An historical sketch of the town of Deer Isle, Maine, with notices of its settlers and early inhabitants

Chapter I

Introduction. — Discovery. — Settlements. — Mills. — Marriages.

For some years past it has been my purpose to write an historical sketch of this town, with notices of its settlers and early inhabitants. When I came here a young man, nearly half a century ago, there were but few of the early settlers remaining, the last of whom, Mr. Joseph Sellers, died in 1844 at the age of ninety-two years. My information has been derived from those who were contemporary with them, and they in their turn have passed away. Although the means I have had for such a work were scanty, yet it was all. that could be obtained, as I had nothing but verbal information : but I may reasonably judge that it is in the main correct. I have thought it best to preserve it, in order that those who are now living, and those who may come hereafter, may have some knowledge of the hardships endured by their ancestors. The history of the early settlement of any country is a history of toil, privations, and suffering, and of these the persons noticed here have had their full share. It was with them a hard struggle for a subsistence, and had it not been for the sea-fowl, sea and shell fish, it could not have been obtained by them, and had those means been wanting elsewhere, the seacoast could never have been settled where it was in this State. I have hopes that what is here written may prove of interest to the descendants of those whose notices are here recorded. It is, or should be, a matter of interest to every one, to have some knowledge of the history of his native place, or of the town in which he resides. In too many cases it is not felt until the sources from which such information might have been obtained no longer exist, and I wish to improve this opportunity for its preservation, for otherwise it will soon have passed from memory and be lost beyond recovery.

DISCOVERY.

We have no authentic information by whom, and at what time, the islands on which this town is situated, were discovered. It has been stated that, in 1556, Andre Thevit, a Catholic priest, sailed in a French ship along the entire coast ; that he entered Penobscot Bay, where he spent five days and had numerous conferences with the natives. The first Englishman who visited this locality was Martin Pring, who sailed from Bristol in 1603, and visited Penobscot Bay and islands. Seeing some foxes on the shore of one island, he named it Fox Island, and that was the name by which those islands, on which the towns of North Haven and Vinalhaven are situated, were formerly known ; one as the North, and the other as the South, Fox Island. He was well pleased with the scenery of the bay, with the excellence of the fisheries, and with what animals were seen by them. When he returned to England, he carried an Indian canoe with him, but while here saw but few inhabitants. It is probable that he sailed up the bay lying between the towns of Deer Isle and Isle au Haut on the one side, and the towns of North Haven and Vinalhaven on the other, and from its height the Isle au Haut would have been a prominent landmark, as it can be seen about thirty-five miles at sea, and it is the outermost island of any considerable size in this vicinity ; and, if he sailed up the bay, as we have supposed, he must have seen Deer Island. We may regard him as the first Englishman who saw it, if not the first European, for if Thevit had seen the bay and published his discovery, it seems reasonable to us that he would have been followed by others of his countrymen and possession taken.

In 1604 Champlain visited this region and is said to have landed upon its shores, but there is little information respecting him. In 1605 the bay and islands were visited by James Rozier, and it has been stated that he sailed up the passage between Deer Isle on the one side^ and the towns of Brooklin, Sedgwick, and Brooksville on the other, and it is now known as Eggemoggin Reach ; and that he anchored near the cape lying at the southwestern extremity of the town of Brooksville, which bears his name. If this account be correct, he must have passed very near Deer Island, as the passage is in its narrowest part not more than half a mile in width. In the same year Weymouth visited the bay and river in June, but from the account given us, we believe that he sailed up the western side, between the towns of Islesborough and Camden, and he anchored opposite the hills now known as Camden Hills, where a party went on shore and afterward in a pinnace went farther up the bay and visited that part which, according to the description given us, must have been near where the city of Belfast is now situated.

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From the account given us, they appeared to have been as well pleased with what they saw, as was Pring two years earlier. The intercourse of Weymouth with the natives was at first friendly, but, unfortunately for his reputation, he kidnapped five of them and carried them to England, three of whom he delivered to Sir Ferdinand Georges, who kept them in his family three years, and in 1639 the Province of Maine was chartered to him.

It is not probable that Weymouth visited that part of the bay in which this town is situated, or, if he did, nothing is said about it, and as the accounts given of the discoveries by those early voyagers are very brief, conjecture must supply the vacancy ; but we must come to the conclusion that, at least, Pring and Rozier must have seen Deer Island. In 1614 Captain John Smith, of Virginia, visited this region and reported a settlement as having been made, but he must have referred to that made by the French on the island of Mount Desert, as it is said that it was occupied by them as early as 1604. Others came there in 1609, and Madame De Guerchville's colony was there in [613, a year before Smith visited these regions. No English settlement is reported to have been made anywhere in this vicinity until 1626, under the direction of the Plymouth Colony, by Isaac Allerton, on the peninsula on which the town of Castine now stands, for the purposes of trade, which was continued till 1635, when it was taken possession of by the French. It was retaken in 1654 and retained till 1670, when it was surrendered to the French, and by them retained most of the time until 1704, when it was captured by Captain Church of the Plymouth Colony ; and no other settlement anywhere in this vicinity was made by the English, which was permanent, until about the year 1760, which was the date of the

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settlement of Castine. We have no account who gave this island its name or when it was given, but it has been said that deer were found upon it in abundance, and that circumstance caused the name to be given it — which is very probable, as those animals could easily visit it in the winter by crossing the reach upon the ice ; and that they have been known to cross the passage by swimming. It has been said that upon one occasion one was seen swimming over, by the members of one family, who then resided near the shore in the early years of the settlement here, and on its landing it was killed by them, which was a providential circumstance, as at the time they were suffering from hunger. Several have been killed since I have resided here, and within twenty years past I saw an old one and her young near the highway about half a mile from the Northwest Harbor.

SETTLEMENTS.

When the first settlers came here, the island was an unbroken wilderness. No evidences were found indicating that it had ever been occupied by white men, and probably but few had ever landed upon its shores. The Indians had made some parts of it places of occupancy, at certain seasons of the year, for the purpose of obtaining a supply of food from the clam-flats, and evidences of their occupancy were to be found where those shellfish were in great abundance, and the depth of the shells in the ground shows that they must have been centuries in accumulating, and they also cover, in many places, considerable space. When the land was plowed, the spots occupied by their wigwams were easily discernible, and it is probable that the times of their visitation were at such times when other food was not so easily obtainable. OccalO AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE

sionally skeletons have been found, and at one time two were discovered under the roots of a large hard-wood tree ; it had grown to a large size and was in a state of decay, when it was blown over during a storm. One was that of a person of ordinary size, the other of one who was at least eight feet in height, and between the ribs of the larger one was found the head of a dart made of copper. They lay nearly side by side, and had been probably engaged in mortal conflict, the larger one mortally wounded by the smaller, and the smaller probably fell by the hands of the larger. This conflict must have happened a long time before discovery, as they must have lain upon the ground, and the tree which grew over them must have been a long time in attaining its growth. They were found nearly sixty years ago, and a medical man then residing in the town gathered up the skeleton of the larger one and preserved it; upon putting the bones together, he stated that the height of the man was what is above stated.

When the settler came, his first care was to provide a shelter for his family. A hut, the sides of which were built of logs, and the roof of bark, unless he had boards, which he probably had not, as then there were no sawmills anywhere in the vicinity ; a wall of stones laid up for a fireplace and a hole in the roof to let out the smoke and let in the light and air, and the floor, if any it had except the ground, was made of small trees sided with an axe. The walls were plastered with clay or mud in the spaces between the logs, or caulked with moss to keep out the cold. His first habitation was near the shore, as it was more convenient than farther back from it, as it caused less distance for the transportation of the articles of food. In the months of May, June, July, and a part of August, the bark used for roofing could be peeled from the trees ;

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at Other times it was fast to them and could not be obtained for the purpose. When he had opportunity, a house was built of logs of more convenient size, and if boards could be had, they could be used for roofs and floors. The chimney of rocks was carried farther up and topped out with sticks and clay, and a few squares of glass might be obtained to admit light into his dwelling ; and this second class was a great improvement upon the first. In time these kind of houses gave way to framed ones as there was opportunity to procure lumber, as sawmills had been erected here, and they in their turn were succeeded by better ones. In such rude dwellings, as I have in the first and second places described, were many of their children born and families reared. A very few of the second class were standing fifty years ago, but none now remain, as boards have taken the place of logs in their erection. A large portion of the dwelling-houses that were standing when I first came here, are not now, and a great improvement in that direction has taken place. We who live in dwellings so convenient, roomy, and elegant, can hardly conceive, many of us, how they could have lived in such places as they did, and on such fare as they had ; but a more healthy and robust generation was produced in those times, than is now with us. Many of them were remarkable for their physical strength and powers of endurance. His next task was to clear his land so that crops might be raised, and if he arrived in the month of June, it was the proper time to fell the trees, as that month is the most suitable for the purpose, and a few acres could be cut down the first summer, and when the trees were down the limbs could be lopped, as it is termed, so that the brush could be near the ground.

In the first of the fall, when dry, fires could be set and the limbs burnt. After that the trunks were cut into pieces of proper length, to be moved into piles and burnt. They were set on fire before the fall rains came, and about all consumed except the stumps, and the next year he was ready to put in his seed for such crops as he wished to raise. Usually corn was planted at first, as it could be conveniently grown, and in fair seasons it grew bountifully, as the land was new and the ashes a powerful stimulant. In those days but few potatoes were raised, as they were not so highly esteemed as at present. If grain were sown it had to be stacked, and afterward it was threshed. No gristmills were here, until some years after the first settlers came. Corn then was the favorite crop, as it could be prepared for food by pounding in what was called a samp-mortar, made of a hard-wood log, the end of which was hollowed out and pounded with a heavy pestle, into the bottom of which nails were thickly driven to enable it to break up the corn more thoroughly. This was then termed samp, and, when prepared for boiling, formed a valuable addition to their other food. It was also a favorite article of food with the Indians, who raised corn, and thus prepared it, and oftentimes cooked it with green beans, which dish was called succotash.

It was a work of years to clear the land for the plow, as it took a long time for the stumps to rot so that they could be taken out ; but usually when they were dried sufBciently, they were set on fire, and the roots, when rotten, could be dug up. As soon as fodder could be raised, cattle were procured, and a cow was a valuable animal to them. Sheep were kept as soon as they could be by them, as their wool was necessary for purposes of manufacture for clothing, and flax was also raised for the same purpose, and the cloth was durable if not fine. The

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implements used in its manufacture are now nearly obsolete ; the flax-wheel and hand-card are no longer in use, and' the spinning-wheel and hand-loom are soon destined to follow.

As years passed along, his circumstances improved ; more land was cleared and greater crops raised ; he was enabled to increase his stock and, consequently, his means of living. In a few years mills were built, and his corn and grain ground. Upon every lot of land were logs suitable for lumber which could be drawn out by oxen to the shore and towed to the sawmill for manufacture. Cordwood could be sold to be carried to Boston or other places in Massachusetts, and the proceeds exchanged for articles of necessity. At first, before he was enabled to keep oxen, it was cut in places convenient to the landings and drawn on hand-sleds. This was a slow and toilsome process, but it was better than to waste it by burning upon the ground, for the little he was paid for it was a help to him. After he could keep a team, he could choj) and draw it out in the winter in considerable quantities. Although the price was small, sometimes not exceeding one dollar per cord for the best hard wood, yet it was better than nothing. I recollect hearing an old gentleman saying that once he was obliged to sell such wood at the small price of fifty cents per cord upon the landing, and at the same time cloth then known as India cotton was fifty cents a yard. In these times perhaps sixty yards of much better cloth might be purchased with the proceeds of one cord of such wood.

In those days there were no roads ; the inhabitants lived near the shore, and in order to visit each other, they must follow the shore or go in boats. There were footpaths through the woods in such places where the shore could not be used as a road, and they were by trees spotted to guide the traveler. It was about twenty-six years after the town was settled, before it was incorporated, and until that time every person, if he needed a road, was obliged to make it himself. If a person had a grist to carry to mill, if he could not go by water, he was obliged to -carry it upon his shoulder. I once heard one who was here quite early say that he had at one time three bushels of corn, and he was obliged to carry it to the Northwest Harbor to mill, which was six miles from his house. He put it into two bags and, starting with one, carried it until he was tired, laid it down, walked back to the place where the other was left, took that up and carried it till he was tired, then rested and started with the other : and in that way transported his corn to, and his meal from, the mill. He was a perfectly reliable man, and I have no doubt of the truth of his statement, for he was of large size and great strength. These little incidents show us what hardships were endured by those who were before us. The chief article of food upon which they relied at first were the clams which were then very abundant in the flats in front of the lots occupied by them, and the seacoast of New England has abounded with them. It was at times the chief reliance of the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth, without which they would doubtless have perished by starvation. Although it is not a very nourishing kind of food, when confined to, nor so palatable as some other kinds, still there was no fear of the supply being exhausted. It was considered of so much consequence that in 1641 the Colony of Massachusetts passed an ordinance that, whatever right the owner of land had to the fiats left bare at low water in front of his land, he had no exclusive right to the shellfish that might be taken from them ; nor

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had he a right to prevent any one from taking fowl, these being considered a right which others had in common with the owners of the land, and this is the law of our State. It has since been a business of considerable importance, the taking of them for bait for the cod-fisheries ; and the amount that has been dug from the flats in this town within the last fifty years has amounted to many thousand barrels, furnishing employment for many, and at this time they are put up in cans by the packing companies in their factories in the town.

It needed but little time to enable the settler to procure what he needed from day to day, as the supply must be taken at the time of their use, for if kept very long they became unwholesome. During the months of May, June, July, and August they were not so suitable for food as at other times, but in the winter and early spring, when the ice covered the shores, it had to be cut through to dig them, which made the labor severe. The seafish at that time were very abundant ; one man could load a small boat in one day, at times. Their boats were made of a large log of wood hewn into proper shape, and dug out, and were termed "log canoes." They have long since gone out of use, and their places supplied by boats of a better kind and much more convenient. A few of the former kind were to be seen sixty years ago, but it is a long time since I have seen one. The fish were at that time much nearer the shore than at present, and it was but little labor to row out where they were and take what was wanted. The chief difficulty was in obtaining salt. There was no place of trade nearer than Fort Point, which was the only place, until the British took possession of Bagaduce in 1779, where a market was opened for what they had to sell and such goods as they needed could be purchased. Salt was manufactured here by boiling sea-water, of which two per cent, only is salt. In order to manufacture it, large kettles or iron pans were set by the shore, the water was pumped up at high water and led into them by spouts and boiled down. The wood used for fuel was conveniently near in abundance, but it was a slow process, as about four hundred gallons of water were necessary to produce one bushel of salt weighing sixty pounds — but it was an article they must have. One man, Mr. Jonathan Eaton, was for several years engaged in the business, and what he made during the summer he carried up to the towns above Newburyport, on the Merrimack River, the locality whence he came, and sold or exchanged it for produce. The price here was never less than one dollar per bushel, and its quality was about equal to the Liverpool salt at present.

Other kinds of fish were taken, the herring in weirs made by enclosing the mouth of a creek or cove by brush woven between stakes set or driven into the flats above low-water mark. The top of the hedge was low enough to admit them at high water, but upon the ebb of the tide below the top of it they were detained, and were taken when the fiats were bare ; they were salted, the larger ones in casks, the smaller cured by smoking. In the winter the frost fish, as they were termed, were taken in considerable quantities at the mouths of brooks, and they were acceptable, as it was not the season of fresh fish of other kinds. The smelts could be taken in considerable quantities in the same way in the spring, and when lightly salted and cured by drying made a very palatable article of food.

The other source of supply upon which they relied was the seafowl, particularly of the duck kind ; they were taken by shooting, netting, and driving. Every one who could procure a gun and ammunition did so, as it enabled

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him to procure a supply, as they were in the waters surrounding the island in abundance. The practice of netting was by setting large nets on the flats, fastened to stakes, in such a manner as to float and rise with the tide horizontally upon the surface, and when spread covering considerable space ; when the fowl swam near the shore, as is their practice, and, diving, came up under the nets, they became entangled, and could be taken. Large quantities were taken in this way, and when dressed those not wanted for a present supply were salted for future use. The feathers were valuable for beds, and were salable, and si.x full-grown ones furnished one pound of them. The other method was styled duck-driving, and as it has not been practised within the memory of any but the very oldest of our inhabitants, it will be proper to give a description of the manner in which they were taken. For a very few days in the month of August they could not fly, as they were then shedding their quills, or larger feathers. The time was well known to the inhabitants in the places around, in other settlements, and all who could come did so from Penobscot River, from Penobscot, and around the bay in boats. P'irst a circle of boats was formed so as partially to surround them, and boats also were stationed to prevent their taking a wrong direction. Duck Harbor, on the southwestern part of Isle au I laut, was the place selected to drive them into, as it was well suited for the purpose, being narrow and extending half a mile or more into the land.

They were driven, anil as the drive went on, others were overtaken, and by the time they reached the place of destination a large number were included in the drive, lieginning at the upper part of the bay, below I^agle Island, they drove several miles down, narrowing the Hock as they went along, when thev were driven into the mouth of the harbor and up to the head of it, and when the fowls reached the shore they were taken and killed, and every one engaged could have all he needed. The water, and not the land, is their element. They can swim quite rapidly, but when on landing they attempted to walk they could easily be taken. At one time a very large drive was made, and many, attempting to walk over the land from the head of the harbor to the southern shore of the island, perished in the woods, and their remains were seen for a long time. Such wholesale destruction soon had its effect, as they decreased or sought other places where they could be free from such a molestation. No drive has been made for perhaps eighty years or more. My informant, the late Captain David Thurlow, a man well known here in his day, was present at several of the "drives," and from him I obtained the information given above. He died in 1857, at the age of eighty-two years, and " drives " were all the rage when he was young. From an account given me many years ago, I judge that wild fowls, when they escape from danger, often shun the place afterward. Among the early years of the settlement here the wild geese, going on their flights toward the north, frequently halted and landed upon a particular part of the island, near what is now called " Dunham's Point," the locality of the silver mine now being operated upon, and they also did so on their return in the fall. After it became known persons lay in wait for a chance to shoot at them, and after it was done a few times they landed no longer there ; and for years after when they passed over the spot they would rise higher than usual before they reached it, so as to be out of the reach of the shot, and after they had passed would go down to their usual level.

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MILLS.

I have no means of ascertaining the date of the erection of the first mill here, but I am inclined to think that it was by Mr. Nathaniel Kent, of Boston, on the site of the mills afterward occupied by Stephen Holt and Richard Warren. Messrs. Mark Haskell & Sons also put up a saw and grist mill at the Northwest Harbor. They purchased the land they occupied there in 1772 of Ezekiel Marshall, who was here before them ; but they did not come until a few years after, and from what information I have been able to obtain they did not come till 1778. In the notice of them I shall state more fully about them. Jonathan Greenlaw, who came as early as 1762 or 1763, one of the family of that name who came shortly after, and, next to William Eaton, the first settler, gave a deed to Kent of a tract of land containing a mile square, in consideration of the erection and maintenance of a gristmill. The date of the deed I have never learned, but, if it ever was put on record, it must have been done in the records of the county of Lincoln, in which county we then were, as Hancock County was not incorporated till 1789. Greenlaw had, of course, no title to the land he conveyed, as the title then was in Massachusetts. The mill was afterward occupied by Joseph Tyler, Esq., a native of Dedham, Massachusetts, who came during the latter part of the Revolutionary War. A sawmill was built, whether by Kent or Tyler I do not know. It stood for some years, occupied by ICsquire Tyler, and manufactured boards and other lumber from the logs which were then standing in that vicinity. After Tyler moved into another part of the town, the place was occupied by Ste])hen Holt, who rebuilt the gristmill and run it till 1842. After his removal the