USA > Maine > Hancock County > Blue Hill > Historical sketches of Bluehill, Maine > Part 3
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4. John, born June 5, 1825; died Sept. 20, 1826.
- 5. Hannah Roundy, born Sept. 8, 1827; died unmarried at Newburyport, Mass.
6. Mary Isabella, born Nov. 18, 1831; married a Mr. Bardsley, of Rhode Island.
7. Julia Eveline, born April 6, 1833; married Mr. Wakefield, of Massachusetts.
8. Elizabeth Walker, born Nov. 1835; married Marshall Harding. Azor Candage, head of this family, died Nov. 12, 1854, and Chloe, his widow, May 20, 1870, in her 75th year.
After their death the old house was oc- cupied by Phineas Dodge his wife and family during his life, and by his widow until a short time before her death. The barn was sold and moved away and the old house finally succumbed to the rav- ages of time and was torn down. At this writing there are no buildings standing,
and the land that once composed the farm has passed into other hands.
The children of Phineas and Harriet Newell (Candage) Dodge were:
1. Justin Evander, born Nov. 24, 1840.
2. Rosina Harriet, born Oct. 26, 1842.
3. Adelbert Delasco, born April 6, 1845.
4. Clara Havilah Whitney, born Sept. 26, 1847.
5. Mina Herbert, born April 3, 1850.
6. Frank W., born Oct. 31, 1852.
7. Annah Elizabeth, born Sept. 7, 1855.
8. George A., born Sept. 24, 1859.
Phineas Dodge, head of this family, died at about 80 years of age. He was the son of Elisha and Lydia (Day) Dodge, born Sept. 6, 1813. In his youth he was a sailor, afterwards became a ship carpenter and ended his days as a farmer.
The next house was built about 1790 by Jonathan Ellis, who came to the town from Bellingham, Mass., and her kept a store in one room from which "the barrel of rum and sugar and molasses enough to sweeten it for raising the new meeting house" was sent in May, 1792. In that old house, still standing and occupied, the writer was born nearly seventy-nine years ago, and around it centre many a fragrant memory of the impressible days of child hood and of youth.
From the window of the room in which the writer first gave his cry of life, one looked out upon the field once owned by Nicholas Holt, beyond which was the mill pond, the tide mills and the island on which his great grandfather, John Roundy, and Joseph Wood landed April 7, 1762, built their two log houses and began the settlement of the town.
From that window one could see the the waters of the bay, Long Island, New- bury Neck, the hills of Mt. Desert and of Schoodic, and the white sails of vessels passing and repassing on the bosom of the bay-a sight once seen ever after to be remembered. Around this place and about it cluster the earlier historical events connected with the town. The first town meeting, the gathering of the first church, the building of the first houses, the first mills, the opening of the first store and the first tavern or public house, the first marriage, and probably the first birth of a white child, and the first death and funeral in the settlement.
In this same house lived Nathan Ellis, a
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
brother of Jonathan, and in it was born his son Vaspasian, Jan. 11, 1802, whose mother was Mary Bass, who died April 10, 1804. Jonathan Ellis was born in Bellingham June, 1774, married Susannah Parker, Sept. 11, 1795, daughter of Peter Parker, sr .; she was born June 27, 1772; died August 17, 1803; her husband died Dec. 23, 1806. Children were:
1. Jonathan, born Dec. 18, 1795; died August 21, 1815.
2. Charles, born Nov. 13, 1797; died in Cambridge, Mass., March 9, 1873.
3. Almira, born April 5, 1801; died in Searsport, Me., April 11, 1884.
Amos Hill, born July 11, 1803; died in Searsport, Me.
The family of Nathan Ellis, their his- tory, etc., belong to the village section of the town, to which they removed probably before 1812. The lot of land owned originally by the Ellis family, and which belonged with the house was very small. Whether any one occupied the house be- tween the Ellis family and the father of the writer, there is no record to show.
James Roundy Candage was the occu- pant from 1816 to his death in 1852. He was the son of James, jr., and Hannah (Roundy) Candage, born Jan. 15, 1781; married Feb. 29, 1816, Phebe Ware Par- ker, widow of Capt. William Walker, of Brooksville, lost at sea, whose mother was Emma (Roundy) Walker, daughter of John Roundy, sr.
Mr. Candage and wife took up their abode in the Ellis house upon their mar- riage; in it their children were born, and in it she died on Oct. 3, 1850, at the age of 62, and he Dec. 23, 1852, (aged nearly 72 years. She had three children by Capt. Walker, viz:
1. Phebe W., born June 13, 1808; died Dec. 13, 1815.
2. William, born Dec. 16, 1809; died Jan. 24, 1849, at Matanzas, Cuba.
3. Mary Jane, born August 17, 1811; died August 30, 1826.
and twelve by Mr. Candage as follows:
1. Simeon Parker, born Nov. 21, 1816; lost at sea Dec. 31, 1842.
2. John Walker, born March 15, 1818; died Sept. 20, 1822.
3. James Roundy, born April 8, 1819; died Dec. 14, 1856, at Fortune Isld.
4. Samuel Barker Brooks, born Jan. 25, 1821; died Sept, 1, 1826.
5. Robert Parker, born Oct. 26, 1822; died Jan. 31, 1878, at Blue Hill.
6. Dorothy Perkins, born Feb. 6, 1825; died August 28, 1826.
7. Rufus George Frederick, born July 28, 1826, of Brookline, Mass.
8. Samuel Franklin, born Jan. 2, 1828; died at Honolulu, May 7, 1863.
9. John Brooks, born June 24, 1829; died in Australia, July 23, 1870.
10. Hannah Roundy (twin), born Aug- ust 12, 1831; died Sept. 4, 1831.
11. Mary Perkins (twin), born August 12, 1831; died Sept. 4, 1831.
12. Charles Edward, born April 30, 1833; died at Honolulu, April 14, 1862.
All the sons of this family that grew to manhood were sailors, and as seen above, all but one are dead, having passed away in foreign lands or at sea, where they found graves. Perhaps no other family of the town shows such a remarkable record in that way.
Their father, until he was married, was a sailor on coasting, West Indian and European voyages, but upon becoming engaged to be married, his prospective wife exacted from him the promise that when married he would give up his sea rovings.
She is said to have explained that one husband had been lost at sea, leaving her with three young children to care for, and she did not feel like taking chances that might again leave her a widow. He entered into that agreement with her and kept it, but all the boys were born with an inherited tendency for a sea life, and against the wish and advice of both par- ents, adopted it.
Their father bought the house already mentioned, the Holt field, part of the Wood farm, in all something over a hun- dred acres, a meadow and wood lot of another hundred acres, and half of the two tide mills, and between farming and milling, managed to provide for his large family comfortably
and to dispense generous hospitality.
The grist mill brought many people to it with grist to be ground, all of whom, if there at meal or night time, were in- vited to make the house their home free of cost, which many availed themselves of.
The farm began at the tide mills, with lines abutting on the west of land of Azor Candage, on the east by the Sinclair place,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
and running over Oak hill to the back lot of Marble Parker.
On the farm were kept a half dozen cows, a yoke of oxen, young stock, a horse, thirty or more sheep, pigs, hens and geese; hay was cut for the stock, crops raised for the support of the family, making it a busy place from April to November, and in winter wood was cut and hauled for a year's supply, so that all were kept busy. The boys, when out of and between school, as soon as they were old enough to work, had a share of the work to be done in the mill, on the farm at the barn and in chores about the house, for neither parent believed in allowing their children to be brought up in idle- ness. They were not overworked, but taught habits of industry, so needful to the boy and useful to the man.
In the upper part of the field stood a house built by one of the sons of Joseph Wood and occupied for some time prior to 1830 by Robert Robertson and family be · fors he built and removed to the house on the bay shore towards Parker Point, where the family later lived, and where he and his wife died.
The house from the field was moved down about 1830, and became the L and addition to the Samuel R. Candage house. The bricks tor building the chimney were brought from McHards' by vessel, and landed on the little beach near the tide mills, and then hauled to the house in an ox-cart.
The writer and a cousin on a visit to the house, desired to go down with the ox- team and see the bricks loaded and brought up. His father did not care to be bothered with children too young to look out for themselves, so he said, "now, children I want you to stay right here and watch the cat and prevent her from eating these bricks."
Away he went for another load, and the children went on with their play, forget- ting all about the cat. But, as luck would have it, the cat came round the corner of the house strode up on to the pile of bricks, when the children espied her and drove her away. Great was their dismay to find a brick with a corner gone just where the cat stood when she was driven away. Then came the team back, when the writer exclaimed, "Father! The old cat got here while we were at play, and ate
the corner of this brick, but we drove her away as soon as we could."
A curious smile lighted up his face as he said, "Well, children, I am glad you did not let the cat eat any more of them, so keep a good watch, for cats are sly crea- tures." The children really were of the opinion that cats ate bricks; they had proof of it in the brick with the corner gone, and didn't the writer's father say that they ate bricks? No, he didn't say anything of the kind, but that was the impression his words left upon the child mind. The whole truth is better for children than a half truth.
The old house seems filled with memories of incidents, jokes, plays, and of people who visited it in the childhood of the writer. Of all that living throng he so well remember:, every voice but his is silent, and were it not for this reminiscent account, would be forgotten. After the death of Samuel R. Candage the old house and place, in part, were sold to Otis Car- ter. He aied leaving it to his widow, and upon her death it went to an adopted daughter, who still owns it, and in which Ebenezer M. McFarland has a life interest by Mrs. Carter's will.
We will now pass on and turn the cor- ner of the road leading to the former site of the tide mills. On that corner stand several oaks planted by the writer, his father, and his son Samuel, more than sixty years ago. Ascending the little elevation in the road to the house of A. R. Conary we recognize the site of the house and inn of Nicholas Holt. He came from Andover Mass., in 1765, with his family. He was born March 10, 1716; mar- ried first Hannah Osgood, May 6, 1739; she was born May, 1714; died Sept. 1, 1744; married second Lois Phelps, April 29, 1751; she died Jan. 4, 1815; he died March 16, 1798. Their children were:
1. Jedediah, born April, 1740; died Sept. 1740.
2. Hannah, born Nov. 16, 1741; married Jonathan Darling.
3. Phebe, born Feb. 9, 1752; married Israel Wood; she was child of second wife.
4. Jedediah, born March 12, 1754; mar- ried Sarah Thorndike.
5. Nicholas, born Sept. 23, 1756; mar- ried first Phebe Bachelor, second Molly Wormwood.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
At the house of Nicholas Holt town- meetings were held in early days. He was a justice of the peace, and when the town was incorporated in 1789, it was he that was designated to call the first town meeting under the act of incorporation. He was elected to town office and was an influential person in the town.
The father of the writer called the field "the Granny Holt Field", an 1 a little way back of the cellar to the old house were several apple trees, one a greening, prob- ably the first of its kind in the town.
Upon this site later stood a shoemaker's shop used as a dwelling by a Mr. Sawyer, who came fron Biddeford to work for John Cheever, who carried on shoemaking previous to 1840, and after him occupied by Mrs. Joanna Parker and family, but long since gone.
Farther down the road towards the tide mills stands the house built by John Cheever about 1835. Mr. Cheever came from Beverly to Blue Hill village and set- tled, where he kept a store and began to build a fishing fleet, the first being the schooner "Marion", built at the village.
The father of the writer sold him the land for his house, store, wharf, fish flakes and garden, where he carried on business and continued to reside until his death in 1851, aged fifty-one years. His wife was Betsy Gardner, of Beverly, by whom he had seven children, as follows:
· 1. Betsey Jackson, born March 12, 1824; married R. G. W. Dodge; died April 7, 1857.
2. John Gardner, born June 28, 1826; supposed to have been lost at sea.
3. Sarah Susan, born Dec. 15, 1829; died at Andover, Mass., Nov. 30, 1896.
4. Horace W., born Nov. 14, 1833; mar- ried and resides at Haverhill, Mass.
5. Austin W., born June 7, 1836; died from exposure in war of the Rebellion.
6. George B., born March 26, 1838; died from exposure in the war of the Rebellion. 7. Ella Thorndike, born Jan. 29, 1845; resides in Andover, Mass.
After the death of Mr. Cheever, the fam- ily removed to Andover, Mass., where Mrs. Cheever died at the age of eighty- two. Mr. Cheever built at the tide mill landing brigs "Delhi" and "Equator" and bark "Sarah Jackson". He bought a Gloucester fishing schooner called the
"Mary Ann", and carried on quite an extensive fishing business, curing his catches and sending them to market, even sending his schooner "Marion" with a cargo of dry fish to the West Indies.
He kept a variety store, manufactured sho-s, got out wood for market and was an enterprising man, whose career was cut short by sudden death by heart failure. It was the brig "Equator" that the writer first commanded in 1850, built by him in that year, that gave him occasion to remember Mr. Cheever with kindly feel- ings, and also the members of his family.
After the Cheever family had left the place, it was sold to a Mr. Seavy, who also purchased the tide mills. He occupied the premises for some years and then disposed of them, including the mills, to Capt. William Conary. The mills were taken down or fell down during the ownership of Capt. Conary. After Capt. Conary's death the Cheever house and place were sold to Irving S. Candage, the present owner and occupant. The wharf has fallen into decay and the store and sheds caught fire and were destroyed several years ago.
Down upon the point near the tide-mill site stands a house built in 1833 by Ben- jamin Clay, upon land purchased of the writer's father. Mr. Clay was a joiner by trade, and died in that house of consump- tion April 14, 1833. He was the son of Jonathan and Mary (Roundy) Clay and a cousin to the father of the writer of this account of him. He was born Oct. 17, 1784; married, first, Relief Green, Feb. 20, 1806, by whom he had the following chil- dren:
1. Rebecca, born Jan. 3, 1807.
2. Chesley, born June 5, 1809.
3. Amanda, born April 20, 1811.
4. Clarinda Green, born Jan. 23, 1813.
The mother of these children died of consumption May 10, 1830, aged fifty-three years. and Mr. Clay married second Sally Clough, daughter of Asa, sr., and Abigail (Pecker) Clough, Feb. 24, 1831, by whom he had children, viz .:
5. Sarah Relief, born March 16, 1832; died August 15, 1832.
6. Benja Chesley (twin), born July 29, 1835.
7. Sarah Clarinda (twin), born July 29, 1835.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
After the occupancy of Mr. Clay and family, Capt. Samuel Eaton and family from Deer Isle live there a few years; then Phineas Dodge and family, and va- rious others from time to time for longer or shorter periods.
The tide mills, the first of which was built in 1765, when at its raising every person in town was present and all sat about one table at dinner, was the first mill of the town, and was named "En- deavor". The father and grandfather of the writer were owners in the mills, and he worked in them in boyhood, and has many recollections of them. His earliest is of the time when he was three years of age and accompanied his father to the mills dressed in petticoats, and with his hand clasping his lunch of bread and but- ter.
't'he father was engaged in making re- pairs to "the nigger wheel", and had taken up a plank of the mill flooring the better to get at the work. He had occa- sion to get some tools in the grist mill near at hand, so he sat his boy down away from the hole in the floor and told him to be sure and sit there till he came back. Hardly had he disappeared from sight before an un- controllable desire seized the writer to look down through that hole in the floor. So he crawled along until he reached the spot and looking down saw the water be- neath, then lost his balance and pitched headlong through the hole into the waters below. He rose to the surface lying upon his back floating lightly and holding his hand up to protect his bread and butter. The tide was ebbing, carrying him slowly seaward, but he was unconcerned and ex- amined the floor timbers of the mill and thought them strange appearing.
Just then his father returned and missed his boy, but on looking down through the hole made by removal of the plank in the floor the eyes of father and son met, but not a word was spoken. In order to reach the boy the father went out of the mill to the log wharf where lumber was piled, and climbed down the logs by hand and feet to the water's edge, but when he got there the child was beyond his reach. He climbed back, got a stick of some sort and climbed down again to the water's edge, reached out the stic', gently drew the child to him, dropped the stick, seized
the child by his clothing and safely put him upon the whar above his head and clambered up himself.
All the time not a word had been spoken, but when the child was safe and he stood beside him, his pent-up feelings found vent and he said : "You young rascal, you! Didn't I tell you to sit still and not move?" The writer replied: "I wanted to see what was down there." "Well," said he, "you have seen, haven't you? Now come along home to your mother and have your clothes changed." And the child trudged along home in his wet clothes holding by one hand his father's and in the other his bread and butter he had not let go of, and thus what might have proved a serious matter ended.
At another time the writer and his brother Samuel were at work in the old Saw mill at evening, and their father was at work in the grist mill. A log had been sawed into boards and taken from the carriage ready to put on another log. A neighbor's son was present. The mill was poorly lighted by two oil lamps, and when ready to roll on the log, Samuel refused to help, and it was too heavy for one to man- age. Finding that argument did not pre- vail, the writer went into the grist mill and entered his bill of complaint, which the father came into the saw mill to set right.
Samuel in the meantime had reconsid- ered his action, and was bending over the log straining every nerve to roll it into place. The father in the dim light saw the neighbor's son standing idle, and thinking it was his own son, said to him: "Take hold there and help roll on that log!" That having no effect, he walked up and "boxed" the boy's ears, thinking him to be his son Samuel, and repeated his order: "Take hold, sir, and help roll that log on!" The boy "took hold", and on went the log, while the writer and his brother nearly split their sides with sup- pressed laughter at their father's blunder
The boy who had his ears "boxed" began crying when Mr. Candage discovered his mistake and made an apology, saying: "I ask your pardon; it was all a mistake and I take it all back!" The boy's. ears were still smarting under the blow they had received, and he replied: "I don't see how you can take it back now!" Neither did the writer nor his brother. But this
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
ended the incident, though the memory of it still clings to the writer with a freshness as of an occurrence of yesterday.
The mill pond was a favorite place for the boys to swim in. Sometimes a seal would pass into it through the flood gates, and when the gates shut, he would be im- pounded, to become the target of the sports- men of the neighborhood, and finally their prey.
In the spring of the year, the flounders, that had wintered in the pond rose from their beds and sought larger liberty out- side by passing through the flood gates at near slack water, where many were speared and served up fried at table as a dainty bit of food.
All this is of the past - the mills are gone and all those that had to do with them in those days, the writer, probably, alone ex- cepted. Of late years the pond has been a preserve for lobsters, but even that use has been given up, and although the tide ebbs and flows as of yore, no use is being mide of this once valuable water power.
Near the mills was the shipyard of this part of the town, where many vessels were built in former time, and many others were rebuilt or repaired. But that industry, like the sawing of lumber and grinding of grain at the tide mills, has gone, evidently never more to return.
The vessels built in this yard were the B. hooner Conquest of 100 tons in 1820 by the Sinclairs; the brig Mentus of 176 tons in 1825 by the Sinclairs; the schooner Kleber of 119 tons by Samuel R. Candage, bark Virginia of 284 tons by the Sinclairs; ship Tahmaroo of 372 tons in 1844 by the Sinclairs; bark Sarah Jackson 198 tons, 1846, by John Cheever; brig Delhi of 175 tons, 1848, by John Cheever; brig Equator of 156 tons, 1850, by John Cheever, and others whose data are not at hand.
The bark Virginia, launched July 4, 1833, was the first vessel the writer remembers to have seen glide from her building blocks into the element for which she was intended to do duty in the world's carry- Ing trade. It being a holiday, people in large numbers from far and near gathered to see the launching, among whom were women and children who seated them- gelves upon the shores near the tide line and received a wetting from the wave that the launching caused. The writer re-
members hearing their screams of fright and alarm on the occasion as the wave rose and deluged their clothing but doing no other damage.
The Virginia was moored in the cove, there then being no wharf to place her be- side, to receive her spars, be rigged and completed for sea, and a floating bridge was constructed and placed between her and the shore for the workmen's conven- ience in passing to and from her.
Capt. William Sinclair was fond of shooting, and had built a gunning float, scow form with a board nailed across each e id in which he went for wild ducks with his boat dressed in seaweed so as to not frighten the birds. One day the writer and his brother Robert were in the boat, which was anchored with a stone tied to a rope, near the vessel, fishing for flounders, tomcods and harbor pollock.
When tired of fishing the writer, by order of his brother tried, to pull up the anchor while standing upon the cross board at the bow with the rope on one side. The stone was heavy for his youth- ful strength, and while straining and do- ing his best to pull it up, and it had about reached the surface, the stone slipped from the rope and the writer, relieved from its weight, tumbled backwards head down into the water.
Down he went what seemed to be fath- oms, but were only feet; he heard the waters gurgling about his ears, drank & swallow or two of the water, had come to the conclusion he was to be drowned, but even that gave him little concern. He had pretty nearly lost consciousness when he rose to the surface and his brother reached forth his hand and rescued the half- drowned lad.
On another occasion when learning to swim on the shore of the mill pond, he swam across the creek and turned to swim back, when the thought came to him that the water was beyond his depth, when with fright he sank like a stone. The same true brother was at hand to be his rescuer, so that twice in boyhood that brother saved the life of the writer. Strange to say that from the date of the last occurrence mentioned, the writer never had a recurrence of that fright, but could handle himself in water of any depth without fear and as though he were amphibious.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
The father of the writer had a boat built which was named Hoosier, and which was rigged with two masts, bowsprit, fore- sail, mainsail, jib, flying jib and two gaff topsails, although only fourteen feet in length. She was a fast sailer, the pride of the family, and envy of others who had no boat. The writer, and his brother Robert made a trip in her to the village in the month of March, and were returning when she ran upon a small rock and cap- sized instantly.
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