USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 31
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 31
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 31
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Daniel Cameron, one of the early settlers on the island, commenced shore fishing soon after the close of the Revolu- tionary War. His stand was where his descendants now live,
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
on Ebenecook Harbor. His son John commenced bank fishing about 1830. In those days he had the S. H. Cameron, Water- fall and Burnham. He was succeeded by his son Daniel and Freeman Orne, as Cameron & Orne; later still by Daniel Cameron. Cameron & Orne had six large bankers or more, among which were the Majeppa, Jenny Lind, Island Queen, Telegraph, Martha A. Brewer and Stephen C. Phillips.
Capt. Jonathan Pierce commenced business at Marr's Har- bor before 1800. He was succeeded early in the forties by T. & N. Marr, and they by Edward L. Marr. With his death, in 1872, the business closed. They had several bankers, Mar- tha A. Brewer, Queen of the Fleet, Prima Donna, Mercy A. Howe and, for a time, the Silver Moon.
George W. Pierce, on the west side of Pierce's Cove, suc- ceeded by George W. Pierce, Jr., had two bankers, the Grey- hound and Rena.
James Orne, succceded by his sons, Silas and Osias, had three or four bankers at Pierce's Cove, among them the Emily F. Swift and Jenny Lind.
Freeman Grover, at Pig Cove, had one banker, the Ceylon; no successor.
Samuel Pierce, succeeded by his son, Moses E. Pierce, at Marr's Harbor, had three bankers, one being the William F. Tarbox.
William Gray, at Cape Newagen, as early as 1845, after- ward in partnership with Miles Pierce, had one large schooner, Morning Light. They were among the earliest mackerel catchers.
Robert Cameron, on Ebenecook, had two bankers, the Eldorado and another.
William Pierce, at Pierce's Cove, succeeded by Porter Pierce, had two large bankers, the Atlantic and Sagasso.
Major John McKown, near the Southport boat landing, succeeded by his son Cyrus; later with Frederick Reed, as Mckown & Reed ; still later as Freeman Orne & Sons, who conducted business until 1888. Major Mckown's vessels in- cluded the Jasper, American Eagle, Siberia and Saratoga ;
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while among those of the last firm were the White Foam, Jose- phine Swanton and Fannie S. Orne. The firms at this stand did little, if any, shore fishing, but confined themselves to bank fishing altogether.
Ebenezer and William Decker, at Decker's Cove, did an extensive business during the Civil War period and for a time following it. They had five bankers, the Silver Moon, Willie G., Tiger, Grapeshot and the Archer, which was captured by rebel privateers.
Willard Lewis, where Camp Skowhegan stands, had a yard and some shore boats.
Robert Decker, near the Sawyer ice pond, had one shore boat.
Joseph and John Maddocks, at Maddocks' Point on Ebene- cook, did the largest fishing business in either town during the years engaged. They were succeeded by William T. Maddocks, son of Joseph. Their fleet consisted of thirteen bankers, which included the P. G. Maddocks, Alice Parker, Astoria, Laut, Australia, E. S. Pendleton, Collector, Advance, Speedwell, Storm King, Home and Sunbeam. The Home was their largest, 165 tons ; the Speedwell, smallest, 40 tons.
In 1860 there were fifty-nine bankers and mackerel vessels owned in Southport, giving employment to every able-bodied man and boy on the island besides employing many others. It was said during the height of their prosperity that no town in Maine made its own business and earned so many dollars per capita as Southport.
Up to 1850 codfishing was almost the sole industry in both towns. It was the custom to start about the last week of April or the first one in May, making a trip to the Cape Shore, and the latter part of June another one to the Bay of St. Lawrence. Four hundred quintals was considered a good trip. There were no trawls used by our people before 1850, but they had been in use by the French fishermen then for many years. Our method was to fish over the rail of the vessel, a line in each hand, two hooks to each line. The use of dories superseded this method about 1862. The average price of cod from 1830 to 1860 was from $2.25 to $2.50 per quintal. By 1860 trawls were in nearly universal use. Clams were invariably used for
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
bait in early spring, but after about May 10th small herring were used if they could be obtained.
A great many changes have occurred in the kind of vessel which has been employed in the fisheries. Probably the most primitive was used about shore only and consisted of the dug- out and the bateau. A half-decked fishing vessel, called a wherry, followed. Later, boats with two masts, called from their peculiar model "stubnoses," were used for a time. The pinkey, a famous craft in its time, next came into use. These boats were from ten to twenty tons with standing room for berths. They had a narrow waist, about eight inches high, but no rail or bulwark for protection. They carried foresail and mainsail only and were estcemed good sailers. A cuddy for- ward contained two berths. Just abaft the foremast a brick fireplace was built. The chimney was built of boards or plank and either lined with sheet iron or plastered to prevent catch- ing fire. Capt. Joseph Mckown distinctly remembers the old Boothbay fleet of 1834. They were all pinkeys at that date. The Ocean, sixty tons, owned by Capt. John Hodgdon, and the Albatross, seventy-two tons, owned by John M. McFar- land, were the largest of the fleet. They averaged at that time about thirty-five to forty tons. The pinkey had the run from about 1810 to 1840. With some changes of model jiggers and half-clippers appeared for a few years, when the square- sterners came into almost universal use. They ran from forty to eighty tons. These last were succeeded by the present schooner. After 1851 the fishing vessels increased rapidly in size. About that time a model appeared called the sharpshooter. The first one in these waters was the Astoria, built at Essex for Capt. Benjamin Maddocks and brothers. It proved a good sailer and a seaworthy vessel, but at first many dire prophecies were made regarding her.
Provisioning for a trip was, like everything else in those days, vastly different from the modern way. Fish and pota- toes were expected to be the basis of the food supply ; there- fore only the latter had to be provided before starting. "It was fish and potatoes three times a day and a lunch of it before turning in," as one old captain expressed himself. Plenty of salt pork was taken. Tea and coffee with molasses, for it was
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before the days of sugar and condensed milk, constituted the table beverages. A liberal supply of rum was always taken, a few sacks of Newbegin's biscuits, some beans and peas and a quantity of corn meal. A firkin of flour would suffice for a trip, for it was only used to thicken gravies, no bread being baked aboard. The water that was taken in casks grew ropy and when drawn from them was often unfit to drink, but a large tub was used into which one cask was emptied at a time, and after two or three days' exposure to the atmosphere it became more palatable. No butter was used until 1855 or later. Another essential in fitting was the homemade matches dipped in brimstone, together with flints, a steel and box of tinder; the tinder first being ignited by use of the flint and steel and then the matches lighted from it.
The old-time method of measuring a vessel for tonnage was to multiply the length in feet by three-fourths its greatest width and that by the depth, dividing the product by ninety- five. By this method a vessel measuring fifty tons would not at the present exceed thirty-five tons.
The catching of mackerel had become a profitable business along the Massachusetts coast by 1850. Soon after that date it was engaged in as a partial business by nearly all in our vicinity who conducted fishing establishments. The early spring trip to the Cape Shore for cod was made as formerly, but instead of all making a second trip, going to the Bay of St. Lawrence, a part of the returned vessels fitted for mackereling the remainder of the season, for at that time of the year mack- erel were fat and profitable. The average price of mackerel from 1850 to 1860 was $2.25 to $2.50 per barrel.
These fish at first were caught with hook and line, or "jig- ging," as the term went in coast parlance. Capt. Joseph Mckown, who was born in 1820, now (1905) residing at the Harbor, commenced fishing at the age of fourteen and followed the business until his eightieth year. He is authority for the statement that he has seen the waters filled with mackerel from Burnt Island to Fisherman's Island and remembers parties hooking seventy-five tubs of them in a day about White Islands. Seining was not commenced until about 1865, and it is thought that 1866 was the first year that Boothbay or Southport fisher-
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
men adopted that method. Capt. Freeman Grover relates that in that year he purchased a one-fourth interest in a seine, which cost $2,400, and that it did not contain more than one-fourth as much twine as a modern one. The adoption of seines at once increased the expense and outlay in conducting the fishing business. It came at an inopportune time, just at the close of the Civil War, when everything was on an inflated basis, par- ticularly the cost of material for seines. The bounty which had been allowed fishing vessels was taken away that year by the repeal of the act, which produced another hardship to the industry. The mackerel catch decreased rapidly soon after the introduction of seines and many fishermen have ascribed the reason, in their opinions, to be on account of the destruc- tion of small fish and spawn. It is a fact, however, that the diminished quantity of fish in the waters, be it due to whatever cause, the repeal of the bounty act and the enlarged expense of conducting the business soon had the effect to reduce and drive out the industry in small places and among firmns of lim- ited capital.
Since the close of the Civil War the fishing business has been, perhaps, not less the support of the people of our region than formerly, but conditions have changed and it has become a more diversified industry than in the years preceding that date. Then it was the catches of cod and mackerel only ; since then those branches of the business have been annually prose- cuted, but added to them have been the other branches : the seining of the porgy or menhaden at sea and the production of oil in the factory ashore, the digging of clams and canning them, the trapping and canning of lobsters, the sardine indus- try, the manufacturing of fertilizer which largely depended on the factory chum, the selling of bait and ice, the shipping of live lobsters and fresh fish iced, the treatment and handling of both bait and food fish by the cold storage process, besides many other kindred undertakings.
While one effect of the war was to take away the tonnage bounty to fishing vessels, which had really been the backbone of the business, thus dealing that industry a crushing blow - one from which it never recovered-another had been to advance the value of fish oils from 1863-65 to the hitherto
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THE FISHERIES.
unknown price of $1.25 per gallon, and a substitute for Peru- vian guano for fertilizing purposes was much sought for. As early as 1855 there were five establishments for the manufac- ture of porgy oil, all located on Blue Hill Bay. From that time until 1863 straggling concerns sprang up along the coast in this business, but, for the most part, they caught their fish in gill nets, cooked them in kettles and pressed them in a crude hand press. The price of oil advancing as it did, the plenti- fulness of menhaden or porgies appearing at the same time, while other fishing interests were depressed, had the effect to at once enlist capital to enter upon the business on an elaborate scale.
The first steam menhaden oil factory in Maine was erected at South Bristol, in 1864, by W. A. Wells & Co. This firm, also, was first to make the attempt to catch the fish in purse seines. The first purse seine was one hundred fathoms long and ten fathoms deep. It was used by Capt. E. T. Dubois, of Portsmouth, R. I. The boats they used were one-sail, cat- rigged and open, too large to be controlled with oars. In fishing these boats were brought together to the windward of a school of fish, with sails down and boom traced up, they were then opened, the seine divided, and they went to leeward to encircle the school of fish. Such methods now look impractical, but in 1864-65 the Wells establishment with one seine and two boats, which were forty-five feet long, thirteen wide and six deep, obtained in John's Bay all the fish they needed and made a large sum of money.
In February, 1865, Luther Maddocks, then twenty years of age, started a factory at Dogfish Head, which he operated for three years and in 1869 leased it to Judson Tarr & Co., Pemaquid, who had lost their factory by fire.
In 1866 Peck & Glover, Greenport, L. I., erected a factory on Linekin Neck at a cost of about $40,000 and expended $50,000 more in fishing gear. This factory was later sold to Joshua G. Nickerson, who, with his associates, added many improvements and operated it until the supply of fish gave out. The factory has been torn down and the machinery removed, while the property was sold to the late Prof. Nathaniel G. Allen for a summer home.
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
Next below, on Linekin Neck, was a large and valuable plant built by Fred Gallup, John Morgan and Solomon Gar- diner. About $50,000 was invested to commence with and many improvements afterward added. They continued in business sixteen years.
Southerly from the above establishment, built the same year (1866) was a plant of about the same cost as that of the Gallup-Morgan Company, built by Gallup & Holmes, Mystic, Conn. When the menhaden supply failed both these concerns made desperate efforts to handle dogfish, which they did for two years, when they were unable to obtain enough of these, and the factories were both sold at about ten per cent. of their original cost.
Southerly from these, at the elbow on the bay, Kenniston, Cobb & Co. commenced the same year and successfully oper- ated their factory for a time. When the change from sail- gangs to steamers came they sold their plant rather than make the great outlay required in the purchase of steamers.
Where the Ocean Point House stands the White Wine Brook Company erected a plant and conducted it for several years with fair success. When the business failed the buildings were removed.
A plant was erected by Phillips & Co., of Greenport, L. I., on Southport, near the old bridge. It had no steam power and only remained in business a few years.
In 1870 Luther Maddocks built a factory on Spruce Point, which, with machinery, cost about $80,000; about $100,000 more was put into fishing steamers and gear. At one time he had a fleet of six, namely : Grace Darling, Phoebe, S. L. Goodale, Mollie L. Fish, Mabel Bird and Helen M. Pierce. This establishment alone gave lucrative employment, on land and water, to about 200 men. The Cumberland Bone Com- pany erected its factory in 1874 near Mr. Maddocks' factory, the leading inducement for so doing being the convenient loca- tion for using the oil factory chum, which largely entered into their fertilizer as a constituent. This business continued until 1878, when it went the way of the rest of its kind.
To summarize the magnitude of this business while it lasted, that the record may be retained, it may be said that at one
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time sixteen steamers were engaged to supply the four leading factories on Boothbay soil. These factories were the Atlantic Oil Co., Luther Maddocks, manager ; Gallup & Holmes Co., B. F. Gallup, manager ; Gallup & Morgan Co., Fred Gallup, manager ; Suffolk Oil Co., J. C. Nickerson, manager. These four concerns had an investment of about $500,000 and did an annual business aggregating about $1,000,000, employing about 1,000 men. No town in Maine of equal population and valuation enjoyed a greater degree of prosperity than Boothbay during the period from 1866 to 1878. Boothbay Harbor, East Boothbay and Linekin Neck had many good and permanent homes built from the factory disbursements, and general im- provement was noted in all the other parts of the town and in Southport. When the business fell, as it did with an appalling suddenness, these homes that had been built remained and their owners shifted to other undertakings, while those who suffered most were the operators. They had played for great stakes and lost through circumstances over which they had no control.
For ten years following 1878 no menhaden appeared along the Maine coast, then for three years they were fairly plentiful and several of the old factories were refitted and put in opera- tion ; but no sooner fairly at work than the fish again disap- peared to make now and then a visit to our shores. Why this action no one can explain, and until the habits of migratory fish are solved this particular case will remain one of the most notable mysteries in the list. The end of all the costly outlay for the conduct of this business, on both land and water, netted the operators not far from ten per cent. of the original cost.
During these years the old codfishing establishments had either largely reduced the volume of their business or gone entirely out of it. After the decline commenced but one firm, which has extensively carried it on, has been organized and begun business. This one commenced at the old Rockweed Factory on Atlantic Street, in 1877, giving that locality the distinction of having the largest transactions of business on its shores, of the kind, over a term of nearly three-quarters of a century. This firm, known as S. Nickerson & Sons, was at first composed of Alonzo R. and Stephen E. Nickerson, to which another brother, Arthur E. Nickerson, was admitted in
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1880. They, from the first, conducted cod and mackerel fish- ing and dealt largely in salt, running in connection a general store from March until December of each year. The alewife privileges at Damariscotta Mills, Woolwich and Warren were soon after leased and carried on during the season in connec- tion with the rest. Their fleet has been made up of the follow- ing vessels : Mollie Porter, Magnolia, Cora Louise, James Poole, Louis and Rosie, Dorado, General Grant, Cynosure, Bertha D. Nickerson, Carleton Bell, Edith McIntyre, Harry A. Nickerson, Flora L. Nickerson, Natalie B. Nickerson, Clyter, Robert Rhodes, Mary J. Elliott, Australia, John Nye and Perine. The volume of business annually, for many years, ran between $200,000 and $250,000. In January, 1903, this firm disposed of seven-eighths interest in their business to the Baldwin Fish Company, which was then organized and still conducts the business at the McClintock stand. During the twenty-six years they were engaged in the fisheries not a vessel was lost and but one man while prosecuting the busi- ness ; the first four vessels above-named were lost, with casu- alties, during winter coasting.
James C. Poole, who had been engaged at sailmaking from 1869, when he moved from Bristol to Boothbay, sold that business in 1881 and at once engaged in the cod and mackerel fishery from his establishment on Commercial Street. He built two vessels at a cost of $12,000 each and purchased others. In 1884 he packed 7,000 barrels of mackerel besides sending part of his fleet to the banks for cod. He conducted his fishing business after the disastrous fire of 1886, which burned his store, until 1898, when he sold his vessels.
In 1893 Mr. Poole, as chief promoter, organized the Booth- bay Harbor Cold Storage Company for freezing and storing food and bait fish. The building of this company was placed on the lot where the store had been burned. It was erected and equipped at a cost of $15,000 and has proved a profitable investment. Mr. Poole has retained the management of this company since its start.
The sardine business in Maine commenced in 1880 at East- port and with varying success has been carried on at different points along the Maine coast since. The towns principally
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engaged in this industry are Eastport, Lubec, Cutler, Machias- port, Pembroke, Jonesport, Brooklin and Boothbay Harbor.
It commenced in 1895 in the latter town, Luther Maddocks, together with F. C. Littlefield & Co., beginning at the factory of that firm, while C. E. Capen, of Eastport, built a factory on the Campbell lot known as the Boothbay Canning Company. At the beginning the former concern put up 14,000 cases, while the Capen factory put out from 10,000 to 15,000 cases, per annum. The Capen company did business three seasons, when their factory was burned.
In 1897 the factory of F. C. Littlefield & Co. was leased to the L. Pickert Fish Co., who have conducted business there since, with an annual capacity for about 25,000 cases.
In 1898 Luther Maddocks organized the Maddocks Pack- ing Company and reopened his old factory, though in the other one he had for the previous fifteen years been engaged in can- ning mackerel and lobsters. This factory has an annual capacity for 40,000 to 50,000 cases and is at present in operation.
In 1898 Pal G. Pierce and Newbert Pierce built a small factory near the store of James F. Dunton. Later this plant became the Boothbay Packing Company, W. F. Bishop, super- intendent, and has been enlarged to a capacity of about 10,000 cases annually.
In 1898 James C. and Eben A. Poole built a factory on the wharf of the former, in the rear of the cold storage build- ing. It has been run by them or by lessees most of the time since. It has about a 10,000 case capacity annually.
About the same time Keene M. Barter built a small factory with a capacity for about 5,000 cases near Mill Cove, which has been run a part of the time.
M. J. Powers & Co. built a factory in 1900, at West Har- bor, with a capacity of about 25,000 cases annually. It was burned near the end of the second season.
An outgrowth of the sardine industry has been the bait business, which commenced in 1885 and since its start has grown rapidly. Capt. Moses R. Rowe was the first man to rig a herring seine and catch herring for bait and other purposes. In the eighties herring could be caught almost entirely around the island of Damariscove, but since about 1895 they have been principally obtained up the rivers and in Casco Bay.
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
Since the difficulty in procuring bait in Nova Scotia and New- foundland that business has settled largely here, and is becom- ing a greater income to our people each successive year. It has been estimated that about $100,000 is annually received for bait and ice in this vicinity ; three ice establishments hav- ing sprung up meantime, so that Boothbay Harbor offers the most complete facilities for this purpose of any place on the coast. Its perfect harborage, opportunity for the purchase of other vessel supplies, the chance to take ice in connection with bait supply, and the ability to obtain the latter any day in the year, either from the traps or cold storage, affords all the facilities required.
The extent of the lobster industry about our waters in recent years has been of much importance. Many have dropped all other branches of fishing and devoted themselves entirely to this one. The increasing demand, however, has produced a consequent falling off in supply and an enhancement in price. Since the tide of summer travel has set in so strongly to the Maine coast a great consumption of this desirable crustacean at that season has followed ; in fact, the lobster has been one of the drawing cards. Then, again, live shipments to hotels and restaurants throughout the country, in all our leading cities, has been carried on to a large extent for several years. Two concerns in our own locality, Fred B. Higgins, Boothbay Harbor, and Austin P. Greenleaf, Southport, have been engaged extensively in live shipping.
When such conditions exist in relation to any commodity, if a manufactured one, the capacity is increased ; if a natural one, men of scientific attainments set themselves at work to discover some artificial method to assist Nature. It was so in this case. Successful experimentation was followed by the United States Government building hatcheries at Wood's Hole, Mass., and Wickford, R. I. These were no sooner found to be practical, as had been anticipated, than United States Commis- sioner Bowers, ably assisted by our own citizen, Hon. Alonzo R. Nickerson, who was the Maine Commissioner of Sea and Shore Fisheries, and Hon. Charles E. Littlefield, member of Congress from Maine, set about to obtain a hatchery for Maine. By their united efforts an appropriation was secured in 1902 and an additional one the next year. The entire coast line of
LUTHER MADDOCKS.
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Maine was examined and tested by experts for the location of the hatchery and Boothbay Harbor decided upon for several reasons, the most prominent being the accessibility and excel- lence of the harbor and the purity and clearness of its waters.
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