USA > Maine > Hancock County > Blue Hill > Head of the bay : sketches and pictures of Blue Hill, Maine, 1762-1952 > Part 2
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In 1821, John Peters presented the town with a Paul Revere bell, and a tower and steeple (the gifts of Reuben Dodge) were added to the east end of the meeting house to accommodate it. The bell, which rang for the first time to celebrate the donor's eightieth birthday, tolled only one week later for his death.
In January of 1842, the meeting house which represented so many years of labor and sacrifice by Blue Hill's inhabitants was burned to the ground. It was another year before a new building was construeted to house the Congregational parish, and in the interim the town voted to divorce church and state. Earlier, cvery taxpayer had automatically contributed to the sup-
port of the Congregational Church. In 1842, however, one inhabitant of the town refused to pay the church tax assessed against him. This man was jailed at Ellsworth for a month, and the ensuing disturbanee led to the church and state division. It was then that the First Congregational Parish met, elected its own officers, and opened new books. From that time, church funds have been raised by means of voluntary subscription, contributions and donations.
The present First Congregational Church of Blue Hill was dedicated in January, 1843. Land had been given by Reuben Dodge, and the builder was Thomas M. Lord of Blue Hill. The perfectly proportioned Greek plan came from Bangor and is eredited to B. J. Deane. Labor and materials were, for the most part, contributed by members of the parish. The bell is a re- casting of the old Paul Revere bell which fell and broke when the old mect- ing house was burned.
By the 1890s, the interior walls of the building were found to be in poor condition - probably as the result of age, leaks in the roof, and dampness. Plans of the auditorium were sent to Boston to George Clough, who, with the aid of the artist, Pennell, designed the present decoration and reinforced the ceiling and side walls.
The Eastern Steamship Company generously shipped the men and mate-
RIGIIT: The Jonathan Fisher Homestead, now owned (and recently repaired) by the minister's great-great-granddaughter, Miss Ethelwynne Hinckley. Jonathan Fisher's grandson (seated left) and two great-grandchildren are shown in the photograph. LEFT: Interior of the Congregational Church as it looks today.
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rials for this work free of charge; church members lodged and boarded the men, and the ladies of the Sewing Circle provided the needed money.
More recently, in 1948, the church needed further repair work -re- placement of timbers under the basement floor and reinforcement for the granite foundation which had heaved. Again, funds were raised by the efforts of church workers and generous friends.
The records of the Congregational Church show that at least twelve clergymen preached at Blue Hill before the arrival of Jonathan Fisher, the town's first settled minister. Father Fisher, as he was known locally, came to Blue Hill as a summer pastor on June 17, 1794. In the following ycar, during his second summer pastorate, he was given a call to the parish, and he was ordained in an open field in the village on July 1, 1796. Mary Ellen Chase, in her book Jonathan Fisher, Maine Parson, has told so eloquently of Blue Hill's first settled minister that little need be said in these brief sketehes.
Parson Fisher, a Harvard graduate, faithfully preached the Gospel of Christ for forty-one years, and at the same time displayed unusual talents in the fields of painting ( portrait, landscape, and sign), wood engraving, writing of poetry and prose, science, mathematics, surveying, and farm man- agement. The father of a large family, it was his custom to rise at five, build the fires, lay the breakfast table, and then to study Greek until breakfast was served at six. He walked countless miles to call once each year on every family in the town, collecting the children to recite the catechism which he had previously left at the house. (He is, in fact, known to have often walked the nine miles to Sedgwick to confer with Rev. Daniel Merrill; and he is also known to have walked thirty-six miles to Bangor, where he was trustce of the Theologieal Seminary. )
Byron Darling, who was one of his parishioners, later wrote of him: "He was a stern, firm, unflinching man, a devoted self-sacrificing Christian whose example of Christian and industrious and frugal habits it would be well for all to imitate . . . . When I appeared before him and Vespasian Ellis to be examined as a school teacher how glad I was when he said 'that will do, I will now give you some advice, which is this, Be mild but firm.'"
In compensation for settlement in Blue Hill, Father Fisher received title to the minister's lot of 300 acres of wild woodland, a barn which measured forty by twenty feet, and $200 in cash. ( This barn, which was built in 1796 at a cost of $147 is still standing. ) As annual salary, he received $200, the cutting and hauling of fifteen cords of wood, and the clearing of five acres of land.
In 1837, Father Fisher's failing health led him to retire from the pastorate after forty-one years of service. Ten years later he died, leaving behind him a host of objects and accomplishments which still testify to his prodigious
activity - his house and buildings, which he planned and helped to con- struet; his paintings, including the four self-portraits done for his daughters; his library, which represented fluent reading in five languages; the clock with wooden works built for his Blue Hill house; and the sermons and letters carefully transcribed in a unique shorthand developed for his use when he was in college - to name but a few.
He is buried in the old cemetery on Union Street, beneath a tall granite monument engraved with the words "Know Thyself," erected by the town to his memory.
On August 27, 1922, the Congregational Church celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding. The high point of several meetings at which papers on the early Blue Hill churches were presented was Henry T. Fow- ler's reading of a poem by Henry F. Krehbiel which told of the history of the town, the building of the church, and the story of the Paul Revere Bell. Music for the meetings was provided by a string quartet made up of Mr. Franz Kneisel's students; and the reading was interspersed with solos and string obbligatos. When the story of the bell was told, Mr. Krehbiel tolled the bell in time with the music. Dr. John J. Martin, the officiating summer pas- tor who arranged the meetings, was assisted by the Baptist minister, Rev. Wayne R. Robinson.
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Jonathan Fisher's bookplate for the church library.
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IN 1793, REV. DANIEL MERRILL WAS ORDAINED AT THE NEWLY-ORGANIZED Congregational Church in Sedgwick. Soon after the religious revival of 1799, when many in this arca joined the churches, however, Rev. Merrill changed his belief as to the ordinanee of baptism; and in 1805, he and most of his church members were baptized by immersion. Rev. Merrill was then re-ordained and installed as pastor of a newly-formed Baptist Church - holding services in the same building as before.
Rev. Merrill's influence was widespread in this part of Mainc. Following his re-ordination, twenty-cight members of the First Congregational Church of Blue lfill withdrew, dissatisfied with the ordinance of baptism; and nineteen, thirteen men and six women, formed a local Baptist organization. Continued sccession from the Congregational Church brought the Baptist membership to forty-seven within a few years. The new organization held meetings in houses, barns, and fields until October, 1816, when it was de- cided that a meeting house should be built at the "Ilead of the Bay between the homes of Isaac and Daniel Osgood."
Thus, the present building was started in 1817; and it was partly finished, with single board floors and planks for seats, for the Lincoln County Asso- ciation held here that year. Further work gave the church two stories, a high pulpit, box pews, and the framework for galleries on two sides and one end; and in 1856, the building was remodelled to its present state by Thomas Lord. The bell was installed in 1858 - the gift of the Ladies' Sewing Circle - and the chapel was built in 1880. The present oak pews replaced the earlier white ones in 1928.
In the years following its organization, the Baptist Church in Blue Hill was responsible for the formation of three "daughter churches" - at South Blue Hill in 1825, at Penobscot in 1878, and at East Blue Hill in 1880.
The BAPTIST CHURCH
TOP LEFT: The Baptist Church as it looks today. RIGHT: The Baptist Church interior. The building, which dates from 1817, was remodelled in 1856 by Thomas Lord.
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THE ORIGINAL BLUE HILL ACADEMY CAME INTO BEING as the direct result of an Act of Incorporation passed by the Ceneral Court of Massachusetts (of which Maine was then a part ), March 8, 1803. Of the thirty-two successful petitioners responsible for this action, the one best remembered today is the Rev. Jonathan Fisher.
The earliest Academy building was a square wooden structure, thirty-eight feet long and thirty feet wide, which was sold for ninety dollars in 1832 and moved into the village. There it served as a store for A, H. Dresser until it was destroyed by fire twenty-five or thirty years later. The brick build- ing which replaced it in 1833 ( the Legion Hall of today ) housed the Blue Hill Academy for the following sixty-five years.
In 1898, a new Academy building was constructed on the George Stevens property on Union Street. Mr. Stevens, who died May 1, 1852, had served for many years as an Academy trustee. A highly successful businessman and a devout Baptist, his opinions were often at variance with those of the pre- dominantly Congregational Academy board. His will left the major part of his estate, including his homestead and home lot, in the care of a self- perpetuating body of five trustees - to be used for the establishment of an academy when such a step seemed advisable. In accordance with his wishes, the Ceorge Stevens Academy of Blue Hill was incorporated in 1891, and its building was constructed, as noted above, in 1898.
After 1898, a school was operated in the new George Stevens building, but in conjunction with the older Blue Hill Academy. Under this arrangement, the latter paid rent to the former, and the school was administered jointly. Informally, it was known as Blue Hill-George Stevens Academy until 1943, when the two organizations were legally merged by an Act of Legislature and their endowment funds were combined.
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TOP RIGHT: The old Blue Hill Academy, photographed between 1860 and 1870. LEFT: The fan doorway of the George Stevens Homestead was reinstalled in its original place in 1952.
BLUE HILL ACADEMY
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EAST BLUE HILL
EAST BLUE HILL . 1881
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East Blue Hill is located at the outlet of McHard's Stream into Blue Hill Bay - just east of the Inner Bay and west of Morgan's Bay.
EAST BLUE HILL WAS ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS MCHARD'S - AFTER ITS FIRST settler, who came there shortly before 1800. Threc McHards, James, James Jr., and William, are included among the Massachusetts petitioners for Blue Hill, but which of these settled East Blue Hill is not recorded. That he built a small shack by the stream and lived there as a trapper is all there seems to be known about him, except that hearsay has his death as the result of a broken leg. The small stream at East Blue Hill still bears his name.
The first permanent settlement in the village was made by Jocl Long, who was born in Sedgwick, July 27, 1782. He had gone to Boston at an early age to learn the trade of comb making, married there, and came to McHard's prior to 1810 to run the saw mill owned by Spofford and Ellis on the west side of the stream. ( In an old ledger belonging to my great-grand- father, Matthew Ray, I find several entries under Sawmill at McHards, Dr. dated from 1810 to 1816. On the Contra side, a final entry [1827] charges $5.19%, or exactly half the total mill bill, to Nathan Ellis. ) Later, Jocl Long acquired this mill, and in 1831 he built a grist mill on the same stream. On the eastern side of the stream, James Grindle built a small mill where he made shingles and, later, staves for a short time. More recently, Captain Ralph Long ran a sawmill on the spot where the boatyard now stands. In op- eration from 1920 to 1950, it was one of the few local sawmills running in its day.
For many years there was only a trail through the woods to the Head of the Bay, as Blue Hill Village was called. James Long, son of Joel, relates in an address given at the celebration of his eightieth birthday in 1897: "My father, in coming through on the trail on a dark night, encountered two bears which he could discern only by flashes of lightning. In one summer he killed five in one wooden trap." Joel Long expressed the wish that he could some day ride to Blue Hill Village with a horse and chaise. He realized this wish when a road was built for wheels, with a bridge over the stream, in 1835. This original bridge was built of log stringers supported on log piers of cobwork filled with stone. ( In 1885, a stone bridge, "two hundred feet long and seven feet high on the average," replaced the old wooden one which was falling to decay. ) Another important road, cut through to Morgan's Bay in 1825, connected East Blue Hill with Ellsworth - all carlier comunica- tion between these two points having been made by water.
In 1830, before the first bridge across McHard's Stream was built, the in- habitants of East Blue Hill got their mails from the Blue Hill post-office, four miles distant. They paid six cents from Ellsworth, ten cents from Boston, and
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twenty-five cents for a distance over 400 miles. A semi-weekly mail was started in 1871, when the name of the settlement was changed from Me- Hard's to East Blue Hill. Town records show that this was the time when more settlers - lumbermen, farmers, and ship builders - took up lands in the locality.
In his birthday address, James Long also tells: "In my earliest remem- brance, say from 1825 to 1830, but four families resided in this place - my father . .. Steven Conary, Leonard Carlton, and Asa Conary . .. The four families gained a livelihood by raising on wild land in summer what they could, running a mill spring and fall, (and) hunting and clamming in winter." About 1815, Joel Long built his two-story house on the west side of the brook, the bricks for the two ends supposedly having eome from a small brickyard nearby. This is the only one of the four original houses now standing. Later, James Long added the ell and lived there with his father. (It is now occupied by James' granddaughter, Mrs. Frederick Cousins. ) James Long and his brother, Joel Long, Jr., had a large brickyard where the present boatyard is located, and Joel, Jr., used bricks from this brickyard to build his home on the east side of the brook. (James Long's great-grandson, Mr. Maurice Cousins, lives in the lovely old house now. )
Among other old East Blue Hill houses is that built by John Curtis soon after the settlement of the village. This house, located on the hill above Curtis Cove, was recently bought and restored for a permanent home by Mr. Benjamin C. Vannah. The Frank Cousins house was built by Captain Francis Cousins, a ship builder with a shipyard east of the present boatyard. When the Captain bought land for his house of Abigail Friend Long, she remarked that he would probably build a little shack. This so infuriated Captain Cousins that he built the large two-story house with a widow's walk, now Dr. Albert Crawford's.
The first shipyard at East Bluc Hill, belonging to Joel Long, Sr., was lo- eated north of the main bridge across McHard's Stream. At least five ships were built in the Long shipyard, and, later, at least two more East Blue Hill vessels were built by Captain Francis Cousins in his shipyard. One ship was built on the shores (now Camp's) then belonging to Phineas Cousins, the Captain's father. ( Phineas had a farm on Morgan's Bay, and did some work on ships built at East Blue Hill; but his principal work as ship's car- penter was done at Surry and Ellsworth. ) Since all of the East Blue Hill ves- sels were built on the north side of the bridge across McHard's Stream, it was necessary to take out a seetion of the bridge whenever one of them was launched.
TOP: House and barn on the north side of the bridge at East Blue Hill, built by Joel Long, Sr., about 1815. BOTTOM: House built about 1845 by Joel Long, Jr., - with brick from his own brickyard.
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LONG ISLAND
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This map is based on one made by Ralph Duffy, who was born on Long Island before the turn of the century, and whose family was the last to live there.
ALTHOUGH LONG ISLAND IS UNINHABITED TODAY, IT WAS ONCE WELL POPU- lated. The first building erected there was a sawmill built by Ebenezer Hinckley and James Candage - on the east side of the island, opposite Deep Cove, sometime prior to 1776. On March 31, 1776, Ebenezer was found dead on the island, the inquest reading as follows: "This Day Being found the Body of one Ebenezer Hinckley Being Capt. on Long Island lately an inhabitant of Said Place and Being found Dead on Said Island it was thought Proper of the Inhabitants as there was no Coroner within Twenty Miles of Said Place to Chuse Mr. John Roundy as a fore Man to Twelve jury Men then and there to Examine the Body and how Said Hinckley Came to his End Whereas Every and Each of them one thought that he perished with the Cold and Said jury has hereunto set our Hands. . .
Settlement on the south side of the island was made about twenty years later, when David and James Carter, Jr., built homes near the Sand Spit, directly opposite South Bluc Hill. Here James raised a family of thirteen children, and David, seven children. R. G. F. Candage writes that they "raised their own corn and grain, cattle, sheep and swine for the use of their families, spun, wove and knit their clothing from wool of their sheep, and lived within their own resources." Still later, David Carter's son, John Pearce (born 1799), cleared farm land, built a house and barns, and raised a family of seven children in the same area.
The west side of the island was first settled about 1800, when James Day, Jr., cleared land and built a house ( where he raised seven children) at Deep Cove - at that time a favorite place for catching cod, haddock, and hake. He was drowned near Newbury Neck at the age of seventy-five. Later settle- ments on the south and west side of the island were made by Francis and Isaac Grant ( from Kennebec and Bath, Maine, respectively ) and by Joshua, Charles, and John Chatteau from Deer Isle.
The earliest settler at the center of the island was Moses Friend, whose buildings on the ridge could be seen elearly from the mainland. By 1835, the farms of Uriah and Joseph Marks were located at the north end of the island - even then a favorite place for berrying and clambakes.
The men who inhabited Long Island were farmers, fishermen, elam dig- gers, and boat builders. They sold bait which was used on the Grand Banks. Twenty-five or more weirs were located around Long Island shores, and sardines for canning and bait were shipped to all ports from Rockland east-
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Blue Hill Bay
Sand PŁ
BOARDING HOUSE Stone Quarry
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ward. The barrels in which the bait was packed were made at South Blue Hill by the Henderson brothers and a Mr. Herrick, coopers.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century the population of Long Island increased when a granite quarry belonging to Brown, Couch, and McAllister was opened at the south end. This quarry, which furnished stone for build- ings as well as for paving blocks, closed about 1890, and the quarry cquip- ment was shipped to Block Island. At that time, Long Island had a school for thirty or more children. Church services were held in the schoolhouse
once, and sometimes twice, each week, the ministers coming from the main- land. Mail was brought daily, except Sunday, from South Blue Hill - in a rowboat, and often by foot over the ice. (Among the mailmen were James Henderson and Ralph Duffy.)
About 1900, Ferdinand DeFilippo, an embezzler from an Italian bank in Boston, took refuge on Long Island with his wife, two daughters, and a nephew. He lived first on the eastern shore, but later built a house which could be seen clearly from South Blue Hill at the island's southwest end.
BYRON DARLING DESCRIBES A MOOSE HUNT
ONE MORNING, "soon after Mr. (Daniel) Osgood ... had completed his mill ... he saw a large moose standing in the bushes less than ten rods from it. He at once returned to his house, took his trusty "King's arm" .. . and by a circuitous route, so as to delude the noble animal, he cautiously approached within the desired distance and fired at him .
"Mr. Osgood's customers had to wait for their grist that day, yet it was a day of rejoicing, for all felt well assured that they would get a piece of the meat, as selfishness was no part of Mr. Osgood's nature. . .
"Not long after . . . Phin (Daniel Osgood's brother) was at Dan's house one morning in the autumn and while standing in the dooryard, with a light wind from the direction of the mountain, back or north of which . . . roamed the moose, the deer, the bear and the wolf, he began snuffing the air and said to Dan: "It seems to me I smell moose," whereupon Dan too began to snuff the air and said: "Yes, Phin, I too smell moose" . .. they were soon off; and as it was morning they had most of the day before them.
"They passed up the east side of the mountain and proceeded northward for a mile or more, when they discovered . . . signs ... that there were moose not far from them . .
"Now, I am not a moose hunter . . . yet from . .. what I have heard hunters say, these animals . . . have a chance for retreat well considered and maturely planned . .. (Their) crossing places (are) well understood and . . . a good hunter will soon find (them) out from experience . .
"So it was arranged that Phin should cautiously remain on the trail, while Dan by a circuitous route should advance and lay in ambush at a crossing place, where both moose and deer often went when they changed their locality. . . . If Dan should hear Phin's trumpet he would know the moose was routed and was coming. He was secreted on the ground, close to the butt of a large tree, which has ever been considered the best place for safety in case of an attack by a moose.
"It was then past noon and Dan began to fear in case the moose had been started that he had gone some other way, but in a short time he heard the blast of Phin's trumpet. . . . Presently (he) saw ... a large bull moose leaping for dear life. With his wide spreading antlers he was, indecd, a dangerous looking animal to behold. But he happened to come quite near to Dan, and when abreast he fired at him. . . . He fell to the ground dead . . . and Dan . . . blew his trumpet with an extra blast. But Phin had heard the well known report of Dan's gun and hastened towards him. . . . Before the sun had set the meat was in quarters and by some withes hung up on the limbs of the trees.
"They were then two miles or more from their homes in the wilderness, into or out of which there were no roads or even a foot-path, and the dark- ness of the night coming on. But as they were persevering and courageous men they took the best observation they could and shaped their course home- ward as best they might, not forgetting as they passed along to spot some trees as a guide to the meat the next day. Before bed-time they were safely with their families, where they found several neighbors waiting for their return. . . . In the hearts of all there were joy and gladness for their safc return and for the good luck attending them. The joyful tidings were soon all over the neighborhood, and arrangements were quickly made to bring the meat out of the woods, there being no lack for volunteers.
"Two men could carry a quarter strapped to a pole, by some withes, and in the same manner ten men could bring in the whole, including the hide and the head. As they took an early start, before night it was all safely at their homes, and invitations were sent out for all to meet at Dan's house the next day for a feast on moose meat, where a general distribution would be and was made."
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