USA > Maine > Hancock County > Traditions and records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert island, Maine > Part 9
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Sixty years ago the netting of nets was an occupation fol- lowed in every home where the men were fishermen.
In the early days of the settlement of Mount Desert there was but little for women to do in the way of earning money. Home knit stockings and mittens were always in demand, but the prices were very low. A pair of men's mittens could be bought for twenty-five cents. Many women found employment in knitting "nippers"-a protection for men to wear on their hands when fishing with hand lines. Rugs and quilts were made for home use but it is only within recent years that they have been made here for sale.
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The Cottage Crafts Society which was carried on here a few years, and the Women's Exchange have done much towards raising the standard of taste in design and quality in execution of the home industries and some very fine work is offered for sale at the latter place every summer.
It is not generally known that whaling was once one of the occupations of Mount Desert Island. The first Capt. Benjamin Benson, ancestor of all who bear that name in this vicinity, came from New Bedford, Mass., to make his home at Bass Harbor, bringing his whaleboat and equipment to follow his method of making a living. He built his "try-house" on the shore of his property, shipped his crew and went after the whales. He was successful and many barrels of oil were "tried out" in his building. His custom was to shoot the whales with a "whale gun", now in possession of one of his descendants. The great carcass would sink but would rise to the surface in nine days. At that time Capt. Benson intended to be around the spot where the whale sank and if luck was good, he brought in his kill. There is an old daguerrotype owned by one of the family, showing the whaleboat with its crew and Capt. Benson standing in the bow with his whale gun. Every whale killed was re- membered by a notch on the gunwale of the boat. A summer resident told of seeing the boat when it had fourteen notches.
In the days of sailing ships Mount Desert furnished her quota of men who did their duty in every capacity on board ship from forecastle to cabin and in all kinds of craft from the little fishing vessel or coaster to the clippers which voyaged to ports on the other side of the world. Men spoke familiarly of foreign cities and London, Hamburg, Gibralter, Melbourne, Shanghai, Canton and Calcutta were places often visited by the "deep water men."
The coasters knew well all the cities on the Atlantic shores, many had rounded the Horn and could tell stories of happenings in the Pacific coast cities of South America and there were those who took part in the exciting days of the discovery of gold in California.
In the days of mackerel fishing Southwest Harbor was often fairly crowded with vessels during a "fog mull" and care had to
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be taken in anchoring to insure room enough for each vessel to swing at her moorings.
Steam displaced the sailing ships, fishing is done from motor boats and now gasoline and good roads have put the steamboats out of commission and the harbor waters are seldom ruffled by anything but small fishing craft and pleasure boats.
MOUNT DESERT IN WAR
Perhaps the Indian war-whoop may have sounded from the hills of Mount Desert, but if so, they left no record. The Indians who were here when white men came were friendly and we know of no difficulty between the settlers and the dusky children of the forest. In the earliest days Mount Desert men who belonged to the militia were summoned more than once to join a company to go to the settlements eastward to quell Indian troubles, but no legend of Indian fights here has come down to us.
The destruction of the Jesuit settlement of St. Sauveur by the English in 1613 is the first time to our knowledge when the roar of war guns echoed from the hills to the north of the peace- ful harbor and that blood was shed in defense of the land.
The pirate Dixie Bull and also William Kidd are said to have ranged the Maine coast and sought refuge in the harbors of the Mount Desert region. Stories of hidden treasure have been told and considerable searching has been done in and around Mount Desert. Some few discoveries are said to have been made, but none of any great value.
In Charles Bradbury's History of Kennebunk, published in 1837, he says that on February 14, 1746, a crew of men from Arundel (Kennebunk), on their way to Annapolis, Nova Scotia, to fight the French, were cast away on Mount Desert. "Capt. Perkins commanded the company. It was reported by the sur- vivors that the captain, in order to secure his own safety, secured down the hatches after the vessel struck and left the soldiers to perish miserably in confinement. There is some obscurity about this story and one John Walker was prosecuted by the person implicated for circulating the story, but the result of the suit is not known."
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During the Revolutionary War enemy ships ranged the coast of Maine and often entered harbors to pillage and burn.
John Manchester was at Manchester's Point, Northeast Har- bor, as early as 1775. An English ship entered the harbor and anchored. Then a boat-load of men came ashore and made a raid on the Manchester home. Mr. Manchester was in the woods hunting for game. The soldiers took the oxen and cows, drove them down on the shore and there killed them, cut them up and took the meat on board the ship. Then they entered the house and took all the eatables they could find, potatoes and other vegetables and all that was provided for the coming winter. Then they destroyed all the cooking utensils and told the mother of the family that "they could starve now." Then they sailed away.
However, one young cow was wandering off in the forest and so escaped the marauders and the father was fortunate in having his gun with him so did not lose that. He was lucky enough to shoot a moose soon after this raid and so replenished his store of meat.
At Pretty Marsh some men were shingling a house when they sighted a war ship approaching. She anchored and a boat put off to row ashore. The few settlers were terrified, but one valiant woman pointed out that men could fire on the soldiers from the shelter of the roof which was being shingled and on which staging was set up, and that the women could get on the roof and aid in loading the guns. She said the settlement would starve to death if the soldiers took all their supplies, which of course were what they were after, and they might as well try to defend themselves and their property. Encouraged by her words the men took their places on the roof, guns in hand. They were expert marksmen, experienced in bringing down seabirds on the wing and they opened fire as soon as the boat came within range. Not knowing how many men might be in ambush well armed, the boat soon turned back and the settlers were free to go on with their shingling.
There was a British raid at Naskeag on July 20, 1778, and the Mount Desert settlers were enraged when they were told that the settlers of that place had urged that the marauders leave
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them alone and go to Mount Desert where they would be richly rewarded.
It is said that during this time a small vessel was pursued by a larger one and to escape capture and its consequences, the captain steered his craft into a small inlet on the southern shore of Mount Desert, ever since known as Ship Harbor. The crew escaped to the woods and the larger ship could not follow her prey, so sailed away. The tide was unusually high when the little ship went into the "harbor." It was impossible to get her out again so she slowly decayed in her place of refuge. People are now living who have looked down into the clear water and seen her timbers lying on the bottom. Dudley Dolliver has a cannon ball which was found in that vicinity, doubtless fired at the escaped prey by her pursuer.
In the graveyard back of the white church at Manset is the grave of Jonathan Brown, who was a sailor on the flagship of Paul Jones in his famous encounter with the English ships off Flamborough Head on the east coast of England in 1779.
James Whitmore has the musket which was carried in the Revolutionary War by his great-great grandfather, Joseph Whitmore and there are many other relics of that time in the homes of the town.
In "The Founding of New England" James Truslow Adams tells us that "In July 1814 Sir Thomas Hardy sailed from Hali- fax with a formidable force for land operations and took pos- session of a considerable extent of the Maine coast."
The coast and river towns suffered exceedingly from the depredations of this fleet. Bangor, which was a small village at the time, was treated with great severity by the intruders.
One day in August, 1814, Jonathan Rich and his son John were fishing in a small boat outside Duck Island. They saw a ship approaching and were hailed and told to come aboard. Mr. Rich did as he was told and the commander explained that the ship was Her Majesty's ship the Tenedos and wanted Rich to stand pilot. A good price was offered, but the loyal American declined to serve. They bought some of his fish and the boy John had time to examine the guns and count them.
The Tenedos made her way in by sounding and anchored in the channel between Sutton and Bear Islands.
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At this time two small vessels were hauled up in the Mill Pond at Norwood's Cove ; one, "Four Sisters" belonging to Capt. Benjamin Spurling of Cranberry Island and it is supposed that an enemy of Capt. Spurling reported this to the commander of the English ship who was out to seize and destroy all the American shipping possible. The vessels had been hauled up close to the shore and their masts and rigging concealed with branches of trees so they would hardly be noticed.
The commander sent a message to Capt. Spurling's house demanding $350 or the vessel would be burned. Capt. Spurling asked for a little time in which to raise the money, which was granted; but, instead of doing so he sent his five sons, Robert, Thomas, William, Enoch and Samuel to raise the militia and at night he informed the officers that the bond could not be met.
In the early morning, two barges were manned by the Tene- dos, the larger containing sixty men and a twelve pound swivel. In this boat Capt. Spurling was obliged to go. The smaller boat contained forty men and a six pounder.
Peter and Timothy Smallidge were rafting some logs up the Sound to the mill. They were intercepted, the logs cut adrift and the men taken on board the Tenedos as prisoners of war. They were liberated some hours later before the ship sailed away.
Meanwhile the Spurling sons had rowed to Southwest Harbor and given the alarm. The men of the settlement gathered as one man to give all possible aid against injustice. There was a limited amount of ammunition to be had. Andrew Herrick, a strong and able man, set out in a small boat from the western shore of the island to row to Castine for a supply of ammunition and possible aid from the settlements along the shores.
A messenger was dispatched through the woods on horseback to Lieut. Col. John Black of Ellsworth, who commanded the militia. Other swift-footed runners carried the alarm to all the settlements on the southern and western shores and the response was immediate.
There was no time to lose and the twenty or thirty men of the settlement of Southwest Harbor gathered at the Back Shore of Clark's Point where they lay in ambush. To get to the
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vessels the enemy must pass through a narrow passage of water directly under the bluffs where the men were hiding behind the thick trees. Capt. Spurling who had been told that he should "stand and watch his ships burn", warned the soldiers not to go too near the shore, saying that he had five sons in those woods who could shoot a duck on the wing.
As the boat neared the shore toward the cove, Robert Spurl- ing hailed from the woods, warning them not to come too near, but got an insulting answer. "I'd fire into you if my father wasn't there," cried he.
"Never mind me, Rob" shouted the old man, "Fire away, fire away, I tell you. Give these blasted Britishers hell."
The men on shore hesitated no longer, especially as at this remark one of the soldiers pulled the old man backwards and he fell into the bottom of the boat.
The son fired first and his comrades in ambush followed his example. The smoke rose white above the trees on the shore as shot after shot was fired into the boat, by men who were expert marksmen, trained to shoot from a rocking boat on the waves and seldom miss.
The boats returned the fire hastily and at random and with- drew with their dead and wounded men.
Two Moore boys from Sutton Island, sons of William Moore, who had gone off to the ship to sell raspberries, said that seven dead and a number of wounded men were brought to the ship and hoisted aboard. On the American side the only wound was that Captain Samuel Hadlock of Little Cranberry had two fingers grazed by a bullet. Isaac Lurvey, for many years was able to point out the tree behind which he stood, a lad of eighteen. Several bullets were embedded in the tree. The Heath family of Seal Cove had in their possession a six pound cannon ball picked up just after the battle by William Heath, Ensign of the Independent company. Several other families in the locality had such relics, but they have been forgotten and lost.
Capt. Spurling was released soon after getting back to the ship and the Tenedos sailed out of the harbor.
Several interesting anecdotes were told of happenings during this skirmish.
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Jacob Lurvey, a veteran of the Revolution, was living on what is now the Worcester farm on the Somesville Road. He had been sick in bed for some time and when the alarm was given, his son Isaac took the one musket and rushed away with it to the scene of action. Toward morning the father got up and began to dress. His wife urged him to remain in bed saying, "You, a sick man can do nothing. What can you do without your musket ? Isaac's got that." "I am going," was the reply. "By this time some of our men have been killed or wounded and there will be a musket for me" and away he went.
Old John Richardson, another Revolutionary Veteran, lived on Beech Hill. He was entirely deaf, but he heard the summons but did not understand where the men were to assemble and so came walking down the slope on the north side of the cove in the midst of the action in full view of the British in their barge.
His neighbors called to him to come around the other way so as not to expose himself, but he could not hear them and ap- parently had no fear for from behind a rock he calmly loaded and fired at the enemy who sent a charge from a gun to an- nihilate him, but when the dust and turf and stones cleared away, brave old John was loading and firing as if nothing had hap- pened.
During the firing the British caught sight of a man coming up from the Point with a bag full of bullets over his shoulder. It was Capt. Nathan Clark. They fired at him but missed the mark. "Better grease your damn old muzzles and try again," he shouted.
As the boats turned to go back to the ship the sharp eyes of the ambushed men noted that only five men were at the oars instead of twelve.
Mrs. Comfort Fernald watched the battle from her home on Fernald Point.
Mrs. Hannah Lurvey, wife of Jacob, heard the firing that morning as she was milking her cow.
The militia under Col. Black arrived just too late to be of any service, having marched the twenty miles from Ellsworth during the night.
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So runs the story of the Battle of Norwood's Cove as it has been handed down through the years from those who had a part in it. Now for the British side of the same story :
During the summer of 1936 Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Foote were travelling in Europe and while in London they went to the British War Office and in the Department of Public Records, copied the log of the Tenedos with the following record of her actions during the month of July and part of August when she was cruising along the coast of Maine. The record was not easy to follow as Capt. Hyde Parker's handwriting was not of the plainest and his spelling was his own, but it was learned that the Tenedos left Monhegan Island on August 4, 1814, and sailed down the coast, sighting Long Island at midnight, August 5th. By the evening of the sixth she had made up apparently through the Western Way into the inner bay and anchored off North East Harbor. She then began to get water, sending all her boats ashore. The next day, the seventh and the following one, the eighth, the watering of the ship continued. Wood was brought on board. There is no record of any open show of hostility on the part of the inhabitants of the islands.
Following is the log exactly as written or as near as could be made out :
Aug. 8th. "Received on board 4 live Oxen weighing 1650 lbs. when alive and 304 lbs. of potatoes. .sent a boat for sand. Completed water to 96 Tons ...... 5.30 in all boats."
Aug. 9th. "Fresh breezes and hasey with rain ...... at 6 o'clock obs'd a schooner enter the Harbor fired a Shot at her and brought her too she proved to be from Eastport bound to Port- land with passengers by pass from Sir S Hardy allowed her to procede."
Aug. 10th. "Moderate and hasey with small rain at 4 o'clock Ditto W (weather?) out Barge and cutter and sent them up the Harbor Manned and Arm'd 7 (o'clock) Boats returned John Peterson(s) and James Pickard(m) being severely wounded and Thos Hughes(s) slightly by a party of Militia Noon Light Breezes and fine (etc) ...... Employed setting up Foretopmast and Top Gallant rigging."
Aug. 11th. The ship weighed anchor and left the waters of Mt Desert apparently the way she had come.
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The "s" after Peterson's name seems to mean sailor, while. the "m" marine. There is no record that either Peterson or Pickard died of their wounds. After the names and details about the various members of the crew in the Muster Book for that period, July-August, 1814, there is nothing to show that anything had happened to them. After James Pickard, Lieut., is the phrase "Discharged May 12, 1814 Invalided per scurvy." But this dates before the skirmish. Mr. Foote followed the log and the Muster Book for a month or more without finding any further record of these men, so it would seem that they did not die of their wounds received in the "Battle of Norwood's Cove."
Capt. Parker did not note in his log that the oxen and potatoes which he took on board were part of a ransom paid by a Cranberry Island man in exchange for a promise that his little fishing vessel with which he earned his living, would not be burned. The local story claimed that the two boys who were selling raspberries to the sailors on the Tenedos at the time the Barge and cutter returned from their conflict with the Militia, saw seven lifeless bodies hoisted from the boats to the ship. To their astonished and terrified eyes, three were easily magni- fied to seven. Otherwise, the story as handed down by the local residents agrees with the logbook of Capt. Hyde Parker.
"The weakest ink is stronger than the longest memory" says the Chinese proverb.
Man-of-War Brook on the western shore of Somes Sound is so called because warships of early days used to fill their water casks at that clear, cold stream.
The late Perry W. Richardson of Mckinley village, Tremont, had the following ancient and suggestive writing found among the papers of his grandfather, the late Thomas Richardson, first settler in that locality and a man prominent in the affairs of the Island and one who served on many important committees.
Castine 10 Septr. 1814
The submission of the Inhabitants of Mount Desert having been accepted and protection promised them, they are not to be molested either in their persons or property, so long as they
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behave themselves peaceably and quietly and commit no acts of Hostility against the British Forces.
Edw. Griffith, Rear Admiral,
Commandg.
To the respective Captains and Commanders of His Maj.'s Ships and Vessels.
A true copy
Attest :
Davis Wasgatt William Heath Com. of Mount Desert
Several men of Mount Desert Island were captured during the 1812 war and confined in Dartmoor prison.
Men from Mount Desert Island were among those who marched the length of the State in 1839 to defend the northern boundary, which was settled in 1842 by the Webster-Ashburton treaty with no bloodshed. Francis Young, Gilbert Gilley and Samuel Lurvey were among them.
Ninety-two Mount Desert Island men came back from the Civil War and founded the James M. Parker Post G.A.R. at Somesville. On Dec. 27, 1935, Dennis J. Haley, the last survivor of that group, presented the stand of colors, the gavel and the Post Album to those who will care for them in the years to come.
In 1898 many young men from Mount Desert Island were enrolled in the ranks of the War against Spain and the roster of the World War carries the names of men from the four towns of the Island. Some sleep in Flanders Fields and others have been brought back to lie in the little graveyards in the villages where they were born and spent their childhood.
The Eugene M. Norwood square at the junction of the Seal Cove and Main Roads is a memorial to the boy whose home was close by that square and who was killed in action in France, October 26, 1918.
MAILS
When Mount Desert Island was first settled and for some years after, the nearest post office was at Ellsworth. On April 4, 1814, a petition was circulated "for the mail to come on the Isle of Mount Desert on the expense of Government."
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The earliest record of mail service available is a contract dated October 16, 1820 with Josiah Paine of Portland and Alexander Rice of Kittery to carry the mail from Ellsworth to Mount Desert once a week on Thursdays. This contract was made for four years, beginning January 21, 1821 and ending December 31, 1824.
Anderson Hopkins of Trenton was the first mail carrier on the Island. There was no bridge across the Narrows until 1837, so he had to ford the waters. The first mailbag brought on to the Island is now in possession of the Somesville Museum and can be seen at their building.
The first post office on Mount Desert Island was kept by John Somes in a small building on the site of one of the three store buildings that now stand in the village of Somesville. The first building was later moved to the rear and a new front built. Thus the first post office is now a part of the rear of that building.
The office at first served the whole island. Then an office was established at Eden and the Somesville office was used by South- west Harbor and all the western side of the island until in the early 1830's a post office was established in the David King house at what is now Manset and this served Southwest and Bass Harbors and the outlying islands. In 1836, mail was car- ried from the Narrows to Southwest Harbor and back one trip a week for fifty dollars a year.
Manset was then Southwest Harbor and the business of the town was carried on there. The Custom House was in the old Ward house south of the schoolhouse. Samuel Osgood and later Horace Durgain had a store with a large stock of goods of all kinds, there was a good deal of shipbuilding going on, the sail loft owned and operated by Albert Bartlett made the sails for the new ships and there was considerable traffic in fish.
With the building of the factory at Clark Point for the can- ning of beef and later of lobsters, business in what is now the village of Southwest Harbor began to increase, summer visitors began to spend weeks at Deacon Clark's hospitable house and the post office was moved to the north side of the harbor and
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kept for some time by J. T. R. Freeman in a house on the site of the present Park Theater. Then the Custom House was set up on the second floor of the building which stood on the site of the present A. I. Holmes cottage. D. P. Marcyes had the Custom House for some years, then Thomas Clark and later Thaddeus Somes of Mount Desert.
When the Civil War broke out the mail was still brought to Southwest Harbor but once a week. A petition was sent to headquarters asking that a daily mail service be established and this was allowed. Then a number of the citizens "clubbed together" and took a daily paper for the war news. At mail time everybody assembled at the post office and one of the men would mount the steps leading to the Custom House and read the column of news relating to the war. Sometimes lists of dead, wounded and missing were read and a familiar name was among the fatalities.
In 1869 a telegraph company was organized through the efforts of Deacon Clark and in 1870 the line from Southwest Harbor to Ellsworth was put into operation.
The first message sent over the telegraph line from Bar Harbor to Bangor was "From the Mayor of Bar Harbor to the Mayor of Bangor ; Eden sends a telegraphic greeting to Bangor. Our line will be completed by Eve; but, owing to the rocky soil, not without A-dam. Eden, May 19, 1871"
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