USA > Maine > Hancock County > Traditions and records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert island, Maine > Part 18
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The bell was purchased by the Ladies Benevolent Society many years later as given in another chapter. This is the oldest church on Mount Desert Island and it has been in constant use ever since its building.
The first step taken to recognize sectarianism among the Mount Desert people seems to have been a sort of parish organi- zation of which records are found among the papers belonging to the Congregational church, but undated. This organization adopted seven articles, of which one was "that the object of this Parish shall be to support Congregational preaching and to defray contingent expenses." Those who signed the articles were Dr. Kendall Kittredge, B. W. Kittredge, Isaac Gott, Ben- jamin Atherton, John Rich, Jonathan Newman, John M. Noyes,
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Benjamin Gilley, John M. Holmes, John D. Lurvey, Levi Lurvey, B. T. Atherton, Isaac Lurvey, John Carroll, David King, James A. Freeman, Samuel Bowker.
As Rev. Samuel Bowker served the church here and at Somesville from 1851 to 1855, this parish organization must have been between these dates as Mr. Bowker's name is among the signers.
In 1848 repairs to the amount of $100.13 were made to the church and Jonathan Newman was appointed collector of this sum from the pew owners. Some had evidently paid, but the following partial list of the holders was placed in the hands of Mr. Newman : Betsey Tucker, Heirs of Nathan Clark, Abraham Richardson, James Grinning (Grennan), Heirs of Nathaniel Gott, Davis Wasgatt, Stephen Manchester, Isaac Gott, Horace Durgain, Henry H. Clark, Leonard Holmes, Rebecca Moore, Enoch S. Newman, Isaac Lurvey, John Manchester, Jonathan Newman, James Whitmore, Jonathan Manchester, David Win- sey, Rufus King, James R. Freeman, Amos Eaton, Joseph Stan- ley, Eaton Clark, Samuel Gilpatrick, John Manchester, David King, Edward Burroughs, Joseph Lancaster, Hannah Spurling, Ezra H. Dodge, Samuel Hadlock and William Preble, Daniel Kimball, William Guillea (Gilley), Daniel Hamblen, Thomas W. Day, Francis Guillea (Gilley), Benjamin Guillea (Gilley), Nicholas Tucker, Thomas Newman, John Moore, Thomas Bun- ker. In 1862 the sum of four hundred dollars was expended on the church building and at this time Samuel Newman was the collector and the names of the pew owners are changed consider- ably with the passage of time.
There is no record of ownership of the church building- there were never any trustees and the building has never been insured. The deed of the land is from Nicholas Tucker to "the church lot." It was extensively repaired in the 1880's and Asher Allen at that time in business in town, gave generously toward the renovation. The removing of the doors of the pews, the substitution of a modern pulpit set and the modernization of the interior is to be regretted, now that the charm of the old Colonial design is recognized and appreciated. The inside was painted and new carpets laid in the summer of 1937 by the Ladies' Aids of the Methodist and Baptist societies.
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The first schoolhouse in this vicinity was built on or near the present church property.
The large house south of the church was built for Hervey Butler about 1855. Enoch Newman was the builder. Mr. But- ler came from Mount Vernon, and was a photographer and sing- ing master. He had a studio in the house and many families of the present day have daguerreotypes and tintype pictures taken by Mr. Butler, who was a very good artist at this work. He also taught singing schools in this and surrounding towns. He moved back to Mount Vernon selling the house to Elisha Billings and he to Martha Billings Dolliver. It is now owned by Vurney King.
The Charles Torrey house was built in 1873 and the George Hamilton house by Orrin Fernald. Thomas Fernald's house was built in 1884. South of this house was the old road to Bass Harbor on which the first church was begun and the first schoolhouse was built.
The house now owned and occupied by Clarence Noyes was built about 1895 for Llewellyn Cleveland.
On the eastern side of the road after passing the church is the bungalow built for Clarence Joy and now owned by William Knowles and occupied by tenants, and next is a bungalow which is the home of Henry Dolliver and family, and one built in 1927 by Benjamin Dolliver which he occupies. Mr. Dolliver's son, Rudolph, built his house in 1927 and Everett Closson's house was built in 1928.
On the site of Community Hall was a house owned by Enoch Hodgdon. In 1864 Freeman C. Torrey and family came from Petit Menan Point and at first lived in the rooms over the Dur- gain store, then bought the Enoch Hodgdon place where they lived until May, 1875, when Mr. Torrey built the house next to the post-office now owned by Arthur Ginn, who bought it of Mr. Torrey's son Frank. The place bought of the Hodgdons was then owned by William Torrey, who sold it to Benjamin Dolli- ver, his brother-in-law. The old house was torn down and a new one built on the site which was burned September 18, 1918, and Mr. Dolliver sold the land to Guy Young, who sold it to the trustees of the Community House. This building was erected in 1930.
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The house to the south was built by Albert Torrey in 1884 and sold to Elmer Stanley, who moved into it on October 21, 1909, and whose family now occupy it as their home.
William Mackenzie came from the Bay of Chaleur in a fish- ing vessel, married Bedelia Moore and built a house near where Rudolph Dolliver's house now stands. This house has long since disappeared.
Carl Dolliver's house is rebuilt from one that stood near his father's residence and was moved to its present site and rebuilt in 1932. The next one is Percy Torrey's, built in 1933.
Ernest Stanley built what is known as the Robert Newman house in 1897 as a home for his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Newman, and it is now owned by his heirs. The house formerly owned by John Ferguson was built for Albert Stanley and has been owned by several different persons. It was bought in 1936 by E. S. Thurston.
Stanwood King's house was built in 1875 for Willis Dolliver.
The Stillman S. Dolliver house was built in the winter of 1883-4 by W. C. Higgins, for Mrs. Alice Morris. Mr. Dolliver built his carpenter shop to the south of the house and also the bungalow for his son, Morris A. Dolliver; this last in 1931. This lot of land was purchased from Joseph King.
The house now owned by heirs of Mrs. Mary Kaler was built in 1843 by her father, Winchester Whitney, and was inherited by her. Across the road from the Kaler house is the oldest house in the town of Southwest Harbor. It was built about 1805 by a man named John Trufry who had lived on the road toward Bass Harbor. He sold the house to Isaac Stanley, whose wife died leaving three young children and he sold to his brother, Sans Stanley, Jr. He, in turn, sold to another brother, John Stanley, in 1835 and it was inherited by his grandson, Frank Cram, who now owns it.
The place now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Judkins once belonged to Charles Dolliver who bought a house on the Bass Harbor road opposite the Whitmore property and later moved it to this site. It was afterward destroyed by fire.
Mr. Dolliver's widow married James Soulis, a carpenter and builder, and he built the house where Mr. and Mrs. Judkins now live. This was about 1875.
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Mrs. Laura Leonard's house was built for her, and Frank Chalmers built his house.
Mrs. Sarah Robinson and her son and family live in the Reuben Billings house, which is on the lot and almost on the same site of one built there before 1820 by the first Sans Stanley, whose wife was Elizabeth Mayo. The house was inherited by John Elisha Billings and his only daughter, Mrs. Sarah Billings Robinson, came into possession of it on the death of her parents. Reuben Billings was the father of John Elisha.
Across the road is a small cottage built in 1937 for Mr. and Mrs. Carlton Hill.
Leverett Stanley owns the house built by John Stanley and owned by many different persons during the course of time.
Charles Haynes built his house in 1892. Henry Lurvey's house was built in 1884 for James Fernald, and his son sold it to Mr. Lurvey. In 1936 it was purchased by Mrs. Clara Dolliver Richardson.
Jonathan Stuart built his house in 1935-6, almost all with his own hands.
On the road leading past Charles Haynes' house to the shore is the cottage owned by the Barker sisters, Miss Estelle Barker and Mrs. J. Howard Rogers of New York, and built in 1933, also one owned by the Misses Elizabeth Cogswell and Jean Smalley of Philadelphia and built in 1929. Close to the shore at the end of this road is a cottage built for Mr. and Mrs. Everett E. Truette of Brookline, Mass., and sold by Mrs. Truette to Miss Dorothy Elder Marcus of New York, who makes it her per- manent home.
Miss Edith Cushing of Cambridge, Mass., bought two houses owned by members of the Newman family. The one on the northern end of her lot was built by Herbert Rice about 1900, sold to Lewis Newman, and in 1928 he sold to Miss Cushing. The other house on the lot was built by Liewellyn Cleveland about 1876. The builders were Jonathan and Daniel Norwood. A few years later it was sold to Amos Newman and his son Charles sold to Miss Cushing in 1927. For a short time this house was used as a tea room.
There was once a house on the site of the Cushing garage
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owned by Ezekiel Moore. The Moore family owned a large tract of land in this vicinity and a number of cellars can still be traced where houses once stood.
Dr. A. W. Harris built his house in 1925-6 and purchased the house to the south that was built by Ezekiel Moore about 1846. Mr. Moore traded it to one of his brothers and it later came to be owned by Esther Moore Eaton Winzey who lived there with her husband, David Winzey. Mr. Winzey was born in England and ran away from home when a boy to go to sea. He lived for many years in Southwest Harbor, married the widow of Joshua Eaton (son of Rev. Ebenezer Eaton) and made at least one visit to his English home.
The house was inherited by Mrs. Ulrica Birlem Stanley and she sold it to Dr. Harris who remodeled and added to the origi- nal house. Both houses are now the property of Dr. Harris' son, A. W. Harris, Jr.
Ezekiel Moore built another house in this locality near the shore. It was the home of his son, Samuel Moore, during his lifetime and is now owned by the heirs of Ezekiel Moore.
The schoolhouse was built in 1900 and the first term of school was in the autumn of that year, taught by Sarah T. Carroll (Mrs. Wilford H. Kittredge). This building replaced the old one which stood farther south.
The house now owned and occupied by Hiram Hadlock was built by his father, Epps Hadlock, in 1858. The cellar had been dug by Enoch Newman and Mr. Hadlock purchased the lot and built the house. The land was half of the hundred acre lot once owned by the first Sans Stanley.
Mr. Hadlock was the man who made and set the first lobster trap in Southwest Harbor on April 16, 1854, and many of his descendants have been and still are, interested in and actively connected with the lobster industry.
William Newman's house was built about 1860 by Robert Newman. Thomas Newman, born in 1835, still lives (1938) in the house where he was born and sleeps every night in the room where he first saw the light. His father, Thomas Newman of English birth, came to Southwest Harbor from Gouldsboro, Maine, and built a log house to the east and across the road.
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About 1830 he built this house where he spent the remainder of his life and where his son, the present owner, has lived more than a century, celebrating his one hundredth birthday on August 28, 1935. Michael Bulger of Cranberry Island was the builder of the house, getting out the inside finish by hand. John Carroll did the mason work.
Mr. Newman's grandson, Thomas Newman, 3rd, built his bungalow in 1930. Edward Newman's house was built about 1891.
The house now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. John Ward was built in 1846. It was begun and partly finished by Benjamin Newman who sold it to his brother, Lindsay Newman, and he completed it and spent his life there. It is now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Alma Newman Ward.
South of the Newman house is one owned by Almon Rams- dell, Jr., and the next one, now owned by A. F. Ramsdell, Sr., was built by William Newman about 1856 on land once owned by Jonathan Newman.
Mrs. Nora King Parker's house was built by her grandfather, Samuel S. Newman, in 1832. It was inherited by his daughter, Mrs. Lucy Newman King, and she left it to her daughter, Mrs. Parker of Danvers, Mass., who now spends her summers there.
The next house was built by Mrs. Nancy Newman Sawyer about 1900. She sold it to John Ward and his heirs now own it and rent it to tenants.
Benjamin Newman built the next house and for some years it was owned by Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Metcalf. After Mr. Met- calf's death his widow sold the place to Mrs. Thelma Ward who sold to Mrs. Lula Newman Kent. This house was first built on the rise of ground to the west of its present site and later moved to the place where it now stands.
The house now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Fitch was built nearly a century ago (1937) by Frank Spurling of Cranberry Isles. He sold it to Charles Eaton Stanley about 1866 and he spent the remainder of his life there. His widow deeded the place to Guy Young for her maintenance; he sold to Thomas Hodgdon and he to Soulis Newman and Mr. Newman to Mr. Fitch. Enoch Newman was the builder of this house.
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Henry Newman built the house now owned by Ray Billings. Mr. Newman was an expert ship builder and built many vessels of different kinds in the shipyards of Mount Desert Island. He was master builder on the three-masted vessel, Carrie M. Rich- ardson, built on the Manset shore and on another three-master built at Bass Harbor. The house was built about 1848.
The Joseph Walker house was built as a store for Guy Young and was very near the road. It was moved to its present site and remodeled into a dwelling.
Walter Newman's house was built by B. T. Dolliver, who lived in it some time before selling to Gardner Carter who sold to Mr. Newman.
Benjamin Moore built his house more than a century ago (1938). He died and was buried across the road from his home. Later all who died in his family were buried there as well as many of the friends and neighbors. In 1923 these graves were all removed to Mount Height. Mr. Moore's son Peter inherited the place and cared for his mother, Mrs. Eliza Stanley Moore, during her lifetime. His son Herbert sold the place to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Cope in 1923 and they have remodeled the house and built additions, making it a very beautiful summer home.
Dudley Dolliver's house was formerly a store which he has remodeled into a dwelling, buying it about 1900.
The next house was built by Joshua Moore more than 78 years ago. Mr. Moore died on board a vessel coming homeward from Rockland and in 1869 Benjamin Dolliver bought the place and spent his life there. Then it became the property of his son Amos, whose family own it now (1938).
E. E. Newman's house is more than a century old. In 1837-8 it was used as a parsonage and was occupied by Rev. John Wesley Dow and family. It was to this house that Mrs. Joshua Moore moved after selling her house to Benjamin Dolliver and she lived here with her son, Lewis Moore. Alvah Dolliver bought the house and his widow married Elmer Newman who now owns it.
George Dolliver built a part of his house about 1917 and two years later he completed it.
Linwood Jellison built his house in 1934. This is very near the site of the first Seawall schoolhouse.
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Osmond Harper built his house in 1915. Joseph Moore had a store and house near the site of this house. Mrs. Mattie Moore Dolliver's house was built in 1859 by her father, John Moore, whose home it was during his lifetime, descending to his daugh- ter, Mrs. Dolliver. Joseph's store is a part of her house.
Peter Benson's house is on the site of one built by Van Ness Smith, who changed his mind before his house was finished, took it down and carried the materials to Otter Creek where he rebuilt it. George Sanford built a house on the same site and lived in it for twenty or more years, then sold it to Peter Benson, whose son Peter now owns and occupies it with many additions and improvements.
Across the road from the Benson house Joshua and Abigail Stanley built a house many years ago. It fell to their son Thomas, he left it to Joshua, 2nd, he sold to George Kent and he to Peter T. Benson who sold the house to Miss Doris Fielding Reid, who had it moved to her lot on Flynn's Point which she had purchased from Mr. Benson and there she had it remodelled into a summer home. In 1934 Mr. Benson built a small house on the cellar of the Stanley house, which is occupied by tenants. He sold a lot at the beach to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Reeve who built their cottage in 1934 and another to Miss Carolyn Burch whose house was built by R. M. Norwood in 1928. The land purchased by Robert G. Crocker for his camp was a part of this lot and Mr. Benson sold the Seawall beach to Acadia National Park so it is now open to the public for all time.
Many old cellars are to be traced in the southern part of the town and now no one knows their origin, though a few shrubs and apple trees show that a home was once there. Families by the names of Carpenter and Davis had houses not far from Mrs. F. S. Dolliver's house, John Stone Grow had a house in the woods to the south of where the cemetery now is and his owner- ship is commemorated by a ledge still spoken of as "John Stone Grow's ledge." William Grow, too, lived in this vicinity. A man by the name of Michael (?) Flynn had a house at Flynn's Point and was buried there, though no one knows the exact spot.
At the time of the first census in 1790 the records give the name of William Baker as a resident here and tradition says that
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"Grandma'am Baker" was sent for in times of sickness in those early days. There was no doctor on Mount Desert Island until the coming of Dr. Kendall Kittredge in 1799 and stories are told of times when men turned out in numbers to get Grandma'am Baker to the house of suffering; sometimes to the adjoining islands across turbulent seas or through floating ice, through drifting snows or driving rains. Mrs. F. S. Dolliver has a table which was owned by Mrs. Baker but all other information is lost in the mists of long ago. The old lady was often carried on a hand-barrow by men when the call was from a distance or over rough roads.
There are a number of small summer cottages around Seawall and beyond the beach is a large cleared grassy area where many different families have lived in years past.
About 1817 James Whitmore came from Deer Isle and bought 167 acres of land at Seawall and built his house almost opposite the road which now leads to the Stanley Lobster Pound at the shore. The place where the boats are hauled up at the Pound is the same where Mr. Whitmore hauled his boats up when re- turning from a fishing trip. He married Rebecca Stanley and they built their house there in 1819 and lived there seventeen years. The well which he dug still yields water and is in con- stant use in summer. March 27, 1839, the Whitmores exchanged places with Enoch Newman who then owned the present Whit- more property on the Bass Harbor road, where James Whit- more's descendants have owned it and lived there ever since. Mr. Newman sold the Seawall place to Benjamin Dolliver and he sold to James Gott in 1867. The Gotts lived there until after 1870.
John Dolliver had a house farther to the west which he sold to United States Government and it was burned a few years ago. The radio station and house were built during the World War and the station was dismantled some years after the war was over. The radio house as it is still called, is owned by United States and in the care of Park authorities. William Dolliver also had a house in this locality. There is a graveyard just be- yond the radio house on the north side of the road, now over- grown with grass and bushes, where members of Gott and Dolli- ver families are buried.
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In 1882 Dr. Sophia Thompson of Boston built a large hotel and stable at Seawall for summer business to be conducted by her son, Smith Mooney. The hotel was well finished and fur- nished with fine furniture, but it was too far away from the village; when the fog was in it was cold and dreary and the in- stallation of a bell buoy on a reef off the shore kept the guests awake with its gloomy tolling, so it was not successful and after a few years the furnishings were sold and the buildings taken down. When the hotel was built the old Whitmore house was still standing and a part of it was used as a shed.
Dudley Dolliver, Sr., had a house in this locality and lived here for some time. Thomas Moore and his wife Betsey also had a home near this place.
At Ship Harbor lived Moses and Elizabeth Manchester whose house must have been built much over a hundred years ago and was taken down only a few years ago.
The house on Greening's Island was built by Nathaniel Gott, brother of Esther Gott Langley and Jane Gott Grennan, some- time in the thirties. When Philip Langley died his widow, Esther, sent for her brother and sister to come and live with her on what was then called Langley's Island. Esther lived in a small farmhouse which had been built by Philip not far from the site of the present house. Part of that first house forms the kitchen and shed of the present one.
Nathaniel built this house for himself and family and kept a store in two rooms. One room was devoted to the storage of grain and flour and the other to a general stock of goods. These goods were exchanged with the fishermen for fish and quite an extensive fish business was carried on for some years by the Gott family.
Later Esther and Jane moved into the new house and Nathan- iel used part of the old one for his pigs and part as a blacksmith shop where his oxen were shod.
Nathaniel's health failed so he was unable to work and he returned to his home at Gott's Island. He grew worse and was taken to Boston for treatment. He died just as the vessel on which he was a passenger dropped anchor in Boston harbor.
J. G. Thorp of Cambridge, Mass., was the first to purchase
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land and build a summer home on Greening's Island. Then came Miss Henrietta Gardiner, Henry A. Dreer, the Philadelphia seedsman, and S. W. Colton, also of Philadelphia, who purchased the eastern end of the island and built his large cottage, Fara- way, where his famly spent many summers. Now, in addition to the above cottages, Mrs. Wilson and Robert Esty of the Colton family have houses and the heirs of Ralph Colton own the Dreer house. Dr. and Mrs. Elliot de Berry of St. Paul, Minn., had a house built a few years ago on a part of the Thorp holdings.
The Thorp heirs now own the farmhouse and some of the men employed on the estate occupy it with their families in summer.
These are the stories of the houses in Southwest Harbor, gleaned from many sources. The older houses hold many treas- ures from foreign lands brought in the days when Mount Desert men sailed the seven seas and brought home gifts from many countries. Sometimes the wives accompanied their husbands on their long voyages, often their children were born at sea and the names of cities on the other side of the world were household words.
From these modest homes have gone forth men and women who have done their share of work in the world in many ways and in many lands. Many of them rest forever in foreign countries or beneath the billows of the sea and in the burying grounds of Mount Desert Island lie the remains of many persons who were born in other lands.
From England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, from Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Russia, from sunny Italy and from the Scandinavian countries, from scattered islands and from China have come those who made their homes on our Island, mingled their blood with that of the settlers and handed on their traits and characteristics of various qualities to make our popu- lation what it is. There are ancient family Bibles in these homes with timestained records, precious indeed to the owners, there are traditions handed down by "word of mouth", of the part borne by ancestors in the early struggles with the elements, with sickness, pain and accident and in war to make America what it is today. They fought in the ranks of Washington's army, they
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helped to man the ships in 1812, they defended their homes from the Indians, their names are on the roster of the Civil War and their descendants saw service in the World War.
They early established churches and schools and each genera- tion has striven to give the children better advantages in educa- tion than they themselves had enjoyed.
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