Georgetown Island
A Brief Historical Perspective by Carolyn F. "Billie" Todd Many scenes and dramas have passed within the purview of Georgetown Island, situated at the mouth of the Kennebec River. In pre-history, Native Americans of the Abenaki Confederacy were the first identifiable tribes to use the island, coming down from Norridgewock and the Penobscot region to gourmandize on oysters, fish and clams, and to hunt in winter for ducks and beaver. Originally it was believed that the area was mostly frequented in the summer. However, more recent scientific analysis of growth rings on shells in middens suggests year-round habitation It is established that Viking ships visited the shores in the 10th century, perhaps landing, and it may be surmised that the Phoenicians could have appeared even a thousand years earlier. Word of the teeming fishing grounds passed from one culture to another and, before the days of Columbus, French, English, Italian, and Portuguese ships made forays into the area. Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) and George Weymouth sailed into the Sheepscot and the Kennebec Rivers and reported back to their British sovereign. It was Weymouth who kidnapped six Indians from Monhegan and took them back to England as curiosities. There they received V.I.P. treatment and learned some English. One of these was Squanto, which turned out to be a good thing for him as during his absence, his fellow Indians back home were decimated by disease, probably smallpox. As far as is known, there were no permanent European communities in the “New World” until the Spaniards founded St. Augustine in Florida in 1565. This was followed by the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, coincidentally the same year as the Popham Colony was established in Phippsburg at the mouth of the Kennebec. The Pilgrims at Plymouth, (enjoying better public relations via Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Felicia Hemans), were really Johnny-come-latelies, and avoided starvation through the generosity of the people of Damariscove. The rigors of Maine's winters put an end to the Popham Colony in 1608, the survivors returning to England, but not before they had made a contribution to history with the building of the 30-ton ship "Virginia", reputedly the first English colonial ship built on these shores. The Popham Colony sat on the west bank of the Kennebec, at the mouth of the river. On the east bank was the island of Roscohegan, which belonged to an Indian tribe headed by Chief Mowhatawormit. Colonists having difficulty with his tribal name called him Robert Hood or Robin Hood. The reference was to the Lord of Misrule who dominated the X-rated revels in the Middle Ages, rather than to the engaging freebooter of Sherwood Forest. In 1616 Captain John Webber, with mate and brother-in-law, John Parker, sailed in the Mayflower (not the Pilgrim ship) and established a trading post with the Indians. He must have discovered Roscohegan early in his travels and found it fair, for the Plymouth Colony was trading here no later than 1625. Parker himself came annually. The Indian name for the mouth of the Kennebec was "Sagadahoc", descriptive of the turbulent tidal water. Stage Island was known as "Sagadahoc Island". By 1630 John Parker possessed 100 acres of land on Arrowsic Island and had built a house on Squirrel Point. In 1649 he purchased Roscohegan Island (later renamed as Parker Island) from Chief Mowhatawormit, who signed the deed with his mark, and his name was given as Robert Hood (Whood). The land involved was described as lying to the eastward side of "Sacittihock River's mouth" running northeast to the "Shipscut River". That same year, 1649, John Richards bought the island of Arrowsic from Chief Robin Hood. In 1654, Richards sold Arrowsic to Thomas Clark and Roger Spencer. Spencer then sold his share to Thomas Lake. John Parker sold his house and land on Arrowsic to Clark and Lake, who in 1658-9 laid out a town on the south end of the island with streets and eventually a fort and trading post. The Plymouth Company, formed from the Plymouth Colony, in 1630 had procured a grant on the Kennebec that guaranteed them the river trade in fish and furs as they dealt with the Indians. They were succeeded by the firm of Clark and Lake. In 1654, all the territory on the lower Kennebec, as far up as the Chops on Merrymeeting Bay, was called New Plymouth, and was governed by Old Plymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first John Parker built a home on the lower end of Parker's Island facing the sea, and until his death prior to Nov. 20, 1661, lived there with his wife Mary. In a deed of June 29, 1671, the widow Mary conveyed to her son Thomas Parker and his heirs "the house and field and a parcel of Marsh bounded by the Creek lying upon the westward side (Little River)". Sarah Parker, daughter of Thomas, and her husband Matthew Salter, also lived on the lower end of Parker's Island until driven off by Indians. John Parker, Jr., the younger son of John Sr., lived on Arrowsic and was in the fishing trade until Indian raids drove him to the west bank of the Kennebec. He later returned to Stage (Sagadahoc) Island, where others from Parker's Island found refuge from King Philip's depredations. The fort there was evacuated in 1689 and no further attempts were made to settle Parker's Island and Arrowsic until 1710. At Indian Point (then Sagadahoc Point) there had been an Indian raid in 1662. (A 1748 deed transfers ownership of land on Indian Point out of the Parker family line to George Rogers on the site of the Sadie Drake house on what is now Indian Point Road.) In 1676 the Clark & Lake Fort on Arrowsic was totally destroyed by fire in a major raid. In 1714 Newtowne-on-Arrowsic was rebuilt by John White. In 1716, residents of Arrowsic petitioned to form a town which became Georgetown-on-Arrowsic. A few years later, Parker's Island, Stage Island, and the Plantation of Nequasset were incorporated into that municipality. All efforts to locate the Charter have failed. It is neither in the archives at Boston nor in Augusta. In 1723 all dwellings on Arrowsic were burned in Indian raids and inhabitants fled to garrisons. In 1753, a group of businessmen in Boston formed an association to buy land in Maine, which formerly had been held by the New Plymouth Colony. These "Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase" engaged Jonas Jones, a professional surveyor, to divided Parker's island into 40 tracts. These stretched from "water to water" (See the 1759 map at the GHS Center.) and provided settlers with access to waterways as well as inland wood lots and farming land. Fishermen, farmers and lumbermen from Massachusetts towns, especially Gloucester, sought a new and freer life for themselves in this virtually untouched territory. One of these Massachusetts residents, Thomas Stevens, with his colleague, Arad Powers, in 1774 bought 206 acres at Five Islands from Ephraim Brown. Brown had owned the land for some years and there was some sort of structure on it. In 1791 Thomas Stevens bought out Arad Powers' share from Powers' heirs. The Stevens family and subsequently their relatives in the Rowe family were significant in the development of Five Islands, and their 11th and 12th generation descendents still live in Five Islands. The 1759 Jonas Jones’ map of Georgetown indicated the size, location and ownership of island property of that date. An early settler was Peter Heal, a Huguenot born in France, who fled to escape religious persecution. In 1759 he owned 200 acres on Robinhood Cove near Wyman's Dam. His land was bounded on the south by that of Robert Pore (Powers), who owned 400 acres, and bounded on the north by 551 acres owned jointly by Seth Tarr and Timothy McCarty. Prior to 1759, a shipwreck on the Sheepscot had populated the island with Rairdens, Linens, and Hogans from Londonderry, and the Temple and Dunlap Expeditions circa 1730 brought Stinsons, McFaddens, Snipes, Clarys and other settlers. The Georgetown Island’s Thomas Donnell was the first known settler of MacMahan Island. He inherited the island from his father Nathaniel, and in 1761 built a house on the northwest point of the island. When his daughters Sara and Mary married their first cousins, Daniel and Timothy MacMahan, the name of the island was changed from Donnell Island to MacMahan Island. Long Island, near the mouth of the Kennebec, was settled in 1753 by John Spinney and his wife Joanna Pettigrew. Maritime History of Bath by William Avery Baker states that Thomas Webber settled on the northern end of Parker's Island by 1650. Before 1661 he married Mary Parker, daughter of John Parker the First. Thomas Webber had 300 acres of farmland on Webber Point, and also had a farm on Webber Island where he raised sheep. Jeremiah Beal 1 was born in Georgetown May 1773, to parents Samuel and 0live Beal. It is not clear at what point the Beals made their home on Beal Island. Jeremiah is buried on the island. The first David Oliver came to Georgetown from Boston to fish at Pemaquid. Around 1670 he married Grace Parker, granddaughter of John Parker the First. When David and Grace were living at Stage Island during the Indian raids between 1677 and 1679, Indians destroyed their home and about 60 others. They fled from the island and petitioned Sir Edmund Andros for land in the southern part of Arrowsic. David and the other settlers were granted land in Newtowne where they lived for 10 years or less. During this time the Indians had burned Newtowne. By 1680 King William's War was well under way and in 1703 it became Queen Anne's War, lasting through 1713. By this time the island was deserted as settlers fled from the area. David and Grace Oliver took refuge in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In May, David is listed as Capt. Rowden's Company of the Massachusetts Militia for service in the Indian Wars. David's two sons, Thomas and David Jr., both received land opposite Long Island in the Kennebec: Lot #4 in the division of the estate of their grandfather Thomas Parker, on land which is now Bay Point. Commercial fishing was the principal industry of the island from earliest days, reaching back into prehistory. Much was performed by vessels, which plied the Atlantic shelf and the teeming Grand Banks. Offshore waters were rich with hake, haddock, cod, and mackerel. Between 1780 and 1790 Ebenezer Rowe of Gloucester, Massachusetts purchased land at Five Islands. Benjamin Riggs and his son Moses essentially had cornered the market in curing fish, outfitting ships, and selling from his general store. Until the middle 1800's Five Islanders did their shopping at Riggsville (Robinhood), but around 1850, stages for drying fish were constructed at Five Islands. At that same time, a two-and-a-half story building was built on the wharf, which had been in existence for some time previously. This building was owned and operated by Joseph Grover Rowe, son of Ebenezer, as a general store and storage place for barrels of salted fish. Initially, the store was probably a ship's store, catering supplies for local fishermen and coastal vessels. Around 1890 a general store was built and business carried on until it was tom down in the 1980's. In 1877, Hiram "Hite" G. Rowe, son of Joseph Grover Rowe, petitioned the Selectmen of Georgetown to grant a license to extend the wharf 70 feet into the tidewaters of Five Islands Harbor. The 2 and 1/2 story store still existed on the wharf. Two buildings were added: a waiting room for passengers on the Bath-to-Boothbay run, and a fish market. When the new general store was built, the old store was still used. Salt fish continued to be stored on the first floor. On the second floor, women worked canning blueberries in late summer. Manufacturing of oilskins, jackets, sou'westers, aprons, and gloves also was carried on at the second floor level. Other seasonal industries were clamming and ice cutting. In 1884 Hite Rowe opened an icehouse and a skating rink. The skating rink was in the building, which came to be known as Howard Hall. It was on the site of the present upper parking lot at Five Islands. Somewhat to the rear of the hall was the icehouse. Both were torn down when the Town of Georgetown purchased the wharf and adjacent land in 1973. Before 1884, Hite Rowe was an agent for the Eastern Steamship Company, whose passenger ships made regular daily stops at the Five Islands Wharf. In the mid-1920's steamships discontinued the Five Islands stop and the waiting room was removed from the wharf. The 2 and 1/2 story building remained with living quarters on the second floor and storage space on the first floor. It became known as the "Love Nest" when a newly married couple lived there in the 1930's, and today the first floor is a snack bar during the summer months. But in addition to the offshore fishing, there also was a great local source in herring. Native Americans used weirs for the trapping of these and the colonials probably built many of their weirs on old Indian sites. These were located at strategic tidal points and references to weir privileges are found in earliest town records in the 1600's. In the Town Records book #5, there are complaints concerning "obstructions" erected near the mouth of the Kennebec and upriver as far as Merrymeeting Bay. Claims were made that salmon were prevented from entering the river that seining diminished ability of fish to spawn, and that mills and dams across small rivers and streams caused diminution of fish. Complaints also stated that "such is the influence of mill owners and proprietors of lumber, that laws are almost entirely evaded". Also, that "owners of land on the Kennebec, from time immemorial, have considered the fishing privileges adjoining their land as an appurtenance thereto." There were weirs on the Kennebec, at the mouth of Back River off West Georgetown, and at the north end of Robinhood Cove. From the latter part of the 19th century, the Powers brothers, Levi Wilmot, and Ambrose Burnside, owned these Riggsville herring weirs and operated a lively and lucrative trade in herring. The herring were packed in barrels and shipped to Boston, New York, and other markets. Hotels, restaurants, and taverns from here to San Francisco clamored for the savory fish, which were used as appetizers and provoked a thirst, which was the delight and mainstay of the beer industry. The story is told that after one highly successful sale in Boston, the men, in oilskins and hip boots, decided they were due for a treat, so descended on the Parker House. A shocked waitress refused to serve them, whereupon Levi brandished a roll of bills "big enough to choke a horse," and the stunned woman took their order instantly. It is not recorded whether she received a tip. In 1919 the passing of the Volstead Act put an end to the herring bonanza. What had begun as a fishing community in the 1600's was expanding into mills, which produced shingles, lumber and flour. There were carding mills to prepare wool for spinning, because sheep raising was a big industry on the island. In the 1700's, tidewater mills could be found wherever there was power to activate them. The eastern and western mill ponds (branches) at the southern end of Robinhood Cove were ideal. The lumber mill on the western branch, which was built by David Oliver and Thomas Trafton, continued to be operated into the first decade of the 20th century, and the mill dam can still be seen. David Oliver, Jr. had a son David of the 3rd generation (grandson of David and Grace). He and his wife, Hannah Stacy, came to Georgetown from Lynn, Massachusetts. He and his father, David Jr., and Thomas Trafton, built their first lumber mill on the eastern branch of the Cove on what is now the Indian Point Road. Later they built a second lumber mill on the west branch of the Cove Thomas Trafton also had a gristmill on the west bank of the western branch, near the former old Post Office at the bottom of the hill in Georgetown Center. According to the 1759 map, Trafton had Lot #19 and Oliver Lot #20. Both built log cabins nearby. Oliver's cabin was on the road and Tafton’s was farther down the slope nearer the water. The fourth generation David Oliver (son of David and Hannah Stacy) "lived in a log cabin near the marsh." David 4 and his wife Agnes Campbell are buried on the Trafton farm at Georgetown Center (site of the Georgetown Central School), their graves marked by small black slate stones. Georgetown had more to export than fish and furs. King George was already expropriating its finest virgin pines for the British Navy. Local carpenters turned their skill to shipbuilding. Shipyards sprang up all along the Kennebec, and Georgetown, with its coves and harbors, followed the trend. Most impressive of these was the Berry Shipyard at Georgetown Center, owned by General Joseph Berry, a local gentleman of means who also operated shipyards at Bath and Bowdoinham, and was comptroller of the port of the City of Bath. One hundred-plus workers were employed at the Berry Yard. First, suitable trees were chosen and the timber was cut and sawed by the mill hands. There were the model makers and designers; the joiners (j'iners); the plank steamers who softened the wood until it was flexible enough to bend; the workers who keeled and framed the vessel; the rope men and sail makers. Then there were peripheral employees: carpenters who built houses for the General, including a boarding house which accommodated 24 men who worked on the ships; stone masons; and brick layers. In addition to shipbuilding, the General was into farming, lumbering, milling and storekeeping, and more men were hired for these undertakings. He owned all of the salt marsh, which berms on the edge of the marsh to house the crop. The hay was used as fodder for the herd of cattle he maintained in a large barn. Use of the salt marsh for agriculture first was brought to this country from Norfolk, England in the 1630's. Marshes were diked to control salt water for quality and to encourage abundant growth. In addition to the marshes used for the grazing of sheep, the hay was harvested for feed and bedding, banking houses, packing goods, nursery bedding stock for plants, and others. Salt water farms, as they were known, were found the length of the coast of Maine, but prevailed on the estuaries. Throughout the nineteenth century haying was a unique, profitable, and significant aspect of agriculture, usually practiced by farmers who combined it with upland farming. The decline of small Maine salt-water farms was due to several factors. Farming itself declined, the cost of hauling and marketing became prohibitive as the market diminished while technological labor advance using large machines required very large farms to make them profitable, and the growing season is marginal in Maine. Frances "Babe" Gunnell has vivid memories of her father farming the marshes when she was a child in the early part of the 20th century. Her father had an upland farm and kept the hay for his own use. The hay was harvested in late summer and stacked in bundles on the marsh for drying. Later, it was put up on straddles, raised platforms for holding cut hay above the marsh, until it was cured. In winter, when the ground was frozen, her father brought down sleighs pulled by oxen to carry the hay off the marsh. There are several roads in Georgetown that are referred to as The Old Hay Road. On a side note, those dikes which were well built to withstand ice are now used by biologists to determine sea level change. General Berry's home was a small village. The outbuildings included, besides the bam, a pump house, a wood house, soap house, com house, smoke house and a spin house, as well as a small schoolhouse with a full-time schoolteacher to teach his family of eight sons and one daughter. There was a stable for workhorses and fancy carriage horses. The General also raised sheep, pigs and poultry. There were grooms for the horses and farmhands to tend the other animals. He maintained a store, and a wharf where freight was discharged, since all goods came by water. The location of these is uncertain, but it seems likely that the store was the one later operated by Albion Oliver. It was on the comer of the Indian Point Road and Route 127, opposite the home of the General's son, Alfred Berry, and across from the Berry shipyard. On the second floor of this store there was originally a ropewalk. The General called his store his "mercantile business," and he had a counting room in the southern end of it, with stuffed leather chairs. The financial panic of 1857, followed by the Civil War, was disastrous to the General and his small empire collapsed. This account gives an idea of the thriving community that was Georgetown in the early and middle 1800's. It had its early and mid-century counterpart in the village of Riggsville, which was more of a dynasty, and which did not fail. Benjamin Riggs was the founding father. Shortly after the Revolutionary war, he married Ruth Pearl of Edgecomb and built a log cabin in what is now called Robinhood but originally Riggsville. In the location of the present Robinhood Marine Center, he established a general store and a wharf where coastal vessels could tie up for fittings and supplies, to take on and discharge cargo. In 1820 his business outgrew the first store, so he built the store, which is now a warehouse at the Marine Center. His son, James, a builder by trade, built the house now owned by the Zorach family. He set up a smaller store north of the family business and established a carding mill and shingle mill at that point, and a dock where schooners were loaded. Moses, another son, continued to operate the family store. It was John Riggs, the son of James, who established the ice business, building and damming Nichols Pond (Clarey's Pond), as well as a smaller pond along the Robinhood road. A high dam still stands there in the woods. The dam used by the shingle mill stands on the shore above the Zorach boathouse. Wooden structures carried ice from the pond down to icehouses that line the shore. Docks extended into the Cove, where schooners were loaded. Ice was shipped to the Knickerbocker Ice Company in New York, to the Caribbean, and records show that it was also shipped around the world to India and the Orient. |
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