USA > Maine > Hancock County > Traditions and records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert island, Maine > Part 3
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Latin, wife and three children, English his servants.
At Pessimaquody, near St. Croix
St. Robin, wife and son with like grant from Quebeck. Letrell, Jno. Minn's wife and four children-Lambert and Jolly Cure his servants.
At St. Croix
Lorzy, and Lena his servant. Grant from Quebeck.
From this Andros census we must assume that Cadillac was actually living on Mount Desert Island in 1688.
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was a native of Languedoc and was born about 1658, a member of a family of the lesser nobility of good standing. His letters show that he had a good educa- tion and the records show that he had a military career in his native land. His wife was Marie Therese Guyon, daughter of Denis Guyon and Elizabeth Boucher and the marriage took place at Quebec, the young couple going at once to take possession of their new grant of land at Mount Desert.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
Cadillac seems to have thought very highly of his estate as he styled himself "Lord of Mount Desert" in his writings. His place of settlement was at Hull's Cove for the time he resided on the Island. Then he went west and later founded the city of Detroit where he remained for ten or twelve years leaving in 1713. He was "Governor of the Province of Louisiana" from May 17, 1713, to March 9, 1717.
In 1786 Bartholomy de Gregoire, the husband of Marie Therese de Gregoire, a grand daughter of Cadillac, laid claim to the property of Mount Desert by right of his wife as the heir of Cadillac. They arrived in Boston, November 6, 1786. They came to Hull's Cove where they lived for some years and died there in 1810. They are buried in the little cemetery in that village. Their three children, Pierre, Nicholas and Marie are supposed to have returned to France to occupy an inherited estate there. They left no descendants at Mount Desert.
During the last part of the seventeenth century, Mount Desert Island was the rendezvous for French expeditions against New England. French records show that in 1692 two French ships, Le Pole and L'Envieux, sailed from Quebec commissioned to harry the coast settlements and to go first to Mount Desert where they would be joined by the allied Indians. So the waters of Southwest Harbor must have been disturbed by many war vessels in those years. 1696 was the date of another raid and Mount Desert was again the rallying place.
In Massachusetts records we find that Col. Benjamin Church of Duxbury was sent to Mount Desert with his troops in pursuit of a French ship which was reported to have captured an Eng- lish vessel. Col. Church made a careful search along the Maine shores but found no trace of French ships and finally, coming into Southwest Harbor he found "no Ships there, but a Runlet (a small keg) rid off by a line in the Harbour, which he ordered to be taken up, and opening of it found a Letter, which gave him an account that the Ships were gone home for Boston. Then he proceeded and went to Penobscot" and so home.
In 1722-23 Col. Thomas Westbrook led an expedition against the Penobscot Indians and in his letter to the Governor written during that time he tells of many Indian wigwams on Mount
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
Desert and adjacent islands. He writes of finding two French letters "in John Deny's house" and of "two small fireplaces at the head of Mount Desert bay, which, we judge, had been made about three or four days."
There is a vague story which has been handed down from early days of the coming into the harbor of a ship in search of fresh water and while the sailors were filling the casks one of the officers took a walk into the forest and up one of the moun- tains. During his walk he lost his sword and did not discover his loss until he had returned and was about to embark. He recalled that he had lain down to drink from a brook, and so he hurriedly retraced his steps to search for the lost weapon, think- ing that it might have slipped from its scabbard at the brook.
When he came back to the beach (history does not say whether or not he found his sword) to his horror he saw the ship sailing out of the harbor, leaving him alone on this deso- late island. For nine days, it is said, he wandered up and down the shores, climbing the hills and the highest trees thereon, hoping to discover a sail and was finally rewarded. The story was that the sailors had mutinied and got possession of the ship during the absence of the officer, but after a few days the officers on board freed themselves of their fetters, regained command of the ship and at once turned her course back to rescue the abandoned one. This story is also told of other places along the coast.
The next mention of the island is the wreck of the Grand Design at Seawall in 1740, which is described in another chapter and also the wreck of a ship with a company of soldiers from Kennebunk bound to Louisburg.
The legend that Talleyrand was born at Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert island about 1750 gives mention of fishermen's homes there at that time and in old letters and documents there are references to the ruins of old houses at Southwest Harbor before the laying out of the town by Sir Francis Bernard.
It is well known that fishermen and lumbermen from Massa- chusetts frequently brought their families with them and lived at Mount Desert and on the adjacent islands through the sum- mer, while catching and curing their shipload of fish, or cutting
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
the great pine trees. This course was followed for several years before permanent settlement was attempted.
ORIGIN OF LAND TITLES AT MOUNT DESERT
Abstract of title to the land on the western side of Mount Desert Island from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Sir John Bernard and abstract of title from June 14, 1785, to Septem- ber 4, 1828.
John Bernard petitioned the House of Representatives of Massachusetts on June 14, 1785, for a grant of this land which had been owned by his father, Sir Francis Bernard and con- fiscated by the United Colonies at the time of the Revolutionary War. The General Court passed a resolve as follows :
Resolved that one-half moiety or half part of the Island of Mount Desert be and hereby is granted, and from the passing of this resolve shall enure to the said John Bernard, his heirs and assigns forever to hold in fee simple, provided always that said John shall convey to each person now in possession of land, which may be a division of aforesaid Island assigned to said John, such quantity thereof and upon such terms as the com- mittee appointed by a resolve of the General Court passed October 28th, 1783, shall direct in eighteen months from the passing of this resolve.
The grant giving John Bernard one undivided half of the Island of Mount Desert was recorded September 15, 1786.
In April of 1691 King Louis XIV of France, who then claimed the shores of New England, granted to Monsieur de la Mothe Cadillac the possession of Mount Desert Island. This grant was made void when the land became the property of England.
On November 6, 1786, Cadillac's grand daughter, Madame de Gregoire and her husband Bartolemy with their three chil- dren, Pierre, Nicholas and Marie, landed in Boston from France to claim their right of inheritance. Of course they had no legal right to the property, but it was not considered of much value and so the Massachusetts legislature with no investigation, passed a resolution giving them the part of Mount Desert that
-
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
remained the property of the Commonwealth. So the Gregoires and their children were naturalized October 29th, 1787, and came to Hull's Cove to take possession of their estate. There they built a house and a mill and went to farming. They sold their lands to the incoming settlers for small sums. Bartolemy de Gregoire died January 18, 1810, and his wife a year later. Their children returned to France and no descendants of this couple were left at Mount Desert. A few years before they died they deeded all their property including their house at Hull's Cove to Royal Gurley, who supported them from that time. He moved into their house at first and after M. de Gregoire died he moved into Capt. Samuel Hull's house but continued to care for Madame de Gregoire until her death.
The grave of the de Gregoires in the cemetery at Hull's Cove is marked by a granite boulder from their own lands with their name and the dates of their deaths carved on it.
In June, 1788, the de Gregoires petitioned to have their part of the island set off from that of John Bernard. James Sullivan answered the petition for Bernard, and Stephen Jones, Nathan Jones and Thomas Richardson were appointed a committee to make partition. They reported as follows :
We, Stephen Jones, Nathan Jones and Thomas Richardson, in pursuance to the foregoing warrant to us directed, have set off to the DeGregoires the moiety of said Island which is bounded as follows: Beginning above Mr. James Richardson's at a stake and stone at the head of the tide at the northern extremity of the Mount Desert Sound and thence running North 38 degrees West to a stake and stone upon the edge of the bank of high water mark on the Northern side of said Island, thence easterly along the high water mark on the Northern side of said Island, thence Westerly to the shore to said Mount Desert Sound, thence northerly by the shore of said Sound to the first mentioned bound, and the whole of the part of said Island to the westward of said northerly line on the head of said Sound to the northerly shore to be the moiety or share of John Bernard, Esq.
(signed)
Stephen Jones Nathan Jones Thomas Richardson
Said report was accepted June 14, 1794.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
July 6, 1786, John Bernard mortgaged to Thomas Russell one undivided moiety of Mount Desert. No records appear in Han- cock County Registry of Deeds of any assignment, foreclosure or discharge of said mortgage, but the equity of redemption has been foreclosed by long and continued possession.
In 1803 the following petition was presented to the General Court of Massachusetts and the following resolve passed :
To the Honorable, the Senate and the Honorable House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in Gen- eral Court assembled humbly shows John L. Sullivan, adminis- trator de bonus non of the estate of Honorable Thomas Russell, Esq., late of Boston, deceased; that in the lifetime of said Russell, John Lane and Thomas Frazier both of London in the Kingdom of Great Britain, merchants, being indebted to said Russell in large sums of money, and having occasion by pur- chase of lands within this state to secure the payments of debts due to them in this Country, and by reason of their being aliens could not take to themselves deeds directly, had been made to the said Russell, which served as security for the debts that they owed, which, when paid, would render it equitable that he should apply the nature of the proceeds to their use and benefit.
Resolved :- that the said John L. Sullivan, administrator de bonus non of the estate of Thomas Russell, Esq., late of Boston deceased, be and is hereby authorized and in power to convey the deed or deeds due the executor, of all such real estate within this Commonwealth as the said Russell held in trust for John Lane and Thomas Frazier and all such as he held as security for all such debts due him from said Lane or Frazier, under any said person or persons under the said Lane and Frazier or the survivor of their assigns shall direct the same to be conveyed.
Quitclaim deed by John L. Sullivan, administrator of the estate of Thomas Russell by a resolve of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, conveys to George William Erving, by deed dated September 28th, 1803, recorded February 15th, 1804, in Hancock County, Maine, Registry of Deeds, Vol. 13, Page 457, conveys one half of Mount Desert Island, being the western half set off to John Bernard aforesaid.
Under the different resolves above noted, among other things it provided that the agents of eastern lands should ascertain the
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
persons who, on the 23rd day of June 1785, were in possession of any of the lands on Sir John's moiety as set off by the Com- missioners and accepted June 14th, 1794, of the Island of Mount Desert, and said Agents on the 16th day of August, A.D. 1808, appointed Charles Turner, Stephen Badlam and Salem Towne, Jr., Esquires, to lay out to each settler one hundred acres of land and place a value on the land as it was in a state of nature. This was done; also a survey of all that part of the Island of Mount Desert which was John Bernard's moiety. A plan was made, the settlers' names and lots were shown on the plan and other lots were numbered. This plan is on file in Hancock County, Maine, Registry of Deeds.
George William Erving gave a quitclaim deed of the property to Ward Nicholas Boylston, dower not released, consideration one dollar etc., dated March 9, 1822, recorded at Boston, signed March 15, 1822 and recorded in Hancock County Registry of Deeds March 26th, 1822, Book 42, Page 348.
Ward Nicholas Boylston gave the power of attorney to Salem Towne, Jr., to sell the land May 8, 1822. This is recorded in said Registry of Deeds Book 42, Page 437. This power of attor- ney gave the said Salem Towne, Jr., Esq., "full power to contract for the sale of any and all lands not yet sold to George W. Erving or his attorney, Thomas Winthrop, Esq., and to convey the same on such sums as he may agree upon and to do every- thing that may be done for my best interests in the sale of lands." At the death of Ward Nicholas Boylston, his widow, Alicia Boylston, Nathaniel Curtis and J. Quincy Adams were appointed as executors of his last will and testament September 26, 1828. They also gave Salem Towne, Jr., power of attorney to sell the land.
The early deeds bear the signatures of these trustees and it is on the above records that the settlers claim their titles.
Copies of the map made by Salem Towne, Jr., in 1808, show- ing the grants made to settlers are at the Southwest Harbor Public Library and also at the Mount Desert Museum at Somes- ville.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
SETTLERS ON THE WESTERN PART OF MOUNT DES- ERT ON THE BERNARD GRANT PRIOR TO 1784, WHOSE LOTS WERE SURVEYED AND ALLOWED BY CHARLES TURNER, JR., STEPHEN BRADLAM AND SALEM TOWNE, JR., COMMISSIONERS SEP- TEMBER, 1808.
John Chipman, easterly of Clark's Cove James Richardson, nearly at head of Somes Sound Abraham Somes, northerly side of Somes pond and stream Samuel Reed, southerly side of Somes pond and stream Daniel Somes, on the point southeast of Reed
Davis Wasgatt, west of Deming's pond
Andrew Tarr, northerly of Norwood's Cove
William Gilley, Norwood's Cove Tyler Reed, Norwood's Cove George Herman, Norwood's Cove
Ebenezer Eaton, 270 acres northerly of S. W. Harbor.
Joseph Legro, southwest side S. W. Harbor
Peter Dolliver, southwest side S. W. Harbor
Augustus Rasnell or Rumill, southwest side S. W. Harbor (Rafenal)
Andrew Tucker, southwest side S. W. Harbor Samuel Bowden, southwest side S. W. Harbor Benjamin Ward, southwest side S. W. Harbor Joshua Mayo, southwest side S. W. Harbor William Grow, southwest side S. W. Harbor John Rute, southwest side S. W. Harbor Nicholas Tucker, southwest side S. W. Harbor Joshua Norwood, east side Bass Harbor Abraham Richardson, east side Bass Harbor Thomas Richardson
Peter Gott
Thomas Richardson, Jr., Bass Harbor Head Daniel Gott, west side Bass Harbor Stephen Richardson, west side Bass Harbor Benjamin Benson, west side Bass Harbor Daniel Merry's Heirs, Lopers Point
Enoch Wentworth, west side Duck Cove Head
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
William Nutter, between Duck Cove and Goose Cove
Ezra H. Dodge, at Dodge's Point
William Heath, at Seal Cove
George Butler, north side of Seal Cove
James Reed, north side of Seal Cove Ephraim Pray, Jr., Pretty Marsh Widow Eaton, Pretty Marsh Ephraim Pray, Pretty Marsh
Reuben and George Freeman, Pretty Marsh
EARLY GOVERNMENT AT MOUNT DESERT PLANTATIONS
The first settlers of Mount Desert Island were mostly fisher- men and lumbermen from the Massachusetts coast towns, partic- ularly Gloucester, Eastham and other Cape Cod settlements. On fishing expeditions to the Maine coast in summer, they had noted the large and safe harbor near the fishing grounds, the growth of pine and spruce trees, as well as several grassy marshes neces- sary for getting hay as food for cattle while land was being cleared and the many tumbling brooks whose waters would turn the wheels of grist and saw mills.
The wooded islands lying south of Mount Desert attracted many of the fishermen, while those who were interested in lum- bering took up land on the ridges where the great trees stood. Those to whom tilling of the soil appealed settled near the marshes where hay for their flocks could be obtained. These people had no titles to their land until they acquired deeds from the de Gregoire or Bernard estates forty years or more after they had taken possession. In another chapter is an account of the petition prepared by the settlers and sent to Gov. Bernard in 1768 asking that the inhabitants of the island have the exclusive right to the use of the Marshes and complaining that men from other settlements often came to cut and carry off the hay. The signers of this petition were Abraham Somes, Andrew Tarr, Stephen Gott, Benjm. Standwood, James Richardson, Stephen Richardson, Daniel Gott, Daniel Gott, Jr., Thomas Richardson and Elijah Richardson.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
Abraham Somes, whose settlement at Somesville is mentioned elsewhere, was born at Gloucester, Mass., Mar. 17, 1732, the son of Abraham and Martha Emerson Somes, who were married at Gloucester in 1730.
Their pioneer ancestors were Morris and Margerie Somes who were among the first settlers in Gloucester and ancestors of all New England families of the name.
Abraham Somes married Hannah Herrick, daughter of Samuel Herrick of Gloucester and they had thirteen children.
Mr. Somes settled on Somes Point in 1762 and was among the foremost men in the affairs of Mount Desert Island during his long life of eighty years. He was one of the first Board of Selectmen, he was first lieutenant of the militia and he was engaged in several branches of business. His sons inherited his excellent qualities and carried on the business as their descend- ants have to the present day.
James Richardson, who came to Mount Desert the same year was the son of Stephen and Jane (Montgomery) Richardson who came in 1738 from Londonderry, Ireland, to Gloucester. Tradition says that Jane Montgomery was the daughter of a nobleman and Stephen was a gardener on her father's estate; that the young people eloped and afterward came to America to escape the parental wrath. It is claimed that she had the right to the title of Lady Jane. When their son James came to Somes- ville to make his home he brought with him many plants, seeds and shrubs-lilacs, lilies, currant bushes and fruit trees, showing a gardener's love for flowers as well as a thrifty lookout for fruits. The descendants of these trees and plants still grow around the Somesville homes.
James was a man of some education and was prominent in organizing the local government. He served as first clerk of the plantation and also town clerk and was clerk of the Congrega- tional church. His fine, plain handwriting may be seen in the old record books of church and town. He had a mill on his land at the head of the Sound and was engaged in farming and lumbering.
His brothers, Thomas and Stephen settled at Bass Harbor : Thomas at what is now Mckinley and Stephen at what is now
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
called Crockett's Point on the western side of the harbor. They also took part in town and church proceedings. It was at Stephen's house that the first plantation meeting was held March 30, 1776, and at that meeting he was elected a member of the Committee of Correspondence, Safety and Inspection. Subse- quent meetings were also held at his house. He was the repre- sentative of the plantation in the General Court and a member of the first Board of Selectmen.
Thomas settled at the east side of Bass Harbor. He was a member of the first Committee of Correspondence of the planta- tion and was one of the committee chosen to run the boundary line between the Bernard and de Gregoire grants known to the Mount Desert settlers as "the French line."
Daniel Gott was connected by marriage with the Richardson families and he first settled on the west side of Bass Harbor. In 1789 he obtained a deed of the two islands lying off Bass Harbor head where he made his home and which ever since have been known by his name.
Andrew Tarr was also a Gloucester man. He came first to Somesville but soon took up his abode on what is now Fernald Point where the Jesuits had attempted to set up their mission 150 years before. Mr. Tarr built his log house close to the shore near where now is the Macomber boat landing. His daughter Comfort married Tobias Fernald, a sea-faring man from Kittery and they built the house now standing at the end of the point. Three more generations of Fernalds owned the place by inheritance before it was sold for summer homes.
Benjamin Standwood at the time of the petition was probably living on one of the Cranberry Islands. He later returned to Gloucester.
The petition sent by the settlers to Gov. Bernard was referred to Col. Thomas Goldthwaite, commander of the post at Fort Pownal and he turned it over to Col. Nathan Jones of Goulds- boro. The letter written by Col. Jones to the Governor about the conditions at Mount Desert is preserved in the Bernard papers in the Harvard library.
Many settlers came to Mount Desert within the next few years and after the close of the Revolution there was a great increase in the population of the island.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
Before 1784 William Gilley had settled at Norwood's Cove on land that remained for many years the property of his descendants. Tyler Reed and George Norman were settled near him. Rev. Ebenezer Eaton owned what is now Clark Point. The names of Andrew Tucker, Samuel Bowden, Benjamin Ward, Joshua Mayo, William Grew (Grow), Nicholas Tucker, John Rute, Joseph Legros (Le Grosvenor) and Peter Dolliver are shown on the Salem Towne map as being settled on the south side of the harbor now Manset.
At what is now Mckinley were Joshua Norwood, Abraham Richardson and Peter Gott. Benjamin Benson had joined Ste- phen Richardson and Daniel Gott at what is now Bernard. The names of Nutter, Wentworth, Heath, Reed, Dodge and Butler are found along the shore to the north from Bass Harbor and at Pretty Marsh were Ephraim Pray and Reuben and George Freeman.
Hamor, Rodick, Lynam, Cousins, Mayo, Higgins, Young, Salsbury, Hadley, Thomas, Thompson are names connected with the settlement of the eastern half of Mount Desert on the grants from the de Gregoires. On June 1, 1791, there was said to be sixty-six families settled on those grants.
Christopher Bartlett took up his residence on Bartlett's Island soon after the coming of Abraham Somes.
Isaac Bunker and Samuel Stanley were at Cranberry Island as was also Benjamin Spurling who settled on Great Cranberry. John Robertson took possession of Placentia Island or Robert- son's Island as it was called.
Samuel Hadlock was at Little Cranberry.
February 16, 1776, the Massachusetts House of Representa- tives granted permission to unincorporated townships to hold meetings and choose officers "as if they were incorporated into a town." One month later a warrant was issued to Mr. Stephen Richardson authorizing him to call a meeting of "the inhabitants of the Island of Mount Desert and the Cranberry and Placentia Islands to meet at his house on Saturday, March 30 at ten of the clock before noon."
Josiah Black was chosen Moderator, James Richardson clerk, Ezra Young, Levi Higgins, Stephen Richardson, Isaac Bunker
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TRADITIONS AND RECORDS
and Thomas Richardson committee of correspondence, safety and inspection "for ye ensueing year." A committee to look after the hay on the marshes was appointed and some "rodes" laid out. Then the meeting was adjourned to "the tenth of June next." As there were no public funds a subscription was taken to purchase a record book.
At the adjourned meeting on June tenth, Ezra Young was appointed Captain of the Militia, Abraham Somes first lieutenant and Levi Higgins second lieutenant. Other provisions for safe- guarding the Island were made and more arrangements for pre- venting the marsh hay from being taken by those from other settlements.
Stephen Richardson attended the General Court on October of that same year in the interests of land titles and protection. The records show that his journey cost the sum of £4 2s 4d.
The meetings of the next few years dealt mostly with the laying out of roads. In 1777 it was voted to lay out a public road from the head of Somes Sound to Thomas Foss's house on the south side of South West Harbor and also one to Bass Har- bor. It was many years later before these rough trails were passable for vehicles. Public landing places were also named at Southwest Harbor and at the head of Somes Sound.
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