USA > Maine > Hancock County > Traditions and records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert island, Maine > Part 22
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In the course of time the Somesville people wished to have a church of their own and took steps to build one. Rev. Samuel Bowker, who was then living at Somesville, was one of the prime movers in the matter.
The following is a copy of an undated paper now in the possession of Mrs. J. A. Somes of Mount Desert.
The undersigned being desirous of having a Union Meeting house built between the hills in Mt. Desert, agree to take the number of pews set to their names, and further agree to pay five dollars for each pew as soon as it is ascertained that the house will be built.
And ten dollars more when the house is finished outside, the balance as soon as the house is finished and accepted. The house to contain not less than forty nor more than fifty-five pews, and a gallery across the end for singer's seats, and the cost of said house to be not less than fifteen hundred dollars nor more than twenty-five hundred. Size, plan, style and finish to be agreed upon at the first meeting of the signers. The house to be controlled and occupied in proportion to the number of pews owned by each society.
John Somes John M. Noyes John Richardson A. Somes E. E. Babson
Benj. F. Leland Isaac Somes Nathan Salsbury Jacob Somes N. G. Richardson
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Kendall Kittredge
Daniel Somes
Timothy Mason John Gilley
Edwin Young
John H. Parker
Lewis Somes
Geo. B. Somes
Wm. T. Mason
Sibley P. Richardson
Benj. Richardson
Edward S. Richardson
William Thompson
Sarah Somes Samuel N. Gilpatrick
James R. Freeman
B. T. Atherton
Amos Hooper
Benj. Richardson, Jr.
William Kittredge
John Brown
David Wasgatt, 2nd
Thomas Eaton
Emerson Googing
Thomas Knowles
Benj. Thom
Lewis Freeman
Samuel Bowker
Reuben Freeman
Isaac Lurvey
Thomas Mayo, Jr.
The church was built in 1852 on land given by John Somes, Jr., and the sewing society was organized about that time. This society raised money for a bell and Mrs. Rebecca Somes went to Boston on a sailing vessel and purchased one which was in- stalled in the belfry July 4, 1858, the first church bell to ring out its chimes on Mount Desert Island. The society also pur- chased a clock. The church has had many gifts. A. C. Fernald gave the pulpit set and A. J. Whiting presented the carpet. On October 20, 1883, Nehemiah Kittredge gave the Somesville church and society $5000 in trust, "the interest to be used in de- fraying expense of Congregational preaching in Somesville and vicinity on condition that the church raise annually an equal amount." On December 25, 1884, Mr. Kittredge presented a communion set as a Christmas gift to the church.
It was December 21, 1876, when ten residents of the com- munity met at the home of Cyrus J. Hall and organized them- selves into a Congregational church, though many were reluctant to sever their connection with the First Church at Southwest Harbor. The following signed their names to the covenant of the Somesville church: Sarah H. Parker, Mary Mason, Obadiah Allen, Sophia Allen, Phebe S. Babson, Dr. R. L. Grindle, Flora A. Grindle, Sylvina J. Hall, Adelma F. Joy, Cynthia Smith.
Rev. J. M. H. Dow presided and Rev. A. R. Plummer was present.
B. W. Kittredge
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Sometimes one minister has served this church and also the one at Southwest Harbor and at other times each church has had its resident minister. Of late the Somesville church has joined with other parishes in the town in the Mount Desert Larger Parish movement.
Ministers who have served the church are Rev. Plummer, A. Redlon, A. N. Jones, J. E. Swallow, H. R. McCartney, E. S. Newbert, Wm. H. Thorne, Andrew U. Ogilvie, Franklin A. Barker, George E. Kinney. The latter preached from 1899 to 1904.
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SCHOOLS AT SOMESVILLE
The first schoolhouse in Somesville was built on the Old Road and was used for church services and town meetings. Mrs. Adelma F. Joy attended school there in 1847 and described it thus: "It was a one story building and on the outside was a box with a glass door where important notices such as marriage intentions or public meetings were posted. The inside was fin- ished in the fashion of the day with a row of large seats along the back of the room and grading down to smaller ones. These seats were six feet long or more with desks the same length and the place for the books was so large that a child could crawl into the space.
The seats for the boys faced those for the girls and there was a wide space in the middle. The teacher's desk faced the door and there was a large entry which was more like a shed as the wood was kept there and there were hooks or nails on which we hung our wraps.
The school was always crowded and often some of the older pupils had to take the smaller classes into the entry to hear their spelling or reading as the teacher had no assistants.
The terms of school were short, but sometimes there would be a few weeks of private school taught often by some stranger who travelled around getting up these schools and teaching them for a few weeks. One of these terms was taught by a Mr. Chase, who taught nothing but geography at an evening school, but also taught a private day school. Another evening school was devoted exclusively to the study of grammar."
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When the community decided that the old schoolhouse was inadequate for its needs, a new one was built south of the church and nearly opposite the Noyes house, now owned and occupied by A. C. Fernald.
This was used until about 1865 or 6 and the building is now attached to the middle building of those in the center of the village, once used as stores, and is a woodshed and storehouse.
The next house of learning was built about 1866 on the lot which is still used for schools. It served the community for many years for the education of the children. When the number of pupils overflowed the schoolhouse, the town rented the old store which was once the property of Isaac Somes and the pri- mary grades were taught there for some time.
The first terms of high school were held in the second floor hall of the northernmost building at the village center.
When the number of pupils in the village were so many that a graded system was imperative, the schoolhouse was sold to Bloomfield Smith who moved it to the lot just north of the school lot and remodeled it as a general store. In 1898 a two- story building was erected with the second floor arranged for the upper grades, while the primary children were accommodated on the first floor. In 1929 a large addition was built to accom- modate the high school.
SHIP BUILDING AT SOMESVILLE
Ship building was one of the principal industries of the early days of Somesville and the fine growth of oak trees in the vicin- ity furnished sturdy material for the construction of seaworthy hulls that sailed the world over. A. J. Whiting did some build- ing of vessels and the Somes yard was the scene of much activity.
The first vessels built by John and Daniel Somes were The Caspian, Two Sisters, Mary, American, Amethyst, and Rosilla. They bought the old packet Midas and sailed her. The John Somes was the first vessel built by John William, John Jacob and Thaddeus Somes.
Nathaniel Richardson of Beech Hill built a vessel in Somes- ville near the present site of the public library. It was so high
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on the stocks that most people feared an accident at launching time and a great crowd gathered to see her slide off the ways ; but the launching was successful and she slid safely into the water. She was named The Siren.
Timothy Mason, who lived on Mason's Point, built several small vessels. One was for Capt. Samuel Spurling of Cranberry Isles, who, with a young boy accompanying him, came to make a payment on it. The boat in which they came was seen as far as Bar Island on its homeward way, then it sank. Men searched and dragged the waters, but no trace of boat or bodies was ever found.
A broadside was written on this sad event.
A thirty-ton vessel was built by Hugh Richardson at his home on Oak Hill and hauled by oxen to the shipyard near where the Denning brook flows into the Sound. It was hauled across the Somes Pond on the ice. Timothy Mason was part owner of this vessel and helped to build her. This was in 1830.
Hiram Flye of Seal Cove was also a builder of ships. He would never allow his vessels to be named for living persons and he always kept the name a secret until the day of the launch- ing. It was very exciting, when, at the launching, the bunting on which was the name of the craft was hoisted. Mr. Flye built the Northern Light, the Light of The East and many others.
Mary Hadlock Manchester, daughter of Samuel Hadlock and wife of John Manchester, 2nd, planted, cultivated, pulled, carded and spun into linen cloth, flax grown on her own land and it was made into sails for one of the vessels built in the early days at Norwood's Cove, Southwest Harbor.
Thomas Knowles of Town Hill was a ship builder with many vessels to his credit. His ship yard was at Clark's Cove on the western side of the island. It was there that he built the two masted schooner, Katie P. Lunt, of about two hundred tons.
She was commanded by Capt. Andrew Lopaus and while on her way from Savannah to Boston she encountered a hurricane and was wrenched and washed to pieces. Capt. Lopaus had with him his wife and two small children-a boy of five and a girl of two. The little girl was washed out of her mother's arms in a terrible sea and the boy met a like fate after Capt. Lopaus had been badly injured and stunned. The forecastle was washed
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away so they had no food until some of the crew killed a shark after the sea had abated and they ate some of the flesh. They were finally rescued by an English brig; the Nellie Ware. The vessel was built between 1853 and 1860 and was lost around 1875 or 6.
Thomas Knowles also built the brig Matilda for Capt. A. K. P. Lunt of Tremont; the barque Annie Gray for Capt. Mark Gray of Bucksport, the schooner Clara Sawyer for Capt. Caleb Sawyer, the brig Alma P. sailed by Capt. David Branscom of Mount Desert, the schooner E. M. Branscom and a schooner for Capt. Thompson at the Narrows. These were all built be- tween 1853 and the outbreak of the Civil War.
The schooner Bloomer which has sailed the waters in this vicinity since 1855 and is still sailing (1937) was built by Eben Pray at Indian Point as a sloop. She once made a record trip from Boston to Somesville. She was remodelled into a two- master many years ago, and is now owned and sailed by Capt. Harper of Rockland who uses her for the carrying of stone.
Some of the vessels launched from the Somes yards and that of A. J. Whiting include the George B. Somes, J. F. Carver, Ella Frances (built for Capt. Samuel Bulger and named for his two daughters), John Somes, Adelma (a brig), and the Judith Somes, also a brig, Mary F. Cushman, Henry W. Cushman, A. J. Whit- ing, Flora Grindle and Ella Eudora.
Other vessels built at Hull's Cove and other places on Mount Desert Island but making Somesville their home port were the schooner Kate L. Pray, E. T. Hamor, Alice Leland, Mindaro, Valparaiso, Savoy, Betsey, and there were others.
The older residents told interesting tales of the launching of the vessels when a crowd gathered to see the new craft slide down the ways. The cove would be filled with spruce trees to impede the progress of the hull and prevent it from lodging on the opposite bank. Sometimes there would be a dinner and a dance to celebrate. the event.
The schooner Polly, built in Amesbury, Mass., in 1805, doing business for more than one hundred years and now a museum ship in Boston Harbor, was once a familiar sight in Mount Desert waters. Capt. D. E. Pray once owned one-eighth of her.
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LODGES, ORDERS AND SOCIETIES IN SOMESVILLE
Among the organizations that have been a part of the social life of Somesville are the Sons of Temperance, the James M. Parker Post G. A. R. which had a large membership from all parts of the island and which used to have impressive Memorial exercises on Memorial Day with the ceremony of decorating the graves of the soldiers in Brookside Cemetery with the school children marching with the soldiers to the music of fife and drum, and an address at the church with special singing of the patriotic hymns and songs of that day.
The Somesville Dramatic Club was organized by Charles Witham and gave its first public performance in 1866, playing "Nick of the Woods." The company gave this play more than ten times in different places, always to a crowded house. Twenty-five actors and twelve musicians were in the cast and considerable money was raised for village improvement such as a boat landing, sidewalks, etc., besides spending some for scenery for the stage. There was excellent talent in Somesville and the plays presented by this company were always popular.
Somesville once had a brass band which disbanded when some of the members moved from town. The last time the organ- ization played was at the services in Somesville at the time of the death of President James A. Garfield.
The Literary Club has been a factor in the social life of the village and is responsible for establishing the museum and col- lecting the articles shown there.
The Club has offered prizes in the schools for different projects and has contributed much to the literary and social life of the community as well as assisting the charitable institutions.
The sewing societies have raised money for support of the church and care of the cemetery and for the purchase of books for the library.
There was once a flourishing Good Templars Lodge. The Sons of Veterans was popular for many years, assisting in the observance of Memorial Day and having members from all parts of the island. The Women's Relief Corps was organized in Somesville and held meetings in the Somes Hall where the S. of V. also met.
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In early days the Lyceums were popular and well attended and much literary talent was brought out and developed by these societies-fore runners of modern clubs and forums.
MOUNT DESERT LODGE F. AND A. M.
At a regular meeting of the lodge on October 8, 1870, E. M. Hamor was appointed to write "a full account of the rise and progress of the lodge" which he did and his account was com- pleted and printed March 6, 1871. He begins as follows :
"Previous to 1867 the only lodge of Masons on the Island of Mount Desert was Tremont Lodge at South West Harbor in the town of Tremont, but there were quite a number of Masons living in the towns of Eden, Trenton and Mount Desert, some of whom were members of Tremont Lodge, but who, on account of the distance, could not, without much inconvenience to them- selves, attend the meetings of that lodge."
Mr. Hamor goes on to state that after several preliminary meetings held during the fall and winter of 1866-7, eighteen of their number petitioned that a lodge be formed in the town of Mount Desert. These petitioners were recommended by the Tremont Lodge and a dispensation was granted February 14, 1867. John A. Plummer was appointed to be the first W. Mas- ter, M. T. Richardson the first Senior Warden and O. Allen the first Junior Warden of the lodge.
The first meeting was held March 16, 1867 in a hall in the upper story of J. W. Somes' store, which the lodge afterward rented and furnished and occupied it for many years as a lodge room. The first men to be initiated were A. J. Whiting, L. H. Somes, J. J. Somes, A. A. K. Richardson and R. L. Somes.
The history of the lodge from February 14, 1871 to February 14, 1892, was written by James E. Hamor. He records that the matter of forming a Masonic Lodge at Bar Harbor was agitated in 1879 as a number of men from that place were members of Mount Desert Lodge and found it inconvenient to travel so far to the meetings. Accordingly a lodge was formed in Bar Har- bor during that year.
During the period covered by this history the records show that many members were lost at sea.
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All this time the lodge meetings had been held in a small room which was now quite inadequate to the needs of the organi- zation and in 1889 it was decided to build a hall. John W. Somes donated the site and the hall was built. A carpet was donated by A. J. Whiting and a hanging lamp by James Clement. The building was dedicated November 11, 1891. That year thirty-six new members received the degrees of the order.
In 1910 James E. Hamor, then eighty-five years of age was appointed to bring the history of the lodge to date. He records the formation of a lodge at Northeast Harbor June 5, 1903. In April of 1923 it was voted to build an addition to the hall which was done. On April 1, 1928, this hall with its contents burned to the ground. The present hall was built the following summer.
The Order of the Eastern Star was instituted December 20, 1894, and constituted September 12, 1895. The first Matron was Mrs. Caroline Somes; the first patron, George A. Somes. This order holds its meetings in Masonic Hall. Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Nutting, members of the order, gave the carpet for the lodge room.
INDIANS
There is no record of unfriendly acts from the Indians who were at Mount Desert for the whole or a part of the year when the first settlers came. Champlain found them friendly and when the Jesuit settlement at Fernald Point was made the new- comers were well treated by the Indians. Though it was an Indian who informed the English ship of the Norman settle- ment, it was done believing that the white men were all of one tribe and therefore "kindly affectioned one to another."
The Indians were of some assistance to the crew and passen- gers of the ill-fated ship Grand Design when she was wrecked at Seawall in 1739-40 and it was from them that the fishermen from Rockland learned that some white people had spent the winter at Mount Desert and this information led to their rescue.
The militia, which included men from Mount Desert Island were called out several times to go to the assistance of the settle- ment at Machias where Indians were making trouble.
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The shell heaps at Manchester's Point, Northeast Harbor, at Fernald Point and at various places on the western side of Mount Desert Island show that Indians frequented the island for many years, spending their summers along the shores where shell fish were abundant, gathering wild berries and hunting game. They told the first white men who came, that they brought their sick to the island to gain health, so they recog- nized the health-giving qualities of Mount Desert breezes-the same that prevail today.
Bands of the Indians used to come to different parts of the island to spend the summers and sell their baskets and Mrs. Adelma F. Joy writes thus of the Indians who came to Somes- ville in her childhood days :
"Indians used to come and camp around the ponds for the purpose of trapping mink and muskrat. They made baskets too, and did beautiful bead work. In 1847 there was a colony of Indians camped on what we called The Lily Pond, now called Somes Pond. The camps were made of spruce boughs and the women told fortunes. One family was named Glassene and their son went to the village school.
The Indian women were often invited to eat at the houses where they visited and they never removed their red plaid shawls and shiny black beaver hats even when they sat at table. They always seemed to be well dressed and never begged for food or clothing.
I think it was the same year (1847) that fifteen or twenty Indians from Oldtown camped on the salt water shore opposite Parkers. The chief said they had been rehearsing their old cus- toms and would like to give an exhibition if a hall could be found that was large enough. The woolen factory was not in use at that time so it was opened for the purpose.
The Indians dressed in their war paint and feathers and gave their dances with flourishing tomahawks and blood-curdling yells. One of the tribe could play the violin with considerable skill. He was a handsome young man and it began to be said that a white girl, some distance away, was in love with him. Some nights he would be absent from the show and when in- quiries were made for him the braves would say "He gone hunt- ing. He be here tomorrow night."
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When the Indians left the place it was said that the white girl was missing from her home, but not much was said about it in the village as no one was acquainted with her family.
Years after, some Indians camped at Northeast Harbor and one good looking young brave had a wife that was white and a very beautiful little half-breed girl. The husband was a musi- cian and used to go to Southwest Harbor to play in the band. The wife could play the piano. She told someone that her grandmother was a white woman but insisted that she, herself, was Indian. When asked about her grandmother she would say, "Me not know. Me Indian."
THE HOUSES OF SOMESVILLE
Somesville is the site of the first permanent settlement on Mount Desert Island and as such is the point of interest to his- torians.
A recent writer, describing the village says, "Somesville is a sprinkling of Neo-Greek cottages, very Palladian, with a small classic church, along a road which wanders beside the fjord-like Somes Sound.
A band of settlers from Massachusetts, equipped with a Bible and a book of Greek architecture had settled there more than a hundred years ago."
Now it is very doubtful if Abraham Somes, the first settler and ancestor of all of that name, had ever heard of the Greeks and their buildings, when, in 1762 he sailed his little ship up the Sound which ever since has borne his name, and built his log cabin in the field to the east of the present Somes House and near the present boat landing.
But he and his descendants as well as his Massachusetts neighbors who followed him to Mount Desert, kept in mind the white houses and elm-shaded streets of the Massachusetts vil- lages where they had lived, and they built their homes after the fashion of those left behind and painted them white with green shutters. All through the days of changing fashions in colors of house paint, the people of Somesville have, for the most part remained true to their classic style and retained the appearance of the true New England village of the older settlements.
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As for the remembered elms, they were not native to the thin acid soil of Mount Desert Island, so the early settlers took the best substitute they could find, which was the willow.
Tradition says that Lewis Somes (first of the name), when at Lamoine one day cut a willow stick for a whip. On his return home he stuck it into the ground where it grew and flourished and most of the Somesville willows came from that tree.
These trees grew to gigantic size and added much to the beauty of the village until a few years ago when all the willows on Mount Desert Island were attacked by a parasite or a disease which destroyed them.
Somesville with its excellent water power was for many years the most important place on Mount Desert Island. Mr. Eben M. Hamor wrote of conditions as he knew them in 1836, saying that the village at that time consisted of but nine families, though the business industries of the whole Island were carried on there. The nine settlers were Dr. Kendal Kittredge, Capt. Eben E. Bab- son, David Richardson, Timothy Mason, Abraham Somes, Daniel Somes, John Somes, John Somes, Jr., and Isaac Somes. Mr. Hamor writes :
"There were in the place, one small store, one blacksmith shop, one shoemaker's shop, one tan-yard, two shipyards, one bark mill, one saw mill, one lath mill, one shingle mill, one grist mill and one schoolhouse in which schools and meetings were held."
Most of the mill business was owned and managed by the Somes family.
Beginning with the history of the houses of Somesville at the southern end of the settlement on the road to Southwest Harbor: there are several camps and cottages built in recent years around the shores of Echo Lake.
Ernest Richardson has built two on the western side, Rolf Motz built a cottage close to the road on the eastern shore which he sold in 1935 to Mrs. O. C. Nutting. There are several others which have been owned by different people, and Ernest Richard- son has a store and some overnight camps built in 1935-6 close to the road. E. G. Stanley of Southwest Harbor has two cot- tages on the lake shore. There was once a house on the eastern
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shore built by a man by the name of Babbage, who came there from Rockland. This house was burned.
The first residence on this road is the house of Alfred Lam- pher, built for him in 1923. There are several small houses on the right side of the road, owned by people who have been em- ployed by Nutting and Richardson in their lumbering operations. This firm operated a portable saw mill in this vicinity for a few years.
Marcellus Lampher had his house built in 1905 and moved into it in November of that year.
A cleared field on the right hand side of the road just below the village, shows where a house once stood, which was moved to Mullein Hill and is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bunker. Across the road, opposite this lot was a house built by John W. Somes and rented to tenants. Later it was moved, re- modeled and sold to Mrs. Edith B. Prior and used as a summer home. It is now (1938) owned by John Ames of Massachusetts.
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