial technological advances of automobile access and electricity were not viable options there, and only a cottage lifestyle continued alongside the farm. In the absence of the amenities of the hotel’s social life, and of the running water, sewer, and gas lights that were formerly provided by the hotel to the cottages, the wealthier summer residents eventually faded away, leaving their cottages either vacant or sold to middle-class families who simply enjoyed a quiet and relaxed summer surrounding that had become inexpensive and, in the Depression-Era of the 1930’s, practically unsalable.

Even that came to a sudden end when the U. S. Government notified them in the 1940’s that their lowmarket-value (hence low governmental appraisal value) property was to be taken for a wartime need. Whether it was a need or not, it got wartime use as a recreation and training area for the crews of ships based in Casco Bay and Portland, but became surplus property after that. The civilian who bought the entire island around 1950 never developed it as he had dreamed, and the State of Maine bought it in the 1970’s for park use, but has likewise not found the funds to develop it as then proposed. Its untended lawns, pastures, and fields have become overgrown with a mix of vegetation that is now neither cultural nor natural, but somewhere on its way from the one to the other, a process that may take another century to stabilize.

The wreckage-piles of several of the cottages remain, a danger to unwary visitors but still offering clues to some of the unwritten, or at least undiscovered, history of their construction and use. A park-permitted attempt is being made, without funds for paid professional historians, architects, or archeologists, to dissect their remains so as to put together the jig-saw puzzle that can show their ages, sizes, room arrangements, and types of trim. With that information, it would be possible to show the present owners (i.e., the public) when it eventually becomes a real park, what the Casco Bay cottage lifestyle of a century ago was like. As an example of that lifestyle, Little Chebeague is unique in that it has been neither further developed nor overlaid with more recent structures. But the collapsed and steadily decaying remnants will not wait to give up their secrets. If that puzzle is not solved soon, the chance to learn those facts will disappear like the winter snows that now help to destroy the still-existing evidence.

The snows will return, but the cottage days on once-lovely Little Chebeague will not.]

38

ADDENDUM June, 1995 On page 26 of the original edition of this booklet, one quote from Joshua Jenks’ diary mentions that he “Had a picture of the house taken”. At that point, I wrote, “If only we could find a copy of that picture!”

A copy has been found, and a copy of it is attached. This copy became available from the collections of the Maine Historical Preservation Commission, whose director, Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., noted their photo’s similarity to the copy of Joseph Warner’s drawing on the cover of the original booklet.

The original in their collection is a stereo view consisting of two photos made simultaneously, probably with a camera having two side-by-side lenses. However, since the separation of the two lenses was small (probably close to the normal distance between two human eyes), there is very little stereo “depth” to be noticed in the solid image one sees when viewing both photos. What depth can be seen is merely the fact that the flagpole and the small post in the center of the near foreground are closer than all other items. The group of people and the building are so nearly at the same distance that no significant depth separation shows there.

Hence the attached copy of only one of the pair shows as much as is meaningful.

Shettleworth says that there is an inscription in faint pencil on the back of the stereo pair which reads, “Worcester County Commandary, St. Albans Commandary, St. Johns Commandary, Portland Commandary at Little Chebeague Island, Portland Harbor, June 24, 1876.” This is at odds with our earlier information in that the “St. Johns Commandary” may be an error, which may have been made by the photographer. The quote in the booklet calls that unit “St. Pauls Comnmandery”. The error may have come from the fact that the occasion was in commemoration of St. Johns Day. Fewer than 400 persons appear, probably fewer than 300. Several band instruments are evident, including a bass drum, a trumpet or cornet, and at least two other horns.

Our interest is more in what the photo shows of the hotel than of the group. Except for the photo’s finer detail, the form of the building matches that in Warner’s drawing. The general shape, the numbers and locations of the windows, chimneys, dormers, front door, and porch all agree. The main item that Warner left out (how could he have missed it?) was the enormous sign. Warner also ignored the two central porch posts.

He shows no raised porch floor, nor does the photo, but the heights of the windows and front door, relative to the human figures in the photo, strongly suggest that there was some platform there. Probably there was no railing, since the posts do show below the waists of the persons standing on the porch. Warner also traded the flagpole for a row of trees.

The drawing’s depiction of a cellarway to the right of the near corner indicates two things. One is that there was a cellar, the other that the first floor was raised enough to provide for a sloping entrance on the cellarway; this would have called for a raised porch, or at least steps up to the front door. The two chimneys imply that there was some heating available in this version of the hotel, although they are large enough for only one flue apiece. The ell has its own chimney, which probably was for the kitchen. The absence of a window in the right rear of the near gable wall may indicate some extension of the kitchen into the main building, but more likely there was a stairway to the second floor in that area.

The siding is clapboards and the roof eaves on the gable ends have soffits. This last feature matches ones found on the remains of the Red Cottage and the Fogg Cottage and on the 1900-1930’s farmouse that was attached to the large barn, but on no other known structures on the island. The front door seems to have small window-panes on each side. All windows except those on the dormers (and perhaps the ell) are equipped with operable shutters. The tall building at the end of the ell, and perhaps the second section of the ell, have only barn-like siding.

39

40

Photos of the later “Waldo” hotel, which was an enlargement of the “Sunnyside”, show no chimneys other than the kitchen one. It is likely that this was intended as a fire safety precaution, and permissible because the hotel was then open only from shortly before the first of July to the end of August. Note that the photo of the Sunnyside shows a trapdoor near the left chimney, possibly an access for cleaning the chimney, and also in case of a chimney fire or any fire on the wood-shingled roof. The later fate of the Waldo shows how wise a precaution that was, although in the Waldo’s case, its roof fire had gone too far by the time it was discovered.

Perhaps the most important fact shown by this photo is that the Sunnyside of 1877 was a very large structure. The drawing tends to fool us about that, partly because of its lack of detail, but mostly because of Warner’s excessively large human figures. Although we could easily see from the drawing itself that the figures were out of scale, it is not clear how very much so until we see, in the photo, a true comparison of such figures with the real building. The newspaper articles at the time of the burning of the Waldo stated that the Waldo’s predecessor was 50 feet wide by 37 feet deep. These dimensions appear reasonable for the building in the photo.

The Sunnyside was indeed quite a place. Once again we have to wonder if Osgood Sr. had a hand in its construction.

The extremely prominent sign would have been Jenks’ doing, since the name “Sunnyside” was apparently his invention (he later took that name with him to Great Chebeague). In the photo, the letters have a lighter tone than do the shutters. Hence it was not painted in black, but perhaps in red or green. Its letters appear to be about four feet high, so that it could have been read from locations beyond the island’s shoreline, which would of course have been necessary to give its message to anyone not already on the island. The distance to the steamboat channel was almost 2000 feet, or 500 times the height of the letters. The view from there would have been equivalent to viewing this picture from nearly 10 feet away.

41

I APPENDIX

Complete transcript of Joshua E. Jenks' 1876 Diary January Sat, 01 Went to Portland with my wife & John Ricker. Nettie got a clock at $16--. Came home on Ricker's schooner. Very calm and pleasant all day. Warm as summer. Bought 3 bags of meal & 3 bags shorts. Had 7 bags corn of J. H. Sun, 02 Warm and overcast. John Ricker went home with his father. Strout brought a mess of smelts from Gt. Chebeague.

Mon, 03 Very warm & pleasant. Nettie went to Portland today. Gave her 5.00. Worked thrashing all day.

Tue, 04 Pleasant and warm. Worked thrashing all day.

Wed, 05 Warm and pleasant Finished thrashing today.

Thu, 06 Warm & pleasant. Winnowed the grain today with the horses and fixed the sheep pen.

Fri, 07 Warm and pleasant all day. Went to Portland on the new boat and stayed at the Cumberland House all night.

Sat, 08 Very warm and pleasant all day. Had a meeting of the creaditers today at 10 A.M. John H. Fogg chosen assignee. Every thing pleasant. Paid Charles Stanwood $5.65. Paid Sabin & Eliot $7.33 Leighton & Marsh $9.15 for meet [meat]. Settled with James S. Williams owed him $1.97 cts. {The "creaditers" (creditors) and "assignee" remarks suggest that Jenks had gone thru bankrupcy, probably as a result of his insurance business. The U.S. had had a very calamitous business depression in 1873.} Sun, 09 Been warm and overcast all day. Rained and snowed last night. Gave Robert Wallace $6.00 on calf.

Mon,10 Went to Freeport and settled Oxnards Labs for $500 [$5.00?] 20833 [??] for Westchester. Came back to city and went to Catholick Church. Stayed with Edward Gould all night. Very pleasant and warm all day. Paid $13 for a large [Buck Cats !!!] Male full blood.

Tue, 11 Very cold this afternoon on schooner Island Queen.

Wed, 12 Very cold and pleasant. Cleaned up the barn and then plained some boards for a floor in the house.

Thu, 13 Cold and pleasant. Killed 2 hogs one of them very large.

Fri, 14

Warm & pleasant. Salted two hogs today. Worked on the House.

Sat, 15 Went to Portland with my wife and stayed at Elders on State Street. Warm and pleasant. Cared [Carried] one bbl [barrel] of vegetables to Judge Kingsbury and a little of the [Creter?] also to John H. Fogg.

Sent $14.75 to Eliza M.[H?] Libby, 5 Temple Place, Boston by Swett's Express for Nettie.

Sun, 16 Warm and pleasant. Snowed last night about 3 inches, the first this month. [#a#] at Elders today.

Went to the New Church this evening. Subject heaven -- are we employed in heaven -- by Rev Wm. B. [Hayden].

Mon, 17 Warm with snow and rain. Cold in the afternoon. R. [Wight] paid me $20--, note for balance.

Bought me a pair of Ricker's shoes for $4.75. Bought [#] 5 yds of print at Vickery & Leighton for 5 cts yd.

Came home to the island today with my wife.

II Tue, 18 Warm and rainy. Worked on the house all day.

Wed, 19 Warm and rained about all day. Worked on the house. Sold pig to John Hanaford for $10--.

Thu, 20 Very cold. Wind blew hard all day and evening. Worked on house all day.

Fri, 21

Very cold. Wind blew quite hard. Worked on the house today.

Sat, 22 Pleasant but cold. Went to Portland today. Carried Elder 2 Doz Eggs. Sent A. L. Millett 9 Doz. Bought a half bbl pickles. Looks like a snow storm. No snow on the ground. It is frozen hard.

Sun, 23 Very cold and snowed very hard when I got up & at 9 A.M. Mon, 24 Very cold. Went to Portland today. Carried Elder 2 Doz Eggs. Sent A. L. Millett 9 Doz Eggs.

Called on John Fogg assine (assignee) and was examined. Had a road broke out round the field.

Tue, 25 Tuesday quite pleasant but cold. Drove the black mare round the track several times. Took Mrs. Jenks out to ride on the island. Worked on the house.

Wed, 26 Very cold but pleasant. Worked on the house. {Woodbury?} for 50 cts. Looks like snow.

Sold a bed of straw to Mainard Wood[ley]

Thu, 27 Very cold but snowed about all day. Worked on the house. Mrs. Jenks quite sick. Saw the moon out of the window.

Fri, 28 Warm and rainy and hailed towards night. Rained hard all night. Worked on the house today.

Altered the stears (steers) or calves.

Sat, 29 Warm and overcast. Very sloppy. Went up town this morning. Called on J. H. Fogg assine.

Sun, 30 Warm and pleasant. Bill Doughty came and claimed a dory. Said John Ricker stole it and he could prove it. Said that he left it at the wharf the last of July. I told him that he could have it by paying the expenses on it of 1.50 cts.

Mon, 31 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the house all day. Mrs. Jenks went to Portland today.

February Tue, 01 Cold and snowed hard. Commenced to rain about 5 P.M. Worked on the house all day.

Wed, 02 Warm and rained hard till about 3 P.M. Cleared off very cold. The water stands in high fields.

Thu, 03 Very cold and ruf. Looks like snow. Very slippery. All glare ice. The cattle can't hardly stand up.

Worked on the House today. Black sheep had a nice ram lamb.

Fri, 04 Very cold and snowed hard this morning. Cleared off about 2 P.M. Paid Robert Wallace $6-balance due on calf.

Sat, 05 Very Cold and pleasant. Steamer Henrietta could not get up through the ice. Went up outside.

Started to come down and got stuck in the ice.

Sun, 06 Cold and overcast. Found a very large ewe lamb at the barn this morning. Had a baked cock for dinner today. Very nice.

Mon, 07 Very Warm. The ice has all broak up so the steamer went up through this morning. Call on John Fogg and answered his question[s]. It has been very pleasant -- seemed like spring.

III Tue, 08 Warm and pleasant. Seemed like spring. Took down the fence of the bowling alley.

Wed, 09 Cold and overcast. Worked on the bowling alley. Commenced snowing about 4 P.M. Very cold and blustering. Wind blew hard.

Thu, 10 Cold and blustering. Snowed hard this forenoon. Wind blowing hard. Snow blew. Had cleared off towards night. Worked on the house.

Fri, 11 Cold in the morning. Snowed and hailed this morning. Commenced raining about noon and quite warm. Worked on the house. Put up the stairs.

Sat, 12 Very warm and pleasant like spring. Trefethen brought the hay press to the wharf woday. Broke the roads and also a driveway round in the field.

Sun, 13 Very warm and pleasant. A real spring day. Drove the horses about an hour. Each was wide awake.

Took my wife to ride also.

Mon, 14 Very cold. Looks like snow. Worked on the house what I can. Was not very well today. Nettie went to Portland. Commenced hailing and snowing about 4 P.M. [Henry Mansfield] and son came and called me up at 2 A.M. Put his horse in the barn.

Tue, 15 Very cold. Snowed and hailed all day with rain at 3 P.M. Worked on the house. [Ase] {Asa?} Dyer came over and got a pint of rum for Mrs. Wallace who is very sick. The wind blew very hard -- a perfect tornado this evening.

Wed, 16 Very cold and sloppy but pleasant. Worked on the house all day. Eck Hanady's Sch (schooner) came ashore last night in the gale. She parted chain. Got her off at high water and went to the city this P.M. My grass went up today. Found a high stick timber on the shore.

Thu, 17 Cold and pleasant. Field full of ice in all the rows. Had a good hunt after my geese. Found them at Long Island. Worked on the house.

Fri. 18 Very warm and pleasant. Worked on the house. Ed [Abant] came to see the stock. {First wrote "my stock", but changed the "my" to "the".} Sat, 19 Very warm and pleasant. Worked on the house. Jim Williams went to Portland. Got papers and letters. Rec'd draft on Barnes Brothers for $84 15/100 from J. W. Crawford.

Sun, 20 Cold and quite pleasant. At home all day.

Mon, 21 Cold and pleasant. Went to Portland. Sold my wool for 30 cts. Came to $34.85. Paid Edward Gould $75.-- for mackeral. Paid Stearns & Co. grain bill. Got 6 yardsticks set [matche plaines] ("match planes" or "matched planes"?). Lost a nice steer calf. Got into the spring and drowned. Paid 12 Dollars for him Dec 24.

Tue, 22 Cold. Snowed this morning. Cleared off about 10 A.M. Wind blew hard. Commenced work on the old house today.

Wed, 23 Very cold, wind blowing hard. Snow drifts bad. Pleasant overhead. Worked on the old house 2 men. Am a bit sick with a sore throat.

Thu, 24 Very Cold. Wind blowng hard. Coldest day this winter. Lost a sheep or lamb this morning.

Skinned him. Bad luck. (Don't feel very well.) Worked on old house with 2 men.

Fri, 25 Very cold this morning. Moderated down about noon. Worked on the old house with 2 men. Quite pleasant this afternoon.

IV Sat, 26 Cold and pleasant. Went to Portland on Steamer. Carried Elder 6 doz eggs. Paid John Leavett & Co $140. Got 6 bags shorts, 5 bags meal, 5 bags corn, 5 boxes salt. Mrs. Abe McCallum and son came tonight.

Had a nice ewe lamb come about 9 P.M. Bought 2000 larths (laths) for $175.

Sun, 27 Warm and pleasant. Looked like snow. [Haruld] sheep had a pair of twin lambs, both rams. One had a hard chance to live. Did not go to bed last night. Sat up with lamb.

Mon, 28 Cold. Looks like snow. Sow had 10 pigs smart and nice. All (Al?) & John sat up tonight.

Tue, 29 Cold and pleasant. Tore down the partitions in the old house further end. Sheep had a nice lamb {ewe}. Left the lamb and pigs alone tonight.

March Wed, 01 Cold and pleasant. Worked on old house today. Bought a pair cart wheels of Peterson for $18-- an old sleigh $3--.

Thu, 02 Cold and snowed in the morning. Cold all day. Had a nice ewe lamb. Came last night {extra}.

Framed a bulding for 4 sleeping rooms.

Fri, 03

Quite cold and pleasant. Finished larthing the old house.

Sat, 04 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Got a barrel of hard bread.

Sun, 05 Warm and pleasant. Staid at home all day.

Mon, 06 Warm and pleasant. Went to Peaks Island to vote. Water run fast. Went to Portland after ["water" OR "votes"]. 10 came home with me to supper from Long Island. Men hauled dung on sled.

Tue, 07 Warm and pleasant. Boys hauled dung. I worked on house. The fields are covered with water.

Wed, 08 Very warm with rain, dreadful sloppy. Fixed cart [axle?] for small wheels and worked on old house.

Thu, 09 Warm and stormy. Rain in morning. Cleared up at noon. Worked on old house.

Fri, 10

Warm and pleasant. Had two lambs come today. One of the sheep won't own her lamb.

Sat, 11 Warm and pleasant. Lost lamb last night. Sheep would not own it. Went to Portland today.

Sun, 12 Warm and overcast. Looks like a storm in morning. Wind southeast. Colder towards night.

Mon, 13 Warm and overcast. Looks like rain. Went to city. It commenced to rain hard about noon. John Ricker came back today.

Tue, 14 Cold but pleasant. Wind blew hard. Froze hard last night. Built an oxcart today and then worked on old house.

Wed, 15 Cold and pleasant. Wind blew hard most of day. Worked on old house.

Thu, 16 Cold, windy, looks like a storm. Worked on old house, had a lamb and most ded when it was found in the morning. Worked on old house.

Fri, 17 Cold and thick overcast. Commenced snowing about 11 A.M. and very, very cold. Worked on old house. Had a ewe lamb. Came this evening. Very small.

V Sat, 18 Very cold. Wind blew hard. Had the tufest snow storm that has been this winter. Worked on old house today.

Sun, 19 Cold and windy. Blows. Snow flies. Had a lamb come last night. A nice one. Found an other one that came in the pen ded.

Mon, 20 Cold. Snow deep. Broke out road to wharf, went uptown. Set up with a lamb that the sheep would not own. Looks like a storm.

Tue, 21 Cold. Snow & rain commenced about noon. The rain in torantz. Wind never blew harder. Started the roof of the barn. Cut the 4 pigs today. A dredful storm. The rain came through all the rooms in the house.

Wed, 22 Cold and pleasant with a little wind. Fixed some doors today. Halled 5 loads of kelp and rpclweed.

Very sloppy.

Thu, 23 Warm and pleasant. Some wind. Worked on doors. Boys hauled dressing from [shore?]. Took [celing] out of boat.

Fri, 24

Warm and pleasant. Worked on bowling alley. Taped some trees.

Sat, 25 Cold and overcast in the morning. Went to city. Rained hard when I came home. A tuf storm.

Wind blew hard. Sheep had a nice lamb.

Sun, 26 Warm and overcast and hazey. Worked with my three men and oxen on C. P. Ingraham's building.

Also got Rufus Ricker to help me.

Mon, 27 Warm and overcast. Went to Portland. Carried 2 pigs. Got 10-- for them. Carried a [we#the] calf & sheep [skin] to A. Leighton. Mrs. Jenks went to Portland. Had 3 teeth out. Took gass. Had a good effect.

Is going to Brunswick to stay a week. Told C. P. Ingraham about his house washing under it. He said he would pay what was right.

Tue, 28 Warm and pleasant. Worked on old house. Sold 2 pigs for 12--. Tore down the sleeping room on back of old house.

Wed, 29 Cold. Another east rain storm. Found one of my twin lambs ded. Woodside sheep had a nice lamb this morning. Repaired the big and R[ooler] today. Cleaned up the barn.

Thu, 30 Warm and pleasant. Worked on old house. Found a lamb ded. Choked with wool in its mouth.

Steve Ricker got a pig today. Will pay for it soon.

Fri, 31

Warm and pleasant. Old Strout came over today and got pretty full.

April Sat, 01 Cold and raw wind. Got ready to go to city. Steamer did not come in to wharf. Henry's wife and children, Mansfield, Hanaford Doughty & Dyer were at the wharf, were all very mad. Fixed a Hhd (hogshead) and put the hams in to it to Smoak.

Sun, 02 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Basket Island to Geo. Williams. He gave me a door and came over and got a pig and some hay. Had a stray goos come to my yard. Caught him. Got an egg from one of the gees today.

Mon, 03 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Mrs. Jenks came home today. Williams paid me $6-- for his pig. Bishop came and got his pig and I paid him 50 cts balance on potatoes.

Tue, 04 Cold [some] storm[y?]. Snow and rain. Worked on oxcart and ground up the tools and fixed up the door Williams gave me.

VI Wed, 05 Cold and snowy & rain. Woke up with a sore foot. Think it is the reumatism or gout. It is in my left foot now quite sore. Worked on oxcoart. Got it together. A good one.

Thu, 06 Warm and overcast this morning. Sun came out about 6 A.M. Then very pleasant. Was very lame.

Confined in the house all day with my left foot.

Fri, 07

Cold and cloudy. Staid in the house with lame foot.

Sat, 08 Cold and raw. Wind all day but pleasant.

Sun, 09 Warm and pleasant but cold wind.

Mon, 10 Warm and pleasant with some wind in afternoon. Went to city in steamer. Settled with Leighton & More. Got $25 of H. B. Cleaves. Bought 4 bushels barley at $1-- and 4-- worth garden seeds. Sold pig to Mrs. Kennardy or Dan Foley for $6--.

Tue, 11 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland to the Stockholders Meeting of the Harpswell Steam Boat Co. Acted for Nathan & H. B. Cleaves. Everything pleasant. Got home at 7 p.M. Plowed the garden to day.

Wed, 12 Warm and pleasant like summer. Planted some early peas.

Thu, 13 Warm and pleasant part of the day. Went over to Basket Island & got an old boat to repair mine with. Sold 2 pigs for $14 to John Hill.

Fri, 14 Warm and Foggy. Got up at [3 or 5] A.M. Sow had 11 pigs all smart and nice. This afternoon Wallace came. Had a heffer calf. Planted 4 bushels Early Rose potatoes and 1 quart of peas, Champions of England. Sent two men over to Basket Island and got 2 dory loads of dressing.

Sat, 15 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Got some paints. William Trefething took supper self and man and stayed till morning.

Sun, 16 Cold and overcast. Showers in the afternoon. David Peterson came over today.

Mon, 17 Warm and pleasant with cool wind in the afternoon. Mrs. Jenks went to Porland. I got 1686 (16.86?) worth of dry goods. Bought 12 bushels of wheat for seed $2.25 a bushel. Beck cow had a nice stear calf. I took it from her about 10 P.M. Sent $56 dollars to the Westchester Co. today by registered letter.

Tue, 18 Warm and pleasant. Set (got?) a [wet###] (kettle?) to boil swill with. Built a hen yard and painted oxcart body.

Wed, 19 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Petersons and got a plane and some fruit trees at 40 cts. 2 pear trees at 1.00, plums $2--.

Thu, 20 Warm and pleasant. Set out trees in garden. Slaked and made some morter for plastering.

Fri, 21 Warm and overcast with rain. Went over to Cousins island to [G##s] and got some iron work done.

Sold my [sportted] steers to John Hill on the above mentioned Island for 110 (1.10 ??) dollars and a red heffer.

Am to deliver steers on Littlejohns Island May 1/76.

Sat, 22 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland today. Got some plants for wife also some corn and meal.

Got $25 of H. B. Cleaves. Got a bbl of lamp chimbleys.

Sun, 23 Cool and cloudy weather with rain part of the day. Looks as though it would clear up tonight.

Mon, 24 Warm and pleasant. Commenced harrowing for grain. Bought $47.80 dollars worth of of grass seed today. Bought 2 bushels more of wheat and some peas and onions to set out. {"Let Strought have the oxen & cart" is crossed out.}

VII Tue, 25 Cold with wind. Looks like a storm. Sowed 3 bushels of wheat today and harrowed it in. Set out a bed of onions. Let Strout on Gt. Chebeague have the oxen for 2 days.

Wed, 26 Cold and raw with sort of overcast. Set out seed beets, seed turnips, carrots, & parsnips. Planted 3 quarts of peas early, and planted more Early Rose potatoes.

[Ex] Philadelphia peas first 5 rowes. Carters next 5 roes. First [Craf#] peas [N C Leows] little gem peas next 5 roes then two roes [lot] that came from Henry Mansfield. All next the wall where old house is.

Thu, 27 Cold and overcast most of the time. Wind blew quite hard. Sowed some beets 3 beds. Planted some potatoes.

Fri, 28 Warm and pleasant in the forenoon. Sowed 3 bushels of grass seed and sowed 1 bushel of wheat.

Brushed and rolled the grass-seed smooth.

Sat, 29 Warm and pleasant. Am very lame in my knee and foot. Sowed 3 bushels of barley on the potatoe peace. Ruf Ricker paid me $3.00 for amt due on pig. Commenced cold with light wind towards night.

Sun, 30 Warm. Rained hard this morning and overcast. Thunder shower about 2 P.M. May Mon, 01 Cold and windy but pleasant. Worked on the small boat. J. S. Williams went to Portland to have his teeth out.

Tue, 02 Cold and windy this forenoon. This afternoon it camed (calmed) down and was warmer. Peterson came over at 130 (1:30) P.M. and hewed some timber. Went over to Cousins Island and bought a steer calf for $2-- to mate one of mine. Also bought a heffer calf, half Jersey for $24. Nice ones.

Wed, 03 Warm and pleasant with wind southeast blowing hard. Put in new timbers in boat and nailed it all over. Lewis Doughty commenced plastering the [ketching] (kitchen). Henry Mansfield came on erand.

Engaged 2 pigs boars. [#################?] Petersen came and hewed timbers. Had a heffer calf.

Thu, 04 Warm and pleasant. Sowed 6 bushels of barley and sowed grass seed on it afterward. Had it all harrowed in. Plasterer hear yet. Promised 3 pigs to some men on Gt. Chebeague.

Fri, 05 Warm and overcast. Halled rocks and harrowed and brushed the ground. Plasterer here yet. Awful slow. Set 3 hens on 13 eggs each. Also set a goos on 9 eggs.

Sat, 06 Warm and foggy. Went to Portland. Paid Cyrus Butler $25-- for stove. Ordered another and got 3 bags meal 3 of corn and 3 of shorts. John Ricker went to Portland and got his hair cut. Set a hen on 13 eggs.

Paid Lewis Doughty $7.50 for plastering 250 (2.50?) per day. Out ragous. Am done with him.

Sun, 07 Warm and overcast and foggy. Went over to Hanafords.

Mon, 08 Warm and foggy. Planted some potatoes and brushed a peace of grass-seed.

Tue, 09 Warm and foggy. Rained in the afternoon. Sheered the old buck and halled of the rocks on barley peace. Commenced cleaning house. Mrs. Barker is helping.

Wed, 10 Warm and foggy. Pogy boats came and spread their seines out in field. Had John Ricker and oxen & cart 6 hours. Went over to Isaac Strout's and got a red steer calf. Paid $2.00 for him. 2 days old. Halled the bankings away from the house. Had a heavy rain last night, heavy thunder.

Thu, 11 Warm and raining. Foot is very sore. Can't do much.

Fri, 12 Warm and pleasant this morning. Went over to east end of Gt. Chebeague. Peterson sheared 10 sheep today. Can't step on my foot. Have concluded to stay in the house. 3 pogy boats came today. Team worked 4 hours.

VIII Sat, 13 Warm and raining. Shearing team worked all day. Mansfield came over and see me today. Had a lamb today. An ewe from Peterson sheep. My foot pains me very much. Kept my bed most all day. The boys planted 3 bushels potatoes.

Sun, 14 Warm and pleasant in the forenoon. The sun is a stranger. It has been awful bad wether for 2 weaks past. Mr. Mansfield came over and [#####] today. My foot is swollen badly. Woodside sheep died last night. Boys found one missed and ded [###] under high head.

Mon, 15 Warm and foggy. Nettie went to city today. Mansfield got 2 pigs today. Mrs Maddacks and Capt Boyontin came here and lodged at the house. Had 2 bbls of potatoes come today.

Tue, 16 Warm and foggy. Am still lame so that I can't walk. Team worked for Luther Maddacks. Albion Briggs came today with Mr. Billingham from Gardner in a small boat.

Wed, 17 Warm and pleasant part of the day. Planted some potatoes Thu, 18 Warm and plsnt in the morning. Went over to Gt. Chebeague. Bought a 2 year old bull of John Hamblinton for $20 - an [#harce] trade. Got some plants of Wm. Peary. Briggs & Billington came over with me. Rained hard most all of the afternoon. Settled for the Poggy Bots for use of land. Freeman Boyonton gave me a draft on 3 days right for $1.92 on Luther Maddacks. Set out [Harr###] grass bed.

Fri, 19 Warm and pleasant. An other pogy boat came today. Bessie Snow, Capt. Esterbrook. Hauled up their seines. Briggs went about 2 P.M. in sail boat for Gardner. Planted cucumbers & squash. Sowed some beets. My foot is very sore today.

Sat, 20 Warm and pleasant. Nettie went to Portland today. Have sowed 2 bbls (barrels) of oats and planted some red potatoes.

Sun, 21 Warm and pleasant. Rained in the afternoon. The pogie boat Bessie Snow paid me $20 dollars for labor and use of land. Had a calf from Nat Thompson for 1.80. Washed the lambs in tabaco. Killed the ticks.

Mon, 22 Warm and pleasant. Gave tearms [terms] for a clam bake Aug 10/76. Went to Portland. Sent order to Boston by Swetts Express for $12 on F. B. Wiley. Heavy thunder shower today.

Tue, 23 Planted some potatoes. Warm and pleasant. Rained hard last night.

Wed, 24 Warm and pleasant. Sterns & Peterson commenced planting beans. Went over to [Cass's or Carr's?] and Dyers and got some garden plants.

Thu, 25 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Gt. Chebeague Island. Got a bbl of molasses and some potatoes.

Set out flower garden.

Fri, 26

Warm and pleasant. Went over to John Hanafords and got 7 maple trees and set them out.

Sat, 27 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Will Jacobs came down with his family. He paid me $68 dollars on old bill. Had 12 chickens hatch out.

Sun, 28 Warm and pleasant. The Magnett came down today with quite a crowd.

Mon, 29 Very warm this morning. About 10 A.M. a heavy thunder shower, then pleasant till about 4 then an other heavy thunder shower and rain all the evening. Got 12 bushells of wheat, 1 bag corn for hens, 5 bags shorts, 4 bags of meal. Paid Ed Gould for borrowed rum and half bbl ale. Paid Lappin 16.33. Paid Leighton 227. Paid for lemons 1 bag 4.80 Soap 3--.

Tue, 30 Warm and pleasant. Worked in Grand Army campground on west. Rained dredful hard all night.

Wed, 31 Warm and pleasant with strong southwest wind. Planted a little today.

IX June Thu, 01 Warm and pleasant. Planted corn and potatoes. Built a lot of rale [rail?] fence. [Johnny Nack Henry!?] & Trust came down to see about the Oddfellows coming here in July. Calf died today.

Fri, 02 Warm and pleasant. Built fence today with all my crew. Went over to Cousins Island. Geo. Williams came over today with his cow and left her.

Sat, 03 Warm and pleasant. Mrs. Jenks went to city. Finished planting today. {There is another entry under the above: "Sunday 3/77 Pleasant all day. Jed [Grafam or Graham?] & [##ifs recration or wife & children?] was here. Charles Sloson [Slosson?] & 2 other gentlemen came down tonight."} Sun, 04 Warm and cloudy with rain. Sent over to Mrs. Barkers. Got a calf steer. Am very lame in my right foot. {Additional entry under the above: "Monday, 4/77 Planting beans beans & corn. Potatoe bugs are thick."} Mon, 05 Warm and rainy. A. W. Perkins went to Portland. John Hill paid $80- for balance due on steers.

Ally had $15-- of it. John Swett collected $12-- for me in Boston of F. B. Wiley. Paid H. Mansfield $6-- for calf. {Additional entry under the above: "Tuesday 5/77 Finished planting beans. [p###ed] potatoes."} Tue, 06 Warm and rainy all day. Cleaned up the celler. Ploughed a peace for potatoes & turnips.

Wed, 07 Warm and pleasant. Fixed closset for glassware. Halled some dung. built some fence on flats.

Thu, 08 Warm and pleasant. Fixed [ctose] (clothes ?) press. Commenced on [feader] (reaper?). Lost a sheep. Had a lamb in her. Libby cow calved this morning, steer. Osgood cow calved. Had a heffer calf, a nice one. Fixed fence. Sowed the beet bed over to old house. Halled out 3 loads of dung. Rained just at night.

Fri, 09

Warm and pleasant. Went to city with John Ricker in open boat. Let him have $25-- dollars.

Sat, 10 Warm and pleasant. Shower in afternoon. Went to city. Got bbl hard bread 2 bbls flower and 50 lbs suggar some beef and things.

Sun, 11 Warm and overcast. Went over to Gt. Chebeague. Steamer Magnett came down twice but few passengers. Looked like rain all the time. [Le??] Hill came down or over. Also Geo. Williams.

Mon, 12 Warm and overcast. Sowed a large bed of beets and carrots, parsnips & turnips. Finished planting potatoes and beans.

Tue, 13 Warm and foggy. Cleaned up around house. Wm. Thompson came today. Isaac Strout came to work on plow.

Wed, 14 Warm and foggy. Sowed potatatoes. Peterson helped. Worked on reaper.

Thu, 15 Warm and foggy. Cleaned up grane.

Fri, 16

Warm and foggy. Worked on reaper and in grane.

Sat, 17 Warm and foggy. Went to city. Bought bale of oilcloth for 38 cts 50## yards. Magnett came today.

Masonic Comity (Committee) was down to make arrangments for a picknic.

Sun, 18 Warm and foggy as usual. Had a few on the boat. Too about [three] dollars. [Machagon] comity (committee) made arrgts (arrangements) to come July 5.

X Mon, 19 Warm and foggy. Wnet to city. Got a peace of oilcloth.

Tue, 20 Warm and foggy. Worked on house. Halled 5 loads of rock wead (weed). Rained hard tonight.

Wed, 21 Warm and foggy. Hauled 10 load of rocks for clambake. Saw the deth of John Neal age 82 yrs 9 months 25 days. Capt. Robert Hambliton and Judge Hambliton came over and got some cabage & turnip plants. Heavy showers with thunder. Mrs. Bell Brian had an atact of feaver. Got a bad cold, Is awful feverish. Was up till 12 o'clock.

Thu, 22 Warm and pleasant. Worked on house. Went to Cousins Island.

Fri, 23

Warm and pleasant. Hauled rocks and rockweed for clambake.

Sat, 24 Warm and pleasant. Masons came today. About 400. Had a picture of the house taken.

Sun, 25 Warm and pleasant. Had 10 at dinner today.

Mon, 26 Warm and pleasant. Went to city today.

Tue, 27 Went to city today. Stayed with Jacobs all night. Rained hard.

Wed, 28 Warm and pleasant. Got home abut 11 A.M. John Ricker brought lumber down. Got 5 bags of corn of him. Comenced laying platform today.

Thu, 29 Warm and pleasant. {##ing] dance platform. Had a [#lut] party. Went to city. Got some boards.

Fri, 30 Warm and foggy Went to city. Agred (agreed) to get up clambake for 21 at 100 ($1.00) per hed & breckfast.

July Sat, 01 Warm and pleasant. Went to Cousins Island and engaged some wood [bed]. 3 picknick partys today. Free St. Baptists, Wiliston Chappel, and Morrill's Corner. Everything pleasant.

Sun, 02 Warm and pleasant. Frank & Randal Whitten & Georgie Gardner came to stay over the forth (fourth).

Mon, 03 Warm and pleasant in morning.

Tue, 04 Warm and pleasant. Had but little company today. Rained hard tonight.

Wed, 05 Warm and pleasant. Got a large party today. 3000 of the Odd Fellows got a nice clambake.

Everything went off pleasant.

Thu, 06 Warm and pleasant but a high wind. Had a picknick today. Casco St. First Parish & State Street Sabath School.

Fri, 07

Warm and pleasant. Chestnut St. & Pine Street came on their picknick. Had a nice time.

Sat, 08 Warm and pleasant. About sick today. Had but little company.

Sun, 09 Warm and pleasant. 18 (?) boats run today. Had a party of 10 to supper. Nettie is quite sick. Will be confined.

XI Mon, 10 Warm and pleasant. Nettie dredful sick. Sent for Dr. [Vance ?] at 4 A.M. She had a little boy about 5:15 A.M. God bless them both.

Tue, 11 Warm and pleasant. Congress Square Church picknick came today. Had a nice time. Went to city on Magnett.

Wed, 12 Warm and overcast. Had but little company today. Mr. W. B. Hayden & wife came today. (See Jan 16 -- Rev. Hayden?)

Thu, 13 Warm and pleasant. Forest City Shooting Club came today. Got dinner for 26. Had a nice time.

Fri, 14 Warm and pleasant with a lite breeze. [New] Church picknick had nice time. The black mair (mare) had a fine colt (mair) {these parentheses in diary entry} last night.

Sat, 15 Warm and pleasant but little company. Steamer Henrietta played another one of her nasty tricks in not coming in to wharf. There were 11 to go.

Sun, 16 Warm and pleasant. Had but a little company today.

Mon, 17 Warm and pleaasant. Went to city on Magnett. [Camera ?] [c##ting] up [NY ?] today.

Tue, 18 Warm and pleasant. Halled in 4 loads out of field front of house today.

Wed, 19 Warm and pleasant. Good hay weather.

Thu, 20 Warm and pleasant. Had a heavy shower today.

Fri, 21 Warm and pleasant. Had the reunion of Grand Army. Had a nice time. Everything went off well.

Furnished breakfast & dinner for the crowd. [N.B. Was this the reunion committee?]

Sat, 22 Warm and pleasant. Very quiet. Capt. Wm. O. Thompson went home today.

Sun, 23 Rainy and foggy. Very hot today.

Mon, 24 Warm and pleasant. Went to Portland. Saw comitty about clam bake on Aug 10/76. Police paid me $30-- dollars for hay.

Tue, 25 Warm and overcast. Little rainy. Large lot of hay cut.

Wed, 26 Warm and pleasant. Had but little company today. Worked on hay.

Thu, 27 Warm and pleasant. Got all the hay in today. Went up town.

Fri, 28

Warm and pleasant. Went up town today.

Sat, 29 Warm and pleasant. Mrs. Mcaral came today. Was up town all day about my bank draft matter.

Every thing pleasant.

Sun, 30 Warm and pleasant. Had but little company today.

Mon, 31 Rainy about all day. Had no company.

August Tue, 01 Warm and pleasant. Went out afishing last night at 1 A.M. Visited Barker, A. L. Millett & [bags OR boys ?].

XII Wed, 02 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. [Received ?] $140. Grand Army Committee of Reunion came down to select place for clambake and tents.

Thu, 03 Warm and pleasant. Halling rocks for clam bake.

Fri, 04 Warm and pleasant. Went to Harpswell today in Jones yacht. Had a fine sail. Judge Cleaves, Virgin, Millett, [Mcaral] & 2 sons.

Sat, 05 Warm and pleasant. Went to city today. Got a lot of boards for tables.

Sun, 06 Warm and pleasant. Very quiet.

Mon, 07 Warm and pleasant. Mr. [Mcaral] went home today. Went to city. Commenced building tables today.

Tue, 08 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Big tent came today.

Wed, 09 Warm and pleasant. Got tables all done and set 1872 guests. A large crowd came tonight and stayed all night.

Thu, 10 Warm and pleasant. A large crowd on the island today. [Seats OR tents ?] all [loaded ?].

Everything quiet. Did not go to bed last night. Had a big clambake. 400 bushels clams, 400 doz eggs, 2500 ears corn. 3 [#elling] (servings ?). Seated 1910 at the tables. All seemed to be well satisfied.

Fri, 11 Warm and plasant. Been cleaning up all day. Had 30 men to work. George Goodman, Mrs. [Boone], Frank C. Whitten, William Dyer came tonight.

Sat, 12 Warm and foggy. Magnet went ashore today at Long Island.

Sun, 13 Warm and foggy. But little company came today. Only one boat. William Thompson paid 10 dollars. Went town today.

Mon, 14 Warm and pleasant. Had a nice 2 year old heffer drownded in well today. [Calar#ies of the ####. ?]

Tue, 15 Warm and pleasant. Cut some of my wheat today. Went to city.

Wed, 16 Warm and overcast. Went to the city.

Thu, 17 Warm and overcast and foggy. Went to city.

Fri, 18

Warm and foggy. Went to city. Had a small party at dinner today.

Sat, 19 Warm and pleasant. Went to city.

Sun, 20 Warm and windy. No boat today and no company. Capt. Wm. Thompson went home today.

Mon, 21 Warm and windy. Went to city today. Worked on grane.

Tue, 22 Warm and windy. Pleasant. Went to city today. Worked on grain.

Wed, 23 Warm and pleasant. Buchers of Lewiston had a clam bake here today.

Thu, 24 Warm and pleasant. Had a large crew on the grain today.

Fri, 25 Warm and pleasant. Got in 14 loads of grane today. Went to city. Had a picknick St. Lukes Allens Corner today.

Sat, 26 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Saw Lyferd about clambake. Finished getting in grain.

XIII Sun, 27 Warm and pleasant. But a little company. [Gen. OR Geo. ?] Eaton & wife came today.

Mon, 28 Warm and pleasant. Went to city. Mr. Dyer & wife left today. Also Mr. [Boomer] (OR Boone ? -see Aug. 11) wife Georgie Gardner & Frank Whitten.

Tue, 29 Warm and pleassant. Went to city. Had a large picknick in the Florence.

Wed, 30 Warm and pleasant. Had the Temple of Honor or of disoner but a small crowd.

Thu, 31 Warm and pleasant. Went to city.

September Fri, 01

Cold and windy. Not feeling very well.

Sat, 02 Cold and rainy. Fixed the barn floor [over].

Sun, 03 Warm and pleasant. Wm. Thompson had [#ea##] 10 went home Mon, 04 Warm and pleasant.

Tue, 05 Warm and pleasant.

Wed, 06 Warm and pleasant.

Thu, 07 Warm and pleasant.

Fri, 08

Warm and pleasant. Went before grand jury.

Sat, 09 Warm and pleasant. Went to city.

Sun, 10 Warm and pleasant. Good brees in afternoon.

Mon, 11 Warm and pleasant. Went to Peaks Island to election at Peaks Island. Wi### Thompson had [Casfe] 10 went to election.

Tue, 12 Warm and pleasant. Worked on well today.

Wed, 13 Warm and pleasant. Worked on well.

Thu, 14 Warm and pleasant. Worked on well and digging potatoes.

Fri, 15

Warm and pleasant. Finished digging well.

Sat, 16 Went to city. Got corn meal, shorts, & sugger (sugar). Joe Foley came down today and Ed Gould with familys. Cared (carried) piano in town.

Sun, 17 Cold and rained tonight.

Mon, 18 Cold and rainy all day. Magnett commenced her trips today.

Tue, 19 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club came tonight or this afternoon. 30 of them to supper & lodging.

Wed, 20 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club has commenced shooting match day. (Decided the chalenged bird.)

[Parentheses are in the diary].

XIV Thu, 21 Cold and rainy. Shooting Club got through about 3 P.M. Had a good time but a nasty one.

Fri, 22

Cleared off pleasant. Dug potatoes & plowed a little.

Sat, 23 Warm and pleasant. Dug potatoes today. Turned out well. Wm. F. Thompson paid 10 dollars tonight. Paid [Estes] (Esther ?) Hambliton (Hamilton?) for work.

Sun, 24 Warm and pleasant. Went over to Gt. Chebeague.

Mon, 25 Warm and pleasant. Wife went to Portland. Finished digging potatoes and commenced on the well to stone it. Paid Nellie Strout $31.25 for work.

Tue, 26 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 6 men today. Rained hard all night.

Wed, 27 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 6 men. Mr. [Ra??dy] was here today.

Thu, 28 Warm and pleasant. Worked on the well with 5 men.

Fri, 29

{BLANK PAGE} ---- END OF DIARY ----

LITTLE CHEBEAGUE ISLAND Its History from 1874 to 2002

When the Clamshell Walk to the wharf was new -- about 1880

Richard B. Innes

LITTLE CHEBEAGUE ISLAND Its History from 1874 to 2002

Richard B. Innes Portland, ME March 2002

To Rachy

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS Frontispiece

ii

Preface

iii

1. The Incorporators

1

2. The Exclusive Island

20

3. Intermezzo

53

4. Retrenchment

57

5. Aerodrome Chebeague

64

6. The Lull Before the Storm: The cottage years

75

The Cleaves Family

76

The Adams and Haskell Families

78

The Hamlen Family

81

The Morrill and Doyle Families

87

The Sawyer Family

95

The J. B. Reed Family

104

The Baileys and Related Families

110

The Foggs and Related Families

122

The G. Reed and Prichett Families

130

The Kenney Family

131

7. Cottage life

134

8. Boy Scouting on Little Chebeague

150

9. Baseball Bats and Fire Hoses

159

10. The Garden of Dreams

174

11. Park Chebeague

186

APPENDIX: Cottages and other structures

195

Front cover photo courtesy of the Maine Historical Society Back cover photo by the author, about 1939

ii

iii

PREFACE My original connection to Little Chebeague consisted of only a few summer weekends from 1938 to 1941. My wife, Rachel, on the other hand, spent several of her teenage summers there, her grandfather Henry Bailey being, during the first of those years, the year-round occupant of the still-active farm.

With our young family, we made one return to the island around 1963, landing directly on the beach from a small boat with Philip Lee, who, like Mrs. Innes, is a descendant of Henry Bailey and was by then a resident of Portland and Litle Diamond Island. Access to the familiar cottages was still easily possible, and most were found to be standing but in dilapidated condition. My only recollection now is of a fallen porch roof on Judge Reed’s cottage, a condition worse than during the Peppin’s residency, of which we then knew nothing. Nor did we then know anything about the island’s then out-of-state owner.

Rachel and I re-visited the island in the fall of 1992, again accompanied by Philip, whose boat was still our only means of access. My only purpose then was the idle one of searching for any remains of the cannon that once stood before Grampa Bailey’s cottage. We knew that its bronze barrel had been stolen in the early 1940’s, but did not know what might have become of its carriage and the caisson that had accompanied it. No sign of either was found, nor has any since then. For hours, we fought our random way slowly thru thick underbrush, usually quite lost, occasionally stumbling onto and then trying to identify cottage wreckage in an overgrown surrounding totally unlike the open fields we recalled from the 1930’s. Philip, born after WWII, recalled none of it, and we could recognize only a few locations, so different were they from our recollections of them.

We had heard family lore about the hotel that once stood on the island, but knew litle more than its name. Visits to the Cumberland County Register of Deeds office, the Maine Historical Society Library, the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library, and that library’s microfilmed newspaper collections provided material to ponder thru the winter at our home, which was then in Michigan. An early 1993 visit with Betty Bailey, widow of one of Rachel’s cousins and a grand-daughter of Joshua Jenks, turned up both Jenks’ 1876 diary and Warner’s 1877 drawing of the island. The form, local fame, and fate of the hotel were also uncovered from more newspaper microfilms. Then we were hooked. This story, we found, was going to be more interesting than we had imagined.

My goal in the next two summers was to try to discover enough from the cottage remains to be able to draw plans showing their original condition. Those have never materialized. Some cottages (including Rachel’s own, whose form we already knew) were already too far gone, others were too dangerous to enter for detailed study, and some had roofs, walls, and floors so collapsed upon and between one another that either a crew of workers or power assistance would have been needed to unstack those jackstraw puzzles. The best that could be done was to photo-record as much detail as could be seen, for barely possible later analysis.

One thing that was done in that process was to open up paths to and between the various relics, in order to get to them for such study as seemed practicable. When boat-borne visitors from the beach, and especially walk-in ones from Great Chebeague via the bar, began to use the paths, some explanations seemed useful. So signs were prepared showing old photos of the cottages, hotel, farm, etc., and having short text stories about the former buildings and their occupants. Those prompted several visitors to contribute additional information from their own family lore. The island’s owner, the Bureau of Parks and Lands of the state’s Department of Conservation, provided a mower for keeping the paths open. By the end of 1999, the path network totalled nearly two miles, stretching from Sandbar Point at one end to Target Point on the other and giving across-island access to both the east and west beaches.

A small booklet covering the island’s history from 1813 to 1876 had been completed in 1995. The pace of our research stepped up after our 1996 move back to Maine, and the discovery of the whereabouts of several older former summer residents added greatly to many facts we had been blind to as teenagers. Unfortunately, several of those persons either lost their memories or died soon after they shared information with us. Clearly, it is time to record more of what we have learned. This volume is another part of that record.

Recollections of their summers on the island have been provided by Roger Fogg, William P. Sawyer, Jane Nickerson Steinberg, Marjorie Coggeshall Bates, Stuart and Wendell Fearon, Jack Doyle, Gertrude Reed Gould, Jessie Kenney Francis, David Grant, Rachel Innes, Rachel Germond, and Dora Maier. Hilda Stockbridge Noyes also provided

iv

much information about the Bailey farm and cottage and some about the Prichett cottage. Betty Jenks Bailey and Mary Jenks Doughty have added some details. Roger was particularly helpful about describing Bailey’s farm and shop operations. Harridon Miller, formerly of Great Chebeague, and Harlan Ross of Long Island ME also added bits to the puzzle, and Philip Secrist has provided photographs concerning the Sawyer family.

Further sources of records in Maine include the Cleaves Law Library of the Cumberland County Bar Association, the Maine State Library, and libraries and historical organizations of Great Chebeague Island, Long Island, and Freeport. Other out-of-state sources include the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago Public Library, the Newberry Library (Chicago), The Cleveland Public Library, the Western Reserve Historical Library (Cleveland), the U. S. National Archives in Washington D.C., Suitland MD, Chicago IL, and Waltham MA, the Graduate Library of the University of Michigan, the deeds registries and probate offices of Suffolk and Nassau Counties on New York’s Long Island, and the vital statistics office of Massachusetts.The staffs of all of the above-mentioned facilities have been extremely helpful in assisting in the locating of desired materials.

Any presentation errors that may be discovered are mine, in spite of several re-readings intended to find and eliminate them. A particularly large error, noticed only after the printing process was well under way, is the use of the large portrait of Judge Reed in two locations. For this I will not apologize -- of all of the island’s major figures, Reed appears to have been the one who most loved the island for itself rather than for its business potential, so I will instead claim that he deserves that unintended extra recognition. (My real reason, of course, was that eliminating the extra copy would have raised havoc with the page numbering that I had fought so hard for against the arrogance of the software.)

The similar repetition of the photo of the group on the Sawyer cottage’s enclosed porch was likewise not intended, but at least it will save readers from having to look back to see the feature referred to in the later caption.

Richard B. Innes Portland ME, March 2002 (Amended June 2011)

1

THE INCORPORATORS The hotel and steamboat companies (1877 - 1889) When the law partnership of brothers Nathan and Henry B. Cleaves agreed, on 26 October 1874, to pay widow Mary C. Osgood $9000 for about two thirds of Little Chebeague, including its hotel, bowling “saloon”, farm, and probably some other dwellings near the beech and oak grove that was all that remained of the island’s original forest, they did not pay cash. Apparently their down payment was $2500, since Mrs. Osgood gave them a mortgage for $6500 on that same date. It was in the following March that they leased their new acquisition to Joshua Jenks for three years with an option to extend that lease for another two years.

Before the end of the original lease, a new player, Edward L. O. Adams, came into the picture. Adams was a Portland insurance and real-estate agent in partnership with Franklin J. Rollins. On 30 October 1877 he became a halfowner by purchasing “one undivided half” of the Cleaves’ parcel, the amount paid not being given in the recorded deed. The record does tell us that “the foregoing premises are subject to a mortgage to Mary C. Osgood on which there is now due the sum of four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500) and interest on the same, one half of which the said Adams is to assume and pay as a part of the consideration named in this deed”. It would have been after that that the Portland Public Works Department’s undated map was drawn, showing Adams’ name along with that of the Cleaves partnership.

On the 9th of November 1882, those owners joined with five other investors to form the Little Chebeague Island Company, which then became the owner of that property. The map just referred to was probably created to define the property for that sale, hence probably describes the island as it was at about this date.

Two of the other investors, John M. Robbins of Lewiston, ME, and Charles S. Morrill of Portland, each bought 30 of the available 150 shares at $100 a share, as did Adams and the Cleaves brothers. The remaining 30 shares were bought, in equal 10-share amounts, by James H. Hamlen (mis-spelled Hamlin on the first page of the copy made by the clerk at the state attorney general’s office) and Franklin J. Rollins, both of Portland, and Edward A. Rollins of Phildelphia, PA. (H. B. Cleaves was then the attorney general.)

2

3

The Cleaves brothers have been identified in the preceding “Partial History of Little Chebeague Island”, which covered the half-century of the island’s history from 1823 up to 1876. Adams, Morrill, and Hamlen will be further identified later, in a section of this work covering families known to have owned cottages on the island.

Nothing further is known of Robbins nor of Edward Rollins, although records probably exist in their home areas.

Franklin Rollins was a business partner of Adams, and was probably related to Edward.

The entire $15,000 thus raised was paid to buy the island, Adams and the Cleaves partnership each receiving $7,500, for net receipts of $4,500 each after deducting their $3,000 payments for their own shares. By that time, N. & H. B. Cleaves had invested $2,500 as a down payment and $2,000 as mortgage payments, and had received some payment from Adams. If the value of the property was still considered, in 1877, to be only the $9,000 they had agreed to pay Mrs. Osgood for it, he should have paid them $2,250. If its value were by then considered to have gone up a thousand or two, he might have paid half of that increase also. If the interest rate on the mortgage was (as a wild guess) 6%, that had called for a first year’s payment of $390, and less in subsequent years if some payments were made on the principal. After Joshua Jenks leased the island in 1875, his $600 annual payments would have more than covered those interest payments. So the Cleaves’, although owing $3,250 to Mrs. Osgood, had already netted slightly more than that amount and still owned a $3,000 portion of this $15,000 property. Clearly, it had paid them to be in on the ground floor of a good thing.

The purposes of the new company were spelled out in the incorporation papers in the usual endless-sentence format of legal documents, as follows: “... acquiring, owning, and improving Little Chebeague Island, so called, or any portion thereof, situated in Portland Harbor, Maine; erecting and maintaining thereon such cottages and hotel accomodations as may be deemed advisable by the corporation, with power to erect and maintain wharves and landings and establish and maintain convenient communication with said island, and generally to do and perform all acts necessary and proper to be done and perform any improvement of said property and in establishing and maintaining a place of summer resort, and to have and to exercise all the powers and privileges appertaining to Corporations under the general laws of the State.”

All of those original investors except Edward Rollins and Henry Cleaves were named as directors, Nathan being president and Franklin Rollins, treasurer.

Further searching of microfilms of newspapers of the time may refer to that organizing and no doubt will refer to the improvements subsequently made to the hotel, but such searching is lengthy and tedious and has not yet been carried out. One news article at the time the hotel burned, 10-1/2 years later, mentioned its having been enlarged “about 12 years ago”; another said “nine or ten years ago”. Edward H. Elwell’s 1876 “Portland and Vicinity” says “There is a hotel on the island, near the grove, called the Sunnyside House, which will accomodate about fifty boarders.” In the 1881 edition, he gives the name as the Little Chebeague House but still refers to only fifty boarders.

The improvements may have been made in two phases. One of those was certainly an enlargement, said in the later papers to have increased the floor size from 36 x 50 feet to 50 x 90 feet, as well as adding one story and a tower. The still-existing foundation supports the claim of the latter dimensions. In news reports of an 1894 lawsuit in which one family sought compensation for goods lost when the hotel finally burned, one witness was named as “Spencer Rogers of Portland, who planned and built the hotel”, but no date was given for his having done that.

Rogers was a carpenter who had learned his trade as an apprentice. Although the standard term was eight years, his obituary claimed that “He learned all there was to learn in five years” and then went into business for himself, first as a ship joiner and then as a “house joiner and general carpenter”. Also, “He stood at the head of his line,... and the fact that Spencer Rogers had the contract on a building was the same as saying that it was to be built in the best possible way.” After his son Edward took over the business, his advertisements usually mentioned that he was Spencer’s son. Spencer Rogers had risen to the office of chief engineer of the Portland fire department by the time of the disastrous 1866 fire, which ravaged much of the city, and naturally was blamed by some for the initial small fire’s having got away. Officially, however, he was exonerated, yet the stigma continued in some quarters, clouding his later years. Further, “He was employed by five of the largest insurance companies to act as appraiser and surveyor”, at which “he was one of the most successful in this line”. By the 1880’s, he was probably

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as aware as anyone of what then might have been done in the design and construction of a wooden building to minimize the dangers of fire.

A very good photograph of the hotel, taken by Portland photographer Joseph Lamson, has been provided by the Maine Historical Preservation Commission. One feature that may attest to the Waldo’s being a re-built structure rather than a new-from-the-ground-up one is the fact that it is not symmetrical. The “half” on the left of Lamson’s photo is shorter than that on the right, with more-closely spaced windows. Because the bare area on the lawn at the lower right seems like something left over from recent construction activity, it is suspected that this may have been taken soon after the hotel was enlarged, hence perhaps as early as 1881 or 1882. This photo also appeared on some postcards, apparently printed by Lamson’s studio, since his name appeared prominently on them.

The architecture was similar to that of many other island, seacoast, lake, and mountain resort hotels of the time, with broad roofed porches and a solid tower standing boldly overhead.

The tower was not mere decoration; it housed -- or camouflaged --a water tank that was probably placed that high in order to provide fire-fighting capability on the lower floors. A faucet under the tank allowed connection of fire hoses which were provided in the building. Although the law then required “public houses” to have fire escapes, the Waldo had none. Rogers later testified that its stairways were adequate for that purpose. In addition, ladders capable of reaching to the upper floors were claimed to be available.

The 1882 edition of the “Maine Register”, found in the Cleaves Law Library of the Cumberland County Bar Association, refers to the “Little Chebeague House, Rollins & Adams, Little Chebeague Island”. In the next year’s edition, it is called the “Hotel Chebeague, Little Chebeague Island Co.”. By 1884, the name has become “The Waldo” with the same company still given as the owner, and this continues thru the 1890 issue. From 1891 onward, the owner is given as “The Waldo Company”, which indeed signified new owners. Although it ceased operating early in the summer of 1893 -- since it no longer existed -- it was still listed thru the 1894-95 and 1895-96 editions.

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Meanwhile, specifically in June 1884, another related company was founded by Charles S. Morrill, George Burnham Jr., and the two Cleaves’. This was the “Waldo Steamboat Company”, whose purpose was stated in terms nearly as lengthy as those for the LCI Co.: “... the carriage of passengers or freight, or both, between Portland in said State, and any or all of the islands and landings in Casco Bay; and the carriage of freight or passengers, or both, upon any waters whatever where such corporation may legally navigate, and to do any and all acts and things incidental to or connected with said business: to lease, purchase, take, hold, and deal in such steamboats and real and personal estate and other property whatsoever deemed necessary or convenient for the prosecution of said business, and to have and to exercise all the rights, powers, and privileges appertaining to corporations under the general laws of the State of Maine.”

Burnham was a partner with Morrill in the Burnham & Morrill food-packing company, which was then 17 years old, and still exists in Portland.

This steamboat company’s principal activity was to “hold” (after having had it “built”, a purpose apparently not thought of at the time of incorporation) the small steamer “Alice”, which was made to their specifications and named for Mrs. Burnham. Its sole original use was to carry passengers between Portland and Little Chebeague, hence simply to serve the newly-named hotel there. However, within two seasons, it was found inadequate for the hotel’s increasing business, and was relegated to other routes more suited to its low passenger capacity. Little Chebeague thereafter was served by the larger vessels of the established steamboat lines, which apparently found their stops there to be profitable (at least in the summer).

Steamboat Society of America, Inc.

Steamer Alice, probably when quite new. Clearly, she was being posed for her portrait, since she is not under way, her captain in the wheelhouse having nothing to do but watch the cameraman.

On July 4, 1885, the poor little Alice, then being used for a Portland to Falmouth run, suffered the indignity of sinking quite unnecessarily at her berth. Some unseamanlike deckhand did not allow enough slack for Casco Bay’s tidal variation, which averages 9 feet but can go to the extreme of over 11 feet. Apparently she was moored snugly at high tide, so that her pier side was held up by the mooring lines while her sea-side dropped with the tide until the water

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ran over that gunwale. With that added weight of water in her hull, she could not rise ahead of the incoming tide, so, when found by her returning crew, she was listing soggily on the muddy bottom. As in many similar crises suffered by the boats of her time, she was recovered, probably by pumping her out at low tide, with relaxed lines, and went on to do her meager duty.

Another feature of the year 1885 was Portland’s hosting the 19th national reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic (the GAR), the Civil War veterans’ organization, which the Daily Eastern Argus called “perhaps the most successful ever had”. In that event, 20,000 ex-soldiers encamped in tents in what they called “Camp U. S. Grant” on Eastern Promenade. On the affair’s last day, although most had left for home by then, 1500 went to Little Chebeague for a clambake. Part of the Argus article about that is reproduced on another page. “General Logan” was John A. Logan, who had been an Illinois congressman and then became a Major General during the war. He returned to Congress and became a senator, and actively supported veterans’ benefits efforts. He was one of the founders of the GAR, becoming its first commander-in-chief, and it was he who conceived and inaugurated Memorial Day. Governor Robie’s “pardon” comment no doubt referred to some of the expected consequences of the kegs of “Milwaukee tea”.

Whether by accident or design, the Little Chebeague Island Company’s officers failed to pay the 1886 taxes due on the town of Cumberland portion of the island. Therefore the town, on 24 Aug 1887, receiving no bids to buy that portion, declared it “sold” to the inhabitants of the Town. The original amount due was about $9, but penalty interest had then raised the bill to $10.64. By the time the succeeding owner paid up to re-claim it in May of 1889, the cost was $14.41. The cost to the Town for the intervening paperwork, including the legally required three weeks of newpaper advertising, is not recorded.

That successor owner was the Waldo Company, formed on January 30, 1889. Its stated purposes were: “... carrying on the business of purchasing and otherwise acquiring and holding, improving, selling, leasing, and dealing in real estate; to purchase, erect, maintain, lease, and sell dwelling houses, cottages, and other buildings; to purchase, erect, operate, conduct, and lease hotels and to do all things appurtenant thereto; to engage in the carriage of passengers or freight or both upon the high seas between Portland and any of the islands and landings in Casco Bay and upon any waters whatever where such corporations may legally navigate; to lease, purchase, build, take, hold and deal in such steamboats as may be deemed advisable and essential to the business of the corporation and to purchase, build, and maintain wharves where the same may legally be done; to purchase and otherwise acquire, deal in, lease and sell in any lawful manner any and all such personal estate and other property and things whatsoever deemed advantageous, necessary, or convenient in carrying on the business of the corporation, and doing any and all acts and things incidental to or connected with said business; and to have and to exercise all the rights, powers, and privileges appertaining to corporations under the general laws of the State of Maine.”

Amen.

This company’s principal purpose was to try to raise $50,000, mostly for buying out the LCI Co. , and perhaps partly for further improvements. Note that this was over three times the $15,000 raised by the formation of the Little Chebeague Island Company six years earlier. The founders were Horace S. Crowell of Boston MA, Arthur W. Merrill of Farmington ME, and Joseph B. Reed of Portland ME. What little we know of Crowell will be mentioned later.

Merrill is still less known. Reed was working in the Cleaves’ law office, and may have been managing the hotel by then. Much more will be said of him later.

All of the above three incorporations were drawn up and signed in that office, each attested to by Stephen C. Perry, another member of that office staff, who was also a Justice of the Peace. Although the Cleaves brothers’ names no longer appear, it is easy to suspect Henry’s planning was still leading to these events. On the day following the founding of the Waldo Company, the Little Chebeague Island Company “conveyed” its part of the island to Merrill, who further conveyed it to the Waldo Company on February 11th, 1889. None of the three founders was deeply involved in the initial funding of this company. Of its 500 shares at $100 each, these three took one share apiece, certainly only a token investment.

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DOWN THE BAY The Grand Army Excursion Yesterday A Monster Clam Bake on Little Chebeague About 1500 People Enjoy the Succulent Bivalve The Grand Trunk wharf was the scene of great activity yesterday morning on the occasion of an excursion and monster clam bake given to the visiting Grand Army men. The steamers Lewiston and E. P. Shaw were chartered to take the crowd to the island. From half-past nine to half-past ten a stream of people and carriages flowed down the wharf bearing hundreds of Grand Army men and their wives and sisters. By that time the boat was crowded, over 1000 being on board and the rest, about 300, were taken in the E. P. Shaw.

At 10:30 the lines were cast off and the day’s enjoyment begun. The little steamer Winona appeared from up the harbor having on board General Logan and a party of about ten or fifteen others. The Winona was greeted with hearty cheers, to which Gen. Logan responded by lifting his hat and bowing. A cannon on the Promenade was fired and all steamers in the harbor responded with their whistles.

The course taken was very fine, out around Cushing’s Island, giving a fine view of the open sea, back of Peak’s Island, between it and Long Island, thence to Little Chebeague. Here the excursionists scattered over the island some to look for shells on the beach, others to fish off the wharf, while many at once sat down at the tables and enjoyed excellent fish chowder and hot coffee that was all prepared for them on their arrival.

Among the party were Governor Robie and staff, Mayor Deering, Marshal Andrews and other members of the city government. Representatives Reed and Boutelle, Stanley Pullen, Dr. A. K. P. Small, H. Clark Barker, Col. Merrill and others; Gen. Selden Connor, Maj. Gen. Robinson, Governor Alger and staff, Governor Fairchild, Commander Burdette, ex-Commmander Lountz, and many others.

The authorities had prepared for a big feast. There was a tempting parade of 100 bushels of clams, barrels and barrels of lobsters, baskets and baskets of eggs, with coffee, crackers and pickles. While waiting for the clams to bake a meeting was organized in the grove with Governor Robie as chairman. The Governor announced that they had come to have a good time and promised to pardon any who ended in the lockup. He then introduced Commander Burdette, who is a pleasant looking man with a full beard and a bold face. He made an eloquent and effective speech and was heartily cheered.

Among other speakers were Corporal Tanner, General Grovenor of Ohio, Mr. Norton of Texas, Governor Fairchild of Wisconsin, and Captain Jack Crawford, a scout. Many of the speeches were eloquent and abounded in wit, which was fully appreciated. At times there were cheers for Grant, Logan and Robie. Finally General Logan was introduced and received with cheers. He said: Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen: I can’t for the life of me understand why you should wish to hear from me after the eloquence of the men who have preceded me. When we see the stary [sic] emblem of our freedom extending over the land of flowers we ask why is this so? It is due to the private soldiers such as make up the Grand Army. We have a Union to-day such that no traitor’s arm can ever assail.

The people of Maine have captured the people of the West by the beauties of your scenery, your manners of fraternity and cordiality. The West will carry the remembrance as long as life shall last.

The General then alluded in a humorous way to the clams and ended by defending the common soldier from the charge of lawlessness.

The last speakers were Private Vandervort of Ohio, and Representative Reed of this city.

By this time the clams were baked, and a rush was made for the tables. Western people, who had never before seen a clam, were quickly initiated, and were soon stowing away clams like genuine Portlanders. There was enough left to feed a crowd as big again. Another boat load had come down at noon, swelling the number of destroyers. The whole feast was washed down by a number of kegs of cold tea, marked as having come from Milwaukee. Everybody was very happy and genial and overflowing with fun and good nature. It would be hard to be otherwise under such a sky and with such surroundings.

At about 5 o’clock the most of the party embarked for home. The Lewiston arrived at the wharf at 6 o’clock. On the journey Chandler’s Band discoursed excellent music, and at times songs floated over the water. The day was every way most enjoyable and successful.

[Transcript of item from Daily Eastern Argus, Saturday, June 27, 1885]

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Two brochures advertising the Waldo’s 1889 season are in the collections of the Chebeague Island Library.

Both name Reed as the hotel’s manager, and it seems likely that he was their author. One consisted of a single sheet folded once to make four 4½ by 5¾ inch pages, the inner two containing descriptive text. The other contained three sheets, making twelve pages, of which the back cover and the two inside covers were blank. The three sheets are held together by one short piece of red (silk?) ribbon threaded from the center outward thru a single hole in each page and tied in a simple knot (not a bow) on the outside.

Reproductions of the nine printed pages of this brochure are shown in this volume. Its front cover design is the same as was on the smaller brochure, and both used the same photograph of the hotel. (In the original brochure, the bottom of the hotel was toward the text page that faced the photo page. In the illustration on our page 13, the hotel photo has been inverted for the convenience of our readers.) One thing shown in this photograph that was not in Lamson’s is an extension of the dining room to occupy what was formerly the porch along the right side of the building. Also, the bare area on the lawn has filled in with grass, and the hotel end of the clamshell-paved walkway from the wharf is shown terminating at the porch stairs.

Nearly all of the wording in the smaller one is reproduced in the larger. The latter adds the second paragraph on the first text page, about the island’s fertile soil and broad fields, and the second-page sentences about Great Chebeague and Long Islands. It also modifies the claim about the White Mountains’ being “plainly visible” by adding the phrase “on clear days”, and adds the sections on the cottages, the plumbing, and the new owning company. In the smaller brochure but omitted from the larger one was a statement that there were “two mails to and from the island daily”, and a paragraph about the steamer schedule and the beauty of that trip. The schedule information in the smaller one also revealed that the “through vestibule train from Chicago” came only on Saturdays, a fact that the larger one omitted. A “vestibule train”, new at that time, was one on which (as in modern trains) one could walk thru from car to car via the vestibules at the ends of each car.

The island’s actual area was, then as now, 86 acres rather than 120. Before Reed’s time, some of the owners (especially sellers) had guessed its area to be as much as 150 acres. The “Scene in the Grove...” is of the children’s log playhouse, which lasted into the 1930’s. Mosquitoes were very well known on the island in those 30’s, and probably were in the 1800’s also. The “Cave” was and is an open-topped notch in the ledge-rock at the island’s southwesterly point. True caves, which commonly occur in limestone areas, are hardly ever found in Maine, especially in the very hard types of rock in the Casco Bay area. The “Boston company” was the Waldo Company, actually incorporated in Maine, Horace Crowell of Boston being one of its three founders.

William P. Sawyer provided originals of some of his grandparents’ mementos of the Waldo, which give us a glimpse of its social life. One is a 2” x 3-3/8” ivory-toned ticket to a “dramatic entertainment” on Saturday, August 18th.

That had to be from 1888, since no other August 18th fell on a Saturday between 1884 and 1892. It had done that in 1883, but the Sawyer cottage was not built until 1886 and the Waldo name also came later than 1883. These considerations led to finding, in the August 17, 1888 issue of the Evening Express, the following item: “The new and elegant steamer Merryconeag will make an excursion next Saturday evening, leaving her landing at Custom House Wharf at 7:30 pm, giving those who want an opportunity to attend the theatrical performance at the Waldo at Little Chebeague, and those who wish to enjoy an evening sail among the islands of Casco Bay, that privilege.”

The same day’s Daily Eastern Argus contained the same notice under the heading, “Moonlight Excursion”.

In the latter’s Saturday edition, a news item said: “Dramatic Entertainment at the Waldo “Mr. and Mrs. Falkland-Buchanan (formerly Miss Maider Cragin [sic] ) of the Boston Museum, will give a dramatic entertainment at the ‘The Waldo’, Little Chebeague, on Saturday evening August 18th. The steamer ‘Merryconeag’ will leave Portland at 7:30 pm, returning at the close of the entertainment.”

Later in the same column, a list of “arrivals at the Waldo” included “Mr. and Mrs. Falkland-Buchamay [sic]”.

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The Argus gave no post-event space to the event, but the Express followed up on Monday with: “The entertainment given by Mr. and Mrs. Falkland-Buchanan at the Waldo House, Little Chebeague Island, Saturday night, was a delightful affair. The charming little comedietta, “The Fairy’s Romance”, was put upon a cleverly improvised stage in a thoroughly artistic manner, and the solos by Mrs. Buchanan were received with enthusiastic and merited approval. Mr. Falkland-Buchanan’s imitations of Henry Irving, in a recitation of nursery rhymnes, was [sic] capitally done. Miss Obrien [sic] of this city played the piano accompaniment in a pleasing manner.”

The gray program folder, labelled “Souvenir” on its outer suface, was for that event. Printed on a 3” x 8-3/4” piece of deckel-edged gray card stock, it was folded over, and the two program descriptions were on the inside faces.

The “Social Hop” invitation was 4-3/8” x 6-3/4”, after being folded once. The inside was blank, presumably for writing one’s list of dance partners. The fact that August 24th fell on a Saturday defines this event’s date as having been in 1889. The Argus announced it with the following news item: “The social hop occurring at the Waldo this evening promises to be the event of the season.

The best of music has been engaged and during intermission a delicious lunch will be served. The popular steamer Merryconeag leaves Custom House whraf at 7 p. m. and will make stops at Long and Great Diamond Islands to accomodate those sojourning there. A great many have signified their intention to be present and letters of acceptance continue to arrive. Both the hotel and the island will be handsomely illuminated and nothing that can contribute to the success of the occasion has been omitted.”

On the following Monday, the Express contained these three separate items: “In spite of the inclemency of the weather, a large party attended the hop at the Waldo.

Chandler’s orchestra furnished excellent music for 12 dances. The houses near [sic; did the reporter intend this to have been “were” ?] illuminated for the occasion, and all returned to the city at a late hour, having enjoyed themselves immensely.”

“Owing to the dense fog Saturday evening, the steamer Merryconeag tied up at Diamond Island wharf and remained until the fog lifted.”

“There was a splendid hop at the Waldo Saturday night.”

The real purpose for the organizing of the Waldo Company must have been to find an “angel” to provide nearly all of the funding. Perhaps he was already known to be in the wings. Enter Sidney W. Sea of Chicago, Illinois. ___________________

Newspaper ad of about 1880 The drawing at the left had no relationship to this hotel, but was a stock piece of type used by the paper for any hotel ads.

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THE EXCLUSIVE ISLAND S. W. Sea and the Waldo 1889-1893 How Sidney W. Sea learned of the Waldo is a question whose answer we would like to learn. Possibly, since he was a Union veteran of the Civil War, he may have come to Portland for the 1885 GAR encampment. His history was difficult to uncover at first, not only because it occurred far from Maine, but also because he was one of three Sidney Sea’s in the Chicago area, all contemporaries. It turned out that the three were father, son, and grandson, of which S. W. was the middle one. Nowhere in the records that we have seen is the W. spelled out.

His father, Gen. Sidney Sea, was Sidney Smith when he moved from New York (or Connecticut?) to Ohio in the early 1800’s. He may have begun as a shoemaker, but in Ohio was a lawyer, said to have been a graduate of “the New Haven Law School” (Yale?). For some reason, he disliked his surname, and petitioned the Ohio legislature to have it changed to Sea. His stated aversion was that, then as now, Smith was very common, and this one wanted to “get away from the crowd”. He is quoted as having said “...when Adam...in obedience with the command of the Creator to name all things...late in the afternoon, poor Adam’s vocabulary failed to hold out. ...He saw in the corner of the garden [of Eden] a mob of humanity ...[and] he named them all Smith.” For us, it is worth wondering whether his dislike may not have come from the notoriety, in his time, of another Sidney Smith (1771-1845), a British cleric who had been, in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, a well-known literary intellectual and a social activist of his time. Described by Macaulay as “the greatest master of ridicule since Swift”, he would have been considered a “dangerous radical” by confirmed conservatives.

General Sea’s title of rank came from his being a Brigadier General in the Ohio militia at the time of the Mexican War, in which he and his unit took no part. His main battle was one of words with the higher militia authorities for providing a neighboring unit with better rifles to show off in parades. This may have been an extension of a general cantankerousness that led him to be involved in several quarrels and lawsuits with his Ohio neighbors, one of which landed him in the local jail. In 1848, he took his large family, including son Sidney W., to Milwaukee WI. The 1850 U. S. Census has 19-year old Sidney W. living with his father’s family and employed as a clerk in Milwaukee. By 1860, he had moved to Chicago and was the owner of one hotel and part owner of another, which was his home address. Then he went to war. His military history will be left to a later chapter.

Returning to Chicago, he became a real estate agent, an occupation he continued for many years. Later Chicago city directories also add “merchandise broker” and “Genl agt Mathusek’s Piano-forte Co.” By 1870, he appears in the census as a 40-year-old real estate agent residing in Chicago and owning real property valued at $50,000. He has a wife, Mary, and four sons, the eldest listed as Guy, who later turns out to be another Sidney, Guy being his middle name. This Sidney later ran a thriving dry-goods store in Chicago, always using the name S. Guy Sea. By the time of the 1880 census, Sidney W. and Mary had two more children and one servant. In the 1885 and 1889 directories, his business was simply real estate. It was at about that time that he and The Waldo came together.

It seems doubtful that he provided the entire remainder of the desired $50,000. After the fire, the news articles gave the owners as “S. W., M. W., and M. H. Sea, all of Chicago”. M. W. may have been Sidney’s wife, who is referred to as Mary W. Sea in an 1894 deed. The only other Sea we have found with a first initial M is a 6-years-younger sister of Sidney W’s, possibly named Minerva, although the handwritten record makes this name uncertain. Later, the value of the burned building was given as only $27,000. However, since the Waldo Company also had bought the LCI Company’s two-thirds of the island, with its farm and some of the cottages, the total property value would have been greater. The east beach had also come into its possession in April 1890, when the Company got Charles Ingraham’s third of the island, which also included the probably then defunct “pogie factory” buildings, and the former Conway house nearer the wharf. From that time, it owned all of the island except, eventually, the six small lots containing the Sawyer, Hamlen, Morrill, Cleaves, Adams, and Crowell cottages.

Sea seems to have had enough money to invest in more than the Waldo. In that same year, he received a half interest in 50 acres of farmland in Falmouth Foreside from a Frank G. Dolley. Dolley, whose several listings in the Register of Deeds index indicate that he (like Sea) was an investor in real estate, had bought that property a couple years earlier for $20,000, but apparently had not succeeded in paying for it within the promised two years. Sea’s input may have bailed him out.

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Sea believed in advertising. His son Guy had gained some local fame in Chicago by being the first to take out full-page newspaper ads for his store. Another Waldo advertising brochure that was issued for the 1890 season, immediately after the final ownership change, includes the statement that â&#x20AC;&#x153;This entire property has been recently purchased by THE WALDO COMPANY of Chicago, of which Sidney W. Sea is the president.â&#x20AC;? A photographic copy of this brochure is in the Chebeague Library.

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Its cover featured a sketch of the hotel that is reproduced in this volume. By overlaying a transparency copy of this on Lamson’s photo we can see that there is a perfect match to the perspectives and details in the photo, showing that it was certainly copied, perhaps even traced, from Lamson’s photo. But wait! It also shows an extra section on the left, with two more windows on each floor. Such an extension never existed, for it does not show on any of several later photos. Since it seems entirely unlikely that this was an artist’s mistake, we might suspect an attempt to exaggerate the hotel’s size. However, our information about Reed implies that he would not have been a party to deception. Also, such a tactic would certainly have been noted by guests when they arrived, and the success of short-season hostelries like this one depended on many of their guests’ returning year after year. Possibly it represented Sea’s intention for a further expansion that never occurred. The huge pennant with the hotel’s name simply represents additional “artistic license”.

In the text, Reed is still identified as the manager. By the time of the fire, Sea will be designated as the manager.

He will have come back to his pre-Civil War occupation of hotel owner-manager.

Another aspect of Sea’s marketing approach is evident in another brochure made for that same 1890 season, which is fully reproduced herein. This one was issued in collaboration with the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway and also touted that company’s trains for travel between Chicago and Portland. The original brochure, a copy of which was provided by William P. Sawyer, measured 9½ by 13 inches, hence is not reproducible at full scale on one of the present pages. On one side is a lengthy description which includes some errors and some stretching of the facts. In particular, the spelling of Cleaves as “Cleavers” and Hamlen as “Hamblin” suggests that new owner Sea himself wrote it, although those may have been printer’s typos. Certainly Reed would not have written that, nor would he have mis-spelled his own name as “Read”. It also implies that Great Diamond Island was on the seaward side of Little Chebeague; one suspects that this was meant to have been a reference to Great Chebeague as one of the other islands sheltering Little Chebeague from the open Atlantic.

Mosquitoes, in this writeup, “are neither seen, heard or felt in this delightful resort”, rather than just “almost unknown”. The “mineral springs” claim in the first paragraphs of both columns conflicts with that of the immediately following “absolutely pure water without any foreign substances whatever”. The “fine beaches of over a mile in extent” refers, at best, to an aggregate length and is a bit generous if one imagines all of them to be of bathing quality. Most of that length must include the north and west ones (the bathhouses used by hotel guests were on the latter) where, although the water was and is warmer there, it is so shallow as to be unuseable near low tide.

The mention of the “open fireplace” is a bit puzzling, since none of the photos of the hotel show any chimneys except in what is believed to be the kitchen ell. But there must have been a fireplace somewhere. The Lamson photo shows only one chimney, but the photo in both 1889 brochures shows that there was one more at the rear of the ell. A later photo in Haynes’ 1892 book of photos of various Portland scenes (a copy of which is in the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library) also shows both chimneys. Perhaps only the rear one was for the kitchen and the one farther forward was indeed for a “parlor” fireplace.

Despite the 1889 brochure’s reference to water being “conducted through the hotel and cottages” (note that the adverb is “through”, not “throughout”) , and its claim that “no expense has been spared to make the hotel perfect in this (i.e., plumbing) respect”, in his 1894 lawsuit testimony, builder Rogers said that “there was no running water through the house except on the lower floor”. But should the newspaper have printed “floors”, meaning all of the ones below the 4thfloor tank room in the tower? The Grand Trunk brochure, probably written by (error-prone?) Sea, says water “is conveyed by pipes to each floor of the house”. Perhaps Rogers was not a party to, or aware of, later improvements made

by Sea or even some that were made before he took over.

Modern readers must beware of picturing the advertised plumbing and sanitary sewer claims to mean that there were facilities similar to today’s. Public water supplies, even in cities, did not exist in the U. S. much before about 1840.

They were at first intended only for fire protection, household water still coming from wells, rain barrels, or cisterns, or even delivered by wagons. Piping the available public water into homes proceeded gradually, first used only for kitchen sinks. Initially, sewers were meant only to drain off rain and other surface water, but that included much garbage that householders threw into streets. When indoor sinks proliferated, their drains at first simply ran into the street gutters (and sometimes across the sidewalks) and then to the sewers.

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Even in cities, outdoor privies remained common up until 1900. Because of the many wells, cities did begin to require privies to be placed over water-tight vaults, rather than draining into the soil. Although “water closets” had been invented centuries earlier, their adoption was slow. Availability of indoor water accelerated their use, but even after water traps, intended to keep sewer gases from rising, were installed, the results were so poor that the rooms containing those toilets were often on the outside of the house, reached only by their own exterior doors. Where indoor toilet rooms were built, they usually were separated from the rest of the house by a hall with doors at both ends, which acted as an “air lock” to reduce the amount of odor getting into the living quarters. The invention of the sewer vent did not occur until 1874, at last providing a route for the smelly sewer gases to rise thru the roof into the open air, instead of into the toilet rooms.

The only known comment on the Waldo’s toilet facilities is in one later brochure (for 1892 or 1893) which says “All work is nearly new and in thorough repair. Toilet rooms and closets added in basement with profuse supply of water.” The lower end of one cast-iron water-closet bowl has been found in the hotel’s cellar-hole. That part has no trap, being merely a funnel leading down to its drain-pipe. Also, in none of the photos of the hotel is there any sign of any vent pipes exiting the roof. Some kind of isolation must have been achieved, however, since the 1892/93 brochure contains the phrase “...music rooms, dancing and billiard halls in the light cool basement”. This also infers that the basement must have had a floor and considerable headroom. A small amount of excavation has revealed part of a 2-by-4 resting on bricks set on sand, implying that, by 1893, a wooden floor had been built in the basement. It is hard to imagine, though, that much light or ventilation was available through the 14-foot-wide crawl-space under the broad porches on the front and sides. That need may, though, explain why the present cellar-hole shows that there had been partial excavation under the porches, not a normal feature under porches. Also, the photos show that the porch was quite high off the ground, there being 6 steps and 7 steps on the two sets of stairs shown there. At eight inches per step, that would mean that the porch floor was at least four feet and in some places over four-and-a-half feet above the ground.

Sea’s Milwaukee- and Chicago-based urban view of his new establishment was not like Henry Cleaves’ and Joshua Jenks’ Bridgton-Portland one. His focus was on a select well-to-do clientele. In late-1800’s America, the select few did not mean aristocratic ones as in still-monarchial Europe (although those certainly were looked upon with a romantic interest by many Americans -- as some here do even today), but home-grown “successful-businessman” ones.

After all, Sea was, in all things, a businessman.

So, in contrast to the Cleaves’ and Jenks’ huge egalitarian gatherings of earlier years, the policy of the new Waldo is stated as “No picnics or excursions allowed on the island.” But there was at least one exception: the Army of the Potomac was to hold its clambake there, as part of its reunion in Portland. Even then, the newspapers show that this was for the veterans of only a particular Union Army; the similar affair for the militia was held on Long Island. For the Little Chebeague event, the participants embarked on the steamer “City of Richmond”, leading one wag among the veterans to note that this was not the first time the Army of the Potomac had taken the city of Richmond.

Not only Chicago but also New York were targets of Sea’s ads. The one he got into the New York Journal of Commerce -- aimed, of course, at businessmen -- included the comment (quoted in the Grand Trunk brochure) that the hotel is “the real summer home of a pleasant, sensible company, including the man of affairs, the writer, the lawyer, the mamma with wrinkles all smoothed out, the peach-cheeked girl”. For these last two, read “bring the family”.

On the reverse of that large brochure were nine photos of the island’s facilities. These were apparently printed by the photogravure process, since the original brochure exhibits no half-tone dot structure. Whereas “halftoning” a picture means dividing it into small, very regular squares and representing each square by an ink dot whose area represents the darkness (or “density”) in that square, the “gravure” scheme was to etch the printing plate to different depths according to the picture’s local density. Then different volumes of ink were available to transfer to the paper, where the ink that adhered to the various paper fibers broke up into dots of random sizes and shapes, but still, on the average, represented the local picture density. The copies reproduced in this document have been computer-scanned and then turned into half-tone dots in order to be printable by the currently available process. Each individual photo is also shown enlarged from its brochure size.

The centerpiece was a new photo of the Waldo, taken from left of its front, a view which hides its kitchen ell, external elevated water tank, and outbuildings. That it somewhat post-dates the 1889 ones is shown by the fact that both the second and third floors have light paint; formerly, the upper floor’s siding was darker.

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“Bay Point Cottage” is the one later known as the Red Cottage (and sometimes “Cliff Cottage”), the northernmost one of the seven that then existed from the southern to the western to the northern points of the wooded grove behind the hotel, which was to the southeast of the grove. This cottage was owned by the hotel companies while the hotels existed. Note the denuded, treeless bank below the cottage; this feature all along that steep bank no doubt contributed to that bank’s subsequent (and still ongoing) erosion. One existing glass plate negative made by Lamson, now in the collections of the Maine Historical Society, shows a similar scene in much better detail. The matching alignment of some of the trees with the building shows that these were taken from nearly the same point on the beach, but it is also evident that the two were made at very different phases of the tide. These are fairly well dated by the fact that the Sawyer cottage, built in 1886, appears beyond the Red Cottage in both. That Lamson’s was the later of the two is suggested by the appearance in it of a small landslide not evident in the other.

The “Clambake Beach” picture was a puzzler to us until it was discovered that this was another falsity, but not a big, bad one, and perhaps a mistake. Since this photo was printed “mirror-image” in the brochure, we could not at first place it. When flipped right-for-left (as we have printed its enlarged version) this view was recognized to be the reverse of the “Bay Point Cottage” one, the direction of view being toward the north beach from the top of the bank in front of the Red Cottage. The building shown is the one that later became Henry A. Bailey’s winter-time boat storage shed, by then called the “boathouse”, but still, even in the 1930’s, sometimes used for summer clambakes or chowder picnics.

In order to show the type of temporary fireplace structure that was commonly used for clambakes, I must digress to a photo taken in 1879 on another island, albeit another “Little” one, that being Little Hog Island, now Little Diamond, as it was re-named by real estate developers just a few years after this photo was made. This photo was provided by Maine’s Historical Preservation Commission. Just as Joshua Jenks’ diary for August 3, 1876, told of his and his employees’ “Halling rocks for clambake”, this firepit on Little Hog was built of stones brought up from the beach to form two long walls and probably a non-combustible bottom as well. When a wood (perhaps mostly driftwood) fire had burned long enough to thoroughly heat the stones, wet seaweed was spread over the bottom. Then the clams, corn, and other items were placed on it and covered with more seaweed and left to steam until done. The larger the crowd, the longer the needed firepit. Another photo of such a facility comes from the files of the Chebeague Library. This was, at first, thought to have been taken on Little Chebeague, because of the building, but this building does not have the steep roof of the LCI one. Also, the trees and/or high ground at the far left do not have a counterpart on this island. Still, this shows us more detail of how such structures were made.

Dropping to the bottom picture on the left side of the brochure, the cottage to the right of the “Shell Road” was the one at the most counter-clockwise, or southernmost, end of the group, the one nearest to the hotel and previously referred to as Crowell’s. That cottage may have, like the Red Cottage, belonged to the hotel company at that time, being available for rental by families wanting more private quarters, although they still got their meals in the hotel dining room.

Behind the camera position, this road passed between the hotel and the bowling saloon. Ahead, it curved to the left and went to the farm, with a narrower path branching to the right, going along the fronts of the Crowell, Adams, and Cleaves cottages and on to the west beach, the one used for bathing by the hotel guests and having the hotel’s bathhouses.

Despite the picture’s label, that road was not the same as the “clamshell walk”, which went in a straight line from the wharf to the front corner of the hotel. Actually, the road probably was never paved with clamshells. In the 1930’s, when the walk was still clearly of clamshells, the road appeared to be simply of dirt, worn by usage into the island’s sandy soil. It may be that Sea, not at that time familiar with his new property, confused the road with the walk. It is also interesting to note that, while this photo shows a fully worn width of the road, by the 1930’s it consisted of only two tracks. Perhaps this represents the difference between the 1800’s horse-drawn traffic, in which the hooves of both one-horse and two-horse teams that drew wagons and carriages wore the road’s center, while the later Model-T truck use wore it only where the wheels ran.

“Cave in the Rocks” and “Rocks at West Point” are another pair of oppositely-looking photos, the “cave” being merely an open-topped cove between two rocky projections, one of which is shown in each photo. (This point was later called “Target Point” because of a shooting target erected there. One 1920’s or 1930’s photo shows the target’s posts standing above the cliffs. Presumably the waters of the bay served as the “backstop” for the target, receiving the stray bullets, implying a “boaters beware” situation at practice times.) Another of the photos in Haynes’ book also shows this “grotto”; it too is undated. It is suspected that this one may date from the Sunnyside House time, since the seated gentleman resembles Joshua Jenks. By modern times, much of the overhanging rocky point on the left has broken off, resulting in several large slabs of stone now lying on this beach.

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“Bathing Beach, Low Tide” shows the west (or “back”) beach from a point about halfway between the grove and Target Point. The building on the right was the bathhouse, with its ten separate rooms for changing from shore clothes to bathing ones. For the ladies, that was not much of a coverage difference, just a change to something they didn’t mind getting wet in, but something for not more than dipping and wading -- difficult if not impossible to swim in.

No wonder the name for beach activity then was simply “bathing”, not “swimming”. The bathhouse lasted into the 1930’s, but by then the cottagers of both genders changed at home and walked to the beach in less bulky bathing suits that were also swimming suits.

“Chebeague Pier” was in the same location chosen by Abraham Osgood (either senior or junior) and continued

by Henry Bailey and also, nearly a century after Osgood, by the U. S. Navy. Note the lack of railings. This same feature appears in a photo, one of many in Frank Sleeper’s recent book of old Portland photos (and provided to both of us by the Maine Historical Preservation Commission), of the Little Diamond Island pier of about the same date. Most children probably traversed those only in Mama’s iron grip. Beyond the pier is Long Island’s east end.

The “Children’s Playhouse and Grove” shows the tiny log cabin located on the wooded slope leading from behind the Red cottage down toward the clambake building. This structure also persisted into the 1930’s. Summertime cottage residents Marjorie Coggeshall Bates and Rachel Bailey Innes recall it from that time, when it still appeared (surprisingly) to be in good condition.

Some material in the Chebeague Library shows that on July 16, 1890, the Westbrook Merchants had chosen the Waldo for either a meeting or an outing. The menu for the Westbrook group and that for an August 4, 1891 “Annual Dinner” of the Cumberland [County] Bar Association indicates that quite a breadth of choices was available from the Waldo’s kitchen. Also, on June 27, 1891, the Woman’s Literary Union of Portland had its “Second Field Day” there, apparently with some kind of a meal, since there were toasts to “The Woman without a Club” and “The Women Writers of Maine”. The outer covers of their program featured items of local art and poesy.

There is an 1892 newspaper account of a large businessmen’s convention, an appropriate Sea-type event. In addition to a “lunch at noon” there was a clambake at 3 pm. That occurred on Saturday, July 2, and was “in honor of the Montreal drummers” and “the Portland traveling men”, meaning, in both quotations, salesmen -- 400 of them. It was also attended by a number of local government officials. The keynote speech, printed in full in the next Tuesday’s newspaper, was on “Reciprocity with Canada”. The article about it in the following Monday’s paper was headlined “Our Friends at the Waldo”, indicating the lack of a need to explain, at that time, what “the Waldo” must be. No doubt there were many more such gatherings, now waiting to be found in the microfilms of the newspapers.

Reference has already been made to a brochure that was apparently issued for either the 1892 or 1893 season.

That one is also in the Chebeague Library collection. It contains no date, but gives Sea’s business address as “108 and 110 Dearborn Street” in Chicago. Successive copies of Chicago directories show that Sea changed his office address frequently, and that it first appeared as 110 Dearborn in the 1893 issue, for which information may have been gathered in 1892. Again, much of the wording matches that in earlier material, but there are occasional sentences and phrases that clearly were written by a different author, perhaps Sea himself. These parts are in a “news-headline” or “desk-memo” style, omitting words that the reader can surmise. Examples are “...clams [are] furnished...”, “tables [are] constantly supplied...”, “No pains [have been] spared...”, “...water has been ... pronounced [the] same as Poland Spring...”, and one full non-sentence (partially quoted earlier) containing no verb: “Notably fine music rooms, dancing and billiard halls [are located] in the light cool basement.” Similar pieces of verbiage appeared in Sea’s 1890 “Summer at the Sea-Shore” broadside, where he wrote “...Portland, Me., eastern terminus [of the] Grand Trunk Ry.” and “No picnics or excursions [are] allowed... [It is] An ideal spot...”, etc.

The ‘92/’93 publication is reproduced here in full because it contains some good photographs. The one of the hotel strongly resembles the Haynes one, those probably being nearly contemporary. This one, however, is taken from a greater distance than any of the others. Though perhaps intended to give an impression of a spacious lawn, the actual effect is to make the building appear to be in a rather lonely spot. “Cottage on Bluffs” is one of the two Lamson photos previously mentioned and shown. “Clambake House” shows more of that building than before, and also shows that the playhouse was near it. “Little Chebeague Pier” is from the side opposite to that shown before. The good composition evident in these last two, with some human activity shown in the foreground of one, suggests that they may be more of Joseph Lamson’s work.

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The large 1890 brochure’s quotation from the New York paper was attributed to a “Mrs. F. M. Butts, who will be at the island during the present season”. Mrs. Butts is unknown to us, but we can suspect she was a newspaper columnist invited with the expectation (or the requirement) of some publicity in her columns. This suspicion is based mostly on an item in one of the reports about the fire. That one, in the “Eastern Argus” for July 5, 1893, refers to one of the last hotel guests as “Mrs. Holden of Chicago ... a literary woman better known under the nom de plume of ‘Amber’, who was at Chebeague as the special correspondent of the Chicago Herald and of the Horseman”. The Horseman was a magazine, copies of which are listed in the catalog of the Chicago Public Library, but which could not be found there a few years ago. It may or may not be relevant to note that S. W.’s son, S. Guy Sea, who had closed his store around 1884, perhaps due to ill health (he had tuberculosis, of which he died in 1895 in New Mexico), was listed in the Chicago city directories as being employed by the Chicago Herald in 1890.

Other information about Amber is available from Chicago sources. Born Martha Evarts in 1854, she was the daughter of a Baptist minister in Hartford, New York, near Glens Falls and the Vermont border. At 19, she went to Chicago and then California, where she was married. After two years, she and her husband, who was “unfortunate in his business affairs” returned to Chicago. One suspects from the record that she became the family breadwinner, working as a Western Union telegraph operator. She also began writing letters to newspapers, attracting “wide attention”. After one change of job to the (County?) Recorder’s office, she began full-time newspaper work in 1892. She seems to have written mostly some more or less regular columns about a variety of subjects, usually from a somewhat artistic viewpoint. She also organized and led a club attracting “musicians, writers, and physicians” and called the Bohemia.

Nowadays she might be called a social activist.

Her pen name was said to have come from the color of her eyes. Although popular with readers, her contributions were somewhat taken for granted while they continued to appear. Her death from cancer in 1896, at only 42 years of age, led to posthumous publication of at least three small books of selected articles, called “A String of Amber Beads”, “Amber Glints”, and “Rosemary and Rue”. The latter, published by Rand, McNally in 1896, contains a prefatory tribute from another Chicago columnist, who wrote that “None of the newspaper writers of Chicago was more popular. Another column told the news of the day; her column held the news of the heart”, and that she was “a lover of the moods of Nature”. Yet there was, a century later, no hint of her in her hometown’s library in Highland Park, IL. Nine of the small pages of “Rosemary and Rue” are devoted to a paean to Little Chebeague Island. We do not know when it was written. Those pages are reproduced here as a representation of what the island of that time could mean to one visitor from another place. In spite of her opening line, “When I die bury me by the sea.”, her grave was in Illinois.

The Waldo generally opened in late June, but business got fully under way in early July. On July 3rd, 1893, half of its rooms were filled but reservations for the remainder of the season were on hand, every room to be occupied by the 15th. In addition to the out-of-staters, a group from Portland came down for the evening. The “glorious fourth” was about to be celebrated in the city with parades, rowing and sailing regattas, horse races, ball games, concerts, and of course fireworks. At the island, some fireworks were set off in the evening and most of the residents went to bed.

At 2:45 on the morning of the 4th, a Miss Taussig was awakened by a sound she first thought was wind, but soon learned was from a fire on the wood-shingled roof. Mrs. Holden, in another part of the building, heard running feet but supposed it was celebrators, so put her fingers in her ears and tried to sleep again, before also seeing the blaze outside. Both were apparently on the uppermost floor -- the “steerage section”, although the Taussig family was well-todo. That fact was later a factor in their lawsuit for reimbursement for loss. As for Mrs. Holden, we might again consider that she and her daughter may have been given a “special-rate” for her publicity services, but not-very-special accomodations on the uppermost floor. All three ladies escaped, as did all the other guests, but without much in the way of clothing or other belongings. The hotel, though, and all the baggage left behind, was a total loss. It was foggy, and those on nearby islands thought the ringing of a bell there was mere celebration. Attempts to douse the fire with water from hotel pitchers were of course wholly inadequate. The hotel’s insurance agent was the firm of Rollins and Adams.

The fuller story can be read from the reproduced copies of the news articles. The Fred Sea mentioned there was S. W.’s next-to-youngest son, then still only about 18.

There is an epilogue to that story, which was played out in a Portland courtroom in October of the following year. The Noah W. Taussig family sued The Waldo Co. for the value of their lost property, including Mr. Taussig’s

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tailor-made suits and Miss Taussig’s jewelry. Since the newspapers said that Mr. Taussig, “of the firm of N. W. Taussig & Co. of New York” was an importer of sugar and molasses, it seems likely that he may have become aware of the Waldo through business acquaintance with J. H. Hamlen. After Mr. Taussig had carried his elderly mother out of the burning hotel, he chose to take her to the Hamlen’s cottage, where they were “kindly received”.

The outcome of the lawsuit was that the Taussig’s, after a three-day trial by jury, lost that suit also. One paper characterized them as “well-known society people of New York, who have passed several summers at Little Chebeague”. It also strongly suggests that the claimants were, in part, victims of local disrespect for “foreign rich folks”, especially ones who appeared to attack, among others, the popular then-Governor Cleaves, who was said (correctly or incorrectly ?) to still have had some financial interest in the hotel.

The local news coverage of the trial gives still more details about the fire. Sea, when asked, as a witness, what he was “doing before the summer of 1893”, answered “I ran a hotel in Chicago” -- quite a true statement, since 1860 was indeed before 1893 -- practically a third of a century before. J. B. Reed was one of the lawyers for the defense, playing the “straight man” part. In spite of the many past references to the hotel’s “guests” in the brochures, part of the defense Reed presented was to claim that the prestigious Waldo was but a boarding house, whose responsibility to its boarders was therefore less than that of an inn to its guests, and that the Taussig’s were not guests, but mere boarders. The judge disagreed with that point. It was the second defense lawyer, Mr. Larrabee, who took the “bad guy” role and roughly castigated the claimants. Reed was not the type for that. Larrabee derided the well-to-do Taussig’s, with their $3,000 worth of expensive clothing and jewelry, for residing in cheap top-floor rooms, and for being unable to recall the name of the maker of Mr. Taussig’s tailor-made outfits. Likewise, he embarrassed Taussig’s sister for not remembering the sources of her lost jewelry.

The Eastern Argus account said that the questioning also brought up the fact that Sea, “desiring to engage in the summer resort business, purchased the stock of Mr. Caswell, and held it in his own name and in the names of members of his immediate family”, although there were other (un-named) stockholders. This adds some weight to our guess that M. H. Sea was some family member. It does not shed any light on who the other stockholders were, but the article in the Evening Express stated “Several Portland parties, Governor Cleaves among them, were part owners of the property.”

However, this may have been merely a garble of the fact that Cleaves and others owned other (cottage-lot) property on the island.

“Caswell” seems to have been a mis-spelling of “Crowell”, mentioned earlier as one of original incorporators of the Waldo Company, though then a very minor stockhoder. On June 23, 1890, Horace S. Crowell of Newton, MA had sold to N. & H.B Cleaves the lot containing the cottage nearest to the hotel, Crowell having bought that lot from the Waldo Company only ten days earlier. A possible explanation is that Crowell had bought that cottage earlier, but had not bothered to register his deed until he needed to do so to sell it. In 1899, a mortgage of the island (to be mentioned later) referred to that lot as containing the “Crowell cottage”. Some of the cottages, especially in the beginning, were owned by their occupiers but on lots only leased, not owned by them.

The last property document in which we have found Sea’s name was one transferring the Red Cottage from the company to his wife, Mary, in July 1894, S. W. being mentioned as the company’s president. As related above, he was present at the trial 3 months later. But in the Chicago directory for 1895, for which the data were probably gathered in the preceding year, Mary is listed as his widow. We have found no mention of his death in Maine. Such may exist in Illinois, but, unfortunately, the Vital Statistics office of Cook County IL will not release such records to persons who are not direct descendants. A search for an obituary turned up only S. Guy’s, in 1895.

Mary sold her cottage to J. B. Reed in 1899. There seems to be no record of any further sale of the assets of the Waldo Company, although the company continued to exist and own them. Eventually, Reed seems to have become the de facto owner, perhaps by default as the other parties simply abandoned their interest. They may have also abandoned any records. We supposed for some time that the hotel’s own records were lost in the fire, but in one lawsuit article there is a bit of testimony stating that the “hotel papers” were in the safe in the office, and that after the fire the safe’s woodwork had been warped but some cigars that were in it were “very dry”, suggesting that the papers also survived. If any have also survived the intervening century, their location is unknown. So we have no clue to the size or composition of the staff, except for Reed, Sea, Sea’s son, and nineteen-year old Howard Willard, the night watchman at the time of the fire. We also know nothing of who then operated the farm. Although most of the hotel’s staff were likely to have been local persons, no current descendants have come forward with stories or mementos of them. Since their

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employment there (except for the farm operator) would have lasted only thru the short season, it would have been unlikely to have generated much family lore.

The Waldo is gone, and so is most human recollection of it, except, so far, for what has been told above. Other than the paper items mentioned, we know of only two physical relics of it. One is its cellar-hole, still surrounded by most of the stones of its foundation, and containing much of the trash of the subsequent cottagers and some from the U. S. Navyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s WWII occupation. The other is a silver-plated sugar bowl and matching cream pitcher once used on its tables.

Perhaps salvaged from the ruins, but probably in use at the farm before the fire, this pair was used in the Henry Bailey farmhouse for nearly 40 years, then in the cottage he later occupied (formerly the Cleaves Cottage). They then went to his son Frank, and now belong to Frankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, Rachel Bailey Innes.

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INTERMEZZO -- THE TALES OF TWO VETERANS Two of Little Chebeague’s “movers and shakers” were combat veterans of the Civil War, but the consequences of their terms of service were quite different, as were their apparent successes in later life.

Henry B. Cleaves Henry Bradstreet Cleaves has been introduced in earlier chapters, where he has been shown to have been a principal force in the development of the island in his time and consequently in the following decades also. Although his older brother Nathan attended college and became a lawyer by the academic route, Henry, as a young man, did not appear to be headed in such a direction. After normal attendance at the Bridgton District School, he went on to Bridgton (some sources say North Bridgton) Academy (and possibly “Lewiston Falls Academy” also). In September of 1862, at the age of 22, he enlisted, at his home town, in Company B of the 23rd Regiment of Maine Volunteers being organized

by Col. William Wirt Virgin.

At that time, the authorities expecting the war to be over in less than a year, that regiment’s enlistment was for only nine months. On the company’s first muster roll, dated 29 Sept, he is already listed as a sergeant and his age is given as 23, although he was born in February 1840. By 31 Oct, he was a 1st Sergeant but “sick in hospital”. The Nov & Dec roll, under “Remarks:” has “Sick with measles at Lock 22”. That last reference may be to a location along a river or canal. During that enlistment the regiment served at Poolsville on the Potomac River and at Harpers Ferry.

Due to the resignation of a Lt. Wright early in 1863, Cleaves was “mustered out” as an enlisted man in February in order to accept a commission as 1st Lieutenant. When the Regiment was mustered out on 15 July 1863, Cleaves on that same day joined, still as a 1st Lieutenant, the 30th Regiment of Maine Veteran Volunteers being recruited by Col. Francis Fessenden for active service in the South. Apparently it took some time to fill the regimental roll, since this regiment’s muster-in roll was dated 29 Dec 1863 and contained the comment that Cleaves was “Entitled to pay from Nov 30th 1863”.

Ordered to the Department of the Gulf (of Mexico), his regiment went to New Orleans by sea and participated in campaigns on the Red River and in the battles of Sabine Cross Roads, Pleasant Hill, Cane River, and other engagements. Due to another Company’s officers’ “having been either killed or disabled in action”, Cleaves temporarily became a Company commander, hence being, according to the July/Aug 1864 roll, “Entitled to $10 as Commanding Officer of Co. I.” In August of 1864, the 30th joined the Army of the Potomac and served in Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley campaign, and continued in active service until Lee’s surrender in April of 1865. His military service file contains the following letter written in his own hand during that period (some parts that were illegible to this author are shown as blanks): Company F 30th Maine [Volunteers?]

Winchester, Va March 10th 1865 Sir: I [....] request a leave of absence of twenty days for the following reason: [......] August term of the Supreme Judicial Court to be [holden?] in Maine, before which I have a lawsuit pending against the town of Bridgton.

It being an important case, the decision of which will affect me materially in a pecuniary sense, I must respectfully ask that this application may receive a favorable consideration. [..........]

Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant Henry B. Cleaves 1st Lieut. Co. F 30th Maine Lt. Col. J. C. Newhall

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Whether the leave was approved or not is uncertain from the military record. We have to wonder if this case, successful or not, may have been something that influenced his later move into the field of law.

When his unit was transferred to the Dept. of the Gulf again, he was stationed at Savannah, GA until his honorable discharge there on 20 August of that year.

In spite of his extensive service, including numerous combat situations, Cleaves was never wounded. He had, though, gained a reputation for having a cool head under fire. At a time when the army was “downsizing” after the war, the fact that he was offered a commission in the regular army speaks well of his record, but he declined that and returned home. At first, he worked on the family farm and in the woods and probably in the family lumber business, which may have been the “sash and blind factory” mentioned in some biographies.

Although these occupations would make it seem that he had no plans for a more distinguished future, it is hard to imagine, from his later life, that he was not already embarked on preparing himself to follow his brother into law. But despite his late-1800’s biographers writing that he “began the study of law” only in January of 1868 and was admitted to the bar in September of the same year, we can more easily believe that he spent his earlier off-work hours privately “prepping” himself for his later formal legal education, which consisted of “reading law” in his brother’s firm of Howard and Cleaves.

As Nathan had done before him, he began his practice beyond the upper end of Casco Bay, joining the practice of Judge Washington Gilbert in Bath. Nathan had chosen Bowdoinham for his start. Each moved to Portland after about a year in Sagadahoc County, Nathan first to a partnership with L. D. M. Sweat, then a representative to Congress, and later to one with Judge Howard, whose daughter Nathan later married.

Nathan and Henry’s father, Thomas Cleaves, was a Lincoln Republican and had served several terms as a Bridgton town selectman. Of his five children, four of them boys, three were elected to legislative offices. The younger Thomas became a state senator representing Oxford County, and first Nathan and then Henry were elected to the state’s House of Representatives, representing Portland. Nathan chose to be a Democrat but Henry was a Republican like his father.

Only Henry went on to hold further state offices. First, though, he was Portland’s City Solicitor (i.e., its lawyer), holding that post after Nathan had. But he then went on to serve two terms in the similar state post, that of Attorney General. In that position, he first managed to get a new state law taxing railroads, and then, when the railroads refused to pay and fought that law in court, he won the case for the state. After losing one nomination for governor, he won the next two unanimously and also took the elections by the largest majority then cast in Maine. Although his party naturally wanted their very popular leader to take a further term, he refused to break the existing two-terms-only precedent. Nothing came of later proposals by some Maine Republicans to have him be that party’s candidate for VicePresident.

From then on, he held no further elective public office, but was actively involved in his own firm’s law practice. He was also very involved in both public and personal activities benefitting his former comrades-in-arms, and was a great favorite of those veterans. Belonging to both the Grand Army of the Republic (the Union-army veterans’ organization) and the Maine Veterans’ Association, he probably had a significant, though now invisible, hand in bringing the Maine group to Little Chebeague for its 1876 reunion, the GAR to Portland in 1885, and the Army of the Potomac to Maine and Little Chebeague in 1892.

For his three years of war service and his lifetime of business and reputation for fairness, Henry B. Cleaves was rewarded with a devoted public following and a significant fortune. But his family’s life nearly ended with his generation. Of him and his four siblings, only one, his stay-in-Bridgton brother Robert, who operated a livery stable there, had children. When one, Caroline, was orphaned, she was raised by her uncles Nathan and Henry and served as bachelor Governor Cleaves’ hostess in the state capital.

Henry’s sister Mary had married a Portland bank president,and she became the beneficiary of most of his considerable estate, though only to the extent of being able to use such of it as she wished in her lifetime, following

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which the disposition of its remainder followed a division set down in Henry’s will. Actually, he arranged for her husband to manage that estate -- Henry was always a planner-ahead.

Nathan Cleaves died in 1892, 17 years after his wife. Henry never married nor had a home of his own. Except while residing in the Governor’s mansion in Augusta, he lived in the United States Hotel and the Lafayette Hotel in Portland. He died in 1912.

Sidney W. Sea When Sidney W. Sea left Chicago to go to war, he did not do so thru a local recruiting office. Instead, on August 5th of 1862, about two weeks before Cleaves was to enlist in Maine, he entered military service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Cavalry. Why would a Chicago resident join an Indiana regiment?

Probably because he could get a commission there; most any 30-year-old businessman would not take well to becoming an enlisted man if he could somehow start at a higher rank. Although he had been a hotel owner and manager prior to that, for some reason he gave his occupation as “farmer”.

By early September, Sea was a Captain in command of a company. Some months later, he was Provost Marshal of a brigade, and in another year, “Ordnance Officer of the Corps”, Dept. of the Ohio. In April of 1864, a Military Board pronounced him “well informed” on cavalry matters, his conduct “Fair” and efficiency “Good”.

We do not know much about his war experience until at a crucial period near the end of it. This was shortly before the capture and burning of Atlanta, during Sherman’s “march to the sea” from Chattanooga to Savannah. On July 27, 1864, he was part of a cavalry and artillery force of over 2000 men under Major General George Stoneman, which set out to destroy railroad facilities in the area around Macon, Georgia. After some successes, they were nearly surrounded by Confederate troops on August 4th and had to fight their way out of that trap. Stoneman and his rear guard finally surrendered when out of ammunition.

In the General’s report to his superiors from imprisonment by the Confederates, he wrote that “our losses in killed and wounded were quite large”. He also wrote that “I understand from captured fugitives that they were informed that I had surrendered the whole command and that the order was given for every one to save himself”. He seems to imply that this was incorrect, and claimed “we were whipped, and this principally on account of the bad conduct of the Kentucky brigade in the attack during the morning, and in fact throughout the day”. In the report that Lt. Col. Robert W. Smith, Asst. Inspector General, Cavalry Corps, Dept. of the Ohio wrote three days after the defeat, it appears that part of the Kentucky force had taken a wrong turn, becoming isolated from the rest of the expedition, and was overrun while unsaddled in its bivouac on the morning of the 4th, this leading to the later disaster.

Smith also wrote that, later that day, he had been ordered “to a certain point to rally a line” and “became separated from the General”, after which “the line soon gave way”. He met Col. Adams of another Kentucky cavalry unit “who had just come from Gen. S. with permission to cut out if he could”, the General planning to remain with a rear guard “so as to give those making their escape as much start as possible”. Major Tompkins, Provost-Marshal on Stoneman’s staff, also writing on the 7th, said that only “about one-half of the command has returned” to the Union lines.

Three of the General’s staff were captured with him, but the other four, including Smith, Tompkins, and Sea, escaped. Sea, however, had received a bullet in his lower right side. As early as 07 August he felt well enough to request 30 days leave to give “immediate attention” to his ordnance records, stating that “the larger part of my regiment ... was captured...”, leaving, in the dismounted portion of the Cavalry Command, “but eleven (11) men of any efficacy” and one officer.

Perhaps he should have given more immediate attention to his wound. In an Aug 27th letter from Louisville, Kentucky, he says he has “been quite sick “ and “accomplished little yet”. His wound had developed into abcesses in his side. He then asked for an order instead of a leave, apparently because he got only half pay on a leave. An order admitting him to the Officer’s Hospital in Louisville was dated Sept. 12. He seems to have remained in that hospital until November.

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At this point the records become obscure. He claims he was then given leave to go to Chicago for 20 days to finish his ordnance reports. There he remained sick from his abcesses all winter, and sent in his resignation two times.

His unit’s records did not show this, but did show that he was heard to be in Chicago, and “in business” there. He was arrested in Chicago sometime in April 1865 and charged with both Absence without Leave and Desertion.

The dates are puzzling, being given as “on or about 13 April” in one place and “April 14” in another, but War Dept. Special Order No. 171, dishonorably dismissing him from the service of the United States for absence without leave, was dated April 13th, 1865. Although dismissed, he apparently was never court-martialed, suggesting that the evidence was poor. In keeping with the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, my presumption is that he was a victim of poor record-keeping, probably at least partly as a result of his unit’s disarray after the defeat. If his ordnance records were in poor shape before the battle, what of those of some of its other officers afterwards, especially since some were missing?

Beginning in 1880, he tried several times, through two lawyers, to get an invalid’s pension because of his wound, but his dismissal always caused his claims to be rejected. His claim of being ordered to the hospital in Louisville was eventually discovered to be correct (it was not known to be so when the charges leading to the 1865 dismissal were written), but there were apparently no records of his resignations nor of his having reported to Army authorities in Chicago. His wound was therefore at least recognized, and admitted to have occurred while he was still in service.

In 1882, he was sent an order to report for a surgeon’s examination, but did not so appear. He later claimed, when the second lawyer was prosecuting his application, that the first lawyer had not informed him of that examination order. However, a similar order was given in 1890, and again he did not appear for the exam. The dates on some of the pension papers are 1894 and 1895, and we have reason to believe he died in one of those years, since his wife was listed as his widow in the 1895 Chicago Directory, but not the 1894 one. There is no indication in the records that either he or his widow ever received any pension.

He seems to have been successful in his real estate business from the end of the war until his ownership of the Waldo, since he then had the financial basis for purchasing it. But at that point, he lost much of his investment and of the prospects for any income from it. There is no record of any deed of sale of the remaining island property except for the one sale of the Red Cottage, first to his wife, and then from her to Judge Reed. She lived in the family home in Chicago until at least 1900, the U. S. Census of that year showing that two of her sons lived with her and there was one servant in the house. She also appears in the 1910 Chicago census. ***** Those, then are the tales of two veterans, each enrolled in military service from 1862 until 1865, each serving as an officer, the younger to become a lieutenant, the older a captain, each being in combat situations. One came through unscathed by enemy fire, the other was seriously wounded. One was mustered out with honor and an offer of a further commission, the other, in spite of his injury, dismissed dishonorably and unable to obtain even a disability pension for it.

One, although remaining always without a family of his own, being esteemed by his comrades and honored by the public both for his war service and for other offices that public chose him to hold. The other returning to his wife and sons and fathering still others while spending most of his later years at routine business affairs to support that large family. One initiating the development of what became a prestigious resort and then succeeding in selling it, no doubt for a profit.

The other, the buyer, seeing his investment go up in smoke as a result of some guest’s carelessness and then being accused in court of improper caution.

The contrasting tales of two veterans, with very different endings.

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RETRENCHMENT -- JOSEPH B. REED AND HENRY A. BAILEY 1893 to World War 1 The loss of the Waldo changed life on Little Chebague suddenly. Most of its guests must have been grateful enough for avoiding death or injury to have accepted the loss of their property. Some may even have re-equipped themselves and found other lodgings and continued their "Summer at the Seashore". Certainly some just went home.

The inhabitants of the fine cottages still had places to stay, but most of their social life had gone with the hotel.

The staff's expected two months of employment dissolved. The steamers still stopped there even for the much diminished amount of business it contributed to them. The farm probably still ran, but the portion of its output that went to the hotel ceased. Any Waldo Company investors other than the Sea's probably lost smaller amounts than the Sea's, but they most likely lost interest also, being wary about investing new capital in rebuilding in the face of what was by then, quite differently from the days when the hotel began, a highly competitive field with many other players.

So, for all of these, what to do? The Sawyer's and Morrill's responded by continuing to occupy their cottages, adapting to a more independent lifestyle. Nearly all of the Hamlen's gravitated to another, larger retreat at Grand Beach, near Old Orchard. Only Miss Maria Hamlen continued to use their island cottage, and she did that only rarely, accompanied by only her maid and a chauffeur-handyman she called Harold. E. L. O. Adams apparently kept his cottage, for it later went to his daughter and her husband, who did use it. Crowell had sold his to the Cleaves brothers in 1890.

In 1894, after both Nathan's death in 1892 and the Waldo fire in 1893, Henry bought up the inherited interest of their other family members in the various lots that had been held in the name of his and Nathan's law firm. We do not know whether Henry ever actually used his cottage or only owned it for rental. Indeed, we have found absolutely no record of his having resided on the island at any time; none of the annual "Casco Bay Directories" nor any Portland city directories list him at any time as a summer resident. He did retain ownership of his cottage, and the one from Crowell, until his death in 1912, as did his sister and heir, until her death in 1930. How much interest he kept in the Waldo Company, and therefore in the ownership of the island, we do not know. Despite Sea's entry into the picture, there is the possibility that Sea had not paid fully for his portion, but still owed some amount, perhaps on an unregistered mortgage, which could have caused at least part of his interest to revert to earlier owners such as Cleaves.

The remaining two cottages (Red and Yellow), the farm, and the wharf were hotel company property until, in 1894, Mrs. Sea got the Red Cottage, which she sold to Reed in 1899. The fact that none of the other cottage-owning families sold theirs may indicate what was then the state of the market for such property, although only the Hamlen's actually left.

The Waldo Company continued to exist in name, with George Spear as President and Reed as Treasurer as of 1899. Spear seems to have had no direct involvement in the island. He had been part of Cleaves' office staff, hence a colleague of Reed's; he later started a long-lasting insurance agency in Portland. But wait -- Henry Cleaves was still alive and active, and we found hints, in the newspaper accounts of the Taussig lawsuit, of his still having an interest in the Waldo Company at that time, while he was in his first term as governor. For all of his public exposure in other matters, Cleaves was, since getting into public office, a rather shadowy figure in the island's business, others being up front. So who was really running things by the turn of the century? The answer is even darker than shadowy. We just do not know.

However, in 1899, two significant moves were made. First, the wharf and the land under it were separated from the rest of the property and put in the name of a new entity, the Casco Hotels Co. Then all of the island with the exception of that lot and the various privately-held cottage lots was mortgaged to Norman True of Pownal for $3700.

The first of those moves was clearly done to ensure that the wharf would be available to the cottage residents, who needed it for access via the steamers. Each of the deeds they held specified that the owners had a right-of-way for themselves and their freight to and from the wharf, but not necesarily on it. Under the new wharf ownership arrangement, if the mortgage should be foreclosed, a new owner of the Waldo property could not force the cottagers to sell by refusing them access via the wharf, thus land-locking their properties.

True sold the mortgage to Charles Wiggin of Freeport in 1901. An additional $1500 mortgage was arranged with Wiggin in 1906. Still another for $4000 was recorded in 1920, the two earlier ones being discharged on that date.

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The new mortgage was signed by Reed as treasurer of the Waldo Co. It was for only two years at 6%, but may have been extended. How much of it was paid off is not evident from the records, but there was some balance which was paid from the funds the company got from the U. S. Government when it took the island in 1943. By then, the mortgage was held by a Daisy Johnson of Townsend, Delaware, possibly an heir of Wiggin. The records of the executor of J. B. Reed's estate show interest payments on the mortgage being made out of that estate; perhaps J. B. had been making those payments earlier. At the end, the government's payments were made to both the Waldo Co. and to Mrs. Reed, as well as to other cottage owners.

1930's residents of the island supposed that it belonged to Reed. His daughter Gertrude stated in 1996 that he had owned it. But if he had ever purchased it, he never had the deeds registered. Nor, if Cleaves had actually regained title, had he. Yet everything that had been company property appears to have come under Reed's control. Somewhat later than 1900 (perhaps 1903), he had his own cottage built on the island, and he and his family used it every summer, his wife and two daughters continuing its use after his death in 1928.

We have found no mention of who occupied and operated the island farm at the time of the Waldo. The situation must have become vacant somewhat after that, because a new occupant arrived. That person was Henry A. Bailey, whose family was the only one to live there year-round for the next four decades, and, indeed, was the last yearround one ever on the island. He must have been brought there by either Henry Cleaves or Joseph Reed.

Henry Alvah Bailey arrived on Little Chebeague Island in 1897, four years after the fiery destruction of the Waldo. How he came to obtain the job of island caretaker we do not know. Grand-daughter Hilda Noyes says that a part of the reason was his expectation that an island location would provide some relief from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;hay feverâ&#x20AC;? he suffered from on the mainland (he also had asthma). That proved to be a false hope; living in an island farmhouse surrounded by hayfields which he harvested every year, he wheezed and gasped his summers away for nearly the rest of his life.

He had previously lived in the Whitefield/Alna/Head Tide area on the Sheepscot River, beyond the northern end of Casco Bay and east of the Kennebec River. There he had been a carpenter and had also operated a cartage business. Hilda had a portion of a business card whose cut-off top had a title which may have been "Carter", and which then said "Moving and Trucking of all kinds done to order at reasonable rates. -- Terms Cash -- H. A. Bailey, Head Tide, Maine." To the younger readers of this, be advised that before the time of "automobile trucks" (that is, "self-propelled trucks") the term truck referred to a horse-drawn cart or wagon capable of carrying heavy loads. Hence, also, the reason today's truck-drivers' union is still called the Teamsters.

At the time of that move, the habitable buildings on the island were seven well-built cottages and the farmhouse. There were also the barn (connected to the farmhouse by a long shed) and some other farm out-buildings.

There may also have been a few of the hotel's accessory buildings; certainly there was the bowling alley (or "bowling saloon"), probably an icehouse, perhaps other buildings for storing wood and coal, and possibly the tank of gas for the lights. In the grove there was a small "log-cabin" playhouse, and near the shore to the northeast of the northmost cottages was a long building used by the hotel management for clambakes on poor-weather summer days and for storage of boats in the winter. On the back beach were the bath-houses, and on the front (east) beach, the steamboat wharf with its waiting room and a storage shed. We do not know when the "pogey factory" buildings, the nearby Conway farmhouse, and the old farmhouse on the other side of the island vanished.

Bailey's responsibility on the island was to be its caretaker, and the caretaker of the cottages. We have no record of the arrangement for his compensation. The farm still belonged to the hotel company. It seems likely that Bailey's principal compensation was the right to occupy the farm and to use it to obtain his livelihood. Bailey did not own property on the island until his 1930 purchase of the Cleaves Cottage and its lot.

The situation is not particularly clarified by the contents of an existing document which says: "Portland July 26th 1898 [this heading hand-written, the remainder being typed] I Joseph B.Reed,do hereby authorize Henry A.Baily,of Portland,to sell and dispose of any and all personal property this day conveyed to me by him by bill of sale of this date the same as if the same were his own property,accounting to me,as my agent, for the money or other property realized therefor.

Joseph B. Reed [signature]

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Possibly this referred to items left from the hotel fire, perhaps dug out of the ruins as part of a "cleanup" of the hotel site.

But it is not at all clear whether the proceeds ended up as Bailey's or Reed's.

In addition to caring for the cottages and operating the farm, Bailey built up a business repairing and building "wharfing" (wharves and their accessories such as waiting rooms, floats, and ramps) for the growing steamboat companies. One of Hilda's memento's of her grandfather is his 1906 pass for travel on the vessels of the Harpswell Steamboat Co., which identifies him as a "wharfinger" for the company. The instructions on the reverse of the pass state that it was not to be accepted by the purser (ticket-taker) of any vessel unless signed on the back. That there is no signature probably means that he was always recognized on sight and did not need to show that pass.

Besides his wharfinger work, Bailey built boats and moved buildings. His son Frank told of his moving a building for Adm. Robert E. Peary on the latter's Eagle Island, lowering it down a small cliff to its new location. Roger Fogg: "I remember going over to Long Island when we went over there and moved a house. Using wagon wheels and the whole works. Jacked it up and moved it onto wheels and pulled it up halfway the length up -- probably up to Doughty's Landing. That was a good job." Roger also tells of Bailey's having installed the seawall (an anti-erosion barrier) on Indian Point at the Great Chebeague end of the sandbar. That wall, consisting of wooden piles driven side by side, still exists. Bill Sawyer said that some of the Penobscot River Indians still came to the islands annually and camped on Great Chebeague to harvest “sweetgrass” for making baskets which they sold. Frank Bailey said that his father, for one of his jobs, hired “the whole tribe” one summer.

In connection with these activities, Bailey built and equipped a shop building on the northwest side of the barn.

The shop included several power tools for working both wood and metal -- saws, drills, lathes, etc. -- driven by belts from an overhead shaft which was driven by a one-cylinder gasoline engine. One large-diameter circular saw located in the barn was also driven by that power system; it was used particularly for cutting up large items of driftwood for stove fuel. The shop had wide doors on one end, to allow boats to be moved out after construction, or in and out for repairs. On the other side of the barn, and removed from other buildings for fire safety reasons, there was a blacksmith shop.

Inside the barn, near its ridge, there was a horizontal spar with a large wheel attached. Ropes wrapped around the spar could lift heavy loads by a pull on another rope at the rim of the wheel. One type of heavy load was sometimes a hog being butchered. Another work-saving feature of the barn was a trough carefully sloped to lead water into each of the cow and horse stalls aligned along the SE side of the barn. At its head, the trough could be filled by a hand-pump that drew water from the old large-diameter well in the barn basement.

Roger Fogg: "The Sally I'on [pronounced 'eye-own'] was a vessel that Henry Bailey was given, I think, to tow off the dock in Portland after she burned. [She had burned on June 30, 1912 when tied up at Deakes' wharf in Portland, on which a fire began in stacked lumber.] And he brought her ashore on the western side of Little Chebeague, down by the boathouse, and stripped her. Saved all the iron. 'Course we had a blacksmith shop on the island in those days anyway.

[She had] a lot of drift iron in her. ["Drift pins" were rods run vertically thru a ship's planking to hold adjacent planks together]. She was ... comparatively new when she burned. ...I'd say 150 [feet long] from the looks of the planking and everything on her. And they made all the runners for the boathouse out of the hard-pine planks -- the marine railway.

And they used to grease that with hard grease and put your boat in the cradle and put her on there and then of course they had 2-by-4's nailed on the outside of those big hard-pine planks, where they went up there like -- just like greased lightning, with a block and tackle and a pair of horses. You could tow any size yacht.

"By the time I got there, they had completely stripped her [the Sally I'on]. The blacksmith shop had all kinds of iron drift pins. You know, about that big around [indicating nearly an inch diameter]. So if you wanted a U-bolt or anything like that, you went down to the shop and made it up. Henry had everything in that shop. All flat-belt operated off another 12-horse Stirling engine that was in -- well, it set right at the end of the carriage shed."

Bailey's farming could not have been as extensive as Joshua Jenks' had been, but he did keep a herd of cows and several horses, and cut and stored hay for them. Except that he did send cans of milk to Portland on the steamers, we do not know of his marketing other crops as Jenks did, much of his time being occupied with non-farming matters. He boarded horses belonging to some of the summer residents, and winter-stored boats belonging to them and to some persons from other islands, putting them in the long boathouse (the "clambake building") on the north shore.

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After Reed's cottage was built, only one other completely finished cottage appeared on the island. That was on a 100 x 100 foot lot near the east shore, above the steep bank between the wharf and the sandbar to Great Chebeague.

That lot was sold by the Waldo Co. to Annie G. Reed, wife of George W. Reed (not related to Judge Reed). Use of that

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lot was restricted to the construction of a summer cottage to cost not less than $1000, and to be used only for that purpose for 30 years. A cottage was built there and used by the Reed's until sold to Fannie Prichett of Philadelphia in 1922.

Frank Bailey when his father was building the wharf at “Herbert Doughty’s place”, later Great Chebeague’s Western Landing

So the island slumbered on. Just as Joshua Jenks had found many of his days there “warm and pleasant”, island residents in the post-hotel times could (and did) think of their summer haven as “quiet and peaceful”, and those who stayed did so because they liked it that way.

Yet two things threatened their solitude. One hung over their heads figuratively but continuously, yet was seldom recognized by most of the residents. This was the gradual deterioration of the wharf, a Damoclesian threat that never quite came to pass as a genuine disaster. With the passing of the Waldo and the vanishing of most of the passenger and freight traffic to this island, the steamboat companies had no interest in helping maintain its wharf. Nor was the Waldo Company in any position to pay for that. The only circumstance that kept that necessary item of island "infrastructure" in repair was the fact that Casco Bay's principal wharfinger lived on that island. Indeed, it was his home base for the equipment he used in his wharf work. So Henry Bailey kept Little Chebeague's wharf alive, and the wharf kept Little Chebeague alive, though just barely. The other threat (to the simple peace and quiet, but not more serious than that) was more literally over their heads. Though it lasted only a few days, it was very noticeable while it lasted. That was Harry Atwood’s “Free Air Show”.

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AERODROME CHEBEAGUE August, 1912 It was toward the end of the pre-WWI period that Little Chebeague temporarily achieved intense public attention as the site of some of the earliest airplane flights in Maine. On one of the “sport pages” of the 01 August 1912 issue of the Evening Express & Advertiser was a photograph of a smiling Harry Atwood in a soft cap turned with its visor to the rear, a peculiarity practised today by children of various ages, but not for Atwood’s reason, which was to avoid having his cap blown off in a completely open aircraft. He was in Portland to confer with some Old Orchard people about arrangements for his and his machine’s appearance there for a week late in August. He had been demonstrating the machine for two weeks at The Weirs (Lake Winnepesaukee) in New Hampshire, and apparently had also talked, on his way to Portland, with people at Poland Spring, no doubt about performing there. “It is believed”, said the article, “that it would be a tremendous attraction and would draw thousands of people from all over Maine and New Hampshire.” Most of those people would get to Old Orchard by either the electric or steam railroads of the time.

The next day’s issue had a larger page-one article headlined “ATWOOD WILL FLY OVER LAND AND SEA”, with a picture of him in a business suit. A sub-headline proclaimed “Five Days’ Flying Demonstration Promised Portlanders and Summer Folk of the Casco Bay Islands.”

In part, the article said “The first attempt to fly over the open ocean is to be made here next week by Harry Atwood, the world famous aviator who today, through the Express-Advertiser, made arrangements for a five-days free flying demonstration over Casco Bay, his starting point each day being Little Chebeague Island. The arrangements were made with the Casco Bay and Harpswell lines through Manager C. W. T. Goding, and Portland will therefore see the first flying in its history by the man who is conceded to be the greatest aviator in his class today. ...as far as possible, the flights will be made between 3 and 5 in the afternoon. During Mr. Atwood’s stay in Portland he will take up passengers for a small price whenever conditions are favorable. Mr. Atwood will give various exhibitions in the lower bay. He will use his new hydroplane and will start in the water and in addition he expressed a determination to try for some altitude records.”

By “Hydroplane” was meant (as explained in a later newspaper report, where it was called a “hydroaeroplane”) a seaplane, which was “exactly like his regular aeroplane only it has pontoons so that he can alight in the water and keep afloat. He also, can start from the water and can run along on top of it.” He told the reporter, “I can maintain a speed of about 40 miles an hour on top of the water with my machine, but when I get into the air I maintain a speed of about 50 miles an hour. Lots of times high speed motor boats will race with me thinking they can beat me, but I soon show them they cannot. The best that they can do is to get in my way and to a more or less degree endanger my life.” This proved a somewhat prophetic statement in regard to his Little Chebeague visit.

Part of the show was to be a “demonstration of sea and bay flying to be held over Casco Bay and the ocean between Little Chebeague Island and the territory between Halfway Rock, out in the ocean”. A later article in the “Casco Bay Breeze” contained the statement, “The flights to be made over the ocean are the first ever taken in America, all others having been confined to harbors.” Note the restriction to “America”. Frenchman Louis Bleriot had flown across the English Channel in 1909, but that, of course, was in Europe. Still, even harbor flying could be dangerous. A month before Atwood made his first visit to Portland, the July 2nd issue of the Daily Eastern Argus had carried an article about an accident at the Boston Air Meet. Miss Harriet Quimby, one of the few women pilots of the time, and her passenger, W. A. P. Willard, manager of the meet, were thrown out of her Bleriot monoplane after making a 20-mile trip to Boston Light and back. Both were killed after falling from an altitude of 1000 feet onto watercovered mud flats 20 feet from the shore. There were no seat belts on her aircraft, which, apparently restored to stability by the absence of its human load, glided to a safe landing.

But why Little Chebeague? The Express article continued to explain how this engagement would “...in no way conflict with the plans of the Old Orchard people as the local flying will all be done down the bay and over the lower bay and ocean, and people will be obliged to go to Little Chebeague or the islands of the lower bay to see it.” In the end, Atwood was too busy to go to Old Orchard, and they dealt with another flier, George Gray, who performed there (and briefly over Portland) about a month later. But just how would people get to the islands to see Atwood’s flight?

Why, on the steamboats of one of his sponsors, the C.B. & H. line, of course. Another reason surfaced when Atwood had a long interview with the paper’s reporter. He was quoted as saying “...no aviation meet run for money can be

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made a success. The crowd stays on the outside of the fence and sees almost as much as the ones on the inside. Both Boston aviation meets this year were flat failures.”

But he went on to describe the tremendous attraction airplanes had for the public then. Those of us who can recall even as far back as the 1920’s know how the sound of a motor overhead would make us race out of the house to look up. Said Atwood, “At every place I fly the crowds are enormous and the last day of the meet is always the best patronized of all. ...I have exhibited for days in places where it would seem impossible to get a crowd of more than a few hundred, and yet thousands upon thousands would pour into that place from every side. Aviation meets today must be run more by cities, towns, or organizations for advertising their places. Municipalities make them a free show to get people into the centers to trade and spend their money. It is the biggest advertisement a city can have nowadays.”

So some of the incentive for the Portland business community was to get outsiders to come to town, have lunch, take the boat ride to Little Chebeague and, not returning until after 5 pm, have dinner and possibly stay overnight. And what of the owners of Little Chebeague, who were to expect possibly thousands to descend upon their beach and nearby fields for several hours a day? What might they get for their trouble? Well, besides the almost daily ads for the “Free Flying Exhibition” by the C. B. & H. line, there was another ad, which is reproduced on our next page. According to a contemporary Portland Directory, Rooms 3 and 4 at 98 Exchange St. were occupied by “Joseph B. Reed, lawyer”. Since Henry Cleaves had died in June of that year, Reed by then was the one making the arrangement for the use of the island for Atwood’s performance.

The newspapers gave the over-all event a great deal of space, including background material on Atwood’s experience. A native of Roxbury, MA and by then a resident of Lynn, he was reported to be a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had worked for General Electric in Lynn. Actually, Atwood himself is quoted by his 1999 biographer as having said that he was a “flunked freshman” at MIT. In spite of his highly touted “bona fides” as an aviator, he had got into aviation only about a year earlier, attending the Wright Aviation School at Dayton, Ohio. (One of his classmates there was Army Lt. Henry H. Arnold, who later, as General “Hap” Arnold, commanded the U. S. Army Air Corps during World War II.) But by 1912 Atwood had already done some notable

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flying and had set up “Atwood Aviation Park” in Saugus, MA and was giving flying lessons there. His “hydroaeroplane” was one designed by Orville and Wilbur Wright’s company, but perhaps was built by Starling Burgess, for whom Atwood had previously worked as a flight instructor and airplane demonstrator.

His principal exploit of the previous year was glowingly described in terms that have not stood the test of time nor should they, for that matter, have stood the test of their own time. “Never in the past and undoubtedly never again in the future will there be a more famous cross country aeroplane trip than the one made by Mr. Atwood from St. Louis to New York a year ago. It was the first trip of its kind ever attempted, and it covered a distance which the most ardent dreamers believed impossible for an aeroplane to negotiate.” Of course, neither the reporter nor his editor could have foreseen the steady diet of new records over the next decades. They also seem to have ignored the fact that a New York to Los Angeles flight had been completed before the end of 1911 by another pilot. Atwood’s intent to try for that record failed when he was unable to get financing for it.

Atwood’s 1911 flight did beat the distance record of its time by 87 miles, but, like the later transcontinental one and many others, it was no non-stop flight. Planes of that day made only brief flights and needed maintenance even between those hops. Long trips took several days or even weeks. Aerial “navigation” usually consisted of following the railway tracks from city to city. Their ground crews kept up with them by train, everyone staying overnight at the various stops. For Atwood’s flight, one rail car carried spare parts, and two spare aircraft were ready to be shipped if a major crash made one of them necessary.

Atwood told the reporter, “There were a good many mornings when I was not particularly enthusiastic about starting but it had to be done and so I would get into my machine and continue on. The trip was not a money maker. It cost me about $12,000 to make it and my receipts from it were just about that amount.” He got a $10,000 prize, plus other awards from cities he stopped in along the way. What is probably a tribute to both his ability and his luck is the fact that he made that trip in only nine days, with no serious difficulties. By comparison, C. P. Rodgers’ subsequent transcontinental trip took 84 days (of which he flew on 49) and 12 crashes (an average of about one crash out of every four flying days). Only two pieces of the machine in which Rodgers finished had once belonged to the one he started with, and he was on crutches for the last lap. (Rodgers was another of Atwood’s and Arnold’s 1911 classmates at the Wright School.)

Atwood had tried to fly from Boston to Portland on New Years Day, 1912, but had “met with an accident which nearly cost him his life. ...It was a good many weeks before his machine was in shape for flying again.” His engine had quit over a beach near Lynn and the plane fell into the Atlantic and sank near shore, a much-chilled Atwood being rescued by fishermen. Earlier that summer, being in Wells, he tried to reach Portland, but “his engine failed him and he landed in Kennebunk”. Apparently he had also already flown from Bangor to Poland Spring.

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For his Little Chebeague appearance, he brought his “aeroplane” from New Hampshire to Portland disassembled on a trailer towed by his “great 48 horse power rakish looking underslung American Traveler” automobile. The car and trailer, stretching 60 feet long, “made remarkable time, traveling along at from 10 to 15 miles an hour”. At that rate, it took nearly 8 hours “over some of the narrowest and crookedest roads in Maine and New Hampshire”, on which the successful passing of several large loads of hay was considered a feat worth mention. After being parked overnight in Monument Square with a police guard, the plane was taken to Custom House Wharf in the morning, assembled, and lowered into the water.

Although it was first planned to carry the craft to the island on a lighter, excellent weather prompted Atwood to decide to fly there instead. Somehow the word got around, and inside of an hour nearly a thousand people had gathered along the waterfront and at other vantage points to see the event. W. L. Foss of 634 Forest Avenue, “an automobile driver”, had paid $25 to accompany him. The Portland city directory gives Foss’s place of employment as the Portland Sebago Ice Co., which may have meant that he was an ice-truck driver. They were first towed by motorboat to the vicinity of Fort Gorges, from where they taxied well beyond Portland Head Light before taking off.

[That report may have been a newsman’s error, the starting point likely having been somewhat closer.] “As he passed over the islands on his way down, something like consternation reigned for a time, until who and what it could be was found out. Many of the good people were startled out of their evening’s peaceful repose by a sound that resembled a battery of Gatling guns [machine-guns] all let off at the same time, and on rushing out of doors to see the cause of all this trouble and noise saw this strange shape sailing over their heads. Some of them for a time thought perhaps this was the first of the inhabitants of the planet Mars coming to earth...”

The first flight of the show occurred on schedule on Wednesday afternoon, Atwood going up alone to check out the aircraft, and giving the crowd a good show as he circled the island. Then he took up a Mr. W. H. Lawlor of Congress St., Portland, for a similar flight. The city directory lists a W. H. Lawlor as a grocer residing on Kelley St., an address shared by several others of that name, hence probably a family home. Finally, with a Mr. Goodwin of New York in the right-hand seat beside him, he made his proposed flight to Halfway Rock and back, at one point trying the effect of his “propwash” on a sailboat they encountered. Fortunately, the boat was not upset. Later, as we will tell, some sailboat got its revenge. The Portland papers touted that trip of 15 round-trip miles as a new U.S. record for over-theocean flight.

Thursday was too foggy for a flight, and on Friday his engine refused to start. He and his “mechanician” soon found that there was an ignition problem, which they further claimed to be caused by the effect of “salt fog” on his magneto. After trying various tactics, they managed to clean and dry it overnight, and he was able to fly on Saturday.

After a solo trial similar to Wednesday’s, he took Miss “Georgianna” Casey of Portland as a passenger for his second trip. Another consultation of the city directory has turned up a Mrs. Georgia Casey, a waitress residing at a Chestnut St. address, where the variety of other names suggests that that was either a rooming house or a boarding house.

However, as he had prophesied earlier, many of the boaters who did not understand his need for a clear takeoff strip cluttered the channel inside Long Island. To avoid them, he went around Long Island’s east end. Just as he was about to leave the water, a sailboat got in his way, forcing him to abort that takeoff. It was breezy, and when he tried to outrun the boats by going farther out to sea, the choppy waves breaking over his pontoons prevented a takeoff.

Finally, some water got to the engine, making one cylinder misfire, so he gave up that attempt. Several motorboats vied to reach him first and tow him back; one was that of polar explorer Robert E. Peary, down from his home on Eagle Island to see the show. Ashore, Atwood was able to get his engine going reliably again, and made a final flight alone.

Sunday’s performance was rained out, although there was still a big crowd, some coming to Portland on special excursion trains, and a large number coming by steamboats from Harpswell and from Bailey’s and Orr’s Islands. Atwood left to perform in other scheduled shows, using another machine with wheels, but he promised to return to fulfill his commitment of several days of flying. Some parts of the plane had been found to be rusty from the flights and the stay on Little Chebeague’s beach. The machine was left to be lightered to Portland, where it was gone over thoroughly by the mechanic who stayed with it.

Returning for more flights on the following weekend, he again had a successful first day, making three flights, all with passengers. One was, at last, Miss (or Mrs.?) Casey, another was Mr. Arthur Brownell, a resident of the Falmouth Hotel and purchasing agent of the E. T. Burrowes Co. in Portland, and the third a Mr. Pierce of New

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York city, then visiting on Long Island. All flights were in the vicinity of the island, ranging only as far as the west end of Long Island and toward Great Chebeague. This time, the police and a revenue cutter patrolled a marked channel to be kept clear for his use. But Sunday went according to form -- he was rained out again. He stayed to speak at a Monday luncheon of the Portland Board of Trade, which had the largest attendance ever for one of those affairs.

The C. B. & H. line did not get all of the passenger business. The steamer â&#x20AC;&#x153;Island Belleâ&#x20AC;? also advertised trips to the show, her passengers perhaps viewing the flights from the vessel. And, although Reed ran his hopeful advertisements again for the second session, not one lot was sold as a result of that affair. No doubt everyone who went down was fully occupied with looking at the airplane. No other lots were ever sold after that, either.

Atwood set no further notable aviation records, but also lived thru his crashes, something that set him apart from many of the other pioneers of flight. He soon turned from piloting to inventing new aviation-related materials, principally laminates of wood and plastic. The last time he flew as a pilot was around 1920, in a plywood flying boat made by one of the several companies that he formed and then mis-managed into failures. He died of cancer in 1967 at the age of 83.

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THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM The cottage years -- World War I to World War II For about thirty years after Atwood brought thousands of visitors to it, Little Chebeague was left almost entirely to the Baileys, the remaining cottagers, and their guests. There is no record of later large public gatherings on the island.

Families sometimes invited relatives or co-workers for visits, picnics, and clambakes, but the only regular event that we know of was the annual Fourth of July picnic hosted by all of the island residents for the boys from the “reform school” in Stroudwater, now the Maine Youth Center, which has no record of those events. The next time that large groups came to the island was when the Navy began to put on “lobster bakes” and other recreational events for its personnel during World War II. In all of the half-century from the time of the hotel fire in 1893 until the Navy take-over in 1943, all of the regular island residents were members and relatives of only eleven family lines. Three generations of Sawyer’s (1) kept and used their cottage, as did at least two generations of the Hamlen’s (2). The Morrill (3) cottage later went to Mrs. Morrill’s niece, Evangeline (Mrs. John Doyle). The Cleaves (4) cottage was bought by Henry Bailey (5) and the two camps later built on that lot were owned and used by the families of two of his children. The cottage of E. L. O. Adams (6) went to his daughter, Mary (Mrs. Thomas Haskell), who used it with her husband. The one-time Crowell (7) cottage was bought by the son of Edwin A. Fogg (8), the latter previously a long-time summer cottage renter and later a permanent boarder at the Bailey farmhouse. The Fearon’s, Nickerson’s, and Coggeshall’s, families of three of Fogg’s daughters, were also cottage renters. The cottage built for the Joseph B. Reed’s (9) remained in his wife’s name until bought by the Navy, by which time she had conveyed the Red and Yellow cottages to her nephew Walter Kenney. The isolated cottage near the wharf belonged first to the George Reed’s (10) and then to the Prichett’s (11). Among the guests of the Bailey and Kenney families were numerous Sea Scouts, including the author of this history.

Recollections of their summers on the island have been provided by Roger Fogg, William P. Sawyer, Jane Nickerson Steinberg, Marjorie Coggeshall Bates, Stuart and Wendell Fearon, Jack Doyle, Gertrude Reed Gould, Jesse Kenney Francis, David Grant, Rachel Bailey Innes, Rachel H. Germond, and Dora Maier. Hilda Stockbridge Noyes also provided much information about the Bailey farm and cottage and some about the Prichett cottage. Betty Jenks Bailey and Mary Jenks Doughty have added some details. Roger has been a particularly voluminous source about Bailey’s farm and shop operations. The author’s personal recollections come from only a few weekends on the island, when his teenage focus was limited almost entirely to his scouting activities rather than to the island’s background.

Several following sections will deal with the various families which owned or occupied the farm and cottages until the U. S. government took them for Navy use in WWII, and one section will be devoted to some of the scouting activities which had connections to the island. Descriptions of the farm and some of the cottages, to the extent that those have been learned from persons familiar with them and from delving into their collapsed remains, will be given in an Appendix.

Frank Bailey’s “Seagull” moored off Little Chebeague’s “front beach” around 1939

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THE CLEAVES FAMILY Most of what we can tell about the Cleaves family’s connection with the island has already been given in several other parts of this history. Peculiarly, there is no known reference to either Henry or Nathan Cleaves' having spent any time there. For example, neither is ever mentioned in the city directory's list of summer residents. Also not determined at this time is the year when the "Cleaves Cottage" was built; this question will be considered further in a later section about all of the cottages. One wonders whether it might always have been simply a rental property for the use of others.

As has been mentioned, Nathan's wife died the year after he and Henry became involved with the island, and Henry never married. Neither had any children. Nathan died in 1892, before the Waldo fire, his heirs being his four siblings, including Henry. Since so much of his property had been owned jointly with Henry, each of those four got "undivided 1/8th" parts. That led to several legal contortions in which the inheritors "sold" their interest in each parcel to a third party, usually one of the unrelated staff members in Henry's office, and then Henry bought those parcels from the "dummy owner".

When Henry died in 1912, his will was, not surprisingly, very specific in keeping his control over his properties for some years to come. His only surviving sibling was his youngest sister, Mary, who had married William Mason of Portland, president of the Portland National Bank. After generous grants to a number of his office staff, notably J. B. Reed, Henry's final partner Stephen C. Perry, and Edward L. Piper, she received the remainder of his properties to use as she saw fit. However, any residue at her death was to go to three organizations. These were the Cumberland County Bar Association (of which Henry was a member and had been president), the Congregational Church in Bridgton (to which his parents had belonged), and Bowdoin College (Nathan's alma mater). Mr. Mason was specified to be executor. Mary died in May of 1930.

The three beneficiary groups selected the Bar Association’s then president to be their agent. His 1931 report, kept in the Cleaves Law Library in the Cumberland County courthouse, states that the residue for all three organizations amounted to $300,000, chiefly in investments such as AT&T bonds. Translated into dollars of our time, Henry died a millionaire. The report also said: "Among the assets there were two lots of land and cottages at Little Chebeague Island.

These cottages were greatly out of repair and the furniture in them belonging to others, so it seemed necessary to sell these cottages rather than to go to the expense of repairing them. As we all know, there is very little demand for island property but after negotiations the President was able to get an offer of one thousand dollars ($1000.) which the three associations deemed a very reasonable price, and the property was sold and the proceeds have been divided among the [three] legatees."

The Bar Association's portion of the over-all bequest was used, per Henry's will, to establish its law library mentioned above. It also contracted for portraits of both brothers, to be hung in the library (they no longer do). Mary had previously contributed the non-law part of their book collection to the Bridgton Library, which had set apart a Cleaves Room for them; neither that room name nor that old collection exist any longer.

The buyer of the island lot containing the former Crowell cottage was Anna L. Fogg, whose family had been renting that cottage regularly (Roger Fogg recalls watching anti-aircraft searchlights from one of its upstairs bedrooms in World War I). The Cleaves cottage lot was purchased by Henry A. Bailey, who then still operated the farm but was soon to retire from such work.

Thus ended the Cleaves's 56-year connection with the island. However, the Bailey family in later years always referred to Henry Bailey's last home there as the Cleaves Cottage, built for a man who twice became Governor of the State of Maine.

William Sawyer said that, besides the Civil War cannon that appears in some photos of the hotel, there was another in the barn on the farm. Frank Bailey said that Governor Cleaves had an antique Spanish cannon, and that, when he died, it was taken off the island and put on his grave “up where he came from”. However, there is now no such piece on the Cleaves lot in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, nor on the Cleaves family lot in Bridgton.

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THE EDWARD L. O. ADAMS AND THOMAS J. HASKELL FAMILIES Edward L. O. Adams is referred to in most records as E. L. O. Adams; we have not learned what the two middle initials stand for. At the time of his first involvement with Little Chebeague Island, he was in the insurance business in Portland. Shortly after the Cleaves brothers bought most of the island, he became a part owner with them.

This fact is shown on the old map of the island, where all three names appear, and details are in Register of Deeds records. Whether his earlier association with Bridgton, ME, figured in these three men’s cooperation is not known.

His history as we know it comes largely from the obituaries printed in the July 15th, 1895 editions of both the Daily Eastern Argus and the Evening Express. Parts of these articles are identical, the Express editor apparently having cut out some (but not all) of the Argus’s rather irrelevant items. The full obituary is quoted below, those Argus portions that were not in the Express being enclosed in curved brackets; square brackets identify this author’s comments.

OBITUARY EDWARD L.O. ADAMS Edward L. O. Adams, the well known insurance agent, died at his residence, 228 Brackett Street, Saturday, after an illness of several months {at the age of 68}. He was born in Limington [Maine] in July 1827. His father was Dr. Charles Jackson Adams, a man of engaging manner and well skilled in his profession. Dr. Adams moved to Bridgton when his son Edward was quite young. On leaving school Edward went to Norridgewock to learn the trade of printer in the Somerset Reporter, but on account of his health he was obliged to abandon the idea of becoming a printer, and returning to Bridgton went into trade [i.e., opened a store] with his brother Charles. A few years later Edward came to Portland and went into the produce business on Moulton Street. On being appointed deputy sheriff and jailer at the county jail he sold his produce business {to J. L. Libby who is still running the same store}.

Mr. Adams was the last man to serve as deputy sheriff and jailer, as the following sheriff, Mr. Pennell, himself assumed the duties of jailor [sic]. During the civil war, Mr. Adams acted as agent for the department of state. At the close of the war he was appointed deputy director of internal revenue under N. J. Miller and later served several years as United States gauger {or until the business of distilling spirits was abolished by the Maine liquor law}. [The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a gauger as “an exciseman who inspects dutiable bulk goods”, and an exciseman as “an officer who inspects and rates articles liable to excise…” i.e. taxes.] Mr. Adams formed a partnership in the fire insurance business with Franklin J. Rollins, and the firm continued unchanged until the death of Mr. Rollins about a year ago, when Mr. Adams’ son Charles took Mr. Rollins’ place in the firm.

Mr. Adams married Miss Lydia J. Walker, daughter of Benjamin Walker of Bridgton, a well-known lumberman, and brother of the late Joseph Walker of this city. Three children were born of this marriage -- Charles C., James R., and Mary C., who with Mrs. Adams remain to mourn the loss of a kind and devoted father and husband.

Mr. Adams was actively interested in real estate and did much towards improving the section of the city in which he lived. He was largely instrumental in organizing and managing the Deering Land Company, which so successfully developed Oakdale, Deering. He was a member of Ancient Landmark Lodge of Masons, Maine Charitable Mechanics association and a member of the State Street [Congregational] church. {Mr. Adams was of fine appearance, kindly and sympathetic in his disposition, genial in his manners, so that all his acquaintances became his friends. Such men as Mr. Adams make the world brighter and better for having lived in it and their deaths are a public calamity.} _________________

At that time, Deering was a separate town, before its incorporation into the City of Portland. The present Oakdale Street in the Deering section of Portland runs between and parallel to Forest Avenue and Deering Avenue,

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west of the present University of Southern Maine Campus. That neighborhood has withstood the intervening century better than has Adams’ “improving the section of the city where he lived”. The latter project consisted of laying out, alongside and behind his home at 228 Brackett Street, a very narrow L-shaped private street which he named Adams Court. This led into an irregular part of the then-vacant area nearly landlocked behind the houses on Brackett, Carleton, West, and Pine Streets. Initially, 17 tiny lots were laid out in regular fashion along both sides of his street.

These are shown in city engineering survey maps dated 1882, one copy of which is in the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library. Since their 1871 issue of Beers’ Atlas of Cumberland County shows that space as empty of housing, Adams’ development took place between those dates.

The city’s 1914 maps show the result at that time, when the name had been changed to Adams Place. Some lots had ended up with duplexes straddling lot lines; others had very small houses. Adams Place met another private street called Cushman Court, which came in from West Street, the two not meeting end-to-end, but partially overlapping sideto-side. Today, both of those alley-sized “streets” are dirt driveways separated by a board fence, each providing access and parking space to the current houses around them. Together, they are called Houlton Street. Such development, although today a city planners’ nightmare, was neither uncommon nor poorly thought of at that time by Adams’ peers.

In the Express on the following day (the 16th), the following item appeared: Memorial Adopted At a special meeting of the board of underwriters, held Monday afternoon, the following memorial was adopted: The members of the board are again forcibly reminded of the uncertainty of human life in being called to mourn the loss of our esteemed associate, Mr. E. L. O. Adams.

For more than twenty-five years Mr. Adams was one of our most efficient and popular members and was always respected for his honorable and straightforward business methods. He was a man of strong individuality and of most kind and generous qualities. He will be greatly missed by us all, for with him we have sustained pleasant business and social and personal relations for many years.

To his wife and chilfren we extend our cordial sympathy in their great bereavement. As a token of respect for our deceased friend the members of this board will close their offices and attend the funeral services, which will occur at 2:30 o’clock Tuesday, July 16.

Our secretary is required to enter this memorial on the records and to send a copy of it to the family of the deceased. _____________ Aside from what has appeared in the earlier text, there is little else to connect Adams with Little Chebeague. It does appear that he built and therefore probably used the cottage next to the Cleaves cottage. His name never appears in the Portland directory listings of island summer residents, but neither does Cleaves’.

Thomas J. Haskell first appears as an island resident in the 1914-15 Casco Bay directory (note that this is not the Portland city directory), and is listed as owner of his cottage -- the above one, adjacent to Cleaves’. No wife is listed, but the practice of listing wives (initially only parenthetically) did not begin in those books until the 1917-19 edition.

Mrs. Haskell had been Mary Caroline Adams, a daughter of E. L. O. Adams. They had no children.

As early as 1903, Thomas J. Haskell was listed in the Portland city directory as occupying a house at 2 Adams Place; he might either have owned it or have been renting it. In those directories, the only alternative information would have been whether he was merely a boarder. In 1914, 2 Adams Place was one half of a duplex that was across that “street” from the Adams house. Mary’s mother, E. L. O.’s widow, continued to occupy the 228 Brackett St. house until she died in 1921.

Haskell’s occupation in 1903 was bookkeeper, employed at 137 Middle St., which was the place of business of Cook, Everett, & Pennel, wholesale dealers in drugs, chemicals, and medicines. Except for the addition of Mary in the 1920 edition (the first year when wives were mentioned in those), his entry did not change until 1927, when he was sales

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manager at Brewer & Co. at 335 Forest Ave.; that company also dealt in wholesale drugs. Brewer’s was not a new company, for it was listed in the 1926 directory. It was still listed in the 1928 one, but Haskell was no longer shown as working there, nor anywhere else. Perhaps this had something to do with the “Great Depression” which began in 1928.

No employment was mentioned in his listing until 1931, when he appeared as “pricer” for H. H. Hays drugstore at 262 Middle St. In 1932 he was office manager for Hays’ at 594 Congress, and in 1933, he was “cashier” there. (There were two Hay’s drug stores in Portland then, located several blocks apart, one in the “flatiron” building between Congress and Free Streets and the other in a similar building at the other end of Free Street, where it met Middle Street.)

In 1934 and in 1935 there is again no entry for his employment, but in 1936, ‘37, and ‘38, he is a salesman at the Elliot S. Peterson automobile dealership at 327 Forest Avenue. He died on March 24, 1938. The following obituary appeared in the Press Herald for March 28, 1928: Haskell Funeral Today Funeral services for Thomas J. Haskell of Adams Place, who died last Thursday after a short illness, will be held at 2:30 p. m. today at 749 Congress Street [then and now the location of Hay & Peabody, funeral directors]. Interment will be in Evergreen Cemetery.

Mr. Haskell was a life-long Portland resident, son of the late Thomas L. and Elizabeth Mullen Haskell. He was employed by the Elliott Peterson Company, and previously by local drug concerns for a long time.

He was a 32nd degree Mason, a member of the Portland Lodge of Elks, the Portland Club, and the Portland Yacht Club.

Surviving are his widow, Mary Adams Haskell; three brothers, Harry L. and Richard, both of Portland, and Dr. Robert Haskell of Detroit, and a sister, Miss Luella A. Haskell of Portland. ________________ Mary continued to live in their side of the Adams Place duplex until she died on October 25, 1947. Her obituary in the Oct. 26, 1947 Press Herald read: Mrs. Mary C. Haskell Mrs. Mary Caroline Adams Haskell, 77, widow of Thomas J. Haskell, died Saturday in her home at 2 Adams Place. Mrs. Haskell was a native of Portland, the daughter of the late Edward L. O. and Lydia (Walker) Adams. Funeral services will be held at 2.30 [sic] p. m. Wednesday at 749 Congress Street, with interment in Evergreen Cemetery. _______________ Mr. And Mrs.Haskell’s graves in Evergreen Cemetery are in a large lot that also contains those of Mrs. Haskell’s parents, the two brothers mentioned in her father’s obituary, and one brother who was not. The latter was Edward L. O. Jr., whose stone says only Eddie, and who was only 1 year old when he died in 1876, near the time when their father began his connection with Little Chebeague. That lot is also the last resting place of a number of other persons including several Walkers, apparently members of Mary’s father’s family. The lot has, besides the individual headstones, a very large central stone monument.

Jack Doyle recalled Thomas Haskell, saying that he was “a salesman”. He also mentioned that Haskell had a boat, and told of his being put out by some persons who asked him to fetch them from Cleaves Landing, on the Long Island’s East End, facing Little Chebeague. It isn’t clear how they got word to him that they were there.

Roger Fogg says that, when he summered on the island in the 1920’s and early 30’s, the Haskells were an “old couple” with no children, and that Mr. Haskell did have a boat. (Actually, in the 1920’s, they would have been in their 50’s.) Rachel Innes, whose memories are of the 30’s only, cannot recall the Haskell cottage ever having occupants then. The 1931 receipt for Henry Bailey’s water bill for his “Cleaves Cottage” was signed by Haskell as treasurer of the Casco Hotels Co., the entity set up in 1899 to own the wharf when the rest of the island was mortgaged by the Waldo Co. By that time, Joseph Reed had died, so that both of those companies were apparently then owned by Mrs. Reed.

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THE JAMES H. HAMLEN FAMILY James Hopkinson Hamlen was born in Buxton, ME July 1, 1825. In spite of the differing spellings of their names, he was said to be a cousin of Maine Congressman and Senator Hannibal Hamlin, who served as Vice-President during Lincoln's first term. (Earlier generations of the family had also used spellings such as Hamblen.) Still other sources say they were unrelated.

After public school in Buxton, Hamlen, at 18, went on to "the Gorham Academy", which he attended for two years, receiving a teaching certificate. That academy later became Gorham Normal School, then a teacher-training institution but now part of the University of Southern Maine. He took a teaching job in Gorham while also helping in his father's lumber business. He had hoped for an academic career, but after teaching a short time, decided that his teacher's pay was inadequate. He moved to Portland in 1846.

Observing how much of the seaborne trade depended on the use of wooden containers, he decided to get into the cooperage trade. Cooperage meant the making of barrels, casks, and hogsheads by assembling curved "staves", usually of oak, and binding them together with straps. In an older day, the straps were made from flexible saplings nailed around the staves; later, riveted metal straps were in use. The upper and lower ends of the staves were notched on the inside, so that the flat disk-shaped "heads" closing the ends of the barrels were held firmly by the staves. Barrels demanded precise shaping of the wooden parts so that contents such as powdery materials like flour or sugar, and liquids like cider, molasses, liquor, or oil would not leak out.

To set up one's own plant for their production meant making a large investment in buildings and materials, and hiring a staff of trained coopers. Hamlen devised a scheme for getting into that business with the outlay of only as little capital as he had. He contracted with several local mills to make staves, heads, and hoops for barrels, which he would then market for them. His product was "shooks", a sort of do-it-yourself kits of properly fitted barrel parts which occupied less shipping space than empty finished barrels, but could be assembled by the buyer at the point of use. He did so well at this that he gradually began to set up plants to make his own shooks, to buy woodlands for cutting his own wood, sawmills, and eventually to having his own ships for delivering his products and bringing back other cargoes.

He married Anne (or Ann ?) Crosby Patten of Amesbury, MA in April 1849. The next year her father moved to Portland and the two men formed the firm of Patten & Hamlen, lumber dealers, on Commercial Street, then only recently built on filled land that had previously been part of the harbor and occupied by wharves and moored sailing vessels. That firm escaped the devastation of the great fire of 1866, which destroyed one-third of Portland, but in 1867 Stephen Patten went into a new lumber business with his own son. By 1871, Hamlen's company's listing in the city directories was Hamlen & Patten.

Perhaps because of his teaching background, he was a member of Portland's School Committee from 1854 to 1878. He told one interviewer that he could remember, from the time when he was "Supervisor" of Brackett Street school, seeing "Tom" Reed when Reed was a student there. Thomas Brackett Reed became a congressman from Maine and Speaker of the House, and was the one who first established the power of the Speaker's position.

At some time, Hamlen was a director of the First National Bank. He was elected to the City Council in 1863 and 1864, being chosen president of the council in '64. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln as an "allotment commissioner" stationed in Florida, and held that position until the end of the Civil War in 1865. The job consisted of forwarding a portion of the pay of Union Army soldiers to their families in the North. If he was also serving in elected office in Portland in 1863 and 1864, it seems that he may have had a "staff" to do the actual work in Florida. We are also led to wonder if cousin Hannibal (if such he was) had any hand in the appointment. As for Lincoln's part, remember that many appointments by executives of all levels are arranged by others and simply approved by the higher authority.

Hamlen was a delegate to the 1872 Republican national convention which nominated Horace Greely for president, but later said "I did not favor the manner in which affairs were run during the second administration of Grant, and since that time I have acted with no party in particular, although voting the Democratic ticket."

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By 1875 the firm was J. H. Hamlen & Son, the son being James C. Hamlen, and their business address then on Exchange Street. Besides that son who became his partner, he also had a daughter, Maria Patten Hamlen.

"Commission merchants" was added to "lumber" as the nature of their business in 1879, and "cooperage" appeared in 1884. By the time J. H. Hamlen died, the company owned 20,000 acres of oak timberland for its materials, a small railroad, barrel factories in Arkansas and on Martinique (one of the West Indies islands in the Caribbean), as well as three ships. Hamlen told of having crossed the Atlantic 70 times as well as making many voyages to the Caribbean, mostly on business. He had a yacht, a schooner named â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beatriceâ&#x20AC;?, which sometimes came to Little Chebeague.

From 1856 onward the Hamlen's lived at 123 Park St. in Portland, in, as he told an Evening Argus reporter, "the oldest of the houses above Spring Street", meaning between Spring and Congress Streets. In 1882, he was one of the investors in the Little Chebeague Island Company. Some time between then and 1885, the first year for which Portland records show taxes paid on it, his cottage was built on the island. He later told a reporter, "I also have a summer cottage, Grand View, on Little Chebeague Island. It stands on a bold promontory that commands a superb view of the island dotted bay and the coast from Portland to the ocean. In 1885 when the Grand Army held its encampment in Portland, many of the notable officers were guests of Mrs. Hamlen and myself at Grand View, and we did our best to make their stay a pleasant one. One day we had two governors, Robie of our own state and General Lucius Fairchild of Wisconsin.

There was also in the party General John A. Logan, who was an ex-governor of Illinois."

In addition, they had a winter home in the city of St. Pierre on Martinique, where one of their business offices and warehouses had been located since the early 1860's. Maria and her father went there early in 1902, but Maria became ill and was sent to Barbados. That turned out to be worse, since smallpox and yellow fever were breaking out, so father and daughter took the first available ship out of the islands. That ship took them to England, where they stayed to recuperate before returning to the U. S. in mid-May. But their departure from St. Pierre proved to be a lifesaver, for the home and the plant were lost when that city and its entire population of 35,000 were wiped out in minutes by the explosion of Mt. Pelee on May 8, 1902.

J. H. Hamlen died June 13, 1903, at his residence in Portland "after a short illness of pleuro-pneumonia". The company he founded still exists in Arkansas. An "official" history of the company and its founder and later family members who headed it was published in 1977 as "Barrels and Daring", by Patrick C. Dowling. A copy in the Maine Historical Society library has been used for some of the above information. Other material is in that library's large "Hamlen collection" of papers and photoraphs. All Hamlen-family photographs used here are from that collection.

Most of his descendants made no use of the Little Chebeague cottage, preferring another huge family "cottage" at Grand Beach, near Old Orchard, probably because it was accessible by automobile. But Maria used Grand View occasionally into the 1930's, arriving with a maid and a chauffeur/handyman whom she called Harold. Jack Doyle said that Harold probably worked for her till the day he died, but Miss Hamlen put all of his children through college.

Although she had little contact with the other cottagers of that time, William Sawyer said that his grandmother and Miss Hamlen were "great friends"; both were, of course, of the island's well-to-do "old families". Rachel Bailey Innes, when about 10 years old, visited Miss Hamlen once at the cottage when Rachel's father, Frank Bailey, went there on business, and was given a cameo pin which she still has.

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THE CHARLES S. MORRILL FAMILY Charles Sumner Morrill was born February 28, 1836 at his parents’ home on State Street, Portland. Among his ancestors was Abraham Morrill, who was active in Cambridge and Salisbury, Massachusetts, in the 1630’s. In a short biography that appears in the American Historical Society’s 1916 “Memorials of Maine”, edited by A. F. Moulton, is the following: “His education was supplied by the public schools in early life, but most of his training was secured by observation and judicious reading. He left school at the early age of fifteen years [about 1851], and entered the employ of Rumery & Burnham, who were engaged in packing corn and other natural products in hermetically sealed cans. They were among the earliest engaged in this business, and Mr. Morrill received in their establishment a most excellent training, which fitted him for his subsequent successful business career. In January 1867, this firm was dissolved, and Mr. Morrill became an associate with one of his fellow employees, George Burnham, and under the style of Burnham & Morrill the business was continued. The proprietors of this establishment were men of sound business judgment, of unlimited enterprise and energy, and rapidly built up a very successful business. This was incorporated April 26, 1892, under the name of the Burnham & Morrill Company, whose products are now known throughout the commercial world. From a small beginning, this establishment grew to be one of the largest in United States, giving employment to hundreds of Maine people. One of their special brands, known as Maine corn, is a standard commodity wherever this sort of goods is dealt in. The high standard of quality is scrupulously maintained, the goods are packed under the most sanitary and approved modern conditions, ane have spread the fame of the Burnham & Morrill Company to the four corners of the world. No small portion of the credit for this condition is due to Charles S. Morrill, whose upright life and sound business methods have made his name known wherever good business rules prevail. He was among the most public-spirited men of his home city, ever ready to advance its interests in every way possible, a friend of young men, who often came to him for advipce, liberal to the poor in an unassuming way, in fact in every relation of life proving himself a good citizen and an honest man. He became a member of Portland Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, April 22, 1863, and from 1886 to his death was a member of the Cumberland Club.

He was a regular attendant of the Universalist Church, and lived an ideal home life. He did not seek to mingle in the management of public affairs, or to attain notoriety, but pursued the even tenor of his way with credit to himself and his home city. A thoroughly self-made man, he appreciated the struggles incident to human life, and was ever ready to stretch out a helping hand to those in need of encouragement or assistance. During his last years he traveled much, and enjoyed in a quiet way the proceeds of an industrious and useful life.

He married Callista (Beale) Dobbins, of Portland. To Mr. and Mrs. Morrill were born three children: 1. Clara V., wife of William C. Allen, residing in Portland, and the mother of one son, Morrill Allen.

2. George B., who succeeded his father in the Burnham & Morrill Company; married Margaret Elwell, and they are parents of three children.: Catherine C., Charles S. and George B. (2).

All reside in Portland.

3. Helen H., wife of William Leonard.”

George B. Morrill later bought out the Burnham interest in the company, and his son Charles later became the company’s president, Morrill Allen being executive vice president. After being located for over 40 years on Franklin Street, the present plant near Back Bay was built in 1913. The baked beans for which the company is well known today did not begin to be packed until the mid-1920’s.

From the entries in the Portland city directories, it appears that this company was not the first joint Burnham and Morrill venture. In 1847, when Charles S. Morrill was still only 11, a Charles Morrill and a George Burnham of the preceding generation were allied in a lumber business on Burnham’s wharf. When the Rumery and Burnham canning partnership “dissolved”, Samuel Rumery had formed the Portland Packing Company, and the two competitors were both located on Franklin Street.

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As has been mentioned in earlier chapters, Charles S. Morrill was one of the investors in the Little Chebeague Island Company in 1882 and a founder of the Waldo Steamboat Compnay in 1884. We do not know when he had his cottage built. His wife continued to use it after he died in 1901.

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Members of the family’s next generation also spent time there while the cottage belonged to her. Her daughter Clara (“Caddie”) who married Portland clothing-store owner William C. Allen, appears in several family photos taken on the island (including the one on the following page). A November 1951 article in the Portland Press Herald credits her son Morrill Allen (born in 1886, about the time the cottage was built) as the identifier of a “Once Upon a Time...” photograph published a few days earlier. “He spotted it right away for the Waldo Hotel, on Little Chebeague Island, a summer hotel popular especially with Boston and Philadelphia people before it burned down July 4, 1894 [sic]. As a boy, Allen played on the cannon on the hotel’s lawn. They [sic] were Civil War cannon, fired each Fourth of July. He recalls that the building in the trees at the extreme right of Monday’s picture was one of a group of cottages there.” [That photograph was a version of the one shown on our page 24.]

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The newspaper writer seems to have taken the cannon’s limber to be a second cannon, but Allen probably knew better. The light-colored building referred to was not a cottage, but must have been some outbuilding serving the hotel, such as an icehouse or coal shed or laundry. It may be that one of the cottages on the far side of the grove was visible between the hotel and the building; however, the copy of this photo that we have found was a printed one so small that its halftone dots obscure any details of such a cottage.

Mrs. Morrill left the cottage to her niece, Evangeline Norton, who married John F. Doyle, Jr. of Garden City, New York. Mr. Doyle was referred to by the 1930’s cottagers as “Colonel Doyle”, but it seems unlikely that that was a military title. Except for his New York background, one might have termed him a “Kentucky Colonel”; in modern times, that term would have been seemed very appropriate due to his resemblance to Colonel Sanders of “Kentucky Fried Chicken” fame. We have found no clue as to his occupation, if any.

Mr. and Mrs. Doyle had one son, John F. Doyle III, born 24 October 1907, and known to their island neighbors as Jack. In the 1930’s, the older Doyles stayed on the island all summer, Jack coming only on weekends.

Jack said his father was “a city boy”. Once when his father was crossing the sandbar from Great Chebeague late one day, he was caught by the rising tide and climbed onto a boulder on the bar. That must have been at a very quiet

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evening, because Jack said they heard his father shouting for help all the way up at their cottage. Jack then rowed to his father’s darkening perch and took him ashore.

Among Jack’s island neighbors, he was considered as a proverbial “roaring twenties” college boy. When we spoke with him shortly before he died in 1994 at 86, he told us of rowing, during the Prohibition years, to one of the nearby islands with a case of bootleg whiskey. It was he who said that Thomas Haskell (who was then a chemicals salesman) made his own alcoholic beverages in those dry days, keeping some in jugs under the porch of his cottage. Jack also said that Judge Reed was “a wonderful man”.

Jack told of his staying at the Doyle cottage as late as November in the early 1940’s, commuting in his own boat to his work at Burnham & Morrill, leaving his boat tied up to their wharf. His obituary in the August 25, 1994

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Portland Press Herald says he was employed at B&M for 38 years, retiring in 1972, hence beginning there around 1934, at age 26, and that he served in the Coast Guard during WWII. The obituary also says that he attended “Lady Cliff Military School in Seton Hall, N.Y.” However, there is no Seton Hall, N.Y. There is a Seton Hall University, a Catholic college in Orange, N. J. There was, in the 1920’s, a Lady Cliff Academy, which was a Catholic school for women, in Highland Park, Orange County, N.Y. That became, in 1933, Lady Cliff College, which operated until the 1980’s, when it closed for “financial reasons”. Its campus was then purchased by the U. S. Military Academy in nearby West Point, and is now used as the Academy’s museum and Visitor Center. Roger Fogg has said that he has no recollection of Jack’s ever being referred to as associated with any college.

Unfortunately, when Jack died, we were just beginning to collect information for this history, and were reticent about contacting his estate executor promptly. Although he had shown us a large collection of photos, many of those were discarded before we asked about them. Prospective history gatherers take note. Be bold.

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THE ABEL H. SAWYER FAMILY Of the various Little Chebeague families, the Sawyers apparently had one of the strongest associations with the island. Their cottage pre-dated the Waldo Hotel and remained in the same family's ownership until taken by the U. S. government in 1943. Of the original "gentry" who built the cottages in the grove, the Sawyer family was one that appreciated the island for itself well enough to continue to use their cottage steadily after the social life and other amenities of the hotel period disappeared. Their cottage was occupied continuously by three successive generations of Sawyer's and their in-laws, the Noble's, and was remembered fondly by the final generation of the island Sawyer children -- Betty, Billy, and Lucy.

The first Sawyer associated with Little Chebeague Island was Abel Hargrave Sawyer, who had that family's cottage built. A clue to how he happened to choose Little Chebeague for his cottage may be the fact that he (and his father) had a connection with the Swedenborgian, or "New Jerusalem" church, as did Joshua Jenks. The pastor of that church in Portland was William Hayden, mentioned in Jenks' diary both in regard to one of his sermons and later as a guest in Jenks' hotel on Little Chebeague in 1876. One of Abel H. Sawyer's brothers was named William Hayden Sawyer. The library of the Maine Historical Society has several of Hayden's writings.

Unlike most of the other early cottage builders, Abel H. Sawyer was not one of the hotel investors. Born in Portland on July 13, 1846, he was the youngest of the twelve children of seacaptain Abel Sawyer of Portland, Maine and Sarah Ann (Giveen) Sawyer, originally from Brunswick, Maine.

The following quote (except for inserted comments in square brackets) is from a family history compiled by Abel H.'s son, Philip B. Sawyer, and apparently up-dated later, perhaps by Philip's son, William. _____________________ He [Abel H.] attended the public schools of Portland and the College du Havre at [Le] Havre, France and the Liverpool Institute, England. Upon his graduation he had a signet ring made with the initials AHS with the head carved of Pathos on one side of the ring and Comedy on the other. He began in early manhood a notable business career. Until 1888 he was in the wholesale grocery business in Portland. From that time until he died he was a commission merchant in Boston. He introduced Postum Cereal to New England and was a very close friend of Mr. and Mrs. Post. He also introduced Aunt Jemima [pancake mix] to the New England market. In about 1884 he built a cottage on Little Chebeague Island, Casco Bay, Maine and was instrumental in installing a golf course on the island, which was the first in the State of Maine. A chart of Portland Harbor dated 1865 shows Sawyer's Wharf evidently owned by Abel Hargrave Sawyer's father. He had taken the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite Masonry and was a member of the Royal Arch Masons, Royal and Select masters; Portland Commandery, Knights Templar. When a young man he was confirmed in the Swedenborgian Church but afterwards became a Unitarian.

He married, December 25, 1873, Evalina Jessie Belcher, daughter of General Hannibal and Sarah Ann (Brett) Belcher. [She (Evalina)] died, Winchester, Massachusetts, June 1, 1930. Buried Evergreen Cemetary [sic], Portland. Her [faded on original] mother is a lineal descendant of John and Priscilla Alden in two lines.

Children of Abel H. and Evalina J. Sawyer: -- Philip Brett, mentioned below.

-- Frederica, born July 6, 1879, married October 24, 1906, Stafford D'Oyly Noble of the firm of Sawyer, Noble & Co., investment bankers of Elmira, New York. Children: Phyllis, born August 8, 1908, died August 8, 1909; Shirley Evalina, born June 29, 1910 [married Benjamin Howarth, 19..?..]; Suzanne, born Dec 18, 1920. [Frederica died July 22, 1922.]

-- Lucy Belcher, born December 8, 1880, married William Patten Shoemaker. Children: Philip Brett Shoemaker, Jane Shoemaker.

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[Abel H. Sawyer died Jan. 22, 1912 in Cambridge, MA. He also is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. In the same lot are the graves of his wife (see above), his father and mother, and his 1year-old granddaughter Phyllis. The lot's owner was Sarah W. Berry, a sister of Abel H., but neither she nor any other family members are buried there.]

Philip Brett Sawyer, son of Abel Hargrave Sawyer, born in Farmington, Maine, July 13, 1875. Died Canton, Massachusetts, March 12, 1947. He attended the public schools of Portland until he was twelve years old when his parents moved to Boston. He fitted for college at the Roxbury Latin School and entered Harvard University, from which he graduated in the class of 1898. He was the Assistant Editor of the Harvard Advocate and a member of the First Corps of Cadets. Moved to Elmira, New York and married on February 16, 1909, Helen Rogers Preston in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Miss Preston's mother, Mrs. Rogers', [maiden] name was Coffin, a direct descendant of Tristam Coffin, the first settler in Nantucket. Her father, Cecil A. Preston, was a member of the illfated Madeira Mamore Railroad Expedition, which was financed by the British government after the Civil War to connect the headwaters of the Amazon with the waterway to the Pacific. Mr. Preston was one of five survivors of the expedition many of whom died from malaria and beriberi while others were killed by native savages. Upon Mr. Preston's return from South America, he was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad and eventually became Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Philip and Helen Sawyer settled in Elmira, New York and had four children.

-- Phippy died at birth on January 12, 1910.

-- Helen Elizabeth [Betty] born June 17, 1911 [married Horace A. Secrist (children: Philip, Lee). Betty Sawyer Secrist died in Sept 1993].

-- William Preston born August 14, 1914 [died Duxbury, Massachusetts June 18, 1996; more below].

-- Lucy Anne born April 16, 1916, died Phoenix, Arizona on September 18, 1970.

In his early years in the brokerage business in Elmira, New York, with his brother-in-law, Stafford Noble, under the firm name of Sawyer and Noble, Mr. [Philip] Sawyer floated the first stock issue for Glen Curtiss and flew with Glen Curtiss in one of his early flights and was a Director of the original Curtiss Aeroplane Co. Helen and Philip Sawyer were divorced on February 29, 1920. Helen Sawyer spent many years working with the blind in Elmira, New York, teaching braille and chair caning and eventually becoming acquainted with Helen Keller and was employed by Helen Keller as her constant companion for two or three years traveling the country with Miss Keller giving speeches to raise money for the education of the blind.

Mr. Sawyer returned to Boston taking up residence in Winchester, Massachusetts, where he formed his own stock brokerage business under the name of Sawyer, Fisk & Spencer with offices in Boston, New York and Buffalo. He was married to Marguerite Dewey Funk of Buffalo, New York on October 6, 1924.

William Preston Sawyer, son of Philip Brett Sawyer, was born at Elmira, New York, on August 14, 1914, married on February 8, 19.?. Dorothy Harriet Ilg in Belmont, Massachusetts, daughter of Raymond Arthur Ilg and Harriett (Hedwig) Ehlert Plietz. Mr. Ilg was a Vice President and General Sales Manager of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. In the early 20's he [Sawyer] joined the National Shawmut Bank as Vice President in charge of Public Relations and New Business. He retired as Senior Vice President.

William and Dorothy Sawyer lived in Cambridge, Belmont, and Duxbury, Massachusetts, [and] had four children; Judith Ann Sawyer, William Preston Sawyer Jr., Nancy Ilg Sawyer, and Janet Brett Sawyer. _____________________

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Not surprisingly, none of the various histories of golfing mention Abel H. Sawyer's course on Little Chebeague.

For one thing, those histories are more concerned with the establishment of golf clubs (the organizations, not the tools) than of courses. The game was actually played in various places in the U. S. and Canada as far back as the late 1700's.

However, it seems to have been in the 1880's that well-to-do travelers to Europe generated a wide interest in importing that game into the U. S. So it is quite plausible that Mr. Sawyer was a part of that movement at that time. Whether his course was indeed the first in Maine is something that even Mr. Sawyer may not have known for sure.

Stafford Noble's wife, Frederica ("Freda"), a sister of Philip, was listed in the "Casco Bay Directories" as a summer resident of Little Chebeague, "boarding" with her mother, Evalina Sawyer, for several years after Mr. Noble died, and until she (Freda) died in 1922.

The last Sawyers to have spent time at the cottage were Philip's children. Betty and Lucy had died before this research was begun. Much of this historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s information about that family was provided by William P. Sawyer in the two years before he died. Additional items and photos have come from his nephew Philip Secrist.

Philip Sawyer's was one of the island-cottage families to have a boat. Family photos show a gaff-rigged sloop called the "Shirbet", possibly named for Shirley Noble and Betty Sawyer, the eldest children of Philip and his brother-inlaw and business partner, Stafford Noble. Noble may have been a part owner of that vessel. If the reason for the name was as above, that sloop was used after those daughters' births in 1910 and 1911. William Sawyer said that the "Shirbet", was before his time, so he does not remember it.

Later, probably in the 1920's, Philip had a motor cruiser, the "Tusitala" (a name meaning "teller of tales" and given to writer Robert Louis Stevenson by his native neighbors on the Pacific Ocean island of Samoa).

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William: "We'd bring it up from Marblehead and anchor and stay. ... We would go up to Boothbay, up to the Sheepscot River, and up the Kennebec, and also out to Monhegan. [That was in] '28, '29, '30; then the roof fell in on everything and Dad lost everything. Sold the boat. We used to tell people we were living on the boat that winter - meaning the proceeds from the boat. ... We didn't go down there [to Little Chebeague] then. The Depression hit very bad. Dad lost every cent he had. I was working my way through Bowdoin (College), up in Brunswick."

After William Sawyer's graduation from Bowdoin, he was involved with several banking institutions. One of his children said that he was, at about 33, the youngest bank president in the country. At his retirement in 1974, he was President, chairman of the board of directors, and chief executive officer of the Northeast Federal Savings and Loan Association in Watertown, MA. His youthful island experiences probably helped to lead to his later interests in boating and ocean sport fishing. He also canoed and hunted in Maine and Canada. After his retirement, he owned and operated the "Finest Kind Blueberry Farm" in Duxbury, MA. A booklet of what he termed "so-called jokes" phrased in "downeast" language, which he originally put together for the amusement of his children and grandchildren, has been published as "A Collection of Maine Humor" by Down East Books. The names of a couple of the island people mentioned elsewhere in this history can be found (used fictitiously) as either tellers of, or as characters in, some of those stories. In his introduction to the booklet, he refers to his and his sisters' "growing up on that saltwater farm on Little Chebeague Island in Casco Bay", by which he meant their summer residency in the cottage on the island. For all of the youngsters, especially the boys, the farm was where most of the island's "action" took place, and Henry Bailey welcomed them all.

By 1995/96, when material for this history was being gathered, William P. Sawyer was one of the few former summer residents of Little Chebeague still available to tell about those times. Several of his reminiscences are given below.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss's aviation pioneering was begun in Hammondsport, New York, not far from Elmira. William Sawyer: "Dad went into business [in Elmira, NY] as a stockbroker with his brother-in-law, Stafford D'Oyly Noble, who married Dad's eldest sister Freda. And that's where I was born. And very early in the business, Glenn Curtiss came into Dad's office, said he had an 'aeroplane' that he was building, or had built, and had to raise money to complete it and get another one to beat a couple of guys by the name of Wright. So Dad -- in '13-'15, in

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there -- and the thing was that Glenn had asked Dad if he would like to go up in the airplane. Dad said 'Yes' and they went out to a field and here was this pusher plane, and ... Dad said 'Where do I sit?' Well, out in front of it were a couple of stanchions (that) went out, and a little seat there like on a rowing shell. That's where Dad was supposed to sit. Dad asked him -- asked [Curtiss, who] said 'Put your hands down there and underneath the seat there's a couple of cleats.

Hold onto that.' So they went up about 3 or 4 hundred feet for 4 or 5 minutes and came right down again. And at one time Dad owned about 38% of the stock in Glenn Curtiss. He sold the stock in the crash of '28."

Bill had a 1912 newspaper ad (or a news item?) with a picture of a very early flying boat: "The new Curtiss Hydroplane, Hammondsport, N.Y. In Elmira and vicinity, his business representative is Mssrs. Sawyer & Noble. They are giving great attention to developing the commercial value of his invention in travel, warfare, pleasure, etc. …

Secured American Trophy for greatest achievement in 1911."

"I don't know when Grandfather Abel (H.) Sawyer built that cottage. And I don't know how it was built. [But] I know that he took my grandmother down there as a bride. They were quite young and I remember Grandmother talking about the early days at the cottage and going down at low tide and picking up lobsters out of the salt pools, they were so plentiful." He also said that a road behind their cottage went from the Cleaves’ cottage over to Kenney's Yellow Cottage.

"They always said that the [town] line went right thru the center. ... The taxes went half to Portland and half to Cumberland [a common but incorrect anecdote, which has also been attributed to the nearby Yellow Cottage]. ... By the back door, there was a chestnut tree. ... There was a point [of land] in front of our cottage, called Sunset Point, which eroded and eroded and eroded and disappeared. There was a cherry tree near the top that finally fell over the edge. There was less erosion in front of Hamlen's, [where there was, before 1999, and still is, a BIG gap due to a landslide]. I am sure that Grandmother talked about calling it Sunset Point" "On a clear day, you could see Mt. Washington, 90 miles away, and the sun, in the middle of the summer, would set behind it. It was glorious. You should be able to see it from Great Chebeague. I did an awful lot of sailing in my day, and cruising, and I can remember coming down the coast, way out to sea, way out to seaward of the lightship, and there was Mt. Washington. I remember the train coming along the Falmouth shore and whistling at all the crossings, and [on the island] we could hear it all the way to Brunswick."

The Sawyer cottage had no well, but behind the cottage there was an old unused one with a stone cover. Bill said there was a hole in the middle of the cover, which was of a "sort of slate" material. This well still exists and is described in the later section on the Yellow Cottage.

Water used in the Sawyer cottage came from the spring near the wharf. Wm. Sawyer: "That must have been absolutely gorgeous water, and it must have been inexhaustible, because it [the windmill over the spring] pumped water to all the houses, as far as I know. I don't know where all those pipes are. They must have been buried somewhere. ...

Our [water tank] was on the side toward the Red Cottage. [It had a] huge barrel, way up, [and was at east corner of cottage.] ... [I remember] being at the cottage when the wind was blowing, and hearing the tank overflowing outside. ...

Our stove in the kitchen was an oilstove, and we had a coal stove."

When Bill was a youngster, "Henry {Bailey] came over on his -- I was going to call it his one-hoss shay -- I've forgotten what it was -- picked me up one Sunday morning, and he was all dressed up in his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. Grandmother got me dressed and he took me over across the bar and drove me the length of Great Chebeague, introducing me as 'Phippy Sawyer's boy'. I remember that so well."

During one tape-recording session, Bill, referring to a photo of his grandmother, said she was "… sitting in a Captain's chair (that) came off the 'Rebecca'." The "Rebecca" was a sailing vessel owned and captained by Bill's greatgrandfather, Abel Sawyer, which the latter sailed around Cape Horn to the Indian Ocean.

"Maria [Hamlen] was a great friend of grandmother's. [Also,] Grandmother used to go across the bar to have tea with -- Mrs. Stuart, I think it was." The Sawyer's were also friends of the Ballard's on Great Chebeague. "I know I took my children and my wife and we summered in Yarmouth at Prince's Point, and we summered on Bramhall Field there in Falmouth ... just before the war [ WWII ]. And then I rented a house on Cushing's island and

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I had a boat -- this old lobster boat that I bought in Yarmouth, and I took the kids and went down to Big Chebeague and called on the Ballards, and here was this enormous great big white house overlooking Chandler's Cove. BIG thing! It wasn't where they lived. It was a spare house, I think. ... I remember Mrs. Ballard saying to me, 'Well, we've got to have a Sawyer back here. I will sell you that house for 10,000 bucks.' Well, (that was) like 2 million in those days, to me. Raising four kids, I didn't have a dime."

"Charlie Morrill and Captain Stockbridge were fantastic navigators and coming down [in the fog] from Portland and 'way down to Bailey's [Island] they would blow the whistles on the boats and they knew where they were by the sound of the echo off the islands. It was absolutely amazing how they did it. ...They [the Casco Bay Lines] had, just before the war, on the [steamboat] Aucocisco, they had a string quartet that would play all the way down. I remember distinctly, the war hadn't started -- Hitler had gone in [to Czechoslovaki] in '39, and I remember them playing 'Roll out the Barrel' [a popular song which was new then]."

"After I got married, we would come down weekends. ... [My] sister's [Betty's] husband, Horace A. Secrist, got an old pickle barrel when we were renovating the house, and had it brought down, and we rolled it all the way up the path, and we got it up for a new water tank outside the house. They stayed at the cottage a lot of the time. [We] had a lot of guests down. ... In the late 30's -- I would say about '37, '38, '39 -- my sister's husband, Horace, and myself -- and we got some friends -- put a brand new roof on the cottage. And stripped shingles -- the wood shingles -- off, and put a new roof on it, and painted it on the outside. [So] we had that house in pretty good shape when the Navy took it. [But] the Navy paid us [only] 2000 bucks for the whole ball game [in 1943]. ... Grandmother had some beautiful china -- Wedgewood, I guess -- blue. A wonderful set. They took everything. When it was abandoned, people came over. People came from off-island and ransacked the house, after it was abandoned."

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THE JOSEPH B. REED FAMILY Joseph B. Reed has been mentioned in connection with the Waldo Company and the Waldo Hotel. Because he ultimately became a Probate Judge in Portland, Reed was usually referred to by the other island cottagers as "Judge Reed".

He and Alfaretta Almira Snare were married in Portland in December, 1898, he then being 40 and she 27.

Both were born in Orrington, Maine, a town on the Penobscot River below Bangor. Their daughters were Josephine, born May 16, 1902, and Gertrude, born Sept. 25, 1906.

After they had their own cottage built on the island, somewhat later than 1900, they used it every summer, and Mrs. Reed and their two daughters continued its use after his death.

Mrs. Reed's mother's first name was also Alfaretta. That unusual name also persisted into at least one more Little Chebeague generation, being given to one of the daughter's of Mrs. Reed's nephew, Walter Snare Kenney, later the owner of two of the island cottages. That grand-niece, however, was generally known as "Roe". One of her sisters, now Jessie Kenney Francis, said that her family referred to the Reed's as "Aunt Ally" and "Uncle Joe".

Mrs. Reed's father, Elisha Snare, was, like J. B. Reed's father, a sea-captain. According to Gertrude Reed Gould, Captain Snare's ships carried lumber from the Bangor area to the West Indies, returning with cargos of cigars and rum. Captain Reed's voyages took him to such places as India and Italy, from where he brought home items of furniture and art works such as alabaster statues. Mrs. Gould wrote that her family had one of those statues, titled "Venus Surprised at her Bath".

Although Reed had been manager of the Waldo in its early seasons (a July-August job only, except for the necessary off-season duties), owner Sidney W. Sea was referred to as its manager in the newspaper articles about the hotel's loss by fire in 1893. Presumably Reed continued in some capacity in H. B. Cleaves' law firm after that, and worked on his own as a lawyer after Cleaves' death in 1912. He was one of the several persons given substantial bequests in Cleaves' will; some of the others are known to have been on the office staff. He served as register of probate for eight years before being elected Judge of Probate court in 1918. He was, at age 70, one of the oldest active attorneys in the Cumberland County when, in mid-May of 1928 he suddenly suffered what the newspaper vaguely called "heart trouble" which confined him to bed. He died at home on May 30th.

The front-page newspaper article about his death, in the Portland Press Herald for May 31, 1928, included the following: Mr. Reed's prominent connection as a lawyer and judge of Cumberland County had made him a leading figure among those in his profession and in 1927 he was elected president of the Cumberland Bar Association. He was a members [sic] of the Ancient Landmark Lodge of Masons, and a Shriner, a member of the Portland Club and a past president of the Lincoln club.

Kindly administration of justice, intense sympathy for those in trouble and keeness [sic] of humor were among the attributes which particularly distinguished Judge Reed and made him revered by members of the bar and those citizens with whom he came in contact. By the virtue of his office, he was called upon to settle numerous disputes among members of families, based on estates and their settlements, and it was because of his sagacity that few appeals from his decisions ever were made.

Judge Reed was a deep thinker and a great scholar, keenly interested in his work and also in the affairs of State, nation and world. What seemed to him right, won his unqualified approval, as vigorously manifested as his opposition to those things seemingly wrong. He had the happy faculty of relieving a tense situation by injecting a bit of scintillating Yankee humor. To watch him on the bench was to gain an impression of his indubitable fairness. His work as Probate Court judge was his passion and that he did it wonderfully well long ago became tradition.

He is survived by his wife, who was Alfretta A. Snare; two daughters, Josephine and Gertrude; two brothers, Walter Reed of Bangor and Henry C. Reed of Oregon; also a sister, Mrs. Grace Reed Goff of this city.

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The funeral will be at 2.30 [sic] o'clock, daylight saving time, Friday afternoon at the Masonic Temple. Interment will be in Evergreen Cemetery. ____________________

The Reed lot in Evergreen Cemetery contains only two small stones, one for the Judge and the other for his daughter Josephine. She worked as a stenographer in Portland, and, in 1936, married Robert E. Burns. According to the entries in several Portland City Directories, he was a "department supervisor" and later an "accountant" in the U. S. Treasury Dept. After living several years in Portland and South Portland, they moved to Washington, D.C., apparently in 1941. Josephine died there November 30, 1955. They had no children.

Gertrude married Irvin Noyce Gould in 1934 or 35 and moved to Cambridge, MA. Gould was a native of Portland who had spent some time as a merchant sailor before going into the fruit juice business in Florida and then into advertising. They made their home in Watertown, MA for many years, having no children. Mr. Gould died at 91 in 1994, and Gertrude moved to Largo, Florida in the fall of 1995. She died there on April 25, 1996.

After Judge Reed's death, Mrs. Reed remained in the family home, 208 High Street in Portland, until 1938 or 39. The directories show that she subsequently lived with a Mrs. Geneva Talbot on Brentwood Street in Portland.

Probably because Mrs. Talbot died in 1953, Alfaretta Reed moved to some other location, vanishing from the Portland directories. According to her death record in the Massachusetts Vital Statistics Office, she had lived with Gertrude in Watertown for about a year, but was at another address (probably a nursing home) for a further 6 months before she died at 95 in March 1967.

After we located Gertrude in early 1996, she sent two letters containing recollectons of her father and the island. The following are excerpts from them: "He [Henry Cleaves] had my father run the hotel July and Aug. The people who came to the hotel were from Washington, D. C. area (probably due to Cleaves' contacts). One 4th of July a firecracker lodged in the Waldo roof and it burned down. They were able to save most of the paintings and furniture and it was put into different cottages. The old cottages didn't have kitchens as they ate in the hotel. None had modern plumbing."

"About 1906 my father built a large cottage with 5 bedrooms, maid's quarters and modern plumbing, a pantry with slate sink, a lavatory off the dining room, etc.... It was across the road [the dirt road from the wharf to the farm] from the grove and the other cottages. There were no trees around it, except two small fruit trees. The wide porch extended on three sides and had three sets of steps.... He owned the 'Yellow Cottage' and the 'Red Cottage' and put modern plumbing in them. I am told when the [Navy] used the big cottage dining room, they had put a 15' bar in there. It would have amused my father, as he didn't approve of prohibition."

"The [sand]bar between the two islands [the two Chebeague's] was famous for many, many years for clams.

The Indians came down the Falmouth Foreside and paddled over for clams. Some of the Indians settled on Gt. Chebeague."

"I spent every summer, until I was 26, on the island. We had a windmill and we kids were told to pull down the [brake] lever if the wind was too strong. It took at least two of us to hang on the bar to get it down. ...The well and windmill were down over the hill (east side). The island had very many springs and the "well" was a spring there... We had a high water tank, and some of the kids used to climb up there -- not me!"

"My father, then Judge Reed, belonged to many clubs in Portland and they would come for an outing each summer. The Mason's came down, the Bar Assoc. came, and the Reform School came. My sister and I waited on tables.

They all had clams, corn, watermelon, etc., and the women on the island would bake apple pies."

"We had a huge veg. garden. I'd help my father plant the potatoes. He'd dig and I'd place the cut up pieces.

Every Sat. my sister and I would take vegetables and flowers to the islanders (gifts). [The vegetable garden was

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Judge Reed's, and was on the side of the big cottage toward Long Island. Mrs. Reed had a flower garden on the other side, toward the then-(and still-)empty cellar-hole remaining from the hotels.]"

"We got our mail from Gt. Chebeague Isl. At low tide we would walk over. We always had a cat (for mice) and she would go with us. One day we lost her, and looked back and she had collapsed at top of hill. At least she gave her last bit of strength to us. We would go back and carry her home, and she'd go again and again.â&#x20AC;? From the Reed cottage to the mailbox was a walk of about a mile each way -- in one round-trip, over 3200 footsteps for a twolegged human, but 16 times that many for the four short legs of a cat.

"When Germany surrendered [on November 11, 1918], the kids on Long Island went down to the point nearest us and yelled "GERMANY HAS SURRENDERED!" (No radios) Then we ran down towards Gt. Chebeague and yelled the same to them!"

It seems unusual for any cottagers to have been on the island as late as November, even on weekends.

However, in 1918, the 11th was a Monday and the armistice took effect at 11 am in Europe, hence 6 am in Maine, so the

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news of the agreement may have been available on Sunday, the 10th. Jack Doyle told of his staying on the island into November in the 1940's, using his own boat to commute to work directly to the Burnham & Morrill plant's own landing.

Roger Fogg said he "knew Judge Reed very well. He was nice to me, and nice to the family, all the time. I knew him well enough to stop and talk with him. I used to ride the horse while he plowed his garden out in front of his house there. The garden was right out front, towards Long Island. That was the only garden that I know of [on the island]. Of course, George Reed, that owned the other cottage down on the way over to Great Chebeague, he had a little garden down there, but it didn't amount to much. I don't think they [the two Reed's] were related at all. George was manager of Armour and Co., in Portland. My dad worked for him for two years, as his secretary." [Gertrude said that there was no connection between the two Reed families.]

Roger Fogg also tells that "Judge Reed had a very bulbous nose and a very nervous habit. He'd come over, if my father was there, and talk with my Dad quite a lot. And he'd sit in a chair and "Huhuhuhmm!", and he'd scratch his nose. The more excited he got, of course, the more he scratched his nose. The more he scratched his nose, the bigger and redder his nose got."

"In World War I, in Portland Harbor, they had searchlights going continually all night long, because they were afraid of Zeppelin raids. There were newspaper stories around here about the Zeppelin raids in Great Britain. I slept in that bedroom that faced the farm, and I can recall that light going thru the window, every night. Every three or four seconds, that would make a turn and come right in that window. After a while, you got so used to it it didn't bother you at all. And Judge Reed came over one night and he said, 'Put out the lights, Bob! [Roger's father, Edwin A. Fogg, Jr., was called Bob] Put out the lights! We're going to have a raid! The Zeppelins -- one of the Zeppelins has been sighted!'

And he said, 'Make sure everything's darkened down.' That's all I recall of that."

Of the cottages near the grove, only the J. B. Reed cottage, seen here off the stern of the Merriconeag, was clearly visible to passing steamboat passengers, as were the farmhouse and barn. In this photo from Great Chebeague, the wharf and the G. Reed/Prichett cottage are hidden on the right. Postcard photo taken after Judge Reedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cottage was built about 1903 and before the Merriconeag burned at Orrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Island in 1918.

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THE HENRY A. BAILEY FAMILY Born February 20, 1865, Henry Alvah Bailey was the fourth of the eight children of Charles and Harriet Bailey. He married Abbie French of Dresden, ME, born August 15, 1865. They also had eight children. At the time of their going to the island, they had three daughters, Amy Etta, born March 30, 1885; Albertis C. (Bertha), born February 3, 1889; and Florence E., born September 22, 1891. Three other children had not survived: these were Lizzie, born June 17, 1887, died June 11, 1892; Henry, born and died 1893; and Charles, born and died 1895.

Their move was done on a scow which took them, their household furnishings, and some livestock down the Sheepscot River past Wiscasset, around Small Point (the northeasterly end of Casco Bay) and then to the island in the southern part of the Bay. The total trip must have covered over fifty miles by water.

On the day before leaving their former home, the family had traveled to Gardiner and had, among other errands (one of which will be mentioned shortly), sat for a family portrait at a photographer's studio. One print that included the whole family is still in the possession of Bertha's grandson, Philip Lee. Others of individual family members were also taken. In later years, Amy commented to her daughter Hilda that she didn't know why her father had insisted on having those pictures taken then, "as if we were going to the end of the earth!"

Hilda tells another story of one of those pictures. "Once, when we were visiting Grandpa up to the Cleaves Cottage [after Bailey had retired from running the farm], Norma [Hilda's younger sister] and I went down and went thru the farmhouse, and in the upstairs bedroom, I think it was probably Mr. Fogg's bedroom, there were all these goldframed pictures stacked against the wall. And I took the one that was made of my mother from that group picture. And I took it home, and I hung it up in my bedroom, over my bed... And I don't remember what happened to it."

Bertha had reason to dislike that picture, for she appears in it, recorded for all posterity, wearing a clearly muchworn pair of shoes. Hilda: "Oh, she was so mad! Always, even after she was grown up. You bring that picture anywhere near her, she said 'My father took me after we had the picture taken, and bought me new shoes!'"

Henry and Abbie had two more children after moving to the island. Ralph A. was born May 2, 1898, and Frank Wendell Palmer on April 5, 1900. Abbie died on January 1, 1903 of complications from a case of measles. At that time, Amy was nearly 18 and was working in a store at Orr's Island. She returned home to be the woman of the family until, in the fall of 1910, she married Adelbert ("Bert") Stockbridge, later to be the long-time captain of the Casco Bay & Harpswell Lines' (and later the Casco Bay Lines') vessel, "Emita". Their daughter Hilda told that her father, when mate of the steamer “Aucocisco”, was told by Captain Charles Morrill, “Get a Bailey girl. Best in the Bay.” It was at about that time that Dora Fogg and her father joined the family, she as housekeeper and he as a boarder.

Bailey's two boys grew up entirely on the island, going to grade school on Long Island and to high school in Portland. Family lore tells of their walking to school in Portland on the ice in some winter when the Bay froze too solid for the steamers to make their runs. Like the farm hands and some of the summer-resident boys, they learned to work with their hands on the farm, in the shop, and at wharf-repairing and house-moving locations on various islands. Ralph came to like working with metal, Frank with wood. According to Roger Fogg, "Frank and Ralph were awfully good, cracker-jack mechanics." Ralph became a machinist adept at the maintenance of both steam and internal-combustion engines. Frank learned cabinet-making and wood-carving under the old apprentice system, and became a master craftsman in those arts, and eventually a teacher of them.

Other "members" of the family included various farm hands, some of them nephews or other relatives of Henry. The names of some are known. One was Berlim Bailey, probably a son of one of Henry's younger brothers, Benjamin, who lived in New Hampshire. Two others were Earl Stanley Robinson and his brother Roland, whose mother was a Perkins and a relative of Annette (Mrs. Joshua) Jenks. Milton Webber and his brother Wesley lived on the farm as teen-agers, after their parents died; Milton became Henry's protege. The Casco Bay Directory for 1933-35 mentions a Lawrence Taylor as an "employee" and both he and his wife Alice as "boarders" at Bailey's. Roger Fogg tells of a Cedric Reynolds, and both Rachel Innes and Hilda Noyes recall a "Georgie" Reynolds, who continued working for Bailey after the latter moved to the Cleaves cottage. Roger's version is that Henry not only gave those young people work, but also much of their education.

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Roger: "Everybody that he brought to work there, you know, from up in Alna or those places, or the Webbers, he put thru high school. ... There was Stanley [Robinson], and Milton [Webber], and Milton's brother [Wesley], and the last one was Cedric [Reynolds]. ... He [Cedric] had a terrible scar. As a kid working up in the woods, a tree had fallen down and hit him on the side of the head and in those days -- they didn't think he was going to live, so they just hauled him into the house and left him there. And it healed that way and he lost that eye, and that whole side of his face was -you know -- crushed in." After Roger left the island and ran, for a time, a farm in Scarborough, Cedric worked with him there. Rachel Innes also remembers Cedric, since he visited at her family's house in Portland after the island was lost, and says that, although disfigured, he was a very nice and gentle person.

Roger: "Henry was a great man for practical learning. I'll tell you another one. That was one instance. We were down on the pier. We were putting in a 4-by-10 hard pine plank across the front of the wharf. We had put in I guess a

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couple of new piling there. And this was the last board that we put on -- a plank, really -- a bumper plank on the front.

And Cedric Reynolds was there, and he was out on the end of it. Well, it was so that he couldn't stand on the wharf with his right hand and saw the board off, and of course, in those days, everything was done by hand, y'know. So he had turned around, and he was standing on the end of the plank, like this, sawing like this back against the pier, and I started to run across and Henry grabbed me, pulled me right off my feet. 'What are you doing?' I says, ‘ I'm going to tell Cedric that the first thing you know, he's going to be down there in the -- seven feet in the water.' So he never said a thing, and Cedric was sawing away and all of a sudden 'Crack!' and down he went, see? Saw and Cedric -- well, the whole works.

So we went and rescued him and got him down -- got him around the pier and got him back and got him up on it, and Henry said to me, 'Now,' he said 'look: if you'd gone over and told Cedric what he was doing wrong', he said, 'He wouldn't have remembered that for two minutes. But,' he says, 'after that dunking in that salt water, he'll remember that all the rest of his life.'"

After leaving the island, Henry lived for a time with Amy. He died in a nursing home in Hallowell on 01 November 1944.

All of Henry's own children had close associations with the various steamboats and motor vessels serving the islands. As has been mentioned, Amy's husband captained the diesel vessel "Emita". Bertha married Lester Hill, who worked in the freight shed for the Casco Bay Lines. Florence herself worked in the company's office. Ralph's work was frequently on the power plants of those vessels, and Frank had, in his younger days, served as deckhand and as purser.

Rachel Innes says she seldom made a trip to or from the island without meeting one older relative or another, either on the boats or on Custom House Wharf, from which the boats then operated.

Amy and Bert Stockbridge had four daughters and one son -- Brenda, Selma (Sally), John, Hilda, and Norma. Their home was on Munjoy Hill in Portland and they had a cottage on the east end of Long Island, near the former Cleaves Landing. They never lived on Little Chebeague, but their cottage was close enough to it that they (especially the youngest, Hilda and Norma) could row over to visit at the farm. Amy died August 18, 1973, at the age of 88. Brenda married Ralph Kiersted, Sally became Mrs. Robert Poland, and John married Marjorie [?]. Hilda married Sewell Noyes; they lived in the mainland part of the Town of Cumberland and had four children. Norma’s husband was Lawrence Carpenter. Hilda and Sally have been sources for some of the information given herein about their parents and grandparents. Hilda has also contributed short personal-history articles about her father and her grandfather to Down East magazine and to the "www.cascobay.com" website. Hilda was the last survivor of Amy’s children. She died 01 September 2001.

Bertha and Lester Hill also lived on Munjoy Hill, not far from the Stockbridges. They had two daughters, Florence and Phyllis. Florence married Henry Coradi and moved to Quincy, MA. Phyllis married Howard Lee; they lived in Portland and had one child, Philip. In the middle 1930's, the Hill's built a camp, which they called Camp Green, on part of the Cleaves cottage lot that Henry Bailey had bought. They stayed there mainly on weekends, and their daughters' families were frequent visitors. When the Navy took the island in 1943, the Hills bought a cottage on Little Diamond Island. Both Bertha and Lester died in an auto accident in 1962. Florence Coradi died in 1988, about three years after her husband. Howard Lee died in September 1965, and Phyllis in February 1991. Philip Lee, who never stayed on Little Chebeague, being born after the island camp was lost, has nevertheless been a source of much information about his family, the island, the steamboats, and the general history of Casco Bay. He and his wife, Barbara, living in Portand, now have and still use the Little Diamond cottage that his grandparents bought.

Florence Bailey married Harold Pennell and had one daughter, a "blue baby" who died when only 22 days old.

After they separated, she worked subsequent to 1920 as a clerk and then as a buyer for the J.R. Libby [dry goods] Co. on Congress Street in Portland. She and Marion S. Hannaford of Cape Elizabeth established and ran the Hannaford & Pennell Dry Goods Co. on St. John Street in Portland, from about 1923 until 1928. During much of that time, she lived with her sister Amy's family. Beginning about 1930, she worked in the Casco Bay Lines office for about 25 years as bookkeeper and ticket clerk, then going under her maiden surname of Bailey. Leaving that job at 65, she became bookkeeper for the P. Reuben plumbing company, located first in Portland and then in Falmouth, where she then had a house. She died April 15, 1976.

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Ralph married Celia Curit of Great Chebeague on October 25, 1919. After leaving the island to live on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Ralph Sr. worked for Williams Bros., Machinists, on Custom House Wharf, where some of his work was on the island steamboats and motor vessels. He provided Capt. Wm. Frappier with source material about the island boats for Frappier's history, "Steamboat Yesterdays on Casco Bay". He and Celia had a cottage on Great Chebeague.

They had two sons, Ralph Jr., and Everett. Ralph Sr. died April 3, 1976.

Roger Fogg said that some of the boats Ralph worked on were suspected to be rum-runners. “They used to put those twin Liberty engines in those rum-runners." Liberty engines were, at that time, state-of-the-art ones, originally designed for use in WWI aircraft. A twin-screw speedboat with two such engines could out-run about anything else afloat then. During Prohibition, the liquor smugglers' mode of operation was that ocean-going ships with cargos of European liquor would lie outside the "three-mile limit" of U.S. jurisdiction, and independently-owned small, fast "rumrunner" speedboats would go out, buy part of the cargo, and try to bring it ashore without being detected or caught. Since the 1920's were a time when similar boats were also used recreationally, a person could not know for sure which were used partly or wholly for illegal purposes, though one could often make a good guess, as could the authorities. Roger: "Usually we had, at the island, a Coast Guard boat would stop one night and rum runners would stop the next night and tie up at the pier. So they never had any shortage of gasoline on Little Chebeague." Gasoline was a necessary island commodity by then, but could not be shipped on the public ferries.

Ralph Jr. married Leslie Elizabeth ("Betty") Jenks, a granddaughter of Joshua and Nettie. They lived on the mainland in the town of Cumberland, but in sight of the Chebeagues. Betty provided much information for this history, particularly that from her grandfather's diary and from the 1877 Joseph Warner drawing of the island. She died in July 1994, several years after Ralph.

I will dwell considerably on Frank Bailey, mostly because I knew him well and have much more information on his life. If any better excuse is needed in a history of the island, let it be that Frank has whatever distinction may come from being the last person to be born and brought up on Little Chebeague Island, and probably will hold that position for a long time, now that the island has become park property.

Like his siblings, Frank attended grade school on Long Island. He graduated from Portland High School in 1918 and attended for another post-graduate year. He told of someone's having offered to help pay for his attending college, where Frank hoped to study chemistry. However, his father vetoed that because he said he needed Frank on the farm. That potential benefactor may have been Judge Reed or some other island property owner, but no name was ever mentioned. Frank began his professional education in cabinet-making and woodcarving in 1919 as an apprentice in the shop of furniture maker Otto Lange, on Union Street in Portland, living in the city with his oldest sister, Amy Stockbridge. He completed his apprenticeship in 1927 and continued to work there for another year.

At about that same time, according to a 1930 article in the Portland Sunday Telegram, he was an assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 30 of the Chestnut Street Church when it was formed in 1920 (another source says 1919); that troop later became Troop 8. In 1922 he was scoutmaster of Troop 16 of the Italian Mission, and in 1923 held a like position with the Portland Boys' Club troop. During the summers of 1921-23 he was assistant superintendent of Boy Scout summer camps at Little Chebeague, North Sebago, and Bonny Eagle Pond.

He married Zola Frances Haskell in Portland on September 1, 1923. Zola was born in Mechanics Falls, ME on April 5, 1903 (her birthday and Frank's falling on the same day). They had one daughter, Rachel Minnette (now Mrs. Richard Innes), born December 10, 1925 in Portland. She has been a source not only of information about her family and island life, but also of the author's initial interest in the island, and of course a bridge to other former island residents who have contributed verbal and pictorial information.

Examples of Frank’s carved work are in the interiors of the Canal National Bank and St. Luke's Cathedral, and the home of novelist/historian Kenneth Roberts. The St. Luke’s carving was done in Boston during his employment by Lange. The work had been contracted to a Boston shop where some German carvers were then working. Frank: “They were Bavarian woodcarvers from Oberammergau, you know. And they came over here to -expressly for the purpose of getting away from the passion play which they put on every ten years, because they'd been -- they was getting to be old and the young understudies had no chance to do it, so they deliberately come over

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to this country to -- so they’d [the understudies would] have to put on this passion play. And they come over here, as I say, and they was working at what – it’s now [this was in a 1970 recording] R. C. Davenport, but was Irving [Kessen?] at that time, in Boston, and that was when they made the St. Luke's Cathedral carvings up here… That was just about before I was married. [So it was about at the time of the 1920 Oberammergau production.] …And of course they was -- they were what they call Rhenish carvers, and they don't do any acanthus work at all, and so that's how I got in the picture. I made the acanthus band, that's all.” Acanthus is a Mediterranian weed similar to a thistle, whose leaves were much used as a basis for decorative carved designs in Greek art and in more recent art following that tradition.

“I worked next to this man who played the part of Christ, you know, and it was the most amazing thing, because he had the benign countenance and the beard -- oh, he was a wonderful man. But, as I say, they all went back afterwards, after the passion play, with the exception of one. That's Joseph Meyer. He is now the head of the Black Forest Players, that goes all over the United States. Has been ever since --- I guess they still do. I don't know.

They did the last I knew. The strange thing was that during the second World War, …every one of them was a Nazi follower but the one that played Judas Iscariot, and he'd have nothing to do with the damn' Nazis, and he was supposed to be the traitor! The only one of them that had the education -- ducked to get out of sight before they put him away because he was the only one who was really loyal to the old German regime… There was quite a write-up one time about it, after the war and after the trials and so forth.”

In 1928 he and Zola moved to New Gloucester, where he taught manual training and was assistant superintendent of Opportunity Farm, a home for boys. He returned to Lange’s in 1929 and stayed there until 1935, and then began a long teaching career in the Portland schools. What he liked best was his work in the "un-graded schools" as the ones for learning-disabled students were then called. He left that to become head of the Industrial Arts Department of Deering High School from 1943 to 1956, but returned to his favorite duty at the Staples school until he retired in the late 1960's.

During his teaching years, Frank also carried on his profession from a shop in the basement of his Portland home, not only making custom furniture, but also restoring antiques and, in some cases, building reproductions of antiques. One such reproduction was a copy of General Peleg Wadsworth's bed. Peleg was a grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and his original bed had gone to the "Tate House" in Stroudwater. When the Maine Historical Society wanted a copy of it to put in their Wadsworth house in Portland (now called the "Longfellow House"), they turned to Frank Bailey to make it from photographs supplied by the Tate House owners. He had done some similar work at Lange’s, when the Society had first aquired the house and was having its furnishings restored. He later continued that work (including the making of that bed) in his home shop.

Always a teacher, he welcomed to his shop a small group of serious amateur furniture makers who used his space, tools, and advice one evening a week to create their own pieces, many of them quite complex and beautiful.

Those in the group came to call themselves the Cellar Rats, and it included a dairy farmer, a lawyer, a postman, the president of an insurance company (later Unum), an office clerk, and an architect, in a somewhat varying membership over many years.

Frank and his family continued a closer relationship with Little Chebeague than did any of his siblings.

Sometime in the early 1900's, real estate developers had tried to market lots on the west end of Great Chebeague, calling their project Sunset Shores, and they built Sunset Landing to provide boat service to it. However, only a couple of the lots sold, and the wharf eventually was destroyed by winter ice. When the ice deposited the wharf's waiting room on the Little Chebeague shore, Henry and Frank salvaged it, hauled it to part of Henry's Cleaves-Cottage lot, and fitted it out as a camp. In that process, they cut it in half and added a mid-section to make it longer.

The term, "camp", is often used by Mainers for their summer homes, rather than calling them "cottages", but another reason for that term in this case was that, unlike the fully-finished and nicely furnished cottages then on the island, this was a 2x4-and-boards structure with only curtains hung on wires to divide it into separate rooms. Because of its origin, and also since its new location was at the top of the steep bank and (like its predecessor wharf-house) on the sunset-viewing side of the island, they named it "Camp Sunset". By that time, Frank was teaching and had his summers free. So he and his family stayed in their "Camp Sunset" during several summers until the Navy took the island.

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When the Hill's later built their Camp Green, it was built from scratch, but was a mirror image of Camp Sunset, and the two faced each other along a 65-foot door-to-door clamshell-paved path, Camp Green being nearer to Henry's cottage. By then, Henry's shop at the farm had, like the other farm buildings, deteriorated, so Frank built a new woodworking shop beside Camp Green. Before those camps were built, and probably before the Stockbridges bought their Long Island cottage, Amy's and Bertha's families had tent-camped on the island.

Because Zola's mother, Mrs. Mary (Mamie) Haskell, and Zola's sister, Rachel E. Haskell, lived with Frank and Zola in Portland, they also became summer residents of the island. This Mary Haskell (originally a Crooker) came from the Mechanic Falls area and was not related to the Mary Haskell (originally an Adams) who owned the Haskell Cottage on the opposite side of the Cleaves Cottage, nor were their husbands related.

Rachel Haskell later married Stanley Robinson, mentioned earlier as one of Henry's farm hands, but that did not occur until years after he had left the island. Meanwhile, Stanley had gone "hoboing" for some years, returning to Maine occasionally, sometimes working at Lange's with Frank during these returns. After he and Rachel were married, they lived in Bath where he worked at the Bath Iron Works before and during World War II. He later became caretaker of a farm outside of Auburn and they lived in the farmhouse there. The property was owned by Frank Peck, founder and at that time still the owner of Peck's department store in Lewiston, which later was purchased by Filene's. Mr. and Mrs. Peck lived in a modern home built on the property. Since Peck had been crippled in a hunting accident as a young man, Stanley also acted as both chauffeur and general handyman, a good job for one of Henry Bailey's students. Some years after Stanley died, Rachel married John Germond, an Auburn heating and ventilating engineer and the father of newspaper political columnist Jack Germond.

Boy Scouting started in the U.S. in 1910. Just when Frank Bailey became interested in it we do not know, but his interest was deep and lasted him a lifetime. He may have been a "Lone Scout", or perhaps got into the organization only after starting high school in the fall of 1914. In 1920, the Portland Evening Express mentioned that the local scout council had a summer camp on Little Chebeague Island. One suspects Frank's hand in that, but it may instead have been Judge Reed's, since, as a probate judge, he was interested in the welfare of youngsters, and he (in effect, at least) owned most of the island.

By the 1930's, Frank was the "Skipper" of the Sea Scout Ship "Dash". A "ship" was equivalent to a Boy Scout "troop" (the "Dash" was Troop 11A), its skipper being equivalent to a scoutmaster. So the island became a place where the teen-age crew of that ship went to do weekend sailing in cat-rigged knockabouts. Most often the trip to the island was via one of the island steamers, but a few times it was in an open navy-surplus motorboat belonging to the Scout council.

On the island, they sometimes stayed in the Cleaves cottage with Henry and Dora, but mostly used the loft over Frank's shop.

Island property owners were notified in either late 1942 or early 1943 that the Navy intended to take those properties. Although they did not complete the legal steps until 1943, they began to use the island in 1942. In that year, Frank began to spend his summers supervising the craft program at the Boy Scouts' Camp William Hinds on Panther Pond in Raymond, which the Pine Tree Council had established in 1927. There he founded and was active in a local unit of the "Order of the Arrow", a scouting honor society drawing on American Indian costuming and rituals. By the time he gave up serving at the camp about 30 years later, he had become its "second-in-command".

The current craft shop and one of the campâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s camping sections are named for him.

Frank died of leukemia in January 1974, in Portland. Zola died in August 1991, after having moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan to be near her daughter, who then lived outside that city. Rachel had completed her nursing training at the Maine General Hospital in Portland (now the Maine Medical Center) in 1946 and passed the exam to be a Registered Nurse. She married Richard B. Innes, then of South Portland, in October 1946 and they had four children.

They now live in Portland.

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THE FOGGS AND RELATED FAMILIES A family having one of the longest-running connections with Little Chebeague was that of Edwin A. Fogg, Sr. and the next two generations of his descendants. Grandfather Fogg himself never owned any island property, but was a long-time cottage renter. He spent the last decades of his life there as a year-round resident of the farmhouse, and eventually died while residing there. Seven of his eight children spent many of their youthful summers on the island, and four of them continued their association with it as adults with their own children.

Edwin Augustus Fogg, Sr. Mr. Fogg was born on House Island in Portland harbor on January 31, 1848, a son of Jacob Fogg and Martha R. Fogg. His mother had gone to the island to be with her mother. He was brought up in Portland. He told his grandson, Roger Fogg, of driving across the frozen harbor to visit his grandmother on House Island when, later, she lived alone on the farm there. While in Portland High School, he was a member of the Portland Cadets, a group which received some degree of military training. Apparently it was on an impulse that, on his way home from school on March 23, 1865, he enlisted for duty in the on-going (but nearly finished) Civil War. He was then only two months over seventeen, but on his enlistment declaration, gave his age as one year older, so that the “Consent in case of Minor” section of the form was not filled in. His enlistment description states that he was 5 ft. 7 in. tall, with light complexion, light hair, and hazel eyes. He also listed his occupation as “Bookkeeper”, rather than student.

He was mustered into Co. D, 1st Regiment, 1st Battalion of Maine Volunteers at Augusta, ME, on April 5, 1865, and also received the first $33 of his $100 enlistment bounty. Perhaps it was because of his Cadet training that Private Fogg was immediately made a Corporal. His unit became part of the 19th Army corps, and he must have gone to active duty without further training, since he said he was on guard duty outside Washington, D.C. when Lincoln was shot on April 14th. Being so young when he joined, and the war being near its end then, he was one of the youngest, hence longest-surviving, Civil War veterans when he died in 1929.

In spite of his short length of service (the last fighting occurred in May), he was wounded. On his “Company Muster Roll” card for July and August 1865, he was listed as “Absent -- In Hospital, Charleston, S.C.” His Sep-Nov Muster Roll card has “ Absent sick in Hosp. Charleston, S.C. since Aug. 25, 65”. His military record in the National Archives also contains Muster Roll cards for the U. S. Army Post Hospital, Charleston, S.C., showing him to have been “Attached to hospital” as of August 21, and “Transferred to Gen’l Hospital Sept 2/65”. Although his enlistment had been for a full year, he was discharged “For Disability” on September 14, 1865, in New York City after slightly less than six months’ service. He apparently did not receive the remainder of his bounty, which would have been for each of the other two thirds of his original enlistment period. His records show $36.07 as “Am’t for cloth’g in kind or money adv’d” (advanced), which sounds like a charge rather than a payment to him.

Roger Fogg tells of being allowed to feel a bullet remaining in his grandfather’s leg. He says his grandfather told of being in an army hospital and of the doctors’ intention to amputate his leg. But as the young soldier watched several other patients become amputees and then die, he decided to keep his leg and live, so he left the hospital. Because he was so young at that time, and was 81 when he finally died, he may have outlived the doctors.

By the time he left military service, his family had relocated to Chelsea, MA, and it was there that he went to convalesce. After he married Rose Ann Bartley, they lived in various other places in the Boston area, including Maplewood, Everett, and Somerville. They had eight children: Medora Bartlett, born Feb. 14, 1875 in Leominster, MA; Jacob (probably named for his father’s father), born in 1877 and died in the same year; Harriet Ellen, born in 1878, died in 1909; Edwin A., Jr, born November 4, 1879; Esther, born June 5th, 1883, Eunice, born November 5th, 1885; Rose, born December 24, 1886; and Emily Sue, born April 17, 1890.

Roger: “He had a tremendous horseshoe and [livery] stable [business] in Boston. He owned a complete block between Chardon St. and Friend St. in Boston, right opposite the North Station. And that’s another story -- I understood

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that he had won $80,000 in the Louisiana lottery, and that’s where he and his brother, who was a veterinarian, got money enough to get started in this business in Boston. And it developed into a tremendous business.”

At one time, he was an inspector of some kind, and in the course of that work, was pushed into an elevator shaft. He fell several stories, and his injuries included a fractured skull. Although he (obviously) survived, his skull healed with one side of the break projecting above the other. In addition to that trauma, his wife died shortly after the birth of their eighth child in 1890. According to the custom then, his oldest daughter, Medora (“Dora”), became the surrogate mother for the family. That summer, he began taking the children to Diamond Island, Maine, about four miles down Casco Bay from Portland. After a few summers, the life there became too social for his liking, and he began taking them to Little Chebeague instead, their summer home there being the Yellow Cottage. If social life was not his thing, this move probably took place after the Waldo Hotel burned in 1893.

Fogg’s connection with Little Chebeague became a permanent thing. He spent his retirement years at the island farm with the family of Henry A. Bailey, and there he stayed until he died. Since Bailey’s wife had died when their youngest son was only three, their eldest daughter, Amy, had come home from her job in an Orr’s Island store to care for her father’s remaining family. But, in 1910, Amy married a Chebeague islander, Bert Stockbridge (later to be the Captain of the Casco Bay Lines vessel “Emita”), and they moved to Portland. So a part of Fogg’s original arrangement with Bailey was that Dora would stay with him and would be housekeeper for Bailey, whose two sons, Ralph and Frank, were still in school.

The Portland City Directories first listed Mr. Fogg and Dora as Little Chebeague residents “boarding with H. A. Bailey” in its 1917 edition, but they probably started living there earlier. Fogg’s first application for his Civil War pension was filed in 1910, when he became eligible at age 62. He then gave his address as Somerville, MA, and his application was witnessed there by two of his sons-in-law, Stuart Fearon and Ralph Nickerson. A further questionnaire which he completed in August still showed his address as Somerville, but was filled out in Portland and witnessed by Joseph B. Reed and Henry A. Bailey. In it, his height was 5 ft. 9 in., and the answer to “What is your present occupation” was “No occupation”.

In May of 1913, after a new 1912 law replaced the 1907 one under which he was being paid his original pension, he applied for the increase available then. His address on those papers was the office of attorney Joseph Reed on Exchange St. in Portland, and stated that he had lived in Portland (actually the Portland portion of Little Chebeague) for three years. Apparently the pension office had, this time, noted the discrepancy in birth dates on his enlistment and pension papers, because he was asked to provide proof of his correct birth date. That led to a new round, because there were two errors in the official birth record provided to Fogg by the Portland City Clerk’s office.

The records of that office had his birthday as the last day of February rather than of January in 1848, and also gave his mother’s name as Matilda rather than Martha. She, then 83 years old, made a trip to Portland from her home in Auburn to sign an affadavit prepared by J. B. Reed, attesting to those corrections. After all that effort on the part of several persons, Fogg got his pension increased -- from $12 a month to $13 a month.

When, or how many times, that amount was raised again does not show in the records, but after Dora, in a short letter addressed to the Director of Pensions, told of her father’s death in April of 1929 and returned a final check received in May, the official form closing his file stated that he was “last paid at the rate of $65 per month”.

Medora B. Fogg Dora then continued as housekeeper for Bailey and his various hired hands in the farmhouse. Of the six Fogg sisters, she was the only one who never married. As one of her nephews put it, she “gave up her life for her father”.

One condition that Dora had set was that a bathroom, with a tub and a chemical toilet, be built for her in the farmhouse. The privy used by the farm menfolk was at the far end of the 90-foot-long barn, which was separated from the house by another 50 feet or so of sheds. When Bailey retired from farming and moved into the cottage formerly owned by Governor Cleaves, Dora went along to that new home. At that time, the small upstairs bathroom of that

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building was enlarged, perhaps at her insistence. However, Hilda Noyes says that it was not used in the winter; probably running water for it was not available then.

Her acceptance of life as the only permanent-resident woman on an island with neither electricity nor telephones might make her seem like a recluse, but her nephews and nieces do not remember her as such. They tell of her playing the piano in the farmhouse (which also had a parlor organ), and of welcoming them into her home and kitchen. One niece, Marjorie Coggeshall (later Bates), recalls her mother, Dora’s sister Esther, telling that when they lived in Everett, Dora had a third floor room where she painted. Marjorie also recalls that, when she was about three, from “the cupboard behind the stove [in the island farmhouse] ... Aunt D. allowed me to pull out its contents of pots and pans and play for hours.” And she tells of the summer of 1920, when her mother was very ill and Marjorie and her sister Priscilla (Marjorie then being 7 and Priscilla only 4) were sent to the island to be in Dora’s care for the season, sharing Dora’s bed.

“How did that dear soul stand us?”, she wrote. “How tired she must have been! Aunt Dora was truly a saint and led a life of sacrifice. But she really lived, enjoyed people, children, nature, the stars. She used to take all the cousins out & teach us about the stars. She was a mother to her sisters & brother Bob [Edwin A., Jr.]. And to many, many as the years rolled by. After supper when we were kids, Aunt D. would walk us down to the Point [“Target Point”, in the pasture at the western end of the island] and tell us stories & give each a strip of Baker’s chocolate.”

The ten-acre grove of old oaks, pines, and beeches whose shade restricted undergrowth to a carpet of lilies-ofthe-valley, Dora called “Brownie Land”. She also wrote poems, such as this one which she called “Morning on the Bar”: “Bright and golden sunshine, Crisp and salty air; Noisy gulls and sea-birds, Beauty everywhere!

Shining stones and sea-shells, Ripples, soft and low; Distant tints of autumn In the morning glow.

Thankful thoughts and joyous Of the spell a part; A little prayer goes up to God From out a grateful heart!

Needless to say -- the tide was low at this time.

Dora Fogg November 4th 1939” (The sandbar connecting Little Chebeague to Great Chebeague was submerged at high tide, but from the middle of the outgoing ebb until the middle of the incoming flow, it provided a link for walking or riding between the islands.)

After radio broadcasting arrived, Dora had, as her “window on the world” of music and news, a crystal radio to which she could listen with earphones. This had been made for her by a brother-in-law, Stuart Fearon Sr. Like others of its time, its main component was a coil of wire wound on a cylindrical oatmeal box and connected to a long outdoor antenna wire.

When the U. S. Navy began to use the island as a recreation area in 1942, she and Bailey were allowed to remain in the Cleaves Cottage for a time, and they are remembered by some of the Navy personnel who met them then.

One of them, James D. Monroe, who made several work trips to care for the island, told his aunt about Dora, and the aunt wrote to her and sent along a small gift. Monroe had a copy of Dora’s answering letter:

`

Little Chebeague Is., Maine July 23rd, 1942

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Dear Mrs. Shaw: Your kind and very welcome letter came and also that dear little “hankie”, -- which I prize more than you will ever realize, - thank you so much for both, - I shall always keep them and feel that I have indeed a fine friend in the South! As to “Jim” - well, I did so little for him that it isn’t worth mentioning, - it is only a tiny reflection of what all of you folks in N. Carolina did last Fall when so many of our boys were at Fort Bragg, - I had two young nephews there and they have always told me since how very kind and generous you all were to them all the time they were there, - how you opened your homes to them and treated them just like your own!

So, I was so happy about it that I always said if we could I’d surely try to return the kindness as much as I could!

The minute I saw your boy I felt drawn to him, - such a good, quiet boy who showed at once the real home-training that he had had, - his thought for others etc, - and back of it all stood out the strong inluence of a wonderful mother!

You should indeed be proud of him, - I see him quite often, - he was here yesterday, as brown as a berry, and helping with the boys’ dinner on the beach, - he is always pleasant, - never complains, but I feel sure that he, like the others, is impatient to get away from the “barracks” and do “something”.

You see, the “Navy” has taken over most of this Island for Recreation Grounds for the sailors, - where they can play all kinds of games, - have picnics and clambakes and have good times, - there are a few cottages here where the owners can stay, but we are the only ones who have lived here this summer, - a few have come for week-ends, - so I’ve been able to come in contact with boys from all the States and I enjoy it very much! I talk with them about the things I know the men don’t think of and I know that although the boys don’t realize it, - it is the mothers and other women-folks that they miss, - they are all just “big boys” who would like to talk sometimes to someone who would really understand! I wish so often that I could write to all the mothers and tell them how well and husky and clean their boys all look, - how they are keeping up their courage, wearing a smile and making the best of it all, - when you & I know that they are all crazy to get home again!

You see I understand for I have two young nephews (they seem like kids) whose names were called in the first draft, -they went to an Army Camp for a year, - but before the year was up they were sent to Australia, - yesterday I got my first letters from them and they are in New Caledonia, - away “down under”, below the Equator! The letters were very interesting, - told about the country there, - but I know they’ll be very glad when the time comes to start for home! If only this cruel war could be stopped and peace be with us all again! So many lives given up for nothing! At least it seems so anyway!

This Bay is very beautiful with all its pretty green Islands (one for every day of the year) it makes a wonderful Navy Base, - plenty of room, - my bed-room window looks right out to the place where “Jim” stays not far away!

We had a fine Flag-raising here this spring, - the Flag-pole is on our front lawn and I was made custodian of the Flag, - I was so pleased, for I’ve always been much interested in Patriotic work, - so I raise and lower the Flag each day according to Navy regulations and enjoy it very much! I’ve always had a Flag as my father served on the Color Guard in the Civil War, - so he brought us up to care for it and we always had one to care for.

I was one of six sisters, - five of whom are living, - wasn’t I lucky? We’ve always been so “close” to one another, - and we had one brother who died in infancy and one who lived to “grow up”, -he died very suddenly a few years ago!

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All of my sisters married, - but I was the “old maid”, -you know there always has to be one in every family, - so I’m taking the part in mine!

I’ve always loved children and young folks and had all my nephews and nieces with me so much - and every summer they were here - but now they are separated and not one here this year, - those two boys in New Caledonia are just like my own, - their mother is the dearest little “mother”, - so patient and cheerful, -never complains, - a letter from her yesterday (with theirs) spoke of not seeing them since last January when they sailed & how long it seemed!

Well, I’m watching for “Jim” so to tell him about your lovely letter and show him my “hankie” (which I shall always keep). I’ll let you know from time to time when I see him and how he is, -yesterday he was fine, - I enjoy him so much, - you know he will drink beer when they have it for the sailors. You see, not having any boys of my own I just had to “adopt” yours and all the others, - I try to say things to them that you mothers would if you only had the chance to do so! Many thanks and write again sometime.

With love - Medora B. Fogg Monroe said that, in addition to the U. S. flag for daily use, Dora was given a “distress” flag to fly if needed.

The watch on his ship was instructed to take note of the flag’s raising and lowering each day and to check for the distress flag hourly. Apparently the Navy command wanted some frequent signal that Dora and Henry were all right. In 1942, Dora would have been about 67 and Bailey 77. The U.S. government did not legally acquire the island and become able to evict previous owners until the middle of 1943. Monroe also said that Dora stayed there alone for some time after Henry had to leave due to poor health. Henry, in the documents conveying parts of his lot to son Frank and daughter Bertha, had also specified that in the event of his death before Dora’s, she would have the right to remain in his cottage as long as she chose.

Whether illness or age or the Navy’s concern about these two elderly people’s being on the island over another winter occurred first, I have not learned. However, Henry Bailey moved to his oldest daughter’s home in Portland, and Dora went to Massachusetts, where several of her sisters lived. At one time, she spent a few weeks with the younger Kenney children in Baldwinsville, MA, while their parents went to Florida. In a few years, she had a stroke and was confined to a nursing home, able to hear but unable to speak. That is a terribly frustrating condition that can now be much alleviated by the use of computer-aided speech and writing, but was then likely to remain simply frustrating.

Finally, she was found to have brain cancer, and after a short illness with that, she died in the fall of 1947 in Everett, MA at the age of 72.

Other Descendants Three of Dora’s other sisters and their husbands also continued the family attachment to the island. As early as 1915, Esther Fogg Coggeshall and her husband rented the cottage nearest to the farm and facing it across an open field.

Eunice Fogg Nickerson and Rose (“Bud”) Fogg Fearon and their families shared, first the Yellow Cottage, then the Red Cottage, and finally, after 1928, the Cleaves Cottage. Edwin Jr. (“Bob”) and his wife Anna stayed in the same cottage the Coggeshall’s had used, and later bought it, so that it was known in the 1930’s as the Fogg Cottage. By then, all of these families lived in Massachusetts. The youngest sister, Emily (“Sue”), married a Great Chebeaguer, Benjamin (“Bob”) Stockbridge, and they lived on that island during some of the years when the others came to Little Chebeague.

Later, when Mr. Stockbridge became a lighthouse keeper, he and Sue lived at various lighthouses along the Maine coast from Boon Island to Boothbay Harbor.

Dora’s youngest brother, Jacob, and her next younger sister, Harriet, died too early to be directly remembered by the succeeding generation. Jacob had died the same year he was born, and Harriet was a grownup at about the time the first of her nieces and nephews were being born.

The Coggeshall’s had three children: Marjorie (b. 1913), Priscilla (b. 1916), and their brother Elton b. 1919).

The Fearon’s also had three, all boys: Stuart Jr. (“Ted”), Wendell (“Wendy”), and Richard (“Dick”). The Nickerson’s had only Jane Elizabeth (“Betty”). Edwin and Anna Fogg’s children were Dorothy (b. 1907) and Roger (b. 1910). So Dora had, at times, up to four siblings and up to nine nieces and nephews staying near her in the summers, sometimes in her own home.

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Wrote Betty, “..my three boy cousins named Fearon and I first summered at Little Chebeague in the early ‘20s... Until 1925, we lived in the Red Cottage, a few steps from the Yellow Cottage, where our mothers, Rose (Budd) Fearon and Eunice Nickerson, had summered early in this century with their four sisters and brother. Their eldest sister, Medora Fogg, later became Henry Bailey’s housekeeper.”

As with the few other families that summered there in those times, the Fogg women and their children were alone during most weekdays, their husbands coming to be with them on weekends and during vacation weeks. Some of

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the men traveled from jobs in Massachusetts, taking the Friday overnight steamboat from Boston to Portland and then the local Casco Bay steamboats to the island. They returned by the reverse route, leaving on Sunday afternoons and going to work directly from the ship on Monday mornings.

Mr. Coggeshall was a teacher in Newton, Fearon a linotype operator in Boston, and Nickerson the Sales Manager for the A. G. Spaulding sporting goods company, also in Boston. Nickerson had also been a semi-pro baseball player, and was an excellent golfer. “Bob” Fogg had been the secretary to C. W. Barron (of “Barron’s Weekly”), later the editor of the “Boston Financial Weekly”, and with an advertising agency, all in Boston, but also had worked in Portland for Armour and Co, along with George Reed, another cottage-owning Little Chebeague summer resident.

Edwin Jr. died in 1935 in Melrose, MA; Dora (as mentioned earlier) in 1947 in Everett, MA; Emily (Sue) Stockbridge in 1957 in Boothbay, ME; Eunice Nickerson in Lakeland, FL; Esther Coggeshall in 1980 (at 97) in Holden, MA; and Rose Fearon in 1988 (at 102) in Medford, MA. Roger Fogg, who provided much of the material for this history, died in Wareham, MA on 09 February, 2002.

Dorothy Fogg at the island tennis “court”, 1926

Roger Fogg, probably 1930’s

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Ralph Kenney, “Sam” (??), Wendell Fearon, Linwood (Bailey?), Richard Fearon Sam (last name unknown) and Linwood worked at the farm. Fogg cottage at left.

Photo from early 1930’s, but car with wood-spoked wheels is older.

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THE GEORGE REED AND PRICHETT FAMILIES Little is known about the two families that were successive owners of the isolated cottage that was between the wharf and the sandbar. Unlike all the other cottages, this was in the Town of Cumberland instead of the City of Portland, and was in the open instead of in the edges of the top-of-the-island grove. That 100x100-foot lot was sold to Annie G. Reed in July 1909, with a stipulation that for 30 years it be used only for a summer cottage costing at least $1000 to build. Since Cleaves was still alive then, he may have been the author of that requirement, but it may have been J. B. Reed. The seller was given on the deed as the Waldo Company, George Spear and J. B. Reed signing as president and treasurer, respectively, of the company. Charles Wiggin, the holder of the company’s 1906 mortgage on the island, acceded to the sale on a separate registered document.

The two Reed families were not related. Annie G. Reed’s husband was George Reed, the Portland manager for the Armour and Co. meat-packing firm. They had at least five children. Roger Fogg says the George Reeds had a vegetable garden, at that time the third one on the island, the others being the farm garden and J. B. Reed’s.

Their cottage was sold in 1922 to Fannie W. Prichett of Philadelphia. Her address was Birdsboro, PA when she sold it to Gertrude Prichett of Philadelphia in 1927. The restrictions still applied in both of those sales. That family came too seldom and stayed for too short periods to continue the garden. Captain Stockbridge’s later became the third.

Rachel Innes recalls that, in the 1930’s, the cottage was occupied for perhaps a couple weeks each summer by two elderly ladies. Being so far from the other cottages, there was little interaction. Hilda Noyes also recalls working there one summer as a teen-age general housemaid/cook when it was occupied by a family with some small children, who apparently had rented the cottage from the Prichetts. Hilda commuted to that job from her family’s cottage on Long Island by rowing back and forth, a distance of perhaps half a mile each way. Sometimes Richard Fearon was her boatman, at other times her younger sister Norma.

Photo from Jack Doyle, probably taken by him.

East end of Little Chebeague from the windmill platform. George Reed/Prichett Cottage with sandbar and Great Chebeague beyond, clamshell walk to other cottages below. Note seat beside walk, and two-track road from sandbar.

Part of Capt. Bert Stockbridge’s garden appears above the words “Prichett Cottage” in this caption.

The shore end of wharf was just this side of the tree at the right edge of this picture.

THE WALTER S. KENNEY FAMILY

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Walter Snare Kenney was a nephew of Mrs. J. B. Reed, his father, Ralph Kenney, having married Mrs. Reedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s half-sister, Lois Rose Snare. Walter was born in Weston, MA on May 5, 1891. He married Helen Esther Moore, born March 9, 1892, daughter of Allen Samuel and Jessie Brown Moore. They lived in Winchendon, MA, Walter being a factory superintendent for Kenney Bros. Co, furniture manufcurers, in Baldwinville, MA and later in Winchendon, MA. Mr. and Mrs. Kenney are included in the photograph of a family group sitting on the steps of the Reed cottage, which is shown in the section on the Reed family (p. 106).

Helen and Walter had six children, beginning with twins Ralph and Esther, November 7, 1915. Then followed Barbara (1920), Alfaretta (1921), Jessie (1927), and Oliver (1931). They bought the Yellow Cottage from Mrs. Reed in 1931, but had begun visiting or even summering on Little Chebeague sooner than 1927. They also bought the Red Cottage, which Reed had bought from Mary Sea, the widow of Sidney W. Sea. It was then used for visiting family and friends, usually weekend guests.

Gertrude Reed with Esther, Alfaretta, and Barbara Kenney, around 1922. Fogg cottage beyond.

Mrs. Kenney and the children stayed on the island thruout the summers, Walter commuting to and from it on weekends, taking the train to Portland and the Casco Bay Steamboat Line boats to the island. Walter had a lobsteringstyle boat and spent some of his island time using it for fishing. Esther loved horses and had a riding horse named Captain, which may have been kept at the farm. Later, when she and Barbara had another horse, Dandy, Walter built a shed on the rear of the cottage to stable it, although it was boarded at the farm during the winters.

Walter died in 1953, Helen in 1968.

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Esther Kenney on “Dandy”. Kenney’s Yellow Cottage beyond, with lean-to horse-stall behind Dandy.

Barbara, Esther, Jessie, and Alfaretta Kenney on the clamshell walk.

Esther’s travels on Captain often took her to Great Chebeague, where she made a number of friends, including Mary Jenks (later Mary Doughty), one of the grand-daughters of Annette and Joshua Jenks. According to her sister Jessie, “ She was a very gregarious person and knew many of the islanders on Great Chebeague and also some on Long Island.” Esther became a nurse and married a doctor, Lee C. Bird, and went to live in Upton, MA. She died in Worcester, MA, February 3, 1989.

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Ralph married Madeline Hanks and they lived in Winchendon. He died in 1999. Alfaretta, who was known in the family as Roe, now lives in Gardner, MA. Barbara, like Rachel Bailey, met her future husband, David Grant, on the island, and by a similar circumstance.

Grant, wrote Jessie, “...was a Sea Scout with the Medford, MA, Sea Scouts who came to the island over a period of a few years.” Grant adds: “I met my wife there [on the island] after a 1937 Sea Scout voyage from Medford, Mass. Our Maine connection was Wendy Fearon who was a Medford resident at that time. Barbara Kenney rode her horse ‘Dandy’ past our motley crew and I was smitten. We were married December 6th, 1941.”

Jessie became Mrs. Edward Francis, and lives in Upton, MA. Oliver and his wife Marie reside in St. Cloud, FL.

Left to right: Esther Kenney (holding reins), Priscilla Coggeshall, Betty Nickerson - 1934. If down for more than the day in the winter, they would have been staying at the farmhouse with Priscilla’s and Betty’s Aunt Dora.

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COTTAGE LIFE Aside from not having full basements, the farmhouse and all of the cottages were as well-built and trimmed as were ordinary homes in the city. They had plastered walls in the rooms, probably wallpapered, and their door and window frames and staircases were of decorative milled lumber. Probably all or most of the cottages (but likely not the farmhouse) had hardwood flooring. All of the cottages had fireplaces. Most foundations were either wooden posts or brick piers, but some of the buildings used concrete piers either as original bases or as later replacements. The farmhouse, the Yellow cottage, the Hamlen and Morrill/Doyle and Adams/Haskell ones, and the later George and Annie Reed one near the wharf had partial cellars probably intended for cool storage of food.

The following examples from the still-existing specifications for the Sawyer cottage are probably representative of the quality of construction used in the other contemporary ones: “The house is to set on good size sound cedar posts, planted in the ground at a depth of not less than three feet... frame is to be of good sound spruce... floor joist[s] to be placed 18” from center to center... outside walls boarded with spruce or hemlock... 1st and 2d stories are to have double floors using for the upper the driest floor boards that can be found on the market, and are to form when complete perfectly smooth floors.” [Dry floor boards would have already fully shrunk, so would not narrow later and leave cracks between them.]

“All shingles...to be extra No. 1... fireplace front showing in living room to be of good face brick neatly finished, in red mortar... hearth 4 courses of bricks laid smooth... flue 8”x12”... chimney foundation ledge stone laid dry [i.e., without mortar] and at least 3 feet below surface of the ground.’ “[Window in] front door...plain glass surrounded by small panes of colored glass... a colored glass window in dining room...double doors opening into the loggia...wood work finish on doors and windows. Stairs, railing and posts to be stained one good coat turpentine staining...entire house to be plastered in one coat work...sand finished.”

In the 1920’s and 30’s, although most of the island’s cottages still lacked electricity and no telephone service was available, they were not as primitive as were most rural dwellings of their time. After all, they had been built for summer visitors accustomed to city facilities. So they did have features like running water and flush toilets and some had bathrooms. We know of only two privies on the island in the post-hotel period. The one we are certain of was on the farm, at the far end of the barn. The other, which is suspected, would have been in the woodshed under the water tank between the Adams/Haskell and the Cleaves cottages in the time when Henry Bailey and Dora Fogg stayed in the latter throughout the winters, when running water was not available for that cottage’s second-floor flush toilet.

Central heating was nowhere a feature, but the cottages were not intended to be occupied other than in the summer. Most had fireplaces in their living rooms. The Kenneys had their own part-time electric lighting system and so did the relatively roughly constructed Bailey and Hill camps, but those amenities appeared only in the 1930’s.

In kitchens, large wood-burning stoves were the rule. These could also burn coal, which made a longer-lasting fire. However, a coal fire could be too much on a warm summer day. If the stove had water-heating pipes on one side of its firebox, a coal fire was better for ensuring there would soon be plenty of hot water. In such a case, those pipes went to the top and bottom of a cylindrical tank that stood upright, usually near the stove. A tank one foot in diameter and four feet tall would hold nearly 25 gallons; 30-gallon tanks were common. Cooler water at the bottom of the tank flowed into the firebox pipes and, as it was heated there, it rose to enter the top of the tank. A separate cold-water supply pipe entered the bottom of the tank, and a separate hot-water demand pipe went from the top to whatever hot-water faucets existed.

As hot water was drawn from the top, new cold water came in at the bottom. The later cottages probably had such a hotwater supply. We know that the Fogg cottage did.

Some kitchen ranges of that time heated water in a box-like iron tank that was part of one side of the stove, usually its right side. The inner side of that tank was separated from the near side of the oven by a hollow about two inches thick. The firebox, in which the fuel burned, was on the other side of the oven, those two sharing one wall with no air space between. Another hollow space between the oven and the top of the stove connected the firebox to the vertical oven-to-tank hollow, which was further connected to a horizontal space below the oven. The oven, then, was a “boxwithin-a-box” surrounded by a continuous opening leading from the firebox and going around the oven. Openings to the

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smokepipe, which led to the chimney, went out from the backs of both the upper and lower hollows, but a sliding door could cover the upper opening. When a fire was to be started, the slide was opened so hot air and smoke from the fire immediately went up the chimney, creating a good draft. Once the chimney was full of hot air that would rise by itself, the slide could be closed and the hot combustion gases from the fire had to pass under the stovelids that were over the oven and then encircle the oven before leaving the stove, thus heating the oven on all sides except the front, where the oven door was located. On its way past the water tank, it heated that also, though slowly. The whole top of the water tank could be lifted or swung sidewise so that hot water could be taken out with a long-handled dipper and poured into cooking pots, dishpans, or washbasins.

The stovetop had two removable circular lids over the firebox and four over the oven. Sometimes one of the lids (usually one of those over the oven) was made up of several nested ring-shaped pieces so that a variety of opening sizes was available at that location. Then pots of varying sizes could each be placed over a hole suitable for the size of that particular pot. This set could be placed in whichever lid position the cook chose. Placing a pot or kettle over a hole allowed it to heat faster, but the bottom then collected soot. Most cooking could be done by placing the vessel atop one of the solid lids, thus avoiding the soot problem. A really hot stovelid was also an adequate toaster, a slice of bread placed on it being lifted off with a spatula when judged ready and turned to repeat the process on the other side.

Controlling the temperature of an iron stovelid or an oven was an art learned thru patience and after some amount of either burned or undercooked food. Most cooks became real experts – or else someone else became cook. It was also a hot job, especially indoors in the summer (which was why many farmhouses had “summer kitchens” that were practically out-of-doors). However, on an island surrounded by the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine and nearly clear of trees, a sea breeze was a common feature of hot days, and nights and rainy or foggy days could be chilly. After all, that fact was much of the reason for the summertime popularity of all islands and of much of the nearby coast.

A cast iron woodstove was a quite complex machine, its designers having given it many controls for the user to manipulate according to needs. If coal or small wood was being used, the fire could be fed by lifting off one of the round stove-covers, or stove lids. Lids were handled with a lid lifter, a slightly S-shaped tool with a lower tip that fitted into a square hole in any lid. To keep the handled part of the lifter from getting too hot, that end was surrounded by a coil of heavy wire that attached to the lifter only at the ends of the coil. Heat could get into and flow lengthwise thru the wire only slowly, and the large surface area of the wire allowed most of that heat to leak off before reaching the central part of the coil which the hand touched.

When both front lids were removed and set on another part of the top, the hourglass-shaped casting between them could also be removed, leaving an opening large enough to admit 16-inch-long billets of firewood.

Alternatively, fueling could be done thru openable doors on either the front or side of the firebox. On the side of the stove facing the viewer in the illustration on the next page, the top hinged panel on the left opened into the firebox so that billets could be put in lengthwise.

The fuel rested on two or more grates, pieces of cast iron with short fingers sticking out on both sides, the fingers of adjacent pieces fitting between each other loosely so that there was a continuous gap of about a quarterinch between them. Fine ash sifted down thru the gap but coals remained supported until they had burned to ash. At one or both ends, the castings were coupled by toothed gear sections that engaged each other so that when one turned, so did the adjacent one. One grate had an extension which projected thru a hole in the panel under the feed door and was square on that end. A crank called a shaker could be placed over that end to rotate the grates back and forth enough to “shake down” any ash and small unburned coals into the ash pan, which was a sheet-metal box resting on the bottom of the stove. The lowest panel, the ash door, was also hinged and could be opened to allow removal of the ash pan when it was full.

In the center of the ash door was a slot from which a small knob projected. When that knob was slid from one side of the slot to the other, it slid sidewise another panel that was attached to the back of the ash door and had several vertical slots in it. The ash door had a similar set of slots. When both sets of slots were aligned, air could go thru them faster into the space under the fire, increasing the draft up thru the grates and making the fire burn hotter.

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On the left side of the stove there was another sliding vent just above the level of the fire. When that was opened, it let air in over the top of the fire. Since that air did not need to force its way up thru the fuel, the chimney draft drew more air in that way and less thru the fire, making the fire burn less rapidly. In addition, since the air entering thru that opening was relatively cool, the chimney draft itself was eventually reduced somewhat. Such an opening was called a “damper” because its effect was somewhat like putting a little water on the fire. Another device that was also called a damper was a disk placed in the smokepipe and rotated by means of a handle outside the pipe. By varying the open area of the pipe at that location, the stove user could change the strength of the chimney updraft.

When coal was used, it was usually kept in a coal-hod, a sort of pail with a bail for carrying it. On one side was a very wide pouring spout with a straight lip half the width of the pail, the spout sloping all the way to the bottom of the pail. The lip being smaller than the diameter of a stove lid, one could shake coal directly onto the fire thru a lid-hole. A sheet-metal coal shovel with a blade only as wide as the hod lip and a foot-long handle could be slid down along the flat bottom of the spout to fill the shovel. With that, the fuel could be added either thru a lid hole or the feed door, provided one did not put in so much that it spilled out that door.

Coal created one risk that wood did not. If its temperature were controlled by cutting down its air supply, it would, by burning incompletely, combine each carbon atom with one only one oxygen atom instead of two, thus producing carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide. Not only was this dangerous if the combustion products were not quickly drawn up the chimney and out of the house, but also it wasted fuel by not getting the total available heat from it. The inlet damper on the left of the firebox helped alleviate that problem by providing more air to mix with the carbon monoxide just above the fire, where it was still hot enough for the carbon monoxide to burn to carbon dioxide.

Below the damper panel there was another door that opened into both the fire space and the ash space.

When this was opened, it gave the effect of a fireplace, heat radiating out from the fire directly into the room. It gave access to radiant heat for a variety of purposes, such as placing cooked food or hot drinks on the shelf below the door to keep warm, or hanging wet clothing over a chairback at an appropriate distance to dry.

A final place to access the firebox heat was above the damper panel, partly on the side and partly on the top of the stove. This was another panel that was hinged to swing down, leaving a narrow opening just below the stove top. Thru this could be inserted a long-handled two-piece wire grill containing bread for toasting or steak for broiling over hot coals, or, for those who liked charred toast or steak, over flames. Broiling could be exciting as melted fat dripping onto the coals caused occasional flareups like an indoor fireworks display.

Most cooking was done, of course, over the two front lids, any items already fully cooked but needing to be kept warm being set over lids farther from the fire. The front lids were also the place to pop corn in a long-handled wire-mesh box that rested on the lid. At first, the box could be simply set on the lid, but once the kernels had heated up and began to pop, the popper had to be rapidly slid back and forth on the lid to keep the slower kernels rolling around so they would not become burned on one side. The butter and salt could not be added and mixed in until the contents of the popper had been dumped into a bowl and the unpopped but blackened “old maids” removed.

Some ash was carried over to the oven top, and even beyond, to the space under the oven. Eventually, these had to be cleaned out. The oven top was made accessible by removing all of the lids above it. Then a brush (or, frequently, a chicken wing with feathers attached), could be used to sweep the ash back to the firebox and down into the ash pan. One tool specifically for cleaning under the oven was a rod with a vertically flat blade set crosswise at one end. This was inserted thru a slot under the front of the oven. In the stove pictured, that was probably done by tipping up and removing the shelf just under the oven door. The blade was operated like a hoe to pull ash to the front and into a dustpan.

All clothing of that time needed to be ironed after laundering. Some irons were just that -- blocks of iron ground smooth on the bottom and having an integrally-cast iron handle on the top. These were placed on the stove until hot enough, then used until they were too cool, at which time they were put back on the stove to re-heat. The handles were also hot, so they had to be used with a quilted holder. Having more than one allowed one to be used while the other(s) heated. Most irons were like those pictured, having separate iron bottoms and clip-on wooden handles. In the picture, the central one rests on a stand that kept it up off the table or ironing board while the item currently to be ironed was being hand-smoothed in preparation for the ironing phase.

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An “agitator” like the one pictured was sometimes used to force water thru the pores of the laundered items by using it as a plunger in the wash boiler or washtub, the water carrying out soil loosely lodged in those pores.

More resistant dirt had to scrubbed out by hand.

The pictured force pump could be used to draw water up to the spout and out. On the lift stroke, some water rose up into the chamber shaped like an upside-down pear. That chamber contained air which was compressed when operation of the handle forced water up into it. If the pump operator worked fast enough, that water kept flowing out the spout during the pumper’s recovery stroke, keeping up a steady stream that did not splash as it fell into a pail. In another mode, the access out thru the spout could be closed (with a separately purchased valve). Then the water went to a pipe that led out of the pump to a tank, possibly elevated above the pump. Strong enough air pressure could push the water to a higher level, from which it could come down at a later time when some faucet was opened.

Alternatively, the tank could be at a low level but closed so that it also had compressed air at its top. Then that air could force water up to faucets at levels above the tank.

With such equipment, housekeeping in those cottages kept the housewives busy, and called for the children to have their assigned chores also. The children’s major chore was collecting driftwood along the beaches and bringing it a quarter-mile or a half-mile from the shore to the cottages. Jane “Betty” Nickerson Steinberg: “Three mornings a week -again in our Red Cottage days -- my cousins and I had to gather driftwood on the beach. We filled three large burlap bags each time. Much of the wood was used in our fireplace on cool, foggy nights. We loved to watch the fire, and used to joke that some of our ‘enemies’ were being burned up. ‘Enemies’ were fantasies… My mother would bake lemon meringue pies and my aunt blueberry cake, using berries we had picked on the island. They baked in an oven in a wood stove in the Red Cottage and in the Cleaves Cottage frequently baked in a portable oven set over a three-burner oil stove.

We did have an ice chest in each cottage in which to store perishables. Steamers stopping at the L. C. wharf would deliver cakes of ice that one of Mr. Bailey’s workers would deliver to each cottage -- by horse and buggy and, later, by a small Ford truck.”

Those ice chests or “iceboxes” looked more like modern refrigerators than like today’s camping or picnic coolers. They were stand-up pieces of wooden furniture, originally finished in dark tones like walnut but later enameled white. They were double-walled with some kind of insulating material between the two walls. Usually they had two or three doors on their fronts, one of them covering the ice compartment and the others food compartments with shelves.

Sometimes, however, the ice door was on the top. The ice compartment was lined with galvanized sheet steel and had a drain hole leading to a tube or pipe that carried meltwater down to either a pan under the icebox, which had to be emptied about daily, or to some kind of a drain to the outdoors or the sewer. Blocks of ice, commonly weighing about 50 pounds (about a cubic foot) were placed in that compartment. Holes in the metal sides allowed air from the top of the food sections to drift over to the ice-cake and, when cooled by that contact, flow down thru the lower holes back to the bottoms of the food sections. The best temperature attained was well above the freezing point, often about 45 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, barely proper for such things as milk, usually not cold enough to keep meat unless its container was placed directly on the ice cake.

The J. B. Reed cottage had a walk-in icebox in a shed attached to its kitchen ell. That was about four feet square with a full-sized door opening into the shed and a small door opening into the kitchen for access to food on the shelves. It was double-walled with ground cork as insulation in the spaces between the 2x4’s separating the walls. The large door and its frame were covered with galvanized sheet metal, since the humidity of the outside air would condense there. The Hamlen cottage even had its own ice-house, a separate 10 x 10-foot building that also had double walls, probably insulated in the same way. The Bailey and Hill camps had an outdoor ice chest like the ones “they [farmers] put milk cans in”, said Rachel Germond. In size and shape, they resembled present-day chest freezers. In all of these devices, meat could be safely kept only a short time, not more than a day, but perhaps a little more if cooked. Obviously nothing could be kept frozen.

Colder temperature could be got for such purposes as freezing cream from the farm to make, of course, ice cream. The cream, mixed with sugar and flavoring (and, optionally, eggs) was placed in a metal can inside a larger wooden bucket. Some of a block of ice was crushed to acorn-sized pieces and mixed with “rock salt” crystals about the size of small peas. That mix went into the space between the metal and wooden containers, which were then covered with a close-fitting wooden top. The salt dissolved into the water on the outside of the pieces of ice, forming salt water.

Since it takes heat to make the salt dissolve, the whole mass cooled down, also cooling the can and its contents. As outdoor heat leaked in thru the outer bucket, more salt dissolved, gobbling up the heat and keeping the interior cold.

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To keep the ice-cream mix nearest the surface of the can from freezing first and too much, there was a shaft with paddles sticking out from it inside the can. The shaft went up through the cover and was turned steadily but not rapidly by a handle on the outside, generally by some youngster, or by several of them in succession, since it was a long job. Knowing the result, plenty of willing help was available. Since water saturated with all the salt it can hold freezes at zero-degrees Fahrenheit (which is why that zero on a thermometer is where it is), this process could get no colder, but that was enough do this job. When mixing and cooling had resulted in all of the mix being cold enough, and nearly equally cold throughout, little freezing centers began to appear all through the mix at about the same time, so that instead of big, coarse frozen chunks, the result was a smooth mix of tiny frozen bits, as we like it. Once frozen, it had to be eaten not long after the freezing solution stopped working.

Oil stoves had cylindrical oil burners in each of which the oil soaked upwards thru a ring-shaped woven asbestos wick in the bottom of the burner. When first lighted, liquid oil burned with a yellow flame at the top of the wick.

The yellowness of the flame came from yellow-hot unburned carbon particles, which would, if that flame continued, escape into the air as soot. However, that inital flame soon heated the inner and outer cylindrical metal walls of the burner above the wick. Then those heated walls heated the top part of the wick so that the oil soaking up thru it vaporized. Then, instead of the liquid oil’s burning at the top of the wick with a yellow flame, its vapor burned with a relatively clean, efficient blue flame up between the walls above the wick. Many small holes in the walls provided air for those flames. These devices were usually referred to as “blue-flame burners”. As with gas and electric stoves, the cook could quickly and easily control the intensity of the heat, in this case by turning a knob to control the oil flow, not requiring the expertise demanded of a wood-stove operator. Sometimes, similar oil burners were put into stoves that were formerly wood-burners. Since their fumes went to a chimney, they did not pollute the house air as did a blue-flame stove. Blue-flame burners used kerosene, lighter than the “range-oil” used in stoves having flue exhausts.

Kerosene lamps were the rule for illumination. These had a base of metal or glass which contained the fuel and sometimes had one or two carrying handles on the side. A metal burner assembly screwed onto the top of the base contained two rollers between which was a woven wick in the form of an inch-wide ribbon which hung down into the oil, from where it soaked oil up to the top of the wick. The shaft of one of the rollers projected out of the assembly so that that roller could be turned by an outside knob, raising or lowering the wick to control the rate of oil supply and therefore the amount of light. A glass chimney atop the burner assembly protected the flame from side-breezes, making it steadier.

At best, the resulting yellow flame did not give off much light. If, in an attempt to get more light, the wick was raised too high, some oil burned incompletely and deposited soot on the inside of the chimney, dimming the light still more. Even proper settings made some soot, so that cleaning lamp chimneys during daylight was a regular task. In time, oil lighting also resulted in blackening ceilings and walls that also needed cleaning. A building lighted by those lamps always smelled like the exhaust from a diesel or a jet engine, which burn fuels similar to kerosene. The air there could not have been healthy.

Some lamps had “mantles” similar to those used in gasoline camp-lanterns. Those were coarse-mesh silk bags, about the size of a tea bag, which had been soaked in a solution of certain mineral salts. Placed open-side down above the wick and fastened by tightening a drawstring and tying it, their silk component burned away on the first use, leaving a fragile “balloon” of salt crystals over the flame. The crystals became hot enough to glow with a much whiter light than the flame, giving stronger illumination and also causing more efficient, hence less sooty, burning. In the final cottage years, Frank Bailey and Walter Kenney created small-scale gasoline-powered electrical lighting systems for their respective camp and cottage. These were not powerful enough to run any motorized appliances. Both were directcurrent systems, Bailey’s being a 12-volt one.

Non-perishable staples such as 50-lb bags of flour were brought to the island at the beginning of the season, but further grocery shopping was mostly done sight-unseen by sending a list to a Commercial Street grocer, who then assembled the order and delivered it to the appropriate island steamer, whose crew left it on the island wharf. Some families had wooden carts for hauling groceries and baggage up from the wharf. Harridon “Bill” Miller, then of Great Chebeague, said that he regularly drove the Chebeague store’s delivery truck across the bar to take groceries to some cottages, providing door-to-door service in response to grocery lists. The two-track “road” then on the island came up over the bank from the bar, along the east side of the island, past the front of the Prichett cottage and to the shore end of the wharf, then, without crossing the clamshell walk, turned inland toward the grove, between the bowling alley and the hotel site (then an empty cellar-hole) and made a loop thru the grove inside the half-circle of cottages. A “side-road” left that loop and went between the Reed and Fogg cottages and to the farm. What had once been called a road (and, on some

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deeds, even an “avenue”) along the fronts of the southernmost cottages to the back bathing beach had by then subsided to being a path. Later, the part of the loop road behind those cottages became only a path, giving a shady access instead of the other path’s sun-bathed one, which then became completely overgrown with grass.

Before Bailey’s farm protégé Milton Webber left the island for its larger neighbor, he had provided the motorized sandbar link with a Model-T Ford coupe (a model of car with no rear seat) that had been farm-altered to give it a wooden box in the rear, serving as a pickup truck. That truck was garaged in a shed located between the farmhouse and the other sheds leading to the barn.

Water was piped into most cottage kitchens from a variety of elevated water tanks which were originally kept filled (wind permitting, which it almost always did) by a windmill operating over the spring near the wharf and forcing the water about 80 feet up to the still higher main tank between the former hotel site and the J. B. Reed cottage. That windmill was much larger than those often seen on farms of the time, since it had been chosen to supply the hotel as well as all of the cottages. It was made by the Eclipse Wind Mill Co. and had a wheel ten-feet in diameter and a ten-foot-long vane to control the angle at which the wheel faced the wind. The wheel’s axis was nearly 35 feet above the ground, the platform being at the height of a building’s fourth floor. Even in a good breeze, it supplied only a small fraction (probably less than one-half) of one horsepower, but it could keep going day and night to keep ahead of usage demands, even for a 100-guest hotel (before the days of showers and automatic washers).

The farmhouse was not connected to that system, but had its own brick-walled well outside the rear kitchen door. A hand pump in the kitchen drew water directly from that well, a virtual necessity in winter. The Prichett cottage also was never connected to that system, but had a hand-dug and tiled well behind it, with piping to an outdoor pump and probably into the kitchen as well. The Frank Bailey and Hill camps, also built long after the loss of the hotel, had their own common well, that too being a dug and tiled one. A hand-pump atop that well provided drinking-water which was kept in a pail on the shelf by the sink. Larger amounts of water for washing and for flushing the camp’s internal toilets, plus the one in the woodshed for the use of any loft residents, came from a nearby open-topped elevated wooden-staved tank that was kept filled by a gasoline pump located in its own small building.

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In the 1930’s there was a well near the Cleaves cottage, which may have been dug after the tall tower ceased to be used. This well had over it a classic open-sided roof-on-posts walk-in wellhouse with a bucket hung on a rope from a hand-cranked windlass. Being located high on the island, it sometimes went dry in late summer. An elevated tank behind the space between the Cleaves and Haskell cottages was fed, not from that well, but, originally, from the tall windmillfed tower. Later it was filled by the Bailey/Hill pump drawing from the lower well by the camps. The Fogg cottage also had a nearby tiled well from which water was hand-pumped to a tank on the second floor of the cottage’s kitchen ell.

This well must have been created after the Fogg’s bought that cottage, because a receipt for payment for 1930-season water for “Bailey cottage and Fogg cottage” exists.

The Hamlen cottage had a well early in its lifetime, perhaps nearly as soon as the cottage was built. This was referred to in one tax record as an “artesian well”. While that term usually applies to a well from which water comes up due to large natural pressure, this had to be a normal one, there being no source of such underground pressure on the island. It appears, from old photographs, to have had a ground-level outdoor storage tank which may have been pressurized in some way to force water up to outlets in the building. The Morrill/Doyle cottage may have used water from this well, which was located between those cottages; Jack Doyle referred vaguely to some kind of inter-family argument over water. In at least the last cottage years, an elevated tank stood beside the Doyle cottage. Similar ones were behind both the Sawyer and Yellow (Kenney) Cottages. Between the last two cottages was another well, a very old one with field-stone walls and a cover made of ledge-stone with two fist-sized holes cut thru it. This may have been used when the Yellow cottage was the home of the hotel’s and farm’s manager in the 1870’s. Whether it was used later is not known. Being 20 feet deep – about twice as deep as most others – it may have avoided late-season drying up.

Laundering was a particularly difficult chore, especially when the water had to be heated by stoves. We know that the Fogg cottage had running hot water from a tank near the stove, but for hotter laundry water, wash-boilers were placed on the stove. These were not round, but had rounded ends connected by straight sides. Each was wide enough and long enough to cover two adjacent stove lids, and about a foot tall with wooden or metal handles at the tops of both ends.

These containers were of copper, the sides sometimes plated with a layer of shiny metal [tin or nickel] that would not dull as copper does, hence reducing the radiant heat loss. Not only was the water heated in them, but sometimes clothes would be put right into the boiling water and “sozzled” with a forked wooden paddle. The washing “machines” consisted of two hands and a scrub-board in a smaller tub with hot but of course not boiling water. For the information of today’s younger generations, a scrub-board was a board a foot or more wide and somewhat longer, with a metal plate attached to it. The plate had horizontal corrugations, each bump and each hollow about the size to nest a pencil into. The board had short legs to keep most of it above the soapy water in a tub nearly as big as a bushel basket. Wet, soaped clothes were rubbed up and down over the plate by hand to do the “beating out the dirt” job that is now done by the dasher of a machine. The soapy water was wrung out either by twisting the clothes by hand or by squeezing them between two wooden rollers turned by a crank (often removing or breaking some of their buttons in the process).

After one or two rinses in tubfuls of fresh water, and more wringing, everything was hung to dry on clotheslines, preferably out-of-doors in the sun, but often on the generous porches of the cottages, especially on wet days.

One-piece wooden pins clamped the laundered fabrics to the clotheslines. The lower halves of those pins had a wide slot up the middle which separated that end of the pin into two “legs”. An edge of a piece of clothing was folded over the clothesline and the pin pressed down over the fold. To help the user to get a grip on the pin, its top was cut to form a somewhat flattened ball so that there was a groove around the pin below the ball. With the ball serving as a head and the lower part of the pin as legs, such a clothespin could also serve to be dressed as a tiny doll. Later, two-piece wooden pins held together by a metal wire spring became common; present-day plastic pins are versions of those.

Most of the children were attracted to the farm to some extent, that being where most of the island’s “action” was. Roger Fogg, in particular, became immersed in many of its activities, including those in the shop. Even the girls participated in the haying, riding the hay wagon to have fun while usefully treading down the hay pitched aboard it, thus compacting the load, which not only gave room to carry more on the wagon, but helped prevent any of it from sliding off. One summer, Betty Nickerson broke her arm as they did that, by sliding off herself. Wendy Fearon was an exception; having hay fever, he avoided that activity. Both Marjorie Bates and Hilda Noyes recalled guiding the horse that pulled the rope to lift big hayforkfuls of hay into the barn loft.

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A barn hayfork was a horse-sized pitchfork -- that is, it held a horse-sized load of hay, much more than a man could lift. There were several fork designs, and we don’t know which was used on Little Chebeague. The fork shown in our diagram had two tines, each about as thick as a broomstick, each nearly three feet long and one and a half feet apart.

It hung from a carrier high in the middle of a barn, and the loaded haywagon was driven in under it. The tines were punched down into the hay with some wiggling and all of the weight that one farmhand or two youngsters could put on it. This one’s two horizontal prongs were also pushed into the load to keep it from sliding off the fork.

The rope from the horse’s harness was threaded thru a large pulley attached to the one of the barn timbers near the floor, then up to a rooftop pulley, then off to another pulley at the far end of the barn and near the end of a track on which the carrier travelled. At the carrier, the rope went thru pulley B on the carrier, down to the pulley C that lifted the fork, then back up and thru pulley A on the carrier. The hook on pulley C went thru the ring on the fork. When the load was to pulled to the right, as in our diagram, the rope over pulley A was locked to the carrier and went loosely off to the left. Initially, the carrier mechanism kept it from rolling along its track.

Once the fork was set in its load, the horse was started off by its driver. The pull on the rope first raised the fork with its load. When the pin above the moving pulley entered the carrier, it released the track brake and the carrier rolled along its track until it reached stop D, near the end of the track. The person on the haywagon in our diagram released the load from the fork by pulling on another rope attached to the upper ends of the prong bars, dropping the load (which certainly was never as large as shown in this catalog version). Hot, dusty, and sweaty bigger boys and men hand-forked the new pile into the sides and corners of the hayloft, clearing the center for the next load while the horse and carrier were brought back to start the next cycle.

Marjorie said she “...rode the horse back and forth. The horse had some linament on his back. I in middy blouse and bloomers [baggy trousers which came down to elastic cuffs just below the knees]. How my legs smarted! ‘Course I never said a word.” Hilda, who was afraid of the big horse, but was involuntarity volunteered to lead it by its halter, would run, trying to keep well ahead of it. She said no one ever got the load up to the loft faster. Perhaps that was why she was “offered” that job. Actually, some farm horses could do that job without human attention.

A common recreation, according to Betty, was “Swimming, or splashing if you hadn’t learned to swim, almost daily, usually in the waters that washed the so-called ‘back beach.’ ” That could have meant the seashore just below the high bank near the cottages, but a better bathing site was in the rock-free section of that beach toward Target Point. At both of those locations, the bottom was sandy and the water was shallow and therefore somewhat warmed by the sun as

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well as being on the side away from the incoming cold water from the open ocean. There they were also close to the cottages, so that changing clothes was done at home rather than on the beach, even though the bathhouses dating from the hotel days were still useable.

Betty again: “In our Red Cottage days we weekly picnicked on the ‘front beach’ near the wharf. We had been forbidden ever to walk on it [the wharf] without an adult. We never did. But on occasions my Aunt Budd would take us fishing off the wharf. What fun! I never caught any thing except sculpins.” There are about 200 varieties of scuplins. The salt-water sculpin of the Maine coast is a foot-long fish with a wide mouth and barbels (“whiskers”) like those of a catfish, mottled black and yellow on top and white underneath, and considered repulsive-looking by almost everyone.

Since its spiny fins were said to be poisonous, youngsters would cringe from having to remove one from a hook. Its principal (or only?) use was as bait in lobster traps. More successful fishing done off a wharf could yield, with periwinkle bait, desirable pollock and cunners, small fish suitable for eating.

Digging clams was another frequent chore. The Fearon boys regularly dug their quota on Fridays, so that their father would have fresh ones to make into chowder during his weekend visit. The common digging tool was a three- or four-tined clam-hoe, but “Mamie” Haskell (Zola Bailey’s mother, not the unrelated Mrs. Thomas Haskell) used a large, long-handled Army-cook’s spoon to good advantage. Wendy Fearon told of visiting his Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob Stockbridge on Great Chebeague to go lobstering with Uncle Bob, especially when the others were involved in the haying season.

Other ways to occupy time, wrote Betty, were “Walking across the bar occasionally to get the mail on Great Chebeague [one mailbox for all Little Chebeague addresses was located beside the road on the larger island]; picnicking near Orr’s Island annually, conveyed there in the ‘Bertha’, a motor boat owned by Mr. Bailey; borrowing, when we could read, books from Mr. Bailey’s library in the farmhouse living-room; many had been left there by his sons and daughters. When we were in the Cleaves Cottage, Frank Bailey gave us huge bows with arrows and introduced us to archery; we had the illusion we became highly skilled.”

For the boat trip to Orr’s Island, far down Casco Bay, Bailey’s boat-of-all-work, the “Bertha”, was usually piloted by Milton Webber. The boys also went with Milton as he used that boat to tow Bailey’s scow carrying an automobile or other cargo between the Chebeagues and the mainland. Once, the tow was a raft of “telephone poles”, which was delivered from Portland to Peaks Island. Webber later ran that business on his own, when he lived on Great Chebeague and raised his family there.

“Croquet” continued Betty, “was another daily pursuit. Stuart Fearon, my cousins’ father, laid out the course, as soon as we arrived each summer, between the Red and Yellow Cottages. By laying out the course, I mean my uncle measured out where the wickets should go, then marked their positions by inserting clothespins in the holes. When our residence changed in ’28 to the Cleaves Cottage, where we spent the month of August for, I think, four years, he again laid out the course, this time in front of the cottage, in full view of the farmhouse and, to the right, the ‘bathing beach’” The log playhouse that existed in the grove in the days of the Waldo was still there in the 1930’s. Rachel Innes recalls seeing it then, and Marjorie told of playing in it. Marjorie also mentioned, as did Hilda Noyes, playing house in some of the cabin motorboats stored in the boathouse, and also in the ones that, being too large to go into the boathouse, were instead taken to the front beach and floated into cradles which were then hauled out of the water and up onto the bank near the wharf.

An annual highlight was the Reform School boys’ picnic. That institution (now the Maine Youth Center, still located in the Stroudwater area of South Portland) was where juvenile males were held in custody for various reasons.

Because J. B. Reed was then a probate judge, having to do with juvenile cases, he probably had instituted those picnics to give the boys a Fourth of July outing. This event is one that has been mentioned by almost every one of the persons who contributed recollections of island life.

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The boys arrived at the island via a chartered steamer and were marched in uniform to the then-empty boat storage shed for a feed, then to the beach for a skinny-dip, since the school did not provide bathing suits. Hilda Noyes said that she and her younger sister, then pre-teens staying in their family’s cottage on Long Island, were not allowed to make their usual visit to their grandfather Bailey’s farm on that day. Gertrude Reed said that she and her sister Josephine, then teenagers, “waited on tables” and later in the day “would take out grandfather’s telescope and try to learn about the other sex! No movies or TV then!”

Preparing the meal for that outing was an occasion for all of the island cottagers. Writes Marjorie, “The nite before, we all gathered in the farmhouse kitchen to peel potatoes for the chowder Dora was making in huge wash boilers.

Then we had ice cream -- a brick sent down from Portland.” Ralph Kenney also recalled peeling potatoes for this event at “Aunt Dora’s”. He further remembered a “huge bag of peanuts in [their] shells”; probably this was one of the burlap bags in which peanuts were then shipped, shell peanuts being fairly light in weight.

Zola Bailey’s sister Rachel Germond, then Rachel Haskell, lived with Zola and Frank in Portland and went to the island with them when they began to stay there, first in the Cleaves cottage and then in their camp after that was built.

She worked at the telephone company office and commuted every weekday, as did Frank while he still worked at Otto Lange’s furniture shop. She said, “We commuted together at that time. And we set in the after circle on the Emita.”

Islanders regularly called all of the Casco Bay Lines vessels “steamboats”, although two of them, the “Emita” and the “Gurnet”, were “motor vessels”, having been converted to diesel power before the 1930’s. Those that were still steamers had black smokestacks, but the diesel boats’ stacks had distinctive orange bands. The “after circle”, a feature of many of the boats, was an outdoor walkway around the first-deck after cabin, actually half a circle plus a bit of straight sides.

There was a bench seat along the inside of the walkway, so persons seated there looked out over the rail. Rachel Innes: “We usually sat there, because you could be out of the wind by picking which side.” The aft section of cabin just inside the after circle was the “Ladies Cabin”, an early version of today’s “no-smoking” areas.

Rachel Germond: “The best years that I have ever had were the years that we went to the island. It was a lot of work getting up early in the morning and taking an hour’s ride up to the city and walking a mile … clear up to the telephone company and go to work and work and then from up there to the boat and get down there in less than twenty minutes. And twenty minutes -- that didn’t give you much time to get out of the building and get down to the wharf.

Katherine Dolan used to go with me… By the time you could get out of work, get out of the office and you had to go down to your locker to get your last-minute things and out of building and up Forest Avenue to Congress Street, and crossed over into Free Street, down the whole length of Free Street, and we’d gallop for all we was worth. I had to run -had to really run down Free Street. I’d run the whole length of Free Street and I’d stop at Middle Street just before I got to Oren Hooper’s and (simulating panting), and then I’d get about to Exchange Street and [as] I’d start to go down Exchange Street I’d hear the whistle blow over on the boat, warning you, first whistle, and then I’d do another [run] down Exchange Street … and go across the cobblestones -- you could break your neck going down those cobblestones [on] Commercial Street. And all that in twenty minutes. Many a time when we were down there Uncle Bert [Stockbridge, Captain of the “Emita”] would be sticking his head out one window and Barter [a crew member] would be sticking his head out the other: ‘Come on there, Rach, come on there, Rach!’ I’d be the last one over the wharf.” She may not have realized that, though they had their fun, the boats of that time would not have left without her or any other regular passenger who was reasonably close to being on time.

“After supper, we all looked forward to that walk down to the [back] beach, down onto the point -- Target Point -- all the way around in the evening… We’d go down around the point and go all the way around.” Rachel Innes says they actually went up over Target point and then down to the south beach and only as far as the wharf, therefore halfway around the island. The rocks at Target Point and north of the wharf make walking difficult at any tide, and are covered by high tides. “And we’d throw the [drift]wood up above the high-water mark to make sure it would dry out...and then the next day Frank would take his [hand-]cart and come down -- after he made the cart -- come down and load it up and take it up -- haul it up. It wasn’t only… [trees or branches]... lots of times a plank or something would get adrift off somebody’s wharf or something, and it’d wash up. We’d gather whatever we could find...We’d try not to find anything on the front beach because that would be too far to carry it. Frank would take the cart [the next day] and go down and gather up whatever we’d tossed up. And [then] it was time to go to bed, and in the morning, you got up in time to snap right along to get down to the wharf before they blew the whistle.”

“And the nights that we used to sit picking out crabmeat! The summer that Frankie Scott was there, he used to take baskets -- not a closed-in basket -- and hang it over the edge of the wharf and catch crabs. And he’d go around

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scouting at low tide and then scout underneath the weeds … trying to find the crabs he could catch. Zola would cook off the crabs [and] when I come home at night I had to pick crabmeat. That night we would sit -- all of us sit around the table -- and pick crabmeat. And I never liked crabmeat after that. We had our icebox -- we iced them out back. Frank had one of those long iceboxes they put milk cans in. Down on the wharf, they shipped those cakes of ice down on the boat.

Frank would load the little cart up [and] he hauled it up and put it in the icebox. That’s what kept things. We’d make crabmeat and put it on the ice. Sunday there was always somebody there to eat. Some people would come Sunday after Sunday, empty-handed, and we had no stores, and nobody to get anything. And there would be people who didn’t seem to realize that every time they came, it’s going to make it hard to replace all that.”

“Frank took slabs of rock, and made steps down over the bank… right behind the camps. There was all kinds of people, older and younger, going up and down over there, so of course it was awkward [for some].

One Sunday all of the folks from Mechanic Falls [Zola’s and Rachel’s relatives] came down for a clambake -- Aunt Ruth and Uncle Len and Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Frank [Herrick]... and Grammy Haskell [Zola’s and Rachel’s grandmother, probably about 80 by then]. We got Grammy down there and of course she couldn’t go down over the stairs. That’s when they had the old car, and Frank [Bailey] took her down to the wharf and got her down onto the float and into a boat and they rowed her around the point... and clear up to the clambake place. [A row of about a mile over deep water, taking about 20 minutes.] I had a picture -- -- and it showed Grammy, and the water -- the tide -- had come in, and it surrounded her rocking chair on the beach. It was in the scrapbooks that I did away with when Stanley passed away…because they were excess baggage in a small apartment.” [How history researchers bemoan such actions as discarding pictures or letters!]

The tide had come up enough so it was all over, and she sat in it, but by the time they got ready, they took her from that right into the boat, to take her back. So she came down and had her clambake, down to the island, with her Frankie. She thought the world of Frank [Bailey]. And they had a ball game, Uncle Len and Delmar and Manley and all of them had a ball game out in the yard, to one side of where Mamie had her [flower] garden, down near Bertha’s cottage.”

Occasionally, when some cottages were occupied by renters or by friends of the cottage owners, new faces were seen for a time. Rachel Innes tells of going to a children’s party hosted by a family using the Reed Cottage.

“There was a rich family that rented Mr. Reed’s cottage and they had a couple of kids…boys, I think,…and a lot of servants and a little Pekinese dog, which bit me in the leg…because I was running and I was not familiar. And I went to the Reed cottage for lunch one day and I remember sitting at this big table and having people wait on us, and they organized a treasure hunt on some little island and all the servants took us in some kind of boat…I was maybe 7 or 8.” That would have been before or while her father built their camp, during the summer they were staying in the Cleaves cottage after her grandfather had bought it but still lived in the farmhouse.

When Frank was still commuting to work in the summers, he and Rachel Minnette (as the family often called her to distinguish between the two Rachels) would walk across the field to the farm to visit with his father.

She recalls that this was done for some time after they had begun staying in their camp. Her middle name had been that of an indian girl who came to the island with her family when Frank was young.

Rachel Germond mentioned that one cottage-renting family brought a black butler named Whittaker, who came to the Cleaves Cottage for visits. “I had a snapshot taken with Whittaker…I had my arm thru his and we were…in front of the cottage… and there again that picture was in the album that I threw out.”

Either a house-servant or a non-white person was a rarity in the later cottage days, but Frank Bailey recalled an earlier time on the island (about the 1910’s) in these words: “When I was a boy, all of those cottages had servants, governesses for the girls -- children. And the amusing part of it was that they had Negro help, like cooks, they had two Swiss, and then there was a man named White that was United States Senator, he had two pigtailed Chinese to help him. So we used to go down on the wharf nights, and of course I was a farm boy and I was allowed down on the end of the wharf with the Negroes, while they played the banjos and stuff. Then the governesses was allowed to go down as far as the waiting seat, on the shanty, you know, in the building on the wharf. But the poor Chinamen was made to stay up in the grass ground. They wasn’t allowed on the wharf at all, see! You talk about discrimination!”

Bill Sawyer, in describing his family’s cottage, referred to one of the second-story rooms as the maid’s room, and Jessie Francis mentioned her mother’s having had a maid at one time. The J. B. Reed cottage had a room in the ell above the kitchen with stairs into the kitchen, suggesting an intent of the building’s designer to create quarters for a cook. The ells of the Hamlen and Morrill cottages appear to have had similar space. These features

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probably accomodated servants up to the 1910’s and perhaps some in the 20’s. By the 30’s – which followed the “Great Depression” – none of the full-summer cottage families had servants there, but Miss Maria Hamlen, who made only occasonal brief visits by then, was still accompanied by both a maid and a handyman. Neither the Red Cottage nor the Crowell/Fogg one, whose kitchen ells were added after the hotel fire, had rooms that appear to have been isolated from the family quarters, nor did the cottages built for Adams and Cleaves.

Lawn Swing similar to that between the Bailey and Hill camps The illustration of a lawn swing is from a Sears Roebuck catalog, but an island one that stood nar the well between Camp Sunset and Camp Green was probably made by Frank Bailey in his shop there. His daughter, Rachel, aided by a visiting playmate, painted it one summer. With all those frame pieces and seat slats to be done on all sides, it was, of course, a difficult job. Afterwards, Frank teased the girls about getting more paint on themselves than on the swing.

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BOY SCOUTING ON LITTLE CHEBEAGUE 1921 - 1941 It has been mentioned that Frank Bailey had an early interest in the Boy Scout movement. J.B. Reed, being a probate judge from 1918 onward, and interested in juveniles, may have had a hand in it. A January 29, 1921 news item in the Portland Evening Express about the Boy Scouts of America stated that “It maintains a summer camp on Little Chebeague”. At that time, most of the island was controlled by Reed. Wendell Fearon also told of scout groups coming there and camping in the summer. There was no permanent camp; probably the campers brought their own tents and other equipment. The Pine Tree Council’s Camp William Hinds, on Panther Pond in Raymond, was not established until 1927.

Frank told of scout-leader training sessions being held on the island, but he mentioned no dates. One of his stories was of a time when the camp cook quit, which led to the other participants’ taking the job on a rotating basis.

When one of these amateur chefs undertook to make a corn-starch pudding for the large group, he made it in the dishpan and poured in a whole box of starch. As Frank told it, the result was so stiff that they had to take the pan down to the beach and pound on the bottom until the pudding finally fell out, after which it took a couple weeks for the tide to wash it away. (There was no Environmental Protection Agency then.)

In the late 1930’s, when I was a Sea Scout, we were told that a house and lot on Great Chebeague’s Deer Point, across Chandler Cove from Little Chebeague, was officially designated as a National Sea Scout Base. I never went there, but my older brother did once. I think that, after that, the house was in poor condition, and no longer used. The present Pine Tree Council still owns the Deer Point property. In researching its past ownership, I found that that lot was part of some sold by Joshua Jenks in 1884, only three years after he bought from the Cleaves brothers the larger property on which he also built his second Sunnyside House.

When I became of an age to join the Sea Scout program for older scouts (which later became Sea Explorers), the age for entering Boy Scouts was 12, while that for Sea Scouts was 15. Sea Scouts were organized into “ships” led by “skippers” rather than “troops” led by scoutmasters. Ours was Ship 11A, sponsored by the State Street Congregational Church in Portland, which also sponsored Boy Scout Troop 11. We always thought of it as the S.S.S. “Dash”, a name taken from that of a Maine privateer vessel active during the War of 1812.

I expect that the name had been proposed by Frank Bailey, who was our Skipper and who had a great interest in local history. The original Dash had been built in Freeport by the Porter family. Whether Skipper Bailey then knew it or not, its builders and owners included the same Samuel Porter who once owned Little Chebeague.

A privateer was a privately owned armed vessel which, during a war of those days, had been given a “letter of marque” by its country’s government. That was a sort of license to capture vessels of an enemy country. Being armed better than ordinary merchant vessels but less so than naval warships, privateers attacked only lightly armed commercial ships. When such ships and their cargoes were captured by a privateer, they became the property of the privateer’s owners and crew, who referred to them as prizes. The current “enemy”, however, sometimes thought of a captured privateer’s crew as pirates.

The Dash was a success for a time, seizing several prizes for its owners, but vanished without a trace only a few years after its launching. Its disappearance was the inspiration for Whittier’s poem, “The Dead Ship of Harpswell”, in which the Dash is seen returning as a ghost ship to foretell new deaths in the coastal comunity.

Bailey was by then a wood-working teacher in Portland’s schools, as well as a maker and repairer of fine furniture in his home shop. A teacher at all times, at school or at home, he hosted the “Cellar Rats”, a group of Portlandarea wood-working enthusiasts who gathered in his cellar shop on Wednesday evenings to create, under his guidance and with his tools, finely crafted pieces of furniture. On Saturday afternoons, Sea Scouts went there to do less ambitious projects. A popular one was making rings and other decorative items from colored plastics, cutting and shaping them and then buffing them to a rich polish. My own project was lathe-turning and somewhat carving, from birch and black walnut, a set of chessmen which I still have. Since I lived in South Portland and would have had to take the electric trolley-car or one of the then-new busses home for supper and back again for a Saturday evening Sea Scout meeting, I sometimes, instead, stayed for a supper of home-baked beans with Skipper, his wife Zola, and their daughter Rachel.

Besides the Skipper, we had one First Mate (“Assistant Scoutmaster”), Harold T. “Hank” Plummer. There were never more than a dozen scouts in the ship, and often only half of that number attended meetings. My favorite feature

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was the “Skipper’s minute”, when Skipper Bailey gave a (usually several-minute) talk, often on a historical subject. I attended meetings until I left the Portland area in the fall of 1940 to go to the University of Maine in Orono. As in Boy Scouts, where I got only as far as Second Class, I never rose very far in the “ranks” from Apprentice to Able Seaman to Quartermaster, being little interested in either some of the required tests nor in the advancement itself, but I did end up as Yeoman (“Secretary”), keeping the logbook. My most important accomplishment was ending up, still later, with the Skipper’s daughter, an arrangement that has lasted over 55 years.

Our ship had no boat of its own, but we did share, with another Portland ship, a Navy-surplus “ten-oared cutter”, an open boat about 24 or more feet long. Besides some very long and heavy oars, which were hardly ever tried, it had a pair of lug sails which we did try and which did provide some progress downwind, whether we were headed that way or were trying to make some cross-wind gain with no type of sailing keel, centerboard, or leeboard. It also had a 6cylinder gasoline engine, which was its most reliable propulsion.

Once it was not at all reliable. We started out from the Portland Yacht Club, where the boat was kept (at that time on the Portland waterfront), and fairly soon the engine either quit or was shut down because an overheating problem was noticed. The problem came from the fact that our anchorage between two wharves was in such shallow water that the boat sometimes sat on the bottom. Apparently someone had tried to start the engine while the cooling-water intake, right beside the keel, was still in the mud. So we rigged the masts and sails and made it to the island, where most of the rest of the weekend was spent taking off the engine’s head and whatever else allowed us to dig dried mud out of the cooling channels until enough water could get in to soften and clear the rest.

With that boat, we made several other trips to Little Chebeague and back, some on weekends, but at least once as an evening trip. We also used it once as a search vessel, hunting for one of our crew who was to sail his own small boat to Little Chebeague. When he failed to appear by dark on a rainy Saturday, we headed back toward Portland with flashlights, hoping to sight his sail. We actually were lucky enough to do just that. I don’t recall whether we then took him in tow or simply accompanied him to the island, but all arrived safely. He was Bill Brasier, who later was the only member of the ship that I know to have actually gone to sea professionally, which he did as an officer after graduating from the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. My most penetrating memory of the trip is of being one of the bow lookouts without any rain gear, and feeling my cotton uniform jacket and dungarees getting wetter and wetter until finally cold water suddenly began to run inside them down my back and my rump -- a very disagreeable feeling when it began, but soon a minor item as I became completely soaked.

Fortunately, it was summer.

Brasier and I also took one very memorable trip in his sailboat. Building that cat-rigged boat had been a Ship project, the only boat-building one I ever took part in. Its design was scaled up from some existing smaller-boat plan, which wasn’t a bad idea, but then it was given a small cabin forward, which turned out to be not a good idea. It was so bow-heavy that it needed two large pigs of lead under the transom-seat to even approach decent trim. The cabin also caught a lot of wind, making it eager to head downwind, perhaps because the centerboard was too far aft for the re”design”. That gave us a problem on this particular trip, when by afternoon the breeze got so strong that we decided we needed to reef its single sail. But by then, the boat would not keep its head to the wind long enough for us to lower the sail and tie the reef points before the boom swung out with considerable force. So we sailed home with a full mains’l, making very good time and a lot of spray. We learned later that the regular weekend sailing races of the Centerboard Club had been cancelled that day because of the excessively strong wind. A large part of the reason kids grow up is pure luck.

I am not sure whether it was on that trip or another one that we bottled up auto traffic by going thru the drawbridge across the mouth of Back Bay at the evening rush hour. Bill’s home was in Deering, near Back Bay, so he kept his boat in that water. At low tide, most of Back Bay is a mud-flat. There was a dredged channel along the eastern edge for larger vessels, but we had to cross the flats. So we needed a half-tide or more covering them before going across. To get in or out of the Bay required having the highway bridge draw open to let our mast thru. On this occasion, we were inbound at about 5 pm, and the tide was out, but had just turned to begin filling the bay, a task calling for rapid flow thru a small opening into a large area.

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Because the draw tender went off-duty at 6, we had to get thru before then. So we went up to the bridge and blew our horn for it to be opened, water traffic having the right-of-way over land traffic. Auto traffic was halted, the draw was opened, and we entered the draw channel. The inflowing tide did not follow that channel, but went about 45 degrees across it. We may have had a small outboard; we certainly were not under sail. But the current pushed us hard against the side of the draw and the stays and cross-trees on the mast snagged on the pilings. We fended off as well as we could from below, and the draw tender came to the edge and manhandled the mast around the pilings one at a time, and we finally got thru.

Then, in full sight of the long line of cars on the hill above us, we simply dropped the anchor and went no further. Later, when we had enough water under the boat’s slight vee-bottom, we crossed the flats, moored, and slogged thru the muck to shore. I have always wondered if any of the motorists who watched us “go nowhere” after delaying them understood the reasons why we did so.

The other Portland Sea Scout ship was the S.S.S. “Enterprise”, named for the U.S. vessel that fought the British “Boxer” off Portland in a War of 1812 battle that took the lives of the captains of both ships. Although we shared the cutter with them, I don’t recall ever doing anything with them except for one campout on the east beach of Little Chebeague.

The Enterprises’s crew had, as a boat-building project, made a vessel, which, oppositely to Brasier’s, was scaled down from an original design. It was a baby dory, no more than ten feet long, made of plywood. It towed decently, and we usually used it only to get one person to or from the cutter on its mooring. One foggy night when some of us were working at the Yacht Club float for some reason, a man with a large suitcase came by, looking for a way to get to a yacht anchored in the harbor. I volunteered to take him in that teeny-weeny dory.

Anyone who knows dories knows that, even in a large one, its pointed ends offer little displacement until they have penetrated rather far into the water. My passenger was wise enough to have someone else put his bag onto the bow “seat” just as he got onto the stern one, so that we did not up-end and sink right there. Even then, we had only about three inches of freeboard amidships, and I recall his tucking up the tail of his suit-coat to keep it out of the water. The slightly foggy night was calm, so we had no problem traveling, since he kept fairly still and on the centerline, and I rowed gently.

When we found his goal, again someone hoisted his bag in synchronism with his transferring to the sturdier craft, and I rowed back with a much larger margin of safety.

The S.S.S. Mystic from Medford, Mass. also turned up at Little Chebeague occasionally. It had a boat which it used for its trips to Maine. Wendell Fearon was once a member of the Mystic, and was probably the reason for its original tie to the island. Another of its crew, David Grant, married Barbara Kenney of Little Chebeague after meeting her there as a result of one of those trips. Grant writes: “After all these years I have forgotten most of the details of my voyage from the Mystic River, Medford, Mass. to Casco Bay. It was a surplus Coast Guard picket boat, sans engine.

Somehow we installed a tired, 6-cylinder Studebaker engine which required a new head gasket about every 10 hours of running time. We became quite proficient in the rapid replacement procedure and I remember our record time being less than 15 minutes. It never seemed to enter our heads that we might become stranded, far asea, with a non-functioning engine. So, fortified with youthful optimism, we set forth. The approximately l00-mile journey took three days, as our maximum, all-out, speed was a blinding 6 knots!”

Roger Fogg tells an undated tale about one of the Mystic’s visits (perhaps its first one), when he was asked to meet their boat in Portland and pilot it to the island. Part-way into the trip, fog closed in on them. It was then that Roger learned to his dismay that the boat had no compass! (Grant doubts this “no-compass” claim, at least in his day, which may have been later. It does sound strange, especially when the boat had to come to Maine from Massachusetts. Perhaps the compass merely seemed unreliable.) Nevertheless, Roger says he managed to arrive in the neighborhood of the island, apparently near enough to sight the shore. However, the tide was then high enough to hide the ledge that projected from the front beach near the wharf. Although Roger knew it was there, keeping the beach in sight thru the fog meant passing close to the ledge, whose depth at this tide was uncertain. It proved to be too near and too close to the surface, and the boat’s propeller scraped over it. The crew had to unship the propeller and pound it somewhat straighter before their trip home.

I recall seeing the Mystic’s boat and crew on Little Chebeague once, somewhat later. It was one designed for rough water, mostly covered, but with a small open cockpit for the helmsman. That outing was held during a Labor Day weekend, when they and our two Portland ships had our dim and rainy campout there. The year must have been 1939, since I recall that it was there that we heard on the radio about Nazi Germany’s invading Poland. That occurred on 01

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September, which was the Friday before that year’s Labor Day. I shared an Army-style pup tent -- no floors or netting -on the beach with someone, but couldn’t sleep for the mosquitoes from the swamp just behind the dune. So I got up, took my blanket, and pushed off in one of the small sailboats we used there, anchoring it a hundred or so feet off the beach, and got better rest there in the fog. Outside of one mental picture of cooking breakfast in the storage shed on the wharf, I recall no more details of that affair.

The boats we used at the island were one belonging to Hank Plummer and two of Skipper’s. Hank’s “Dash” and Skipper’s “Alert” could be converted from rowboats to catboats with daggerboards and removable masts. “Dash” had smooth plywood sides and a gentle vee-bottom, with several rub-strake strips lengthwise along the bottom. It rowed fairly well, sailed tolerably if all you wanted was a lazy afternoon, and obeyed Hank’s tiny one-cylinder outboard when the latter chose to run. It sometimes made quite a lot of mileage simply while the motor’s starter rope was being being yanked and yanked and yanked, because whenever the motor turned, the propellor turned.

Skipper’s “Tern” was a “quarter-dory”, dory-bowed but with a transom at the stern, flat-bottomed with no rubstrakes, and with lapstrake sides. I used to say it should have been called the “Turn”, because it did that easily, to the consternation of amateur oarsmen. Very likely it was a good craft for practicing rowing, since the operator of the oars had to continually compensate for yaw. Skipper could do it perfectly; I learned pretty well. It had no sail.

“Alert” was round-bottomed and, as I recall, lapstraked all the way to the keel. It had been found on the beach by the Bailey’s, and reconditioned -- how long before that I do not know, but I was told that it was quite old. It kept its course well when rowed, but was heavy, so required more rowing effort than the others. It also had more freeboard, an important element in another story.

On one of my last trips to Little Chebeague, when another sea scout, Hubert McGovern, and I went by ourselves for a few days in mid-week, we used Alert to go to Long Island, rowing to Cleaves Landing, just opposite Little Chebeague and perhaps half a mile away, then walked to Doughty’s Landing, where there was a store. By the time we got back to Cleaves, it was dark and windy, and there was quite a chop. We got in the boat and shoved off with me at the oars, but I could not make headway against the wind and waves. To avoid “catching crabs”, I had to watch the heights of the waves at both oarblades, something not possible on both sides at once on a dark night. So Hubie came forward and we sat side-by-side with one oar each and finally made it to the lee of Thorntree Point on Little Chebeague, and thence easily along the beach to the wharf -- more kid’s luck.

Our island activities were centered mostly on the wharf, sailing the small boats or doing various projects. Some evenings we would visit with Skipper in his family’s camp. Occasionally there were some projects in his island shop.

Once we helped haul Skipper’s motorboat, which had been allowed to settle into a timber cradle on the back beach as the tide went out, up onto the shore at its low point near Target Point, using planks and rollers and Skipper’s Rockne coupe.

The Rockne car, named for the famous Notre Dame coach, was built only in 1932-33 by the Studebaker company. This one had a front seat which was under cover and a “rumble seat” whose back was a “hatch” that was swung up when the seat was to be used by additional passengers who then rode in the open. To help them get into that seat, a step was attached to one rear fender. In the early 1990’s, we found on the island the rusted remains of one vehicle that had such a step.

Another item that was similarly hauled out each fall was the small-boat float that spent the summer floating on the north side of the wharf, accessed by a ramp walkway. The float’s winter abode was on the shore above the front beach, between the spring and the wharf, a location where some sailboats too tall for storage in the boathouse had spent their winters in at least the 1920’s and the early 30’s.

Skipper’s motorboat, “Seagull”, was moored off the front beach in the summer. I suspect that it had been one of those stored in the boathouse and sold or abandoned by the former owners. It was a yellow and white inboard motorboat with a low cabin forward and a generous open cockpit aft. It was seldom used, but one of its uses was to take the churchgoing islanders to Long Island’s Doughty’s Landing on Sunday mornings. The rest of its passengers killed the hour or so having ice cream at the local store. The store had a large jar of pickled limes on top of one counter, and it was a duty to get some of those for Dora, who did not make the trip, but who loved pickled limes. (I never tried them.) Tom McVane, who grew up on Long Island during WWII, recalls going on this boat later with some Navy sailors.

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Before the days of water skis, Hank had built an â&#x20AC;&#x153;aquaplaneâ&#x20AC;? which we could tow behind the cutter. It was a large affair, only a couple inches thick, but about three feet wide and six feet long, with a semicircular nose. A bridle under its bow lifted it to planing attitude, especially when the rider stood near the stern and pulled on another rope

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attached to the top of the bow. Although the cutter was slow, the large planing area of Hank’s “barn-door” allowed it to provide a quite stable ride. One day, Hank persuaded his buxom niece, who was then staying on the island with her two small children, to try the aquaplane. The technique was to lie down on it until it had enough speed to plane, then stand up. But she was considerably heavier than us boys, and the board did not float her as well, and she may have kept too far for’d, being a bit afraid of slipping off the rear end. She never got to the standing-up stage, and the bow occasionally dipped enough to send a wave over it. I expect now that Hank mischievously manipulated the cutter’s speed to help that.

Anyway, the wave would fill the front of her one-piece bathing suit (this was long before bikini’s) and wash down one of the shoulder straps. By the time she got that one pulled back up, the other one would go, and Hank wouldn’t stop and let her off until several cycles of this had gone by. To teen-age boys, it was a bit educational, and more realistic than the pictures in the Sears Roebuck catalog or the National Geographic.

On my first trip to the island with Hank and some other crew member, we stayed with Henry Bailey and Dora Fogg in the Cleaves Cottage, and ate there, introducing me to Dora’s rather “sturdy” doughnuts. It was there that I first saw Henry Bailey gasping and wheezing for breath, leaning over a square can with a round pop-out cover, in which some kind of herb was smouldering to relieve his asthma. That was in the living room that occupied the entire width of the front of the cottage, facing Portland. There were many books there, and I spent one gloomy day reading Navy salvage engineer Commander Edward Ellsberg’s account of the raising of the sunken submarine S-4, and of the advances in deep-sea diving made during that experience.

That started a brief interest in building a model submarine, in place of the model airplanes that had been my principal hobby. On one of my trips, I took with me a pair of large fruit-juice cans I had soldered together top-to-top. To see how deep they could go before collapsing, I weighted them with a rock so they were just barely non-buoyant, and lowered them on a long length of heavy twine from a rowboat in a deep part of Chandler cove, expecting to feel a tug on the line when they collapsed after some measurable length of line had been payed out. But the line did not go straight down, the tide running so fast that the line stayed at about 45 degrees from vertical. The current’s pull on the line was so strong that I never felt the change when the collapse occurred, but when I pulled in my line, the cans had undergone a twisting collapse until the solder joint broke. Shortly afterward, the sinking and raising of the U. S. submarine “Squalus” off Portsmouth was headline news, and I later met some of the survivors of that incident at my father’s American Legion post, but I never did build a model submarine.

While staying on the island one weekend, one of the lads dropped something (probably his “Bob Evans” type of Sea Scout uniform hat) into the well behind the Cleaves cottage. That well had a hand-cranked windlass to raise the full buckets of water. In his trying to ride down to get it on the well’s bucket, without his other clothes, the rope broke and dropped him into the water. He was rescued promptly, but Dora was not notified of the incident.

In later summers, we stayed in the loft over Frank’s shop, sleeping on corn-husk mattresses in rope-“spring” beds that had probably come from the farmhouse. One memorable item in the shop was a table-top ten-pins game that Skipper had built. This had a dowel about three feet tall, from the top of which a ball hung on a string. The pins, in the usual triangular pattern, stood on a triangular platform from which they could fall off to a lower level when struck by the ball or each other. The trick was to swing the ball around the post, and also around another shorter post beyond the first, so that it hit the pins from the far side -- a bit harder to accomplish than a point-blank attack.

The Casco Bay Lines’ vessels we most often traveled on were the black-stacked steamboats Aucocisco (the first of that name), Tourist (the last of that name), and Sabino, and the orange-stacked diesel vessels Emita and Gurnet.

Hank worked in the Maine Central Railroad offices with my father, which was why my brother and I first happened to become Sea Scouts. Since people in that office worked half-days on Saturdays, we went on the early afternoon boat. My father went down with me once for just an afternoon trip on which he saw the island that I then talked about so much.

Once I could not go on Saturday, so I traveled to the island by myself on a Sunday morning when there were practically no other passengers going down-bay. As the boat approached the Little Chebeague wharf, the captain leaned out the pilot-house window and said “Can you jump?” Of course I said yes, so as the boat glided past and gently bumped the end of the wharf, I jumped and a deckhand tossed my small bag onto it. By the time I had picked myself up and turned around, the boat was a length away and picking up speed, headed for Central Landing on Chebeague’s

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seaward side (that was before the WWII barricading of the channel between Chebeague and Long Islands forced the

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Chandler Cove landing to be built).

One nice Sunday morning, when I could not sleep, I got up and went to the wharf by myself, got Dash’s mast, sail, oars, and oarlocks out of the gear shed on the wharf and rigged it, and went for a sunrise sail. The breeze was light and the sea smooth at the high slack tide, and I went slowly across the cove and out beyond the line between Deer Point on Great Chebeague and the Crow Island off Long Island’s east end (not the one farther north by Great Chebeague’s middle). When I came about to return, the tide had begun to ebb out thru that channel, where a sizeable percentage of Casco Bay’s high-tide contents was returning to the open ocean. The wind did not die, but it wasn’t far from it, and I sailed and sailed in the same spot for at least half an hour. Farther out, I could make better speed, as I could have also if I could have got inside that line, but on the line the gap was the narrowest and the current was the fastest, so there I sat at the point selected by nature to equalize the forces of wind and water. Eventually I managed to edge over behind Crow Island, where the current was a bit slower, and made it into the cove by going between Crow and Long. This was, of course, before the Navy had contractor Elias Snodgrass’s company partially block that shallow channel by sinking two stone-laden old wooden schooners there. By the time I got to the wharf, the breeze was really about dead. I arrived at the loft in time for breakfast.

At the end of the summer of 1941, on what turned out to be my last visit to the island before World War II closed it to us, the Hill’s had a clambake on the front beach. That was the only clambake I ever went to, then or since. I am not a seafood lover -- on the contrary. But I would not have missed that one for anything, because I expected Frank’s daughter Rachel would be there. She was, and when I asked, after supper, if she would like to take a walk down along the beach, she responded with something like “Well, all right.” So we did, and I remember that one feature of the trip was coming across the washed-up body of a dead seal. But that didn’t spoil it. I was 18 and she was 15, and that walk was the beginning of the rest of our lives. I owe all that to Frank, Hank, the Dash, and Little Chebeague Island.

By then, it had been two years since the news of the invasion of Poland had forewarned us (though we did not know it then) of the coming storm, the war that would destroy the life we knew on Little Chebeague. It broke upon the United States in another three months, and upon our island before yet another half-year passed.

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BASEBALL BATS AND FIRE HOSES The U. S. Navy (1942-1950) Even before the United States became officially at war, preparations were under way to use Casco Bay as a temporary naval base, designated “Base Sail”. Destroyers stationed there accompanied our “neutral” commercial vessels half-way on their trip to the British Isles, the British Navy taking over that task for the last half of the trip. To support that activity, a fueling facility on Long Island was planned in 1941, and its construction began in 1942.

According to one Navy veteran, the idea of using Little Chebeague as a recreation area for ships’ crews originated with Capt. Oscar C. Badger, commanding the new battleship North Carolina, which was stationed in the Bay while it underwent its sea trials. When the North Carolina left Casco Bay for Norfolk and then the Pacific, Badger became an admiral with headquarters aboard the destroyer tender U.S.S. Denebola (AD-12), which spent the early war years moored between Little Chebeague and the Falmouth shore, connected to shore-based commands via an eight-line telephone cable laid to its mooring.

Adm. Badger’s original letter officially raising the subject of having Little Chebeague for land-based recreation is in papers of the First Naval District, held by the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration facility in Waltham, MA. Stamped “30 August 1942”, which was either the date of writing or of having been received, that letter said: From:

Senior Officer Present Afloat, Casco Bay, Maine (Commander Destroyers, U.S. Atlantic Fleet) To: The Chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel Subject: Purchase of Little Chebeague Island for Fleet Recreation Purposes 1. At the present time Little Chebeag [sic] Island, located in Casco Bay, Maine, is being used as a recreation center for forces located in this area. Soft-ball diamonds, volleyball courts, picnic grounds and other athletic facilities have been constructed. This has all been done with the permission of the owners who have made no charge for the use of their island and have been most cooperative in all respects. The principal owners are Mrs. Joseph B. Reed and the Waldo Company.

2. It has been determined from Mr. James C. DeWolfe, a Portland lawyer who represents Mrs. Joseph B. Reed and the Waldo Company, that their property which constitutes nearly all of the island can be purchased for a total of eight thousand ($8000) dollars which is considered a fair price.

3. The Bureau is requested to make $8000 available for the purchase of the property described above, and to authorize the Commandant First Naval District to acquire it for the purpose outlined in paragraph 1 above.

O. C. Badger [Signature]

Note that the requested allocation of funds specified only the amount needed to purchase “the property described above”, which meant the Reed Cottage and its lot and all of the rest of the island except the other cottage lots.

Although that property was “nearly all of the island” in terms of area, that price was far from the cost of all of the island.

The text of that letter contained no suggestion that the other cottagers be displaced. However, in the “Subject” line, the purchase of the entire island was implied. Whether this was intentional or not will probably never be known. In any case, once the proposal was accepted, the Navy’s subsequent actions were aimed at obtaining the entire island, and the other owners of cottages on Little Chebeague were notified of the government’s intent.

Because of that, acquisition was not so simple as it seemed at that time. Some of the owners must have resisted, requiring the matter to be taken to court to settle either the matter of the taking itself or that of fair price. It was not settled until early summer of 1943, at a price to the government of $27,525. Of that, $18,025 was for the other cottages and their lots, and another $1,500 was apparently added to the Reed/Waldo award, perhaps for the wharf, which the papers noted as “Included in acquisition from Waldo Company”. The costs of the legal proceedings are unknown.

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Crews of destroyers and perhaps other vessels were assigned first to the Denebola and from there to their combat-ship destinations. The roster of ex-“Old Denny” sailors was therefore large, and resulted, after the war, in a very large organization of veterans connected with that ship, called the Denebola Association. Some of the information obtained about those years of the island’s history has come from members of that association.

Henry Bailey and Dora Fogg stayed in his cottage during the summer of 1942. At that time, a Navy caretaker was assigned to the island, he and his wife staying in one of the cottages, possibly Haskell’s. He was Oliver S. (“Tex”) Miller, formerly the owner of a sporting goods store in Long Beach, CA, where he had apparently cornered the market for supplying recreational equipment to the Naval Station there and to the ships assigned to it. It seems that he must have then been an ex-Navy man, since the Denebola Association’s copy of his Navy records show that he entered the wartime Navy under the V-6 program. In that program, a reserve member could re-enlist with a rating rather than starting over as a seaman and re-experiencing boot camp.

Miller re-entered the Navy as a gunner’s mate 1st class, and served on the North Carolina. In March 1942, he was transferred to the staff of Comdeslant (Commander Destroyers Atlantic) located on Denebola. Badger assumed command of Comdeslant in June of 1942. Both Miller and his wife had died before we located information about them, and they had no children. The only source found who had been acquainted with them was a California college coach who had worked in Miller’s store after the war. He knew nothing of Miller’s connection with the island.

Navy veteran James Monroe, while assigned to Denebola, “went on those work parties of Adm. Badger’s” and recalls the Miller’s being on the island. He wrote: “Tex Miller ... and his wife were nice to work with, and we became good friends, and they were good to Miss Medora. ... Tex was a good friend of Admiral Badger, and that made it easy to deal with [the] Admiral. That’s the way I got Miss Medora’s flag pole, with American flag, and a distress flag. It was monitored every hour from the ship. Miss Medora couldn’t believe they were going to check on her.” Dora, in a 1942 letter quoted earlier, referred to the island’s “commissioning” ceremony, at which she was designated the official “color guard” to raise and lower the flag on the pole in front of their cottage.

Most of the papers preserved at Waltham are ones that originally had a security classification of “Confidential”, one level below “Secret”. Apparently most of the District’s unclassifed papers were destroyed rather than archived.

Although recreation was certainly not sensitive enough to be classified, its progress appeared on weekly reports of projects under way; since some of those projects were classified, those papers were also. They are now, of course, declassified.

In the 15 Dec 42 report, Item 45 (out of 48 at that time; this number increased on later reports as new projects were added) was Recreation, under which heading Long Island appeared as early as August. Little Chebeague Island became another sub-heading on the 10 Nov report, which mentioned that its purchase had been approved on 17 September, and that a metes and bounds survey and an appraisal had been “completed and forwarded”. The 15 Nov report backed up a bit, saying that the appraisal was completed and recommendations forwarded from SOPA (Senior Officer Present Afloat, meaning Badger) for purchase. Also, a preliminary survey and layout were being made for recreation facilities and “incinerator”. One has to wonder if that last may have been a reference to part of what was later the Firefighter’s School on the island.

Either cold weather or the acquisition legalities then held up further progress until early in 1943. Beginning on 09 February, the entry, “Land acquired. Shelter house requested by SOPA. Approval recommended by ComOne [Commandant, 1st Naval District]”, continued to appear thru March. On 06 April: “Allotment received. Plans complete.”

13 April: “Plans complete”.

Then began what appears, on paper, to have been a very rapid pace of events. 04 May: “Reconstruction of pier requested by SOPA.” 18 May: “Material for new pier being assembled”. 25 May: “New pier 50% complete”. 01 June: “Pier complete”.

The Navy consistently referred to this structure as a pier, whereas the Casco Bay term is wharf. The distinction is rather a fine one in this case. “Wharf” refers to a place where vessels lie parallel to the shore, and usually is applied to cases where the wharf touches the shore along all or much of its length. A “pier” projects out into the water, vessels usually lying parallel to it and therefore about perpendicular to the shore. In Casco Bay, especially in the case of the steamers that linked the islands and the city, most wharfing structures needed to reach out some distance in order to end up in deep enough water, but had T-heads that allowed those vessels to lie alongside the head, hence parallel to the shore, without need (except in severe wind conditions) to deviate from their direction of travel. This practice was different from

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that suitable for large cargo vessels wanting unloading access along the entire length of the ship rather than simply at one gangplank location.

We have good reason to be dubious about the speed of construction. Several paper references and a Navy map dated 1945 show their wharf to have been 250 feet long and 15 feet wide over most of its length, with a wider outer end for vessels to tie up to. A photo from 1947 shows it to have been supported, from the shore to the low-water line, by 11 cross-braced bents, their outer posts sloped outward from the sides of the deck. Another photo from 1954 shows there to have been at least 12 more sets of posts, each set consisting of five posts in a line across the wharf’s width and connected to each other by one “X” of diagonal timber cross-braces. On the shore side of the low-water line, each set is also connected to the next by two pairs of diagonal braces. Outside that line, braces occur only in alternate spaces between inline sets. The 1947 photo also shows what appear to be two timber cribs (rock-filled?) under the wider head of the wharf.

Would all of this have been assembled in even four weeks for a recreation project? We have to suspect that the completion date was honest; if so, some activity was probably underway before the project became official. However, as was often said at the time to explain unusually intense activity, “Hey, there’s a war on!”. 250 feet in four weeks meant over 65 feet a week, or about 10 feet a day, hence about one line of posts a day, every day of the week, a not unusual work week in such times. But if materials were only being “assembled” (which might mean “gathered” but might alternatively have meant “sub-assembled”) on 18 May, in-the-water construction took only two weeks. Furthermore, part of the job was removal of the old wharf. More guesses about this will be given a few paragraphs later.

There is no further mention of the “shelter building”, perhaps because the cottages became available at about the time the wharf was finished. The first softball field and the boxing ring were certainly built in 1942, because Frank Bailey told of his father’s being able to watch the games and bouts from his cottage. These were on the field in front of the Cleaves, Haskell, and Fogg cottages, probably because that was the only nearly level area of suitable size. Later, two more softball fields were laid out on gently sloping terrain on the other side of the Reed cottage, which became the Navy’s Recreation Building.

The earliest document we have describing those uses is a “Map of U. S. Navy Recreation Facilities, Little Chebeague Island, Casco Bay, Maine”, dated June 30, 1944. No uses of other cottages are mentioned, and, although the island’s outline is fairly accurate, the cottages’ locations were apparently sketched in by someone’s not very accurate estimate.

That map does show several Navy-built facilities. One is the new wharf, shown running out from nearly the same shore point and of about the same length as the old one (whose location was also shown.), but was oriented about 12 degrees counterclockwise from the alignment of the former one. Another is a “Water Tank” behind Reed’s. Since it is shown as a square rather than a circle, it probably even then was inside a wooden building. It is shown connected to a pipeline running to the new wharf and out along one side of it. Charles Kuntz of Great Chebeague says that the pipe along the side of the wharf was a three-inch one, and that pieces of it have been seen on the bottom nearby. About 100 feet inland, a “Valve House” is shown astride the pipeline. Also shown is a “Spring House” over the former windmill spring, with a pipeline connecting it to the longer line at a point another 250 or so feet further inland from the valve house (although it seems likely that it should have actually connected at the valve location).

Some sources have mentioned seeing water barges tied up to the wharf, with the claim that they supplied water to the island. It is far more likely that the island, with its known copious supply of excellent ground-water, was supplying the barges, spring-water being pumped to the large tank, from which it could later be rapidly gravity-fed down the pipeline to the wharf. By the 1990’s, the only trace of the 27 foot square tank building was some pieces of the asbestos/concrete board that was apparently used around its base. The several steel hoops that encircled the vertical wooden planks of the tank still remain. Since these are 19 feet in diameter, the tank was perhaps 18 feet across on the inside and left room for a drilled well in one corner. A 1950 photograph shows, thru the building’s then-broken door, that the tank may have been as much as 12 feet tall. If those were its dimensions, it could have held over 20,000 gallons. In appraisers’ reports made after the war, it was said to have held 30,000 gallons, implying it was nearly 16 feet tall. No use existed on the island itself for 20,000 or 30,000 gallons of water stored with a pressure head of no more than 16 feet, nor is there is any recorded mention of storing enough fire hose to protect the scattered buildings thru pump pressure.

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The presence of this water-supply system may explain the priority given to the wharf construction. While a recreation area was not likely to have a valid claim to urgency of wartime construction, the provision of a sutable tie-up location for filling water barges could have been deemed important to the operation of the growing fleet anchorage.

While water was certainly available from the Portland waterfront and at the naval facilities on Long and Great Diamond Islands, the reliable Little Chebeague source, being devoted to no other purpose, could have allowed rapid fill-ups and short barge runs. Winter use would have been a problem, but one feature that appears in our photograph of the tank building is a frame that appears to have been a support for an oil barrel or tank, suggesting that provision may have been made to avoid freezing of the water tank and its valve.

The 1944 map’s other major item of Navy origin was the “Fire-Fighter School” on the east beach. It is there shown to have consisted then of only the steel “Simulated Fire Building” and the “Lecture Hall”. One Denebola Association member said that the steel building was constructed by himself and others of the Denny’s crewmen, who were equipped with tools and materials to do welding and other repairs on destroyers and other vessels. Another, who got his fire-fighting training there, said that the practicing was done with sea-water, pressure being provided by gasolinepowered pumps brought to the school when needed.

The final item on that map was a skeet-shooting field, located behind the Prichett cottage. This apparently consisted principally of a ring of firing positions and two stations for throwing the clay “pigeons”. Such a facility would have served not simply a recreation purpose, but gave an important type of practice for anti-aircraft gunners.

The later map, dated June 30, 1945, appears to be to proper scale and shows much more detail, including tenfoot contours. A total of 28 items have numbered call-outs, which were identified in a table at the edge of the map.

Besides the recreation building there was an “Enlisted Men’s Galley” (the Crowell/Fogg cottage) and a “Gear Locker (Athletic)” (the Adams/Haskell cottage). All other cottages are labelled simply as “Unoccupied”, but Frank Bailey’s shop is called “Barn (Lumber Storage)”.

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It is likely that the sequence of numbers in the tabulation of structures represents the chronological order of construction. On the 1945 map, all of the numbered items on the 1944 map are the same except for number 5, which changed from “Skeet Field” to “Gear Locker”. That new reference is apparently to a beach building addition to the firefighter school. Post-war appraisers’ photos show a small (about 10x10 foot) building marked “Pump House” in a location where the map shows the “Gear Locker”, so perhaps pumps were by then stored on-site. Also at about that location is a line projecting into the water and labelled “Sub-marine cable 2125.3’ [feet] to Cleaves Landing, L.I.”. This refers to an electrical supply cable from Long Island. Several 1947 photos taken by the government-hired appraiser show power poles and a transformer station near the fire-fighting school buildings, and some cross-arms with insulators were found on the ground in the 1990’s.

One Portland recreational boater reported in recent years having lost an anchor by fouling it on some of the remains of that cable, and a piece of the cable was uncovered near the low-water line of the beach in 1999. That piece consisted of only several strands of the steel jacketing that spiralled around the outside, the copper conductors and the inervening insulation having completely vanished. Possibly this was a piece abandoned by those who “salvaged” (or stole) the valuable copper interior, and it too may have been brought to the beach after being hooked by an anchor.

Item 7 in the table is the “Generator Building” closer behind the Reed cottage than was the tank building. This building is the only Navy structure, other than the steel one on the beach, that is still standing. Its longevity is due to its walls having been built of concrete blocks (and some cinder blocks) on a poured concrete floor and footings. However, its wooden roof had rotted nearly away by the 1990’s. Seams in the walls indicate that it was twice enlarged, hence built in three stages, once by adding to the original length and once by adding a separate room at the rear (away from Reed’s).

The larger room, with double doorways on two sides, contained an engine-driven electrical generator. The smaller room at the rear contained a pump, probably for providing water pressure for the occupied cottages. Beside the building there must have been an underground tank for oil or gasoline fuel since what seems to have been a filler cap is visible at the surface. There is also a concrete pad such as might have supported a “gas-station” pump for fueling vehicles.

Near the tank building location one can still see a four-inch well-head, an underground water shut-off valve, and the remains of another large pipe. The latter two items may have been part of the water line to the wharf. It is likely that the well was the source of potable water for the cottages, rather than using it from the open-top tank.

Items 19 and 21 are “Heads”, the nautical term for latrines, in these cases multi-hole privies, one at the firefighting school, another near the former farmhouse/barn location (the latter buildings having been demolished early in the Navy’s occupation).. Item 22 was an “Open Oil Tank”, which was merely an eight-foot diameter circular wall of steel plates about four feet tall, inside which open-air oil fires could be set for practice in extinguishing them. Items 23 and 24 are small “Skeet Houses”, one an elevated platform for launching the clay targets.

The numbered list ends with an “Instructors Building” at the school and another head near the north shore and the former location of the clambake/boat-storage building, possibly for users of the skeet area. A final item, designated by the letter “A” rather than a number, was an oil tank on somewhat higher ground above the open oil-fire ring, and apparently having pipelines to both the ring and the fire-practice building. Not shown on any plans was the can dump apparently used to dispose of the metal drums and 10-gallon cans in which oil and perhaps gasoline were brought in for the fire-fighting school. That was a large hole, which may have had a wooden cover and trap-door, at the top of the bank somewhat above the school. In this new century, its rusty contents still remain as a continuing eyesore.

The island’s recreation aspect was under the management of the “Welfare and Recreation Department” of Naval Station Portland, located on the waterfront in the city. This department was established in January 1942 under Lt. (jg) E. H. Hale who was succeeded by Lt. (jg) W. S. Chase, both USNR. It operated indoor and outdoor recreation facilities in Portland and on Long Island as well as the Outdoor Recreation Center on Little Chebeague. The period of Navy facilities development on Little Chebeague occurred during the department’s being in the charge of Lt. James K. McManus, USNR, who served as its head from April 1943 to August 1945. The 1945 map shows the three baseball fields and boxing ring and also lists these “Additional Facilities: Amplified Music, Canteen, Archery, Volleyball, Badminton, Horse Shoe Courts, Touch Football, and Croquet.”

In Volume X of “United States Naval Administration in World War II”, prepared by the Commandant, First Naval District, in 1946 mentions bowling also. It also says “Lobster bakes were... run for all hands. These have become

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very popular and have had crowds of 600 to 700 in attendance. During the summer months, this activity has been in daily operation.â&#x20AC;?

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The department’s “Fleet Recreation News”, a bi-weekly publication of 6 tabloid-sized pages, had articles about the Recreation Center programs in its 24 May and 05 July 1945 issues. The earlier one had a photo of sailors playing ball with the Recreation Building in the background and another of dozens sitting at long picnic tables, this picture probably taken from that building’s balcony. Calling the lobster bakes, “The talk of the fleet”, it said that one of those “as they are held on Little Chebeague Island at the Fleet Recreation Center means more than just a ‘Feed.’ It means a day of Fun and Frolic including all the outdoor sports. ... Each day [the previous summer] a new group were [sic] transported from their ships via motor launches... [and] enjoyed a fine Lobster and Clam dinner with all the trimmings including Sweet Corn, Eggs, Hamburgers, Pickles, and PLENTY OF BEER. ... After the feed, the SPORTS PROGRAM for the sailors occupied their attention for the balance of the time until they departed for their ships in the evening. ... A total of over 7,500 sailors from over 100 ships were served over ten tons of lobsters during the season of 1944.” Since that amount averaged three pounds per sailor, the lobsters were apparently weighed in the shell. No “kitchen midden” of lobster shells having been found, they may have been buried at sea. The later issue featured another front-page picnic story, this being about the Naval Officers’ Picnic in June. Its last page was filled with photos of the festivities, again overlooked by the Rec Building in the background.

From 24 May 1945 issue of “Fleet Recreation News”, Published by U. S. Naval Station, Portland (Courtesy of Denebola Association)

Navy use of the island ceased after the war’s end in the late summer of 1945. It remained unoccupied and unguarded until it was declared surplus in 1947, sold in 1951, and briefly occupied in the summer of 1954. In that period, salvagers moved in and helped themselves to doors, windows, metal porch roofing, and other items nailed down or not, such as the entire tank building, which would have been a source of fairly new lumber at a time when that commodity was scarce. Vandals also came to enjoy destroying the cottages’ plastered walls and ceilings and any remaining glass, porcelain toilet bowls, and slate sinks. Thus opened to the weather, the unprotected buildings were entered by nature, which weakened them with rot and then collapsed them with ice, snow, and wind. Thus post-war destruction due to the war came to Little Chebeague while the better-known victimized areas overseas were being re-constructed with U.S. assistance and funds.

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THE GARDEN OF DREAMS John Absmeier and William Peppin (1950-1971) From 1951 to 1971, Little Chebeague Island was owned by John B. Absmeier. The following details of Absmeier’s life may seem remote from the history of Little Chebeague Island, but what we know of his plans for his future and of the lifestyle and other actions he undertook for furthering those plans are what we have available to help us understand how his 20-year ownership of the island came to produce the final effect that it did -- a result quite different from his plans.

Absmeier was born in Germany (probably Bavaria) on February 6, 1905 (or 1906?), the son of Anna Absmeier.

Anna’s sister, Lina, married Franz Eckert and they had four children: Mary, Karl, Elisabeth, and Franz, two of whom will appear later in this story. Absmeier’s father has been variously described as an official or an employee of the customs service and as one of Bavaria’s many wood-working craftsmen. He later told a friend of being “brought up in castles”.

He came to the United States in or sometime before 1929, when he began to work for the New York Telephone Company and was a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, an organization of telephone company employees who do volunteer work. By 1944 he had married his cousin Mary Eckert (possibly that had happened in Germany) and they were living at 430 W. 34th St. in Manhattan, which they may have run as a boarding house.

In November of that year he bought about 11 acres of property in Hempstead, Nassau County (on Long Island, NY) at a tax sale. This was a left-over part of a 1920’s residential development, apparently land that had not sold for housing, perhaps because of the 1928 economic depression, and also because of its being adjacent to a major highway.

He and Mary divorced amicably in May of 1946. He bought several other odd unsold lots in that area in 1947 and 1948 and held them for later sale, although he turned some of them over to Mary in 1947. At that time his address on her deeds was 49 Bauer Avenue, Roosevelt, NY, which was within his 11-acre parcel. However, several other deeds recorded thru January 1949 have his address still at 34th St. A later acquaintance said that at some time he had worked on cruise ships going to the Caribbean; possibly that was at this period, with his ex-wife/cousin’s home serving as his mailing address.

In October 1950, when he hit pay dirt by selling most of his 11-acre purchase to the local school district, his address was again the Bauer Avenue one. Although his cost for that property must have been small, he got nearly $20,000 for the portion sold to the school district. Since then, a junior and senior high school campus has been built there. Other property separating his from the highway became a park, turning Bauer Avenue into a cul-de-sac. He was then able to sell that remainder of his parcel to a developer who built about a dozen homes on it and therefore probably paid Absmeier well for it.

When he lived in the Bauer Avenue house, it was a large old one (later demolished when the newer subdivision was built). He apparently stayed there with two large German shepherd dogs, and sold small trees that grew on the property. This is the first hint we have of his interest in some sort of gardening.

Sometime after World War II, Absmeier submitted a bid of $11,500 to buy 17-acre Gull Island off the east end of Long Island, NY. That island contained a late-1800’s fort which, like some similar locations in Casco Bay, had been up-graded with 16-inch gun emplacements during World War II, but was declared surplus federal property afterward.

That offering must have occurred before 1949, since it was offered by the War Assets Administration, which was replaced in 1949 by the General Services Administration. Bids of $15,000 were made by both a hospital planning to set up a cancer research laboratory and by the American Museum of Natural History.

It is hard to imagine a successful research laboratory on such a small island located several miles from sparsely populated Orient Point and in an area where Long Island Sound meets the open Atlantic. Good research personnel are not such dedicated hermits that they would take to such isolation. In contrast, Absmeier’s intention, as stated to the newspapers, was that he wanted to use it for some fishing enterprise, but he mentioned to others that it might become an oil-tanker terminal. Either of those uses seems more plausible than the lab one, but both would have required very highlevel financing, so both proposals involved, in different senses, the kind of fishing done by speculators. In the end, the museum won the toss, and that island is now a nesting sanctuary for terns and is closed to the public.

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John B. Absmeier at the time he was bidding on Gull Island (around 1947 to 1949) A clipping from some Long Island, NY newspaper We can only guess that, once Absmeier moved up from scanning the local legal notices to reading the Federal Register (he subscribed to that), the broader outlook that gave him was what led him to discover the later availability of Little Chebeague and Jewell’s Islands in faraway Maine. However, both islands were also advertised in March 1949 in the New York Times (as well as the Boston Traveler and the Portland Press Herald), so he may have heard of them from that “local” paper, instead.

Little Chebeague had been declared surplus in 1947. Frank Bailey told us that he had received a notice that, as a former owner of property on the island, he was one of those given a first chance to buy his property back. However, the ad in the Press Herald stated that Federal agencies, then state and local governments actually had top priorities.

Moreover, any buyer had to take the entire island, and Frank said that he was told that the asking price was $18,000, about the same as was paid to all the cottage owners together, excepting Mrs. Reed. To him and nearly all of the former owners, that “offer” was ridiculous, that price then being the equivalent of about half a million dollars today. Roger Fogg said that his family got no such notice, but that may have been because such notices are usually sent to a party’s “last known address”, and the Fogg’s had moved. Government papers of that time gave Mrs. Fogg’s address as simply “Chebeague Island”.

Purchase of it for use as a city park had been considered by Portland’s Planning Board in April of 1947, but no such action was taken then. Around that time a WAA appraiser who visited the island to determine its worth found all of the buildings to be in such poor condition that he set the island’s current value to its former owners at only $6,140. Some sources have said that both the city of Portland and the state of Maine were offered the island for one dollar. Another

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appraisal by a Portland real-estate agency set the market value at $8,800. In 1947, one resident of Long Island, Maine

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had offered $2500, perhaps based on what he felt he could pay rather than on value.

The 1944 federal law on surplus property disposals specified that there was no need for competitive bidding.

The 1949 law creating GSA also stated that there need not be advertising unless GSA’s director deemed that advantageous to the government. Apparently it was in this case, since the advertisements called for bids to be opened at a specific date and time. The records state that no responses were received from former owners. The next priority was for WWII veterans, and the one after that was “eligible non-profit institutions”, one of which did apply. That was the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order which operated several city schools for disadvantaged youths. Their intent was to use the island as a summer camp/school to replace one they had given up operating some years earlier. Their application was approved but they then declined, saying that they had found more suitable property in New York State. Perhaps it was the realization of the cost of building from scratch, including a wharf, that caused them to lose interest.

There is no record of any other serious offer until Absmeier’s, which was in a letter he dated 10 December 1949. In that, he offered $6,250 -- barely above the smaller of the two appraised values. He also spelled out his other terms: “Twenty percent of total amount or $1250.-(certified check enclosed) to constitute down payment upon acceptance of offer. The remaining sum of $5000.- to be carried on a FIVE-YEAR MORTGAGE, amortizing at the rate of twenty equal payments of $250.- each, every three months, together with interest at four percent on the remainder, with option of payment in full at any time at discretion of Bidder.” Absmeier probably had got a look at the island; the ads stated that prospective bidders could go there (and to Jewell’s) on certain dates on a boat provided by the government.

Although the WAA report of action on that offer stated that the “Fair Value” was then considered to be $10,350, his offer was accepted. That report also stated that “the property was inspected by at least 40 people.” The transaction was dated 15 June 1951, about half a year after Absmeier’s sale of the school property. One caveat was that the U. S. retained the right to any uranium or other radioactive material deposits which might later be discovered.

Although there was no chance of such discoveries along the coast of Maine, that provision was apparently standard on federal land sales at the time, since it also appeared on the Jewell’s Island papers.

Two years later, in mid-1953, he bought part of Jewell’s Island from the government for $3,510, again paying 20% down and getting another 4% mortgage, and also bought more of that island from Thomas Proctor’s estate for $1,620, apparently in cash. He completed his purchase of Jewell’s in December of 1954 with a down payment of $1,130 and a 5% mortgage on the remaining $4,000, again from the U.S. Apparently he was interested not only in gardening, but also in organic farming. One of the items paid by his estate was a bill for an organic farming magazine subscription. Also, in 1952 he had advertised in such a magazine for a person to organically farm the island.

Enter William John Peppin and family.

Peppin was a Lancashire Englishman who had studied organic farming in an agricultural college in Liverpool.

He was, said his son Paul, “...a bit of a wanderer. He’d work for these millionaire farmers who weren’t making a profit out of the farm because they didn’t know what they were doing. He’d stay there a year or so, and get the thing on a paying basis, and then he’d get bored and move on. I remember by the time I was 21, I’d lived in four different countries and I think 22 places”. At the time Mr. Peppin saw Absmeier’s ad, they were on a farm in Sweetsburg, Quebec. The Chebeague job became his, but it was a year before they actually went to the island, arriving in April or early May, 1954.

As Mrs. (Winifred) Peppin told it in one of the two articles she wrote for 1959 issues of “Maine Digest”, Absmeier had “a vision but not much capital...eventually the houses were to be restored, and the whole place made into a health resort”.

Compared to the need and what we now know of Absmeier’s financial status, “not much capital” was a huge understatement.

Although the Peppin’s had been given the impression that they could live in one of the cottages, they immediately found that all of them were so vandalized and weather-damaged that they were useless. They settled for fixing up the remains of the Navy’s 16 x 16 foot “instructor’s building”, located on the dune above the east beach, since, being the smallest, it could become useable with the least work. Paul does not recall ever seeing the once-nearby 10 x 10 foot pump house, but said that they housed their chickens and goats in the remains of what had been the Lecture Hall.

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Winifred and William Peppin on the east beach near their island home

They and Paul, then 11, lived in their fixed-up building until November, when, with only one layer of boards and one of asphalt siding between them and the weather, it became too cold. Absmeier then rented them a house on Great Chebeague, where they stayed for the winter. By that time, the farm scheme had collapsed, their contract was up, and they returned to Quebec.

Much of their story is best told in Mrs. Peppinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two articles, but Paul, now (2002) living in Ontario, has provided more details as well as numerous photos. Being an amateur photographer, he retained not only prints, but also some negatives. When first on the island, his father had only a cheap box camera (the early photos show that fact, being fuzzy in the corners), but before they left, Paul got and used a good-quality Zeiss folding camera. (He still has it and has brought it to the island for more pictures in addition to ones taken with a modern 35mm camera).

When the school year began, Paul attended the one on Great Chebeague, walking across the sandbar when the tide permitted. Usually the tide permitted walking only one way each day. Otherwise, his father took him in a 16-foot open boat with a 7-hp outboard that Absmeier had provided when they first went to the island. After they gained a rowboat that washed up on the island as a result of Hurricane Carol, they would sometimes tow the rowboat to Chebeague and Paul would row home. Probably no one on Chebeague cared that he actually lived in Portland rather than the town of Cumberland, but possibly some arrangement was made between the two school districts. He also joined the Boy Scout troop on Great Chebeague.

Paul: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used to do a lot of fishing...we could pull in pollock as fast as you could bait the hook. We ate a lot of pollock...My Dad had a single-shot 22, and he was a pretty good shot. And one day he saw what he thought was a beautiful great duck sitting on top of the...derrick on the end of the wharf. He was on the shore, right at the end of the wharf...I was behind, Mum was there. With a single shot, he shot this bird right off the top of the derrick. [The wharf was

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about 250 feet long.] My Mum plucked it and cooked it up, and after about half an hour -- oh, the stink was awful! We had to clear out -- it was a cormorant! Threw it on the beach, and the seagulls wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even eat it.â&#x20AC;?

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They made some friends on nearby islands. One Long Island lobsterman occasionally made a point of throwing some short lobsters back into the water a bit too hard, so that they landed on the beach in front of the Peppin’s camp.

Said Paul, “That’s where I got my taste for lobster”. They visited back and forth with Johanna von Tiling from Cliff Island, she sometimes being brought by a boat-owning neighbor, Norman Black. Charles Kuntz of Great Chebeague also visited, especially, Charlie said, when he smelled their bread baking. Paul: “My Dad made homemade bread in the brick oven that he had on the beach, and you could smell it all over the place. And he used to make whole wheat bread -- he was an organic farmer... My mother cooked just about everything else, but Dad made the bread.” Mrs. Peppin described that unique oven in her articles.

After leaving Great Chebeague and returning to Quebec, the Peppins managed a nursing home for a time. Some time later, Mr. Peppin became a groundskeeper at the University of Vermont in Burlington, and Paul attended that school. Though his father and mother returned to England, Paul stayed in America, serving in a tank outfit in Vietnam before returning to Canada to become a hospital technician. He is currently the last former Little Chebeague resident.

Mrs. Peppin, returning on the “Gurnet” from a trip to Portland, is met by Paul.

Absmeier’s experiment in creating an organic farm at an end, he found another bargain back at home on New York’s Long Island, that being a burnt-out house in Huntington, offered by the Suffolk County Commissioner of Public Welfare after its elderly occupant died as a result of that fire. After its purchase in January 1956, it became his address for a time. “He sometimes did strange things”, said a friend. One was that he stripped the interior of the house, taking out “all the interior walls” and the heating equipment, with the result that he stayed one winter in a vacant house loaned to him by his friend. Possibly his demolition was actually a cleanup of the fire damage.

It may have been around this time that he was employed in some capacity at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories a few miles away. That organization, founded in 1890 to do biological research, was once involved in eugenics but has since become noted for its serious work in genetics and molecular biology. Although two different sources have mentioned his working there, they probably having been told by Absmeier himself, the Laboratory has no record of it nor do any of its older personnel recall him. However, there is another clue that seems to support his having been associated there. That is the fact that he later was getting retirement benefits from the Teacher’s Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), which did handle the Laboratories’ retirement program. No other occupation of his would

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explain that. One of the sources said that his work there was secret and he could not talk about it. Cold Spring Harbor did do contract work for the U.S., but some of its work may have been secret for the Laboratories’ own proprietary reasons.

By mid-1958 he had paid off the smaller of his Jewell’s Island mortgages, and in March of 1960 paid off the other. In May 1960 he bought a “lovely Tudor house” in an attractive location on Kane’s Lane in Halesite, near Huntington. The full price is unknown, but his mortgage for that was only about $3,600, so it is likely that he had found another bargain, his specialty in real estate. This house may have been unfinished; it included a “shingle-making machine” which he learned to operate and used to make siding which he put on the house. Around that time he also bought a motorboat which his friend helped him to bring, in what the friend felt was a hair-raising trip, to Huntington Harbor, where he rented a berth for it. We don’t know whether he made any use of it.

During some of this time, he used as a mailing address that of his friend, who said that he often got requests from would-be island buyers, but always threw them out unanswered. In March of 1963, the Portland Evening Express carried an article telling of a letter from Absmeier denying a rumor that Little Chebeague was for sale. He wrote that he planned to retire there “in the not too distant future” and “When and if I do sell, it will probably be to a friend who has made me a very generous offer”.

In August 1965, the Portland Press Herald had an article based on statements by a John Littman, entitled “New Yorkers to Develop Little Chebeague Island”. Littman, stated to be a “local contractor” in the Huntington area, claimed that he had an arrangement with Absmeier to share ownership of both that island and Jewell’s. They planned a “resorttype as well as cottage-type development” there, plus an airstrip, summer theater, “hotel-motel development”, and two boats, although “Casco Bay Lines...will serve Little Chebeague if these improvements are made”. Littman was an executive in a trucking company and was said to be “active in conservation efforts in New York”. He said he had made an Allagash canoe trip in Maine and had visited Little Chebeague several times.

Absmeier’s friend said that Littman’s wife was an officer in a chapter of the Sierra Club, in which Absmeier was a member. Absmeier was not as sold on the partnership idea as was Littman; in particular, he certainly did not want to share ownership. Nothing more came of that episode.

He did visit his islands. Jewell’s was his favorite, and he camped there more than once. How he got there we do not know, but it seems likely that some boatman on Cliff Island took him across. He also visited Little Chebeague, being dropped off at the then still-extant wharf by a Casco Bay Lines boat. On one about 1960’s visit, he was surprised to find the belongings and fishing gear of some “squatter” who had been living in the former Prichett cottage near the wharf, although that person was not there at the time of his visit.

In 1966, his Kane’s Lane house burned, being a total loss. He sold the lot, but when he died five years later, there was still an unsettled lawsuit against his insurance company which his estate’s executors apparently did not bother to pursue.

Absmeier then returned to his hollowed-out Huntington house. He apparently had retired from Cold Spring Harbor, for he began receiving retirement income. Possibly he had retired at age 65, which he would have reached in February of either 1970 or 1971. If so, his next job was a post-retirement one doing a thing he liked, gardening, at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in nearby Lloyd Harbor, living there in some sort of space in a maintenance building.

This new employer also has no record or recollection of him, but his estate administrator’s papers mention finding uncashed paychecks from that institution. He was at work there on May 21, 1971, trimming a shrub, when he had a heart attack and was dead when found. His funeral was held there, attended, said his friend, by “a hundred priests” (presumably the seminary’s students).

The appraiser of the house reported it was “piled with various collections of old hats, newspapers, rags, books, soiled clothes, and miscellaneous items” of which the only item of value was a pair of cast-iron (furnace?) grates worth $50. The appraisal cost to his estate was $25 and the cost for hauling away the unsalable trash was $150. Besides the two islands, the estate’s assets turned out to be around $37,000 -- certainly far from the amount of capital needed to develop even one of his Maine islands.

A Long Island, NY, friend said that Absmeier had made an appointment with a lawyer to draw up a will on a date that was to have been a few days after he actually died. That, of course, never occurred, so he died without leaving a will, and an estate administrator was appointed. To handle Absmeier’s property in Maine, the New York administrator needed the services of a Maine lawyer. Apparently he went to the Portland Yellow Pages to make a choice, finding there

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the name of Daniel Mooers. Now why would he pick such a name from all of the attorneys listed on those pages?

Mooers says that when he got the first phone call, the first question was whether he was related to a person of that name known to the New York lawyer. He was not, but he got the job.

Not all of the letters asking about purchase of the islands had been thrown away, for the administrator found one from some agency of the State of Maine. Since Mooers was acquainted with then-Governor Kenneth Curtis, he directed the question of a possible state purchase to him and was referred to the state’s parks department. So the process that resulted in the State’s purchase got under way. The state could pay only up to an appraised value, which turned out to be $155,000 for Little Chebeague and $200,000 for Jewell’s. For such purchases, the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (consisting of money obtained from off-shore oil-drilling leases) would pay about half, which turned out to be $175,000. On that basis, the Governor and Council approved the purchase. The state’s news release quoted the “purchase price” as $335,000 rather than $355,000, perhaps by “discounting” the state’s income of about $20,000 in Absmeier’s estate tax. The sale occurred in June 1972.

Absmeier’s surviving cousins, Karl (who still lived in Germany) and Mary, each received about $105,000 after the costs of estate administration were deducted. Mary, of course, was also his ex-wife, but that did not count as to inheritance; also, she had by then become Mrs. Poppenbuerger.

We have to wonder whether Absmeier ever realized that the actual late-1960’s value of the islands that he had bought for about $16,000 had become 22 times greater, about a 17% per year gain on his basic investment (before deducting interest and taxes). Had he chosen to sell Jewell’s then, he would have had quite enough to have created his retirement farm on Little Chebeague’s still-fertile and still-unforested soil, if that was what he really wanted. He could even have made a modest start with a farm-related “health-hostelry”, beginning again a cycle somewhat like the one set in motion by Abraham Osgood a century earlier. Any larger initial project would have needed funding well beyond his resources. In his reaching for his greater dream of a resort, both that and his lesser one of a retirement home slipped away from him. So neither came to pass.

What happened instead was what good farmers would see, not as a dream, but as a nightmare, for the deep, fertile, well-watered soil of Little Chebeague, after a century and a half of being productive farmland, has become overrun with wild growth. The principal effect of the island’s 20-year commitment to an owner who never reached the point of taking control of his property was that the garden of his dreams began a slide into being, instead, a garden abandoned to weeds. After over a half-century of that process, it is still on its way from having been almost completely cultural toward becoming natural again. At the present rate, it will probably take at least another century for the process to stabilize.

However, Absmeier’s period of ownership, by keeping the island from being developed as the private estate of some more financially prosperous owner, made it possible for the island to become, as it is now, available for use by the people of Maine. What that use may become is yet to be determined by Maine’s Department of Conservation.

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PARK CHEBEAGUE (1972 - 2002) In the two decades after the State of Maine’s purchase of Absmeier’s two islands, neither island was developed in any way. Recreational boaters probably discovered this uninhabited island as soon as the Navy left, and began to visit it for picnics and for bathing on both its front and back beaches, and to camp on the dunes above the front beach. They eventually found that rampant wild growth was becoming a serious obstacle to venturing into the island’s interior. The principal invaders were dense thickets of bittersweet, probably descendants of plants introduced as the ornamentals that may be seen climbing on both the Cleaves and Hamlen cottages in old photographs. Another deterrent to off-beach exploration was the fact that several types of poison ivy grow there (as they do on many other local islands).

One group that challenged those obstacles was composed of students and teachers from Portland High School.

In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, they traveled to Little Chebeague and other islands for field experience in conducting systematic surveys of those locations, cataloguing their flora and fauna and other environmental features. They also wrote, as a group, reports of their findings. Teacher Cynthia Martin was a leader in that effort. In the process, they flagged a few more or less open routes with plastic ribbon. They also put up signs warning of ticks and ivy, others giving advice on camping practices, and some that identified a few of the cottage sites and the hotel location. Those signs have been removed because the information on them weathered away. Subsequently, new signs have been installed at about 30 points of interest, explaining the past history of various sites, some of which are otherwise marked only by piles of wreckage from collapsed structures.

The Maine Island Trail, an island-to-island water trail that extends along most of the coast of Maine, was established in the late 1980’s by the Maine Island Trail Association (MITA). The association publishes a trail guidebook which includes maps plus information on the islands and on other subjects related to use of the trail. From the beginning, Little Chebeague was the southernmost of the trail’s many island stopover points. Most of the trail’s other islands are also publicly owned and therefore available to the general public, but some are made available by their private owners only to members of the Association. Campsites, both coastal and on islands, constitute waypoints on the trail. They are managed by the Association, on-site monitoring and maintenance being done mostly by volunteer trail stewards. On Little Chebeague, MITA volunteers perform about monthly clean-ups of the beach and the campsite areas.

Response to the establishment of the trail was both prompt and plentiful, so plentiful that, before long, the issue of over-use of island campsites became a serious one. In Casco Bay, Jewell’s was found to be particularly attractive and was susceptible to campers’ choosing sites randomly, threatening to destroy vegetative cover and to compact the soil over large areas. To focus usage onto a few locations, several cleared campsites with fire rings were established.

Privies were also installed, using state-supplied designs, materials, and supervision, with additional labor contributed by members of the Rotary Club and MITA. On Little Chebeague, maps showing the paths and the features they reach are provided in three locations, and register books for visitors to sign give the Department of Conservation some idea of the level of island usage. In 2001, one privy was also built there, but the only camping control measure is the occasional visits by the Jewell Island caretaker, a position established in 2001. Most over-nighters put their tents, beach chairs, coolers, and campstoves on the front-beach dune, in locations where the grass already has been killed by previous users. The loss of the dune grass is unfortunate, but the subsequent practice is in agreement with one of the major principles of “Leave No Trace” camping, which is “always camp on hardened sites”, meaning sites that will not be damaged by camping; in this case, they are ones that will not be damaged (much) more. However, there is room for only a few groups on such sites, and even those sites tend to grow as trampling continually extends their edges. Many campers, probably unaware of the state laws regarding the need for fire permits, have open campfires. Expanding use may require additional control measures, possibly the creation of an alternative camping area, and, ultimately, some nearly full-time official human presence.

In front of those sites is the beach itself, which is a wide strip of gravel and sand at low tide but almost vanishes at extreme high tides. The gentle slope of the beach makes it very suitable for bathing, but also means that boats anchored beyond the low tide line are over 100 feet from the water’s edge and in over ten feet of water at high tide. Beach users therefore must make foresighted provisions for accessing their boats. Some pull up on the shore, sometimes moving their boats as the tide level changes; others anchor beyond the low-tide line and get ashore in dinghies or by swimming or wading. Sea kayakers, often in large groups, sometimes carry their craft to their campsites.

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Behind the dune is a hollow hosting cat-tails and sometimes holding standing water that generates mosquitoes.

Beyond that, land that was once open pasture begins to rise gradually through low overgrowth of sumac, bayberry, and occasional medium-sized birch and oak trees, some of it overlaid or interspersed with a nearly impenetrable layer of bayberry bushes and bittersweet vines. Along the inland edge of the swampy area and for some distance up-slope, patches of poison ivy are scattered thru the other growth. While bittersweet frequently shades out and eliminates other vegetation, the long-stemmed, top-leaved type of poison ivy found here manages to coexist with the bittersweet. It leafs out earlier than those vines and keeps its crowns above the shaded zone. The visitor’s best defense is to learn to recognize the ivy and avoid it, particularly to not camp in it. Well over 95% of the island is free of ivy.

Where the slope somewhat levels, some small open fields still exist, probably because the numerous available exits for groundwater above the edge of the swamp causes the water table in these areas to be lower than on most of the rest of the island, making the surface soil in these clearings drier. These are therefore not good campsites because of the fire danger to the frequently dry grass cover there. An additional deterrent to camping there is the presence, at some times of year, of ticks, whose lifestyle is to wait on the tip of a blade of grass until something furry or hairy (or a textile) brushes by, signaling the presence of a warm-blooded creature good for a meal of blood.

In those seasons, pets may pick up large collections of ticks. Persons should brush or pick off any seen on themselves or their clothing before the ticks migrate to places harder to see. This need not be done frantically, since a tick needs about 24 hours to get into position and settled down before it is ready to bite. Long trousers tucked into socks are very effective for keeping the pests in sight long enough to remove most of them. Tick repellents sprayed on the clothing or on exposed skin at that level are also a very noticeable help. Finally, sticking to cleared paths and out of tall vegetation avoids much of the risk of being boarded at all.

While the tick population peaks in May, a few may be present thruout the summer and into the fall. The author’s own experience has been that many “dog ticks” have been found, but no deer ticks -- or, rather, those are what have been observed to have found humans and dogs. However, the deer ticks, which are the ones that may carry Lyme disease, are much smaller and harder to detect on one’s person, so I may have missed one or more. That disease may or may not be in the area at all, depending on whether deer coming to the island have ticks infected with it. Some deer appear to be short-term visitors from Great Chebeague, their tracks occasionally being seen along the sandbar. No cases of Lyme disease have yet been reported on Great Chebeague. Deer are occasionally seen swimming in the bay, and almost all of the bay islands are separated from each other or from the mainland by no more than a mile of water. Both dog and deer ticks are also carried by birds, and mice can be hosts to young ticks of both types.

Before the windmill spring and the pasture spring were cleared (in the 1990’s) of overlying vines and brush and even fallen trees, there were no open-water sources for deer to drink from when the swamp dried, as it usually does by mid-summer. Now some of them may be full-time residents. During the day, those who have not gone off-island at dawn generally retreat to dense brush, out of sight. Other animal residents sighted have included racoons and foxes, the latter probably subsisting mostly on mice or voles which thrive under the uncut and laid-over long grass, mostly out of sight of owls and hawks. The finding of regurgitated hairballs shows the occasional presence of those predators. Squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits or hares seem not to be in residence.

A large variety of wildflowers grow here in their seasons, including flowering pea vines on the dunes and wild roses of several colors, especially along some parts of the shore. In May, unfortunately before many visitors arrive, wild cherry trees break out in clouds of blossoms. Raspberry and blackberry canes prosper in some open areas, as do Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, and milkweed, the latter attracting monarch butterflies. Whether Martha Holden’s “webs of wild convolvulus vine” (resembling morning glories) really exist here is something to be learned. When fall arrives, again not in a prime visiting period, both the bittersweet and the poison ivy somewhat compensate for their other crimes by lending bright orange and deep red to that season’s color display, fortunately a display best appreciated from a distance, anyway.

The hotel guests and the later cottagers generally had used the west (“back”) beach for wading and swimming.

This beach not only was nearer for them, but also was and is sandy and very shallow. This makes its water warmer than that on the front beach, which receives fresh open-ocean water twice a day. However, there is a very large area of sandy bottom that is only a few inches deep at low tide. Therefore a boat anchored off the back beach may surprise its crew by becoming grounded until the higher tide returns again, making for a delay in leaving, and possibly an unexpected afterdark trip home. Anchoring a boat in water deep enough to be assured of not grounding at low tide means locating it as

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much as 500 feet from the high tide line. Since that line is right up against the grassy shore, and some poison ivy comes close to it on this side of the island, there are few if any suitable places to camp close to this beach.

The northern end of this beach, where the shore becomes higher, has many rocks, some of them three or four feet high, making that an undesirable area for navigating or anchoring a boat. Those rocks appear to have fallen out of the continually collapsing high bank on this side of the island. Places where the bank has slid down to begin becoming part of the clam-flats are rather dangerous to approach from above, since the turf there, still held together by tree roots, has in some places been undercut a few feet by the slides. Several large trees lying at the bottom of the steep slope show that the top of this bank has occasionally gone all the way to the bottom.

The remaining shoreline is mostly rocky, consisting of either exposed ledge-rock or rock-strewn and seaweedy beaches. It is walkable when the tide is fully or partly out, then allowing complete circuits of the island on foot, with varying views over the surrounding bay. The parts of the current paths that follow close to the top of the bank, above the high-tide line, allow similar views at high-tide times. The sandbar connecting to Great Chebeague is safe for passage by foot from at least two hours before to about two hours after low tide, but when covered by water the current across it can be dangerously strong.

There are no plans for development of park facilities at this time. Before it could become accessible to the general public of persons not owning boats, some kind of landing facility would be needed. A seasonal float would allow a visiting boat to disembark passengers before the boat’s skipper anchors it, as is the case at the state park on Eagle Island. Commercial excursion vessels could also make use of such a facility. Providing access via the island ferries would require construction of a complete wharf at a cost approaching a million dollars, plus annual upkeep costs. Such cost could be justified only if and when a variety of shore facilities are also provided to make the visit worthwhile.

Features leading to higher-density use could include exhibits concerning the historic summer-resort use of this and other islands of a century ago, including the steamboating era of that time, and also some commemoration of the use of Casco Bay in World War II by the U. S. Navy. Although Little Chebeague’s participation was a very small part of that wartime use, it is in a location central to all that went on, overlooks not only the anchorage area which then hosted the large bay-occupying fleet of destroyers and other combatant and non-combatant vessels but also other islands which had more warlike uses, and is the only large public site available within the Bay for such a memorial. (Jewell’s island also had a role in that war, its occupier being part of the U. S. Army’s coastal defense artillery, rather than the Navy. So also did several other islands, including Peaks and Long.) The agricultural importance of this and other islands from the time of earliest European settlement until the end of the 19th century might also be memorialized, perhaps with a small operating farm. One open-field location suitable for that still exists, not near the earlier farmstand, but nearer the south beach.

The island is large enough so that attractions for day tourists could be so situated as to not interfere with the isolation of camping areas from large numbers of ferry-borne day-visitors. Since the latter would include some whose interest is in bathing and beach picnicking, campsites should be created somewhat farther from the beach, but not so as to require long hauls of equipment. Some parts of the island should be allowed to continue returning to natural forestation, perhaps with some amount of pointing the way by planting of selected tree species. These wooded portions could constitute separators of the differing uses mentioned above and also places for walking paths, some with educational nature-study features.

Quite a number of attractive wild flowers and other species are still to be seen, but bittersweet is becoming an infestation so ubiquitous as to seriously threaten that it will eventually overgrow and kill off most other types of vegetation. Ticks and browntail moth caterpillars are nuisances, but bittersweet is a threat. While the numbers of those others wax and wane about some average level, the bittersweet, apparently having no natural enemies or obstacles, marches on and on. In some areas it already completely covers acres of ground. There it intertwines with and loops over its fellows so as to create nature’s nearly impenetrable version of concertina wire. Near the site of the former farmstand, it has climbed and shaded to death trees 70 to 80 feet tall, and in some cases has weighed them down and toppled them.

Some of those vines have lower stems -- actually more like trunks now -- that have reached nearly three inches in diameter. Nature’s own goal, it seems, is not at all a “forest primeval”, and certainly nothing like “the country of the pointed firs”.

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APPENDIX The Cottages and Other Structures What is known of the island's cottages will be described in what the author imagines to have been their chronological order. Note that emphasis must be put on the word "imagines", since there is no direct evidence about the construction dates of most buildings. Delvers into human history are, like scientists searching for "nature's secrets", always faced with incomplete sets of facts, and therefore tend to interpolate "what seems to fit" scenarios between the known points. But all of us must beware of thinking "it must have been this way" just because it appeals to my own sense of order. Still, such orderliness is not only satisfying, but helps us to remember the known items, by putting them into a neatly associative story. However, it must always be borne in mind that new evidence may force a change in the peace I may find in my theory of the evolution of human cultural items on this island.

Warner's 1877 drawing (shown in our frontispiece) is one of the two earliest known depictions of the island.

The other is an undated map in the records of Portland’s Public Works Dept (shown on our page 2), which was made somewhere between 1877 and 1882, apparently preparatory to the sale of Adams’ and the Cleaves’ property to the Little Chebeague Island Co. To provide further context for coming discussions of buildings, a copy of Barron’s Sept. 1942 survey of the island, presumably preparatory for the Navy’s purchase, is shown, in two parts, on following pages. This plan gives the locations and sizes of the various cottage lots, and we have listed the identities of the cottages in each. Lot 1 refers to the remainder, which belonged to the Waldo Co. Also added are the former locations of the hotel(s), the old (pre-1880) farmhouse, the barn with the new farmhouse attached to it by a long shed, the bowling saloon, and the clambake/boathouse building. Barron’s “approximate town line” is rather far from that shown on the USGS’s 1:24,000scale “Portland East, ME” map. On the latter, the line goes from just north of the Red Cottage in Lots 12 & 13 to a point about 250 feet south of the wharf, and is oriented about 10 degrees clockwise from Barron’s.

Two larger-scale, and therefore more detailed, plans showing the cottage lots and the size, shape, and location of their cottages are also in the county records. One is “Howe’s plan” showing the Morrill, Hamlen, Sawyer, and Red cottages at the end of 1888, one month before the founding of the Waldo Co. The other is a 1940 plan showing the division of the former Cleaves’ lot into three parts belonging to members of the Bailey family. Adaptations of those are also reproduced on later pages.

Warner’s drawing shows the wharf and, just above the front beach, the "pogey factory" and two other buildings, the one nearest the wharf probably being the Conway farmhouse referred to in the earlier “Preliminary History” booklet. The hotel, then called the Sunnyside House, is clearly shown, but the Yellow Cottage, Joshua Jenks’ home at the date of the drawing, is not. Warner shows three hotel outbuildings plus, on one side, the bowling alley and, on the other side, one small structure that may have been a henhouse. However, since hens were likely to have been kept at the farm, that may have been for the peacocks that some sources have said wandered the grounds as a constant decorative feature (to look at, perhaps, but not to have to listen to). Two bathhouses are shown on the back beach.

Neither a farmhouse nor any barn appears in the drawing, but seven peas-in-a-pod small cottages are shown in a line along the high bank on the side of the grove opposite to the hotel. The absence of those farm buildings and the Yellow Cottage and the presence of so many other cottages are clearly falsehoods. The barnyard may have been omitted from the drawing as unsightly, as barnyards tended to be, and the farmhouse of that day was perhaps also not a thing of beauty. Possibly there were then plans to replace the latter, as was eventually done. The seven cottages were likely to have also been a dream if not a plan, but there is no other indication that they were real then or later.

The Public Works Dept. map matches the drawing in that it shows the wharf and the three nearby structures, plus the hotel and bowling alley. It also honestly shows both the barn and the unattached farmhouse and the Yellow Cottage in the grove. It shows only three cottages where the drawing had seven. While these are at the locations which later held the Red, Sawyer, and Hamlen cottages, their outlines on this map suggest smaller and simpler buildings, although the nearby Yellow Cottage was shown as having a more complex shape. The fact that the map seems to have been a legal document prepared for the sale of the island to the first organized company, whereas the drawing was done by an artist for the benefit of the hotel manager (possibly for advertising uses), implies that the map is the more truthful.

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The author's theory about this is that the map’s three cottages were indeed small, simple buildings similar to each other and to those in Warner’s seven-fold depiction, probably with the small size and the length-to-width ratio of their depictions on the map. While the number he drew was excessive, Warner would likely have based their common pictured form on the fewer existing ones. One of those original buildings may have remained in place as the center section of the later Red Cottage, while the other two were moved or dismantled.

This theory is also supported by some wording in the L.C.I. Company’s 1882 “agreement” with J. H. Hamlen, which was not registered in the deeds office until November of 1884. In that, Hamlen was “granted ... the privilege of erecting and maintaining a cottage house with [well??] and outbuildings ... nearly on the site of the present cottage there situate [sic] and lately occupied by said Hamlen.” It further specified that “no house or obstruction shall be erected between the [Hamlen] cottage and the cottage lately occupied by Charles S. Morrill excepting a piazza [added] to said Morrill Cottage...”. So the cottage later known as Hamlen’s was indeed preceded by another and certainly lesser building on the same location. Tax records (discussed later) suggest that Morrill may have had his large one built in 1885, previously using only some smaller cottage. Had Morrill been using the Red Cottage at the time of Hamlen’s agreement, it would have been on the side that the prohibition on another building applied to, yet it was there that the Sawyer cottage soon appeared. Possibly Morrill had been using the middle one shown on the map, which later became the Sawyercottage site. The drawing shows no porches on any sides of the small buildings, so adding one to such a building could well have been desired. Furthermore, when Hamlen’s lot was later set off for his purchase, its boundary did not reach to the Red Cottage’s. Making room for the more impressive quarters desired on those then-scenic sites by Hamlen and Sawyer would have been a suitable reason for demolishing or moving two of those three smaller cottages.

The time and cost terms of Hamlen’s “agreement” tell us something of the attitudes of the parties: “This agreement shall extend over a period of 25 years and for the first 10 years an annual rent shall be paid by said Hamlen of $12 per year and during the remainder of said period such rent shall be paid as shall be mutually agreed upon; and if the parties cannot agree, it shall be determined by two disinterested men mutually chosen by the parties.

“Said term of 25 years shall commence on the first day of December AD 1882. At the expiration of said term said cottage and additions are to be property of said Hamlen and at the expiration of this lease said Hamlen or his assigns may re-lease the land upon which said cottage stands, or said cottage shall be purchased by said Company, the amount of rent to be paid by said Hamlen or his assigns or the sum to be paid for said cottage by said Company or its successors, if the parties cannot agree, to be [?] by two disinterested men mutually chosen by the parties, whose decision shall be final.”

As it turned out, the period of the agreement was cut short by the resale of the LCI Company’s interest in the island only 8 years later.

The Red and Fogg Cottages had similar roof slopes, eaves, soffits, and trim, which suggests a common original heritage like no others. Each had a well-finished ell added on one side. Although they were, in known later times, located at opposite ends of the arc of buildings half-surrounding the grove, possibly all or part of one of the bank cottages was moved across the grove to become part of the Fogg Cottage. Whether that was so or not, these cottages were not a pair of identical structures. The center section of the Red Cottage was 16 feet wide, and its ell width was just over 14 feet. The Fogg Cottage’s center section was only 12 feet wide, but its living room ell was 16 feet wide. Possibly that ell was part of an old bank cottage.

After the hotel burned, both of those cottages had further additions to contain kitchens, the Fogg Cottage's being in another ell on the opposite side from the first one. The Red Cottage's was in a shed attached to the rear of the central section, perhaps because the ground on the other side of that cottage was on a down-slope. The third of those old cottages may have become the one later located in the grove and eventually used for storage; however, the one existing photo of the latter shows a building of less height and less steep roof-slope than those in any parts of the Red and Fogg cottages. It therefore seems more likely that the storage building, if not totally new, could have previously been one of the hotel outbuildings, which were no longer useful for their original hotel-oriented purposes after the fire.

Neither the Cleaves Cottage nor the next-door Adams/Haskell one appear on either the map or the drawing. The earliest reference to the Cleaves Cottage was found in Elwell's "Portland and Vicinity". This volume was first published

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in 1876 and was up-dated in 1881, the latter being re-printed in 1975 by Greater Portland Landmarks. The earlier edition, available in the Portland Public Library, does not mention any cottages in its half-page on Little Chebeague, but the 1881 one says "There are several summer cottages on the island, one of which is occupied by Hon. Nathan Cleaves and Hon. H. B. Cleaves." Here we have the clue that tells us that cottages may have been built for those new owners before they set up the Little Chebeague Island Company. Since E. L. O. Adams was a co-owner in that period, and his cottage (next to the Cleaves one) was of similar form and trim, that pair may have been built contemporarily between 1877 and 1881.

However, one bit of wording in the deeds from both Adams and the Cleaves’ to the company leaves this matter puzzling. Each of those documents, after identifying the property conveyed as that portion of the island previously halfconveyed by the Cleaves’ to Adams in 1877, goes on to say “excepting from this conveyance [to the company] the cottage on said Island known as the Osgood cottage and now occupied by him”. Abraham Osgood Jr. had died, and “him” could not be Adams or either of the Cleaves’ if both references were to the same cottage. Also, which cottage was that? It may have referred to the Yellow Cottage, which we know existed when Jenks lived in it earlier, and probably was there in Osgood’s time. Note also that there is no reference to the cottage lot itself. We should not ignore the possibility that the matching references in both deeds may have been a clerk’s copying error in making out two very similar deeds, possibly consecutively.

None of the cottage owners owned the land under their cottages until just before the L.C.I. Company sold its island portion to the Waldo Company early in 1889. That sale excepted the “lots on which stand Hamlen’s, Sawyer’s, and Morrill’s, who are proposed purchasers” of those lots, and also excepted the cottages of Cleaves and Adams. Hamlen and Morrill did purchase their lots then, Nathan Cleaves bought the one containing the Sawyer cottage (perhaps filling in for an absent Abel H. Sawyer ?), and the Cleaves’ firm bought both theirs and the Adams lot. At the same time, each buyer got the benefit of the following right-of-way statement, which is found in all subsequent deeds: “...with the right of said [purchaser] his heirs and assigns forever to land on said island at the usual landing place for passengers and to pass and re-pass from and to said landing place in a reasonable manner to and from the above described lot of land, and with the right of passage for teams to convey coal, wood, and supplies for family use from said landing to said above described lot, and to pass and re-pass from said lot to the bathing ground as now established on said island, and to maintain a bathing house for family use at a point where the bathing houses now stand.”

The “bathing ground” so defined meant what residents called the “back beach” nearest the 19th-century cottages, rather than the larger one adjacent to the wharf.

The farmhouse attached to the barn was apparently added after 1877. It seems likely that something of that magnitude would have been erected as a part of the hotel enlargement project around 1882. When the older farmhouse burned, collapsed, or was demolished is not known, but there are, near that site, a stoned-walled well and a large flat stone that may have been either a doorstep or a chimney base, and several human cultural artifacts have been found under the stone. The ages of the latter are not known, nor is the age of that house; the finding and study of further such artifacts in the area may define those. It probably was the one called “the old house” in Jenks’ 1876 diary.

In the Portland tax valuation books, the earliest reference to cottages on the island is found in the 1883 volume, that entry indicating that N. & H. B. Cleaves' tax responsibility for their 2/3rds of the island was then transferred to the Little Chebeague Island Company. A rise from the Cleaves' several-years’ $4,000 valuation to the company's $12,000 may have represented the enlargement of the hotel. The new entry for cottages added another $1,800 to the $12,000 assessment for "Land and Buildings".

The entries in the 1884 volume break the assesment for cottages down to "Cottage of J. H. Hamlen - $1000", "Cottage of N. and H. B. Cleaves - $400", and "Cottage of E. L. O. Adams - $400", those amounts still being charged to the island-owning company. The land under the cottages appears to have not then been defined as separate lots. We do not know what millage rate was applied to those assessed valuations., but if Hamlen’s $12 annual rent for his lot simply paid his portion of the tax, then the millage rate was $12 per $1000. In 1885, the company's assessment for its own land and buildings dropped to $10,000. By 1886, it was $8,000. The only cottage whose construction date we know well is Sawyer's, which the existing builder's contract shows to have been constructed in the summer of 1886. Part of that contract was quoted on our page 134.

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The first reference to separate assessments to cottage owners is in the 1887 book, when Charles S. Morrillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Abel H. Sawyer's entries were, respectively "Cottage on Little Chebeague -- $1100" and "Cottage on Little Chebeague -$500". Since we know that Sawyer had his cottage built in 1886, this concurrent appearance of Morrill's tax suggests that that cottage also was new then. Although Hamlen's was apparently built by 1883 (since its value constituted most of the company's $1,800 valuation increase in that year), Morrill's was its near twin. Yet Morrill's valuation always remained higher than Hamlen's. Hamlenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also included a well, a pressurized water tank, and an icehouse, things which Morrillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s did not have, but those may have been later additions.

By 1888, E. L. O. Adams and the Cleaves law partnership were each assessed $400 for their cottages. Hamlen's assessment, though still the same $1000, became for "land and cottage", and Morrill got similar treatment. This is at odds with the early 1889 dates for the sales of those lots to their occupiers. Sawyer (who had moved to Massachusetts) disappeared from the "resident" section of this book and re-appeared in the "non-resident" section at the back of the book, where he too had to pay for his lot. The LCI Co.'s entry became for only "land and buildings" and not cottages, but even that was pencilled out with an unreadable note about the Waldo Company, for which there is no separate listing.

When the Waldo Company got into the books in 1889, its property kept the $8,000 valuation, but that rose to $10,000 the next year, when it had acquired the 35-acre front beach parcel from Charles Ingraham. That purchase led to that company's entire holding being erroneously listed as only 35 acres. According to the 1942 survey, the entire island contains 86 acres, 71 being in Portland and the rest in the Town of Cumberland. Of that, the company owned all but some of the cottage lots, hence nearly 60 acres.

By 1891, the valuation books' format showed separate valuations for land and buildings. The company's assessment became $4,500 for land and $5,500 for buildings, the latter meaning not only the hotel but also all of the farm buildings, the bowling alley, the clambake building and other hotel outbuildings, and the Red and Yellow cottages. There were also personal property assessments of $60 for 2 horses, $150 for 6 cows, $16 for 2 wagons, and $274 for "F", whatever that was -- perhaps other farm equipment. That new bookkeeping system also led to dividing the Hamlen and Morrill figures to place $100 in the land column and the remaining $900 and $1000, respectively, in the building one.

Although the hotel operated in 1892, its tax for that year was due in 1893, and presumably was not paid before the fire. The 1892 tax book entry simply states "burned" in the buildings column in lieu of any valuation, even though several buildings other than the hotel remained. In 1893, the $4,500 for land remains but the buildings column contains $400. The value of the 2 cows remained the same as before, but that of the 2 horses had increased to be $150 also. In 1894, there was a personal property total of $300, not specified as livestock either in general or in particular.

Neither the Adams nor the Cleaves assessments included a reference to land until 1894, after the Waldo fire.

Both were then listed as "1/4-acre", but no added valuation was placed on those lots. Barron's 1942 plan of the island, prepared for the Navy's takeover and no doubt based on the available deed descriptions, shows the Adams lot to have been a little more than 1/4th of an acre but the Cleaves one, running all the way to the shore, being three or four times as large. After Henry Bailey bought the Cleaves lot in the 1930's, it was divided to make lots for two of his children, and a 1940 survey of those produced a plan which was recorded at the Register of Deeds office (Plan Book 26, page 49). This plan shows the Cleaves lot to have contained a full acre of useful land plus nearly a quarter-acre of steep bank and beach (to the low-tide line). That plan is part of the one shown on our page 199.

There were no significant changes in assessments thru 1899, which is the latest of the books archived in the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library.

When the hotel vanished, there were only seven cottages on Little Chebeague. Besides those cottages there were also the bowling alley and the bathhouses on the back beach. There may have been hotel outbuildings such as a laundry, icehouse, a shed for coal and wood, and maybe one of the outdoor elevated water tanks. Certainly there was the farmhouse with its connected sheds and barn, and possibly some other farm out-buildings such as the blacksmith shop and henhouse, and perhaps machine shop (although the latter may have been added later by Bailey). No separate privies of that time are known. Down near the shore behind the Yellow Cottage the hotel's "clambake building" still existed, later to be used for winter boat storage. In the grove were the children's play-cabin, located about half-way between the Red Cottage and the clambake buiilding, and perhaps the building later used for storage. The old farmhouse was likely to

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have been demolished when the one attached to the barn was built, since the former might not have been considered an asset to the view from the hotel's porch.

There is no indication that there was ever any cemetery on this island. All of its residents had previous family connections in other places, either on other islands or the mainland, and seem to have used the cemeteries there.

We do not know when the front-beach buildings (the two "pogey factory" ones and the former Conway farmhouse) either collapsed, burned, or were demolished. Betty Bailey said that Henry Bailey had moved some building from that area to the grove. Presumably she heard that from her grandmother, Nettie Jenks, who had lived on Little Chebeague before moving to Great Chebeague. This may have been the one used for storage and perhaps, still later, for Walter Kenney's automobile-driven electrical generator rather than having been one of the (presumed) old small hotelowned structures. Or she may have been referring to the 1930’s moving of the old Sunset Landing wharf house from the north beach to its new location as Camp Sunset.

The next new building was the J. B. Reed cottage, built about 1903. In 1909, a small lot near the wharf, far from the other cottages, was sold to George and Annie Reed, who built on it a cottage that they sold to the Prichett’s in 1916. That was the last of the interior-finished cottages. When Henry Bailey’s son Frank and daughter Bertha Hill built their camps and Frank’s shop/loft on parts of the Bailey (ex-Cleaves) lot in the 1930’s, those were not sheathed on the inside of their 2x4 joists.

The Navy added a concrete- and cinder-block generator/pump building and a wooden water-tank building behind the J. B. Reed cottage, and, along and just above the east beach, five buildings for their fire-fighting school and one building over the nearby spring where the windmill had stood. They also may have put up a “valve house” astride the water pipeline from the tankhouse to the new wharf that they built to replace the old one. Also, they built two small skeet towers behind the Prichett cottage, and installed one multi-hole privy near the farmstand and another near the boathouse. The Navy tore down the farm buildings, and the boathouse appears to have burned at an unknown date; it seems likely that the Navy did that, since it must have by then been as dangerous to enter as were the farm buildings, and therefore as useless to them.

THE YELLOW COTTAGE From Joshua and Annette Jenks’ granddaughters, Betty Bailey and Mary Doughty, we know that the Yellow Cottage was that family’s residence during the time when the hotel on Little Chebeague was known as the Sunnyside House (1875-1881). It therefore may have been one of the oldest structures on the island. It belonged to the various hotel companies and devolved to J. B. Reed after the burning of The Waldo. In 1931, Walter and Helen Kenney bought it from Mrs. Reed. From then on, the other cottagers called it the Kenney Cottage.

As befits its age, the Yellow Cottage appears to have been added to several times. The original structure may have been only the front portion of the house, since its junction with the gable-roofed addition (not strictly an ell, but I will call it that) projecting toward the rear shows evidence that that ell was added later. A further shed seems to have been added still later at the rear of the ell. Another shed on the side of the ell (the shore side) was an enclosed extension of the porch on that side. Jessie Francis says this “was called the ‘Annex’ and was used mostly for storage, icebox, etc. Also, this is where we ‘Kenney kids’ took turns cranking the freezer for our mother’s homemade chocolate ice cream.” A maid’s room was on the second floor of the ell, over the dining room. Wrote Jessie, “My mother had a hired maid for many years.” An elevated water tank was out-of-doors behind the sheds. At one time a small shed was put near the shore side as a shelter for one of the Kenney’s two successive riding horses.

David Grant described the Kenney’s 1930’s “utilities system” as follows: “The Yellow Cottage had running water supplied from a wooden tank on a tower by the kitchen. The tank was filled from a spring near the wharf through a very long hose, first by windmill power and later by an electric pump.

“Electric lights were installed in Yellow and Red Cottages about 1935. The “Power Plant” consisted of a converted elevator motor mounted on the rear of an Essex motor car housed in a small building near the Yellow Cottage.” [An electric motor is built substantially like a generator. If rotated by some outside mechanical source, it

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becomes a generator, sending out current instead of using it. The car’s engine would have provided the power to turn the motor’s (or generator’s) shaft.]

“No switches were employed anywhere in the system and no service outlets were installed although power was supplied to the water pump in the spring. (Very long cable!)

“A ritual dimming of lights around 9:30 pm hinted that all guests should leave and lights would soon go out. (We did and they did!)”

Adapted from two photos in the Hamlen Collection of the Maine Historical Society

The Yellow Cottage, probably in the late 1800’s, while the Hamlen family still came to Little Chebeague.

The dark area just to the right of the near window is the edge of the fireplace exterior brickwork.

At the right can be seen the bay window and a side of the shed that was behind the rear addition.

The cable must have been long indeed, since both the cable and the hose -- perhaps actually an old pipe much of the way -- would have had to be over 900 feet long! We have to wonder if the water did not, instead, come from the nearby well between the Red and Yellow cottages, which still exists. Jessie Kenney Francis wrote, “The only well I remember was the one between yellow and red cottages (closer to yellow) -- it had a hand pump.” That pump appears in a photograph in the Hamlen collection of the Maine Historical Society, being one of several that show the front of the Yellow cottage from different aspects. This was probably taken before or about 1900. The pump appears to have been a “force pump”.

That well’s 20-foot depth was unusually deep, as would have been necessary so high on the island. In early 2002, its fieldstone-lined sides and ledge-stone cover were still in good condition. The cover has two hand-sized holes.

One was, of course, for the pump pipe, but the reason for the other is unknown. Possibly it was made for a second pipe, perhaps one going to the Kenney tank. A pipe with an elbow and a plug rises a couple feet out of the ground about 20 feet in front of the near corner of the Yellow Cottage and perhaps twice as far from the deep well.

In the mid-1990’s, enough of this cottage remained to allow a considerable number of measurements to be taken. Those have not yet been combined with the unscaled floor plan (facing page) drawn by David Grant from his and Jessie Francis’ teen-age recollections of 60 years ago. Nevertheless, their plan gives a realistic idea of the building’s layout. There was also a small cellar under the dining room, reached by stairs beneath the ones to the maid’s room.

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THE RED COTTAGE In view of the above supposition that the Red Cottage was one of the oldest on the island, it is surprising that, in the early 1990’s, it was one of the best-preserved. It shared that distinction with the Fogg cottage, an apparent contemporary. At that time, one could not only enter, but also go up the stairs to the second floor, as we did to measure its interior dimensions there. (However, one of us broke thru one floorboard!) That condition no longer holds, both of those buildings having deteriorated seriously in the past few years. The method of construction of those two buildings was by means of “balloon framing”, meaning that the wall joists rose from the sills to the eaves and the second floor was then built between those walls. This contrasts with the common method used today, which is to put up first floor exterior and interior walls, place the second floor on top of those, and build the second floor walls atop that floor.

Portland tax assessor’s photo of the Red Cottage in 1924, from a point near Sawyer’s.

Despite its need for paint, it was then in good condition structurally.

The floor plan of this building also is not to scale, the width shown being excessive compared to the length.

What is significant here is that the number and arrangement of rooms is explained. As a reader might infer from the photo, the rear upper bedroom was not over the single-story shed containing only the kitchen. In the kitchen, the original building’s white-painted clapboards still formed one wall. The chimney, which can be seen against the tree background on the right in the photo, was outside the shed wall nearest the camera, but at its far end.

The top of the drawing was the building’s front (on the photo’s left), which faced the nearby steep bank down to the shore and gave a view toward the mainland. The right side is the one that faced the boathouse and Great Chebeague over a more gentle slope, as has been shown in some of the hotel brochure photographs. The Lamson photo from the beach (our page 29) also showed this cottage at the top of that slope.

An item not shown in the plan is the built-in corner cupboard for dishes in the lower right corner of the dining room. Part of that feature, not being removable, remains in the collapsing building, although its glass doors are not, probably having been “liberated” by the scavengers who eventually took all items not nailed down, including the bathtub (but not the kitchen sink, which was smashed instead).

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THE FOGG COTTAGE The cottage that eventually belonged to Edwin A. Fogg Jr. and Anna Fogg may have been built first for the early hotel. At one point it belonged to Crowell, one of the original (1889) small investors in the Waldo Company.

Possibly Crowell never used it, but simply had it available as rental property, as an adjunct to the hotel. It later belonged to the Cleaves brothers, then to Henry after Nathan died. It was one of the properties left to their sister and then passed from her to the Cumberland County Bar association and others, who sold it (probably directly to the Fogg’s) around 1930.

Fogg Cottage, 1930’s. First added ell is at right, on the side toward the Reed Cottage. The ell on the far side, attached nearer the front of the central section, housed the kitchen, upstairs bathroom, and inside water tank.

From the construction details that could be observed in the 1990’s, it appears to have been built in three stages, originating as a simple gable-roofed 1-1/2-story rectangular building. The ell on the hotel side must have been added first, because it appears in one of the photos reproduced in the hotel’s 1890 brochure. Probably the economic class of most of the cottage renters in the hotel days would have required that much addition in order to provide more space, including the attractive feature of a living room with a fireplace, which this ell provided at the rear of the building. The kitchen ell on the side away from the hotel is likely to have been built after the loss of the hotel left its occupants without the use of the hotel dining room.

Its final form was complete by the time the Fogg’s bought it. We have several photos of it from that period, plus a room plan provided by Roger Fogg. Also, enough of it still stood in the early 1990’s so that it was possible to measure quite a bit of it. The plan given here is a combination of those measurements and Roger’s sketch and descriptions.

This cottage had no cellar of any kind. Its recent deterioration has shown that it was supported on concrete piers, but it is not known when those were installed. Various other cottages had stone or brick piers, or even had sill timbers laid directly on either large stones or simply wooden posts. This cottage’s piers held its floor well above the

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ground, which may have contributed to the fact that it stood longer than most of the others. It had porches on its southeast side and its southwest (“front”) one. These had latticework below their outside edges, which allowed ventilation underneath. As with other cottages, the porches seem to have been the first item to collapse. This revealed the fact that there was also a lattice under the edge of the living-room ell, suggesting that the porch on that ell was a later add-on.

At some time, a well was dug near the Fogg cottage for its own use. The relatively young age of this well, compared with others on the island, is suggested by the fact that its casing was of cast concrete (or tile?), rather than stone or brick. The only tank on this property was located inside, under the roof above the bathroom, the latter being on the second floor of the kitchen ell. This was an open-top (unpressurized) tank, from which water ran by gravity down to the bathroom and kitchen. The tank was filled, whenever needed, by a “force pump” at the well, which was operated, frequently, by boy-power. The overhead tank also filled a hot-water tank located in the kitchen. That water was heated by circulating it through a coil of tubing in the firebox of the kitchen stove and then back into the hot-water storage tank.

Since this cottage dates at least from the time when the hotel was still operating, it must have been connected to the hotel’s sewer system. However, it also had, about 50 feet in front of it, a cesspool. This may have pre-dated the hotel sewer. The 1-1/2-foot diameter top opening of this is still visible, surrounded by bricks. Debris nearly fills the space below that opening. Adjacent to that, the ground has subsided where the excavation has caved in.

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While the living room ell, with its fireplace and the large bedroom above it, merged well with the central structure, the kitchen ell was clearly a lower-quality add-on. Not only was it not finished inside with plastering, but it had exposed 2x4 joists. It also had a narrow, steep flight of stairs going up alongside the wall of the central section. Those may have been meant to go only to a servant’s room overhead, but the existing wreckage shows that there was, eventually, a doorway into the main section’s second floor from the head of those stairs. However, how those features coordinated is so unclear as to be puzzling, so their depiction on the floor plan shown here may be incorrect. The exterior dimensions shown are from measurements of the cottage’s remains.

Fogg Cottage in 1924 photo by Portland tax assessor THE CLEAVES AND ADAMS COTTAGES These two cottages seem to have been the first ones to be built for private use rather than as elements of the hotel or farm operation. They were basically similar, the principal difference being that the Cleaves cottage had a full two stories while the Adams one was a one-and-a-half story structure using dormers to provide full-height windows in the upper rooms. They were also distinguished from all others on the island by having scroll-sawed trim along the roof edges above their gables and eaves. Perhaps it was because the Adams cottage had less upstairs space that an extension was put onto its rear, possibly one of the cases of adding a kitchen after the hotel fire. The builder may have taken advantage of that opportunity to also put a small cellar under that addition, a feature that the Cleaves cottage did not have.

By the time of Henry Bailey’s residency in the Cleaves Cottage, a living room extended across the whole of the front and had a fireplace in the center of its rear wall. The same chimney, about in the center of the house, was used by the kitchen stove, the kitchen being one of two rooms across the back. Access from the living room was by a doorway, or possibly an archway, into the dining room, which was the room on the left as one went to it from the living room. The kitchen, reached by another door at the right side of the dining room, had an exterior door in the rear wall near the building’s corner, a table under the window beside that door, and a sink against the right side.

Stairs to the second floor went from the dining room up along the wall to the left of the living room door, and led to an upstairs hallway that exended across the house. Two bedrooms were on each side of the hall, two at the front and two at the back, and a bathroom was at the end of the hall, in a small addition that extended over the porch

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Bailey (ex-Cleaves) Cottage, after 1930. Porch roof beyond the addition is part of this building, but a corner of the Hamlen porch,plus its icehouse, can be seen beneath. The distant porch at left is on Doyles’ (ex-Morrill’s). Both the Sawyer and Red Cottages can be seen to the right of this one.

Adams/Haskell Cottage in Portland assessor’s 1924 photo. Note lower roof than on Cleaves’ Cottage at left, hence the need for dormers to light the upper rooms. Also note the cricket providing a drip-free rainy-day exit from the front porch.

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roof. In the photo on our page 77, that addition reached only halfway across the porch, and it was the same when the Portland tax assessment photos were made in 1924, but by the time of the photo on page 211, probably shortly after the cottage became Bailey’s around 1930, the bathroom had been further extended over the full porch width.

THE HAMLEN AND MORRILL COTTAGES We have no sources for accurate information about the interiors of these two large and similar buildings.

Whether both had their kitchen ells before the hotel fire is also unknown, but since those appear on all photos we have seen, some of which appear to have pre-dated the fire, I presume that they were parts of the original structures.

The considerable third-floor space was likely to have been intended and used as servant’s quarters, as might have the space over the kitchen, that too having its own windows (see page 90). Each had a cellar under its ell.

Unlike the previously described cottages, both of these were built on ground that sloped enough so that railings were advisable on the down-slope sides of their porches (see pages 89 and 90). Jack Doyle said that boats were stored under their shore-side porch. Railings were not installed on their sides facing higher ground (see page 91).

Maine Historical Society photo

Shore side of Hamlen’s “Grand View”from the north. Shore side of Morrill Cottage beyond at right. Between that and the main part of Hamlen’s can be seen one side, the roof, and the chimney of Hamlen’s kitchen ell.

Hamlen’s also had a drilled and pipe-encased well somewhat above its ell, and what appears to have been an external pressurized water tank. Beyond the well and somewhat toward Morrill’s was a 10x10-foot icehouse. The latter was double-walled, probably with ground cork between its walls for insulation. At the peak of its four-way roof was a vent tower to allow the escape of solar heat gathered by the roof. In later years, when Maria Hamlen was the only family member to use the cottage, windows were added and her chauffer/handyman stayed in it.

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Hamlen’s was still standing when photographed by Hilda and Sewell Noyes during a tent-camping visit in 1972, but its metal-sheathed porch roofs had collapsed. At the time it was built, that roofing may have been copper.

Some time later, it burned, perhaps when being used as a shelter by other campers. In aerial photos of about that period, Morrill’s seems to have already collapsed.

THE SAWYER COTTAGE The contract specifications for the building of the Sawyer cottage have been referred to earlier (p. 134).

These are on a surviving copy of the contract retained by descendants of Abel H. Sawyer. The contract was with builder A. A. Hamilton of Chebeague Island and was dated June 1886. It called for “…a Seaside Cottage to be built on Little Chebeague Island, Casco Bay, for Mrs. E. J. Sawyer, from plans furnished by Antoine Dorticos.” Hamilton was to provide “…all materials and labor… including all transportation of the materials used, excepting everything pertaining to plumbing, draining and bathroom fixtures…” For this he was to be paid $1100 in four installments, each paid when certain stages of construction were completed.

Antoine Dorticos was a Portland architect of some fame in his time. His father, originally Spanish, was a wealthy Cuban sugar planter before revolutions there destroyed his plantations. Antoine was schooled in France until, at 18, he came to Maine, where he attended both the Gorham Academy (now the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine) and “the Westbrook Seminary”. He worked as a schoolteacher and also as a draftsman, receiving some of his training in the latter art from architect John Calvin Stevens in classes sponsored by the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association. He later taught those classes and became a partially self-taught architect as well as a teacher of French in Portland High School. His designs, several of which are found on Casco Bay islands, frequently include the “shingle-style” feature. He died of suicide in 1906.

The cottage’s foundation was to be cedar posts set three feet into the ground. All clapboards were to be of spruce and the shingles of cedar. The shingling pattern on the gables was referred to to as “…with broken courses…” The balcony floor was to be “…covered with heavy sail cloth put on a heavy coat of lead paint and tacked under the shingles so as to form a perfectly tight floor. This to be painted two coats of good lead paint.” (The photograph on page 96 shows two courses of wood shingles sloping outward from the balcony floor.) The kitchen chimney was to have an 8” x 8” flue and the fireplace one an 8” x 12” flue. Each chimney was to be built on a slab of “…ledge stone laid dry and at least 3 feet deep”. There was to be a pantry with shelves and cupboards, and a 20” x 30” cast iron sink in the kitchen.

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We have several photographs which show much of this building’s form from three of its sides. Most are from the Sawyer and Secrist families, but one is a Portland assessor’s 1924 record. One of the family prints is of the interior fireplace area. Taken together, these can provide enough information for creating scaled drawings of the exterior. However, extracting that information will be very laborious. The floor plan shown on a later page has not benefited from such measurement, but has been made from a combination of Bill Sawyer’s 1995 sketch and considerable study of the photos.

Two of the photos have been shown on pages 96 and 99; others are on pages to follow. The one on page 96 is probably the oldest, perhaps made soon after construction, and appears to have been made by a professional photographer using a “rising lens” camera which minimized the converging of vertical lines that would have occurred if the camera had been tilted upward. This picture is also of particular interest because it shows several of the building’s unique construction details. A fairly obvous one is the pair of arched openings in the shingle-sided enclosed porch, a Dorticos trademark present in several of his other designs, including that of his own cottage on Great Chebeague. Another is the “eyebrow” overhang above the dormer windows, and still another the slight outward “pagoda” curve near the bottom of the roof.

A feature that is difficult to notice until one studies the photos is the two diagonal corners which provide access among the porches. That feature is most evident in the upper photo on page 99. Without that clue, one might be puzzled by what seems, in the next two pictures, to be an offset between the building corners on the upper and lower stories. The angle of the wall is more obvious in the interior photo (page 217), but the glare of light from the window in that wall makes it difficult to realize that that window occupies most of that wall. It can also be seen that, since no horizontal offset is visible between the central vertical dividers of the upper and lower sections (p. 99), each of those windows consisted of a single sash, hence did not open.

Portland assessor’s 1924 photo of Sawyer Cottage Bill Sawyer referred to the area between the front door and the “U-turn” stairway as the “loggia”. While that family term seems inappropriate, it may have been used to refer to an open stairway. It is for that reason that the drawing shown here indicates such openness, but that inference may be faulty. Another reason for that decision was

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.

Proof -print (see later text) of an early photo of the Sawyer Cottage, showing the angled first-floor corner at the left. Note that there was then no small, high window near this corner, as was the case in 1924.

1930â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s group in the enclosed porch, showing edge of doorway into dining room.

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that an open stairway was a feature of the J. B. Reed cottage, which has several Dorticos-like features, although we do not know if he was ideed its architect too. A number of other inter-room relationships on the plan are similarly ficticious results of trying to reconcile the room layout in Bill’s sketch with the available space and the known exterior features. The possible bay window in the dining room comes from the inclusion of such an outline in the plan on page 198. No photos show us that side.

The proof-print photo also shows something not suspected from any others, that being the presence of arched openings on both sides of the right corner, suggesting an original porch there. (The coarse texture of this photo is due to its having been copied from a “proof print” made on blueprint paper, rather than from a normal photographic print on white photo paper.)

Bill drew a round tank in the lower left corner of the “tank room”. That may have been a hot water tank, being above the kitchen and on the same level as the bathroom. While the hotel tank lasted, that would have provided water pressure. However, in its last days, this cottage had an elevated water tank located off the lower right corner of the building as the latter is shown in the plan drawing. A bit of that tank may be what shows at the far right of the lower photo on the previous page, but it certainly was not present when the proof-print photo was taken.

THE J. B. REED COTTAGE When Mr. And Mrs. Joseph B. Reed had their large cottage built about ten years after the hotel was destroyed, it took that structure’s place as a major feature of the island as seen from the passing steamboats. The other one, as was shown in the postcard reproduced on page 109, was the farmstand. There is only suspicion to support the possibility that this cottage was designed by Dorticos

Portland assessor’s 1924 photo of J. B. Reed Cottage. Note bay windows projecting into right-side porch.

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Two of its porches, although open-sided like those on all of the pre-Sawyer cottages, were covered by the second-floor rooms. Its balcony, a feature previously appearing in only the Sawyer cottage, was unique on this island by virtue of its being recessed into the roof. From it, the Reed’s had a view like that formerly offered by the hotel, from the Deer Point area of Great Chebeague to Hope, Long, Peaks, and Great Diamond islands, and to part of Portland, plus the intervening waters of Casco Bay. Instead of Dorticos’s arched porch openings, it had only gently curved trim over three of its porch openings. It did have “eyebrows” over windows, but no curved roof, and was nearly fully wood-shingled, but had shingled pillars on only one of its three porches, the others having round pillars.

Gertrude Reed Gould provided a very detailed plan of both floors, including unexpected facts such as that part of the living room was open up into the upper floor. That indicates that there was ample upper-floor space, even with five bedrooms, a full bath, and several closets, including the maid’s (or cook’s) room over the kitchen in the ell.

However, the complete arrangement and the sizes of the second floor rooms remain somewhat hazy.

In addition to the ell, there was a lean-to shed on the rear of the ell. This held the walk-in icebox, coal-bin, and, for doing hand-laundry, a pair of side-by-side deep sinks called “set-tubs” because they were “set” in place in contrast to movable laundry tubs -- a real fancy set-up in 1903. One tub would have been used for scrubbing clothes and the other for rinsing, usually with a hand-cranked pair of wringer rolls between them. There was probably hot water from the kitchen stove, with a storage tank somewhere. The last previous photograph shows one clothesline -the cottage’s solar-powered dryer.

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THE G. REED/PRICHETT COTTAGE We have no information about the interior of this building, but there are two pictures, one from each side, which give a good representation of its exterior. The one from the Great Chebeague (northeast) side was taken by the U. S. Government’s appraiser after WWII, and the one from the island-center side was taken by Paul Peppin about five years later, when it was in much poorer condition. It is now completely collapsed.

The upper right photo on page 127 also shows its front door and one of the two front windows that looked out thru its porch to Great Chebeague, Long Island, and the further islands, a view which was probably much of the Reeds’ incentive for picking that location. Those windows and a chimney in about the center of the building implies a living room extending across the front and having a fireplace in the center of its rear wall, but that area may have been divided into two rooms, instead. A kitchen could have been at the west corner (the left rear as seen from the front) since the remains of a concrete pad for a stove are still there. Common cottage design practice suggests a dining room on the other side of the rear. However, there was another chimney at the back of the one-story rear extension, so perhaps the ell was added to move the kitchen back and provide space for a first-floor bedroom. Note that Peppin’s photo shows that the rear part of the porch on that side was, at some time, turned into interior space.

There was a cellar under one half of the ell, and that still remains. It is of concrete construction, and has a stairway going up to the small shed beyond the ell, the shed having an access door on its NE side.

THE FARM BUILDINGS The Public Works Dept. map shows that the barn -- the only one that we know of over the life of farming on the island -- was in existence in the 1870’s, but the farmhouse of that time not only was not connected to it, but was several hundred feet away. Some time after that, the two-story farmhouse that lasted into the 1940’s was connected to the barn by a long carriage shed and a one-story pantry/milkroom extension of the house. No doubt there was at least a henhouse nearby, and, probably after Henry Bailey’s occupancy, a blacksmith shop was built on one side of the barn -- separated by a judicious distance because of fire considerations -- and a shop for working both wood and metal was erected on the other side.

Since Bailey did not own it, and Judge Reed seems to have been more hopeful of making the island a place of summer resort rather than a perpetual farm, the buildings were not kept up as a successful owner-farmer might have done. By the time Bailey moved out to the Cleaves cottage, the entire farmstand complex was in poor condition. It is not surprising that the Navy demolished all of its wooden structures soon after it took possession.

What remains today are the stone (and some brick and concrete) foundations of both the house and barn, the former enclosing and the latter half-enclosing their respective cellar-level excavations. The house cellar appears to have been under only the kitchen and the hallway/bathroom first-floor areas, with a small side-extension to an entranceway under the milkroom (see plan on p. 230). The barn cellar, since it was built into a slope, had stone walls on only two sides, one being at the front, toward the house, the other on the shop side.

Because of its predominence as a visible feature of the island for 60 years or more, and because photos of it from all directions still exist, a large number of those photos are included on the following pages. Others have been shown on pages 112, 113, and 116. As with other island buildings, accurately scaled drawings of the exterior should be creatable from so much photo information, but that rather difficult job has not yet been undertaken. Because of that and also because the available room-layout sketches are not only unscaled, but often erroneously scaled in regard to relative room sizes and room inter-relationships, the “plan” given here is no doubt also inaccurate in such respects, to the extent of being somewhat unbelievable in some of its implications about room useabilty.

Because Hilda Noyes’ sketch showed several items of furniture that apparently impressed her as a young girl, those intimate features of the lifestyle of the Baileys, Dora Fogg, and the varying farmhands are included in our diagram that follows the photos. She mentioned that the “summer kitchen” was “never used as such in my memory”.

Rachel Innes says that when she and her father walked from their camp to visit her Grandfather nearly every evening, they always entered the house by going into that room from the porch, and that it was “just a big empty room”. Summer kitchens were a common item in old farmhouses when cooking was done on big iron wood-burning stoves that liberated lots of heat into a kitchen. Usually a summer kitchen was a very well-ventilated area, almost an outdoor space similar to a porch. In this case, that room had four windows and two doors that could be opened. Also,

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it had a stairway that could have bled excess overhead heat out second-floor windows. As the photos show, there was a chimney about at the wall between that room and the dining room. Such a chimney would also have been avilable for use by heating stoves if that ell were occupied in winter.

The kitchen shown had access to a separate chimney near its stove location. Dishes and table utensils were kept in the shelves lining the passageway between the kitchen and dining room. Mary Doughty told us of the floor grating from a basement furnace, which she had seen when at the house for at least one Thanksgiving dinner. Rachel Innes also recalls “something on the floor that you had to walk over”, which would not have been heated during her summertime visits. That location is plausible, given the shape and size of the still-existing cellar-hole and its relation to the kitchen chimney. Such a furnace seems to have been what was called a “one-pipe” installation, meaning that it had only one heating “pipe” delivering hot air to the rooms above. Although the alternative at that time (before fanforced hot-air furnaces) was to run several large-diameter air pipes to floor registers (gridded openings) in several rooms, a one-pipe system did not actually have a similar pipe. Instead, a pair of concentric sheet-metal casings wrapped around the cast-iron furnace led straight upward to one large register. The outer casing went to the cellar floor around the furnace, but the inner one was a few inches above the floor. Cool air from the rooms flowed along the floor (making warm footwear desirable in winter) and down between the two casings, then up between the furnace and the inner casing, being heated along the way, and on up into the room above via the center section of the register. The register could be lifted out of the floor (bringing part of the inner casing with it) when it became desirable to clean the accumulated dust off the top of the furnace, or whenever something fell through the holes and needed to be extracted promptly, such as when a child’s crayon could be smelled melting there. At each summertime’s cleanout of the cellar floor area within the casings, the cleaning person usually gleaned some loose change from beneath the dust and lint. In somewhat later times, similar “floor furnaces” fueled by oil or gas were simply hung from the floor; these were (and still are) also useable where there was no cellar, but only a crawl-space.

The parlor was another generally unused room, often considered in those days to be reserved for weddings and funerals or perhaps holiday get-togethers or meetings. The peacock, with fully-spread tail, was probably one of those having had the run of the island in the turn-of-the-century (from the 19th to the 20th) period. Hilda said that cylinder records for the hand-cranked phongraph were stored in a table or cabinet under the player. Her “front door” label was followed by the note “not used”.

She also drew a circle in the milkroom and inserted “CS”, meaning cream-separator, which was an essential of that time if one had several milk cows. In earlier days, or if a family had only a single cow, separation of cream from the milk could be done by letting whole milk stand overnight in shallow milk-pans, then skimming off the floating layers of cream with a saucer-shaped piece of sheet-metal perforated with small holes. For larger volumes of milk and cream, a machine called a separator was desirable. Its main feature was a shiny metal bowl shaped like a somewhat flattened-down fish-bowl, which was at the top of the machine. A crank and gears made the bowl spin rapidly, carrying the liquid contents with it. The spinning contents experienced a heightened artificial gravity directed outward, speeding the migration of milk to the outside and cream to the inside. So, instead of waiting for normal gravity to do the job overnight, separation could be made to happen in minutes, milk emerging from one spout and cream from another. The bowl and some other parts had, of course, to be removed and carefully cleaned after each use.

Each first-floor room was about matched by a second-floor bedroom. Hilda labelled the one over the parlor as Dora’s and that over the kitchen as the “boys’ bedroom -- winter bedroom for farm help”. Mr. Fogg’s room was over the summer kitchen and Henry Bailey’s over the dining room. Some or all of those may have had floor registers to let some first-floor heat into them in the winter. And then again, they may not have -- in those days, warm bedrooms were not considered a necessity in either the city or the country.

The well shown on the drawing may have been a late addition, since its remains are lined with mortared bricks rather than fieldstones. On the other hand, perhaps it was simply re-lined at a later date. If not the latter, then it seems that the original house may have used water from the well in the barn, in spite of that well’s proximity to the accumulated manure from the horses, cows, and pigs. Although that well was located in the corner of the barn nearest to the house, it was still so far from the house that it is more likely that water for house use was pumped at the well and carried to the house by the pailful than that a long pipe went to a kitchen pump. So both sanitary and convenience considerations would have led to creating a new well closer to the house.

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The well in the barn was a significant structure in itself. Whereas most dug wells were about 3 feet or less in inside diameter, this one spanned 8 feet and was ten feet deep in addition to its topâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being about 8 feet below the ground level outside the barn cellar. In the past six years, it has never been seen to go dry, although after one very dry summer it had only about a foot of water in the fall. When full (it can now be seen filled nearly to its top in the spring or after heavy rains), it would have held 500 cubic feet of water, or over 3700 gallons, hence over 300 gallons when at its lowest. Being in the sandy soil common almost everywhere on the island, it probably had a fast recharge rate, so that, even when low, it could provide sufficient water for the livestock. However, Roger Fogg told of hearing that Henry once had to haul water from the spring near the wharf, using a hogshead on a wagon, and was injured when the wagon upset. A hogshead could contain 63 gallons, which weighed over 500 pounds in addition to the weight of the container.

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The most impressive feature of the barn well was its cover. That was a single piece of ledge-stone about six feet across and over a foot thick, probably brought about half a mile from the Target Point area of the island by oxteam, perhaps on a “stone-boat”. The latter would have been a nearly flat wooden item with a slightly up-curved front, more of a sled than a boat, which was simply dragged over the ground with its heavy load. Either at the shore or at the barn, a rectangular hole a bit less than 1.5 by 2 feet was cut in the stone’s center, most likely by hammering on chisels for many hours. If the hole were cut at the shore, the load was considerably lightened. Whole, the cover would have weighed about 2 tons, but the hole would have reduced the weight to more like 1.5 tons. If from Target Point, it also had to be raised about 20 feet before being put onto the stone boat, or else put aboard a boat or raft and floated to some beach point for loading onto the ox-drawn device. In the latter mode, the tide could have been used to somewhat simplify getting it onto and off from a water-borne carrier.

The well wall is of fieldstone, assembled mostly without mortar, hence held together only by the pressure of the ground against the stones on the outside. In a sense, the structure they form acts like an arch. Even though made of nearly rounded stones rather than cut and fitted ones, their careful placement resulted in a balance of forces that has kept all of them in place for perhaps a century and a half, and the present condition of the wall suggests that it should be good for even more centuries. The cover was not simply set on top of the wall; in fact, it was not large enough to span that great a distance. Instead, it was supported on three stone “beams”, somewhat cylindrical pieces, two of them long enough to span parallel chords on two sides of the wall and the third long enough to rest on one end of each of others. On the fourth “side” of the wall, the cover did rest on the wall itself. There is some mortar around the upper couple feet of the wall, where there was a need to avoid having surface water run into it.

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Such structures are testaments to both the ingenuity and industry of the people of those times, and especially to islanders who made do with materials and methods at hand in their somewhat limited environment.

When their wooden buildings burned or decayed, those vanished, but items they fashioned with stone can be their memorials. Would that those memorials could be lasting ones. Nature is kind in that way, leaving stone in place for millennia. But human nature is not so kind, and sometimes even cruel. Such has been the case with this well.

Sometime in the fall of 2000, its cover was destroyed, probably bombarded with stones (humanly or naturally?) from the barn foundation wall above it, damaging that wall also in the process. Apparently the pieces of the cover are in the bottom of the well, along with the missiles used to demolish it. So readers of this history can no longer see it if they visit the site. What remains visible of the cover now are a few images like those on the preceding pages.

CAMPS SUNSET AND GREEN The origins of the camps used by the Frank Bailey family and the Hill family have been told on pages 118 and 121. Their relative locations are shown on the plan on page 199. Sunset was backed up right to the top of the high northwest shore bank so that, unlike the earlier, larger, and fancier cottages farther along that bank, its front did not face the sunset view off that shore. Instead, its front faced its mirror-image twin, Camp Green, over a door-todoor walkway and an area of lawn. The large end doors, meant to admit boats for storage, were never so used.

Sunsetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kitchen area was in its west corner, the sink being along the rear wall next to the corner. To the right of that was the woodstove, vented to an exterior chimney. There was also a three-burner oil stove. Cold running water came from an elevated tank beside Camp Green, the tank kept filled by a gasoline-driven pump in another small building nearby. The engine had one cylinder standing vertically above the crankshaft and surrounded by an open-topped water jacket. Each also had a flush toilet in an about 6 x 6 foot shed attached to the rear of the camp. That had the only internal door, the rest of the camp being one large room in the daytime, though partitioned off with curtains at night.

A large table occupied the center of the southwest half, and bookcases lined both sides of the south corner, which also had a built-in bench seat. Except for some chairs, the rest of the space was devoted to beds in their curtained domains. One bed was in a loft reached by a retractable stairway.

Camp Sunset behind Mamie Haskellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flower garden at left; Camp Green at right.

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THE CLAMBAKE BUILDING/BOATHOUSE One end of this building has appeared in a picture on page 28. Considering its purposes, its interior seems to have been simply a large open space occupied, according to current need, by rows of tables (probably much like present-day picnic tables with seats) or by stored boats. The following two photos show its other end and more of its surroundings about 40 years later, or, by now, about 70 years ago. One change stemming from the alteration from its original to its final use was the addition of a pair of wooden rails leading into the water for hauling boats on cradles.

The only sign of this building today is a few of the stones on which its sills were supported, plus a few pieces of charred timbers. Whether it was burned by the Navy (very likely it was in as poor condition as were the farm buildings) or later is not known.

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Little Chebeague Island Rich, deep soil and abundant groundwater plus extensive adjacent clamflats attracted to Little Chebeague Island generations of Native Americans who left there the largest clamshell midden in Casco Bay. The same features were also prized by early English settlers who completed the clearing of most of it for farming. By the mid-1800â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s its summer climate and open viewsheds led successively to the creation of a resort hotel that became a local landmark, early steamboat service and wharf facilities, years of hosting thousand-plus-person excursions and clambakes, and the first airplane flights seen over the Bay. That life was first disrupted by fire and then destroyed by war, but a new one as a stateowned public recreation site now lies somewhere ahead of it.

The G. A. R. cannon -- 1876 to about 1942