USA > Maine > Hancock County > Blue Hill > Head of the bay : sketches and pictures of Blue Hill, Maine, 1762-1952 > Part 1
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A morning View of Bluch Village Se. 1824 Mon Fisher pink.
HEAD OF THE BAY
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974.102
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Annie L. Clough
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02594 9055
Gc 974.102 B62c Clough, Annie L. Head of the bay
HEAD OF THE BAY
The history of a town and of its people should ever have an interest for its citizens, and for all who are descended from those who shaped its course in education, in rc- ligion and in civic and social morality. Such history is a beacon light that points to wis- dom's ways . . .
The town of Blue Hill was particularly fortunate in the character of its first settlers, in their regard for the welfare of themselves and their children in matters pertaining to education, moral and religious training, and in the early establishment of church and schools ...
Let their story be often told, and be kept in perpetual remembrance; let their sacri- fices and self-denials be themes for conver- sation and be celebrated in song for the edification and instruction of the present and future generations, and let their names be emblazoned upon the local rolls of fame.
R. G. F. CANDAGE
HEAD OF THE BAY
Blue Hill Village is nestled among tall maples, pines and elms at the head of Blue Hill Bay - in the shadow of the lonely Blue Hill Mountain. Entering the town by any of the mountain roads, the visitor glimpses first the tall white steeples of the two lovely colonial churches rising through the trees, then the clustering white houses and the island-dotted, landlocked bay, and, finally, the hills of Mount Desert rising far away. This panorama of beauty and peace is very close to the hearts of all those who dearly love the little village and its long eventful history.
Sketches and Pictures of Blue Hill, Maine 1762- 1952 by ANNIE L. CLOUGH
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Published for The Congregational Church of Blue Hill THE SHOREACRE PRESS Designed and prepared for publication by M. J. GLADSTONE Cartography by HOWARD E. PAINE 1953
Printed at the ELM TREE PRESS, INCORPORATED, WOODSTOCK, VERMONT
THESE SKETCHES HAVE BEEN GATIIERED TOGETHER WITH THE HOPE OF preserving and bringing before the people some of the interesting facts and stories of the settlement and development of Blue Hill. I am greatly in- debted to the many friends who provided me with necessary information - especially to Josie Barker for historieal papers and photographs; Ralph Duffy for the mapping of Long Island; Frank Snow, Captain Ralph Long, Mrs. Fred Cousins, Mrs. Nettie E. Gray, Mrs. John Wood, Miss Esther Wood and Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Conary for the many faets they provided from memory; Gale M. Hinckley for photographs; Mrs. John Rogerson for drawing on page 1; Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Clough, Jr., for editing the initial manuscript; Florence Morse and Nila E. Slaven for typing; the Churches, Library, and Town and Haneoek County Agricultural Societies for permis- sion to use their records; and, finally, to Roland M. Howard for his assistance in compiling these sketches as well as for the use of his file of The Ellsworth American.
Much of the information and most of the quotations have been taken from Historical Sketches of Bluehill by R. G. F. Candage and Sketches of the Early Settlers of Bluehill by Byron W. Darling, both grandsons of the first settlers.
ANNIE L. CLOUGH
March 15th, 1952
TABLE OF CONTENTS
First Settlers
6
The Congregational Church 11
The Baptist Church 14
Blue Hill Academy 15
East Blue Hill
16
Long Island
18
Byron Darling Describes a Moose Hunt
19
Blue Hill Library 20
23
Industries
24
Ship Building
25
Sea Captains
29
Granite Quarries
31
Copper Mines
32
Mineral Spring
33
Steamboats 35
Hancock County Agricultural Society
36
Summer Residents
38
Key to Map of Summer Residents' Houses 41
Map of Summer Residents' Houses 46
Revolutionary War Aecount of Blue Hill
49
A Final Note 50
Illustration Credits 51
An 1847 Blue Hill Letter of Apology 52
Blue Hill Memorial Hospital
This photograph of Blue Hill was probably taken from the steeple of the Baptist Church some time before 1860. The old Town Hall ( with Gothie windows ) stands across the street. Back of it - to the right - are buildings on Main Street; to the left is the Town Wharf with a ship on the ways. The building to the right of the ship is the old canning factory. The Reuben Dodge Farm is shown in the right background.
FIRST SETTLERS
IN JANUARY OF 1762, TEN YEARS AFTER THE PROVINCE OF MAINE RECAME part of the Massachusetts Commonwealth, some 360 men of Andover and its neighboring towns signed a petition requesting permission to settle on a tract of land in the former Province of Maine, between the holdings of "the Heirs of the Late Honourable Brigadier General Waldo and the River Passamaquade." That same year, 1762, the House of Representatives made a formal grant to the petitioners of "six townships of Land . . . of six miles square" provided that within six years they "settle cach Township with sixty good Protestant Families and build sixty Houses, none to be less than Eighteen Feet Square, and Seven Feet Stud; and clear and cultivate five acres of Land on each Share fit for Tillage or Mowing; and that they build in each Township a suitable Meeting-house for the publie worship of God, and Settle a Learned Protestant Minister, and make Provision for his eomfortable and honourable Support." Further terms of the grant stated that four shares of the land be reserved - "one for the first settled or ordained Minister, his Heirs and As- signs forever, one for the use of the Minister, one to and for the use of Harvard College in Cambridge, and one for the use of a sehool forever." Finally, it specified that "if any of the Grantees or Proprietors . . . shall neglect within ... six years ... to perform according to ... (these) Artieles . . . his whole Right or Share Shall be entirely forfeited and enure to the Use of this Provinee."
In April, 1762, empowered by this charter, Joseph Wood and John Roundy sailed up Blue IIill Bay in search of a homesite. Although their names were not among these of the 360 original petitioners, the House of Representatives had directed that new grantees be admitted "in ye room of such Persons con- tained in ye Lists aforesaid, who shall neglect to appear by themselves or others in their Behalf." They landed on what is now known as Mill Island (between The Falls and the smaller outlet to the Salt Pond) and built two log eabins there, but returned to Andover when winter approached. The following spring, the two eame baek to the Maine wilderness, each bringing a wife and six small children.
Other petitioners and their families soon followed so that the conditions of the grant would be met. Sturdy, valiant, and honorable men, they raised large families, worked hard, and lived to a good old age. Some settlers' names have come down to us more distinctly than others - because of their activity in shaping Blue Hill or because of their numerous offspring. (Ezekiel Osgood had 12 children, 63 grandehildren, and 116 great-grandehildren - according to an incomplete count.) Among the best-remembered are the following, listed in order of settlement:
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1762 JOSEPH WOOD, the founder of the town, who married Ruth Haskell in 1741 and by her had ten children. He died in 1813, aged 93 years, and she in 1814, aged 92.
1762 JOHN ROUNDY, first town clerk, a selectman, and a member of the Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War. He married Elizabeth Rea in 1747 and by her had nine children. He died in 1799, aged 73 years, while she lived until 1820 and the age of 92.
1763 JONATHAN DARLING, JR., who had been a soldier in the French War. He married Hannah, only daughter of Nicholas Holt (probably at Andover at the end of his first year at Blue Hill), and by her had nine children. Jonathan Darling settled first at The Falls but later built a house at Darling's Point ( now called Sculpin Point). He died at the age of 87 (1828), and his wife in 1826, aged 85.
1764 COL. NATHAN PARKER, also a soldier in the French War, whose mar- riage in 1764 to Mary, daughter of Joseph Wood, was the first to be cele- brated at Blue Hill. They had ten children. He died, aged 70 years, in 1819; she, aged 58, in 1806.
1765 PETER PARKER, brother of Nathan Parker, who married Phoebe Marble in 1766. They had eleven children, one of whom, Isaac ( the eighth child), cleared and cultivated the land which has come to be known as Parker Point.
1765 THOMAS COGGIN was married to Lydia Obear in 1755 and by her had six children. He died in 1821, aged 87 years; she in 1799, aged 44.
1765 EZEKIEL OSGOOD was married to Mary Barker in 1746. Of their twelve children, one son, Christopher, who served in the Revolutionary War fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
1765 JOHN PETERS married widow Mary (Dyer) Cushing in 1770 and by her had twelve children. His house was built on Peters' Point on the Inner Bay, near where stands the brick house owned by Mrs. Linus Coggan. John Peters, with the assistance of his son James, surveyed the township and made a plan of it. Many later deeds make reference to the "Peters Plan." He died in 1821, aged 80 years; his wife in 1826, aged 76.
1765 NICHOLAS HOLT, who as a town officer for many years and also an innkeeper, was the foremost man in Blue Hill at an early date. He was married first to Hannah Osgood by whom he had two children, and, after her death in 1744, to Lois Phelps by whom he had three. He died in 1798, aged 82 years.
There is an amusing story about Nicholas Holt courting ("sparking") the girl who became his second wife. Tired from a long day's work, he fell asleep while the young lady was on his lap. Cautiously, she rose, put the old- fashioned up-and-down churn on his lap, and retired. Soon after, he pro- posed a horseback ride; she, delighted, consented, and they were off, chatting
together. Before long, he stopped at a stump by the side of the path and said: "I think there is some trouble about the saddle girth. Now will you please step off till I see what the matter is." When she was safely on the stump, he whipped up his horse and exclaimed: "You can go home now and ride your churn, ye may, by George!"
Nicholas Holt, Jr., also a leading citizen, was for many years a colonel in the militia and Justice of the Peace. According to legend, he married more people and acknowledged more deeds and legal documents over a twenty- year period than all other justices east of the Penobscot River. Jeremiah Thorndike Holt, grandson of Nicholas senior, built the lovely colonial house next to the present Pendleton House in 1820. This house has a very fine old doorway, and the original fence still encloses the front yard.
1766 JAMES CANDAGE came to Blue Hill from Beverly with his wife, Eliza- beth, and five children. One more child was born after their settlement. James Candage was supposed to have been 50 years old at the time of his death in 1788, but, since his son James was 35, he was undoubtedly older.
Rufus G. F. Candage, grandson of James, sea captain, and selectman of Brookline, Mass., compiled much of the early history of Blue Hill.
1766 JAMES DAY married Betty, daughter of James Candage, in 1775 and by her had sixteen children. He died at the age of 51 in 1802. His widow married Caleb Merrill by whom she had onc son.
1766 JONATHAN DAY, of whom relatively little is known. He and his wife, Elizabeth, were original members of the church at Blue Hill. He died in 1807, aged 63 years.
1766 EBENEZER HINCKLEY was born in Brunswick, Maine, in 1733 and served as a soldier in the French War. He married Susannah Brown in 1754. In March 1776, he was found frozen to death on Long Island, where he and James Candage ( senior ) had built and operated a saw mill.
Ebenezer Hinckley's son Nehemiah walked from West Point to Blue Hill after being discharged from the Revolutionary Army. He married Edith, daughter of Joseph Wood, the third child born in Blue Hill. On August 3, 1861, Edith Hinckley dined with 111 of her descendants. She died two years later, when she was more than 97 years old.
1768 JOSHUA HORTON, from Cape Elizabeth, was the first treasurer of Blue Hill. He was married to Anner Dyer by whom he had nine children. He died in 1814, aged 72 years; his wife at 68 in the same year.
1768 MOSES CARLETON was born in Andover in 1760 and came to Blue Hill as a child. He and his brothers, Edward, Dudley, and David, settled in the south part of the town and built Carleton Mills, where they did a big lumbering business, on the Salt Pond. Moses Carleton married Mary Web- ster in 1783 and by her had twelve children. He died in 1838, aged 78 years; she at 89 in 1857.
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1774 BENJAMIN FRIEND was the donor of land for the South Blue Hill Cemetery. He married Martha Dodge who bore him eleven children. Ile died in 1807, aged 63 years; his wife at 76 in 1829.
1784 JONAH DODGE came to Blue Hill as a widower, aged 73, with eleven children by two marriages. He died in 1788. His youngest son, Reuben, who was town clerk for twenty-four years and selectman for thirty-one, built the house still standing near the village on the Parker Point road. The spring on Dodge property, which is renowned for its fine water, is used by people for miles around. ( Mr. Robert Adams stipulated in his will that the present fountain be erected there. )
1790 ASA CLOUGH, SR., came from Haverhill, Mass., with his bride, Abigail Pecker. Ten children were born to them in Blue Hill. IIe died, aged 87 years, in 1851; his wife in 1854, aged 88.
1791 THEODORE STEVENS was the blacksmith of the village for many years. He came to Blue Hill from Andover one year after his marriage to Dorcas Osgood (probably the daughter of Jacob Osgood ), and by her had seven children. After his death in 1820 (aged 57), his son, Varnum, and later his grandsons, Frederick and John, carried on the family business. Doreas Stevens died in 1832, aged 69 years.
1792 GEORGE STEVENS, Theodore's brother, married Ezekiel Osgood's daughter, Dorcas, at Blue Hill in 1800. After her death in 1847, he married Mary Ann Haskell, and, childless, adopted two boys. These children died at an early age. George Stevens built a saw mill on the Mill Brook and also established a shipyard at the head of the bay ( with a dock from which to ship his lumber ) where several vessels were built. Later, he bought a earding and fulling mill on the Mill Stream, which had been built and operated by Samuel Gibson. 1Ie also built and ran a successful mill for spinning cotton yarns. He aeeumulated what was, for his time, a large fortune before his death in 1852, aged 78 years.
1795 AMOS ALLEN was born in Sedgwick, Maine, in 1772. He married Joanna Herrick (of Sedgwick) in 1793, and by her had ten children. A man of foreeful character and widespread influence, he was a Baptist preacher, a farmer, a miller, and a ship owner, in addition to representing the town in the State Legislature from 1820 to 1823 and again in 1842. His last eleetion was due largely to the general understanding that he favored the building of a bridge across The Falls; but at the Legislature, he not only arrayed himself against the bridge eharter, but openly ridiculed it. As the result of his aetions, he failed to be re-elected.
Other early settlers who came to Blue Hill up to the beginning of the nineteenth century were Simeon Burnham, James Carter, Jonathan Clay,
John Clough, Jeremiah Colburn, Nathaniel Cushing, Jr., Elisha Dodge, Jon- athan and Nathan Ellis, Daniel Faulkner, Rev. Jonathan Fisher, Ebenezer Floyd, Reuben Gray, David and John Green, John Grindle, Freeman Hardin, Philip and Seth Hewins, Obed Johnson, Seth Kimball, Samuel Knowles, Caleb Merrill, Samuel Morse, Atherton and John Oakes, Joseph Osgood, Robert Parker, Phinchas Pillsbury, James Savage, Edward Sinclair, Samuel Stetson, Jeremiah Stover, Dr. Nathan Tenney, Spencer Treworgy, Andrew Witham, George Bowers Wright, and Joseph Wood ( no relation to the first settler ).
The following surnames of carly settlers are still extant in the village: Allen, Candage, Carter, Clay, Clough, Cushing, Day, Dodge, Friend, Gray, Green, Grindle, Hinckley, Horton, Johnson, Merrill, Morse, Osgood, Parker, Stover, Treworgy, Witham, and Wood.
Many of the carly settlers are buried in the graveyard on Union Street, just above the Rowantrees Kiln. Pines, oaks, and alders now obscure it from the road, but the granite blocks and iron posts which were part of the original fence are still standing. Jonah Dodge, who died in March, 1788, was buried here "near the old Indian camping ground," and according to earlier record it had been voted "To spend two days for to clear and to fence the burying ground." Some of the settlers, Joseph Wood, John Peters, Nicholas Holt, Theodore Stevens, and Rev. Jonathan Fisher among them, have impressive granite monuments; but most of the graves, including those of prominent citizens and officers of the settlement, are marked by simple granite slabs.
A later burying ground, called Seaside Cemetery and first used in 1833, is located on a point on the north side of the inner bay. About forty years ago, Ellen A. Slaven gave the fine granite gate and iron fenee on the street side of this cemetery. These lots have almost all been taken now, and land for a new cemetery has been purchased at North Blue Hill.
The Blue Hill area was "Plantation No. 5" of the six townships granted in 1762 by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. However, it was called North Andover for five years, until the first town meeting ( March 2, 1767) when the settlers voted to name the town New Port. At this same meeting they eleeted a town elerk, selectmen, and committeemen, and voted "that if any one eut on any one's lot that is laid out, without lieense, he shall lose his labor and stuff," and "that if any one shall find lumber on their lot they shall carry it off."
A later record, dated "April 6, 1767" at New Port, tells that "At a Meeting of the Freeholders of the Town, Nicholas Holt was chosen Moderator, Voted that they would have their Lots put on Record and who they Lay a Gainst." The spelling of the town name had changed to Newport by 1769, when
8
the land allotments (mapped below) were finally recorded; but, in 1778, John Peters was sent to petition the "General Court" to have the town ealled Bluehill.
Over the years there has developed a good deal of controversy in regard to the spelling of the town's name. Records show that in early days the one- word spelling was generally employed; more recently, the two-word spelling has come into general favor. The town's corporate charter, enacted January 30, 1789, not only answers the spelling question, but also sheds light on how the controversy arose. Its first paragraph reads :
"An Aet to incorporate a plantation on the east side of Penobscott river, in the County of Lineoln, ealled Township number five, on blue hill bay, into a Town by the name of 'Blue Hill.'"
It will be noted that "blue hill bay" is not eapitalized, but that the name of the town is written as two words, both capitalized. In the body of the charter, the town name appears as "Blue hill," however, and to slip from that form to the one word, "Bluehill," was a logieal step for early residents - to whom, as will be noted above, form and capitalization apparently meant little.
BAY
HILL
BLUE
& HINCKLEY
+DAY
ONJIES
NECK
UE
JAMES
EBENEZER
JOHN
BENJAMIN
NINGENJg
NHOP
SettICH
1762
SALT
FOND
"Then the Neck of Land in this Township, (was) Laid out into Eighty Acre Lots, Beginning at the . . . Falls and running from thence upon the Shore Southward about 150 Rods to a Spring and from thence across the Neck such a course as shall Give Eighty Acres upon the end of the Neck, this Lot of Land then being in the Quiet and Peacable Possession and Enjoyment of Benjamin York of this town . " Town Records, November 1, 1769.
SOWONNO
79MONTO
Pourter
NONVILLENOM
E
JAMES
-
-
ABOVE: The old Tide Mill Bridge. The house at the right, which was built by Benjamin Clay in 1833, was torn down fifteen or twenty years ago. In the background, a ship is loading with lumber in the Cove. BOTTOM LEFT: The Iron Bridge over the Falls, looking north. The photograph was taken at Capt. R. G. F. Candage's picnic in 1886. TOP LEFT: The present cement bridge over the Falls, looking north. The house in the background is "Wakonda."
In 1897, James R. Long wrote: "The inhabitants of Bluehill Neck, by rea- son of a large pond called Salt Pond dividing the town, entered Sedgwick around the pond . . . (to reach) Bluehill, or came to town by water in boats. Thus they labored under a very great disadvantage by going eight or ten miles to gain one. But there were push and pluck in those men. They addressed themselves to the legislature, obtained a grant (I. Carter and O. Eaton held the grant ) to bridge the tide water, and in 1852 they car- ried a wooden bridge across the falls, so called, by individual enterprisc. It is said, but no record appears, that the town gave $1,000. I learn that about 1867 the town voted to raise $1,000 towards carrying across a second bridge. In September, 1883, the town voted to close a contract to carry an iron bridge (the first to be built in Hancock County ) across in the same placc."
The early wood structures were carried away by the tide, ice, and wind, but the original granite piers were used as the substructure of the iron bridge. The present cement bridge was built in 1926.
3 1833 02594 9055
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BLUE HILL'S CHARTER SPECIFIES TIIAT THE SETTLERS "BUILD A SUITABLE Meeting-house for the public worship of God, and Settle a Learned Protes- tant Minister, and make Provision for his comfortable and honourable Sup- port" within a period of six years. Although in 1768 the settlers voted "to raise money to hire a person for to preah the gospel to us and for to pay his board," we know that Blue Hill was without a settled minister for the next twenty-six years. According to a letter addressed to the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in 1785, however, the settlers had "hired Preaching Every Summer for seventeen years," and this was appar- ently sufficient to satisfy the charter terms.
The same letter tells us that they had "built a Suitable house for Public Worship," but the exact location of this building is unknown. Town records indicate that it was built in the Tide Mill district, however, and mention meetings that were held there and repairs made to it over a period of years. The earliest recorded date for the use of this building is May 3, 1772, when a town meeting took place in it. Some months later, the First Congregational Church of Blue Hill was formed ( the first to be organized east of the Penob- seot Bay and the twenty-fourth in the state), and on October 7, 1772, the Reverend Daniel Little of Wells, Maine, preached there to fourteen mem- bers, eight men and the wives of six of them. The confession of faith and covenant ended in the prayer: "Now may the gracious and glorious eovenant- keeping God forgive us all our offenees, assist us and bless us in this our covenant and accept us now and forever in Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen."
As the settlement enlarged in numbers and extended to the head of the bay, the need was felt for a larger and more central meeting house. "At that time," R. G. F. Candage writes of the late eighteenth century, "the town was the parish and the parish was the town, and all action . . . had to be taken in open town meeting." Between 1790 and 1792 town meetings considered the location of the new meeting house and namcd a committee to proeure materials for its construction. In April of the latter year, the location was agreed on - the north side of Main Street at the top of Tenney Hill. Earlier, Blue Hill had voted that "a hundred pounds shall be raised on the town for purposes of building the meeting house," which was to be fifty feet long and forty feet wide. Now, plans were made for framing, boarding, and shingling the building. The selectmen were empowered "to hire a Master workman on as reasonable terms as they can be paid out of the Town treasury," and to "divide the town into Classes," each of which would send their proportion of men to work on the building. The master workman, we learn, was to "mark the men deficient as to time and labor and the Class to
The Congregational Church was built in 1842-43. In the foreground of this 1886 photograph are Alice Shaw (right) and Miriam Stevens.
The CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
11
which ... (such men belong) shall be obliged to make good such de- fieiency." On the more agreeable side, the town voted one month later "to procure one barrel of rum, also molasses and sugar sufficient for framing and raising the meeting house."
Construction of the Meeting House began in May, 1792, and lasted almost ten years. (There was no formal dedication to fix the date of completion. ) Inside, the arrangements were similar to those of the Old South Church in Boston - square pews, galleries, and a high pulpit with a sounding board suspended above. The floor pows were sold at public vendue in September, 1797, but gallery pews were not sold until 1800.
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