Post
Office, Pine Tree Inn &
Arlington Hotel, 1902
Mrs. Mac ran
a boarding house. Her rates were
$6.00 a week for room and board,
and she fed her guests mostly
lobster, because that was the
least expensive food available.
She was an exceptionally good
cook. Her lemon meringue pies are
a fond memory of the writer. It
was said that she smoked a clay
pipe in the privacy of her
kitchen.
In 1907 or 1908 Backer &
Fletcher bought the McDonald
property and built the Bayville
Inn, and the McDonaids bought
property just north of the post
office and built another boarding
house. Still later, they built a
large plastered house on what was
then the road into Bayville,
about 150 yards north of their
other house. This was called the
Arlington, doubtless because many
of her guests came from
Arlington, Mass. This served as a
rooming house for their guests in
the summer and in the winter for
their own living quarters. After
Capt. Mac died, his widow moved
to the Harbor, and a Mr. Barlow
bought her Bayville property
which was destroyed by fire soon
thereafter. The cellar hole of
the Arlington may be seen now,
although it is filled with brush.
About 1890 Griffin and Bourne
acquired from the Sproul Estate
property surrounding the Cove,
and Professors Harmon and Shipman
bought of Mr. Boyd most of his
property east of the road. These
properties were immediately
developed by their respective
owners. Soon thereafter Mr. Boyd
or his Estate sold therest of his
holdings and they are now owned
by the same people to whom he
sold them, or by their children.
Town water was piped into
Bayville in 1904 or 1905 and
electric service supplied in
about 1903. Up to that time,
drinking water was fetched from
wells; the Boyd tenants from a
well now filled up, northwest of
the post office; the Harmon and
Shipman tenants from a well, now
roofed over near Linekin Lodge;
and the Griffin and Bourne
tenants from two wells, one
between the Briggs and Forbush
houses and the other just north
of the Reynolds house. Water for
general household use came from
rain barrels.
In 1910 the Bayville Improvement
Association was formed and the
income from dues was spent for
various improvements in the
community. But the amount of
money received was so small that
it did not go very far. There was
a lot of dissatisfaction with the
treatment received from Boothbay
Harbor which spent but a pittance
in Bayville of the taxes which
Bayville paid into the treas-ury
of the town. So in 1911, the
residents of Bayville petitioned
the Legislature to be
incorporated. This was done, and
since that time Bayville has
operated as a corporation which
receives from Boothbay Harbor and
has available for expenditures
sixty per cent of its taxes.
When Mr. Boyd owned most of
Bayville, he maintained a float
for his tenants where the public
float is now. As soon as Harmon
and Shipman and Griffin and
Bourne built and leased houses,
each of those firms built and
maintamed floats for their
respective tenants. There were so
many rowboats that, inspite of
several floats there was not
enough room for them to be tied
up at the same time; so it was
customary to moor them inside
Blaxton Island. When an owner
wanted his boat, there was
usually someone there to set him
off, or he could take a punt kept
there for that purpose.
Many householders who owned
waterfront property, including
Backer, Briggs, Dill, Kilton,
Phelps and Mrs. Reynolds, had
private floats. The remains of
some of them may be seen now.
Later, the Bayville Village Corp.
built and now maintains the
public float for the exclusive
use of all residents of Bayville.
At first the Bayville mail came
to the East Boothbay post office,
and we had to go over and get it.
Later, a college boy collected it
each afternoon and delivered it
to the various houses for a very
nominal fee; ten cents a week as
I recall, until the Bayville post
office was established some time
before 1920. Mrs. Mac was the
first postmistress and there was
a successionof postmistresses
until Mrs. P. W. Shackleton took
over in 1920. She has just
completed her thirtieth year in
that position.
From very early times, until the
First World War, a very large
part of freight and passengers on
the Atlantic seaboard were
transported by boat. This area,
as well as the towns and cities
on the river as far as Augusta,
was served by the Kennebec
Steamboat Co, (founded soon after
the Civil War.) The company
operated the "Star of the
East," later renamed
"Sagadahoc," and the
"Kennebec." Later,
after various consolidations with
other lines, various other
steamers were put on the Kennebec
run. Capt. Jason Collins was the
best known master on the Kennebec
run, and everyone liked him.
There is a story told of him that
in November, 1898, on the night
the "Portland" was
lost, he cast off at Boston for
his regular trip. When he got
down the harbor, he did not like
the looks of the weather, so he
turned back. Two businessmen
among his passengers protested
his action, because, they said,it
was imperative that they be in
Maine the next morning. When he
refused to change his decision,
they asked him to put on full
speed back to Boston so that they
could catch the Portland boat.
This also, Capt. Collins refused
to do, remarking in effect that
the weather that night was such
that it would be folly for any
vessel to go to sea. When the
news came through that the
"Portland" had been
lost with all hands, his two
passengers wrote him a most
appreciative letter in praise of
his judgment. The Kennebec boats
left Boston at 6 p. m. and, if
the weather was fine, often
reached Bath as early as 4 a.
in., even after a stop at Popham
Beach. Boothbay passengers
changed at Bath for an Eastern
Steamboat Line which operated the
"Wiwurna,"
"Nahanada,"
"Samoset," (renamed
"Samarin" and
"Winter Harbor".)
The first trip the writer made to
Bayville, the boat from Boston
got to Bath at 4 a. m. and the
Boothbay boat did not leave until
eight o'clock. That was the
longest four hours, the writer,
then a ten year old boy, ever
lived through, especially as he
had little or no breakfast. The
next year, and thereafter, the
Boothbay boat left as soon as the
Boston boat was discharged, and
not infrequently people arrived
in Bayville in time for
breakfast.
The boat made many stops on the
way to the Harbor. When about
half way, some of the passengers
were transferred to smaller boats
which made stops as far away as
Pemaquid. Linekin Bay had steamer
service several days a week at
that time, with stops at Ocean
Point, Ledgelawn on Linekin's
Neck, Mt. Pleasant, about a mile
further north, and Murray Hill.
Those steamboat wharves have
disappeared. Bayville never had a
steamer wharf. Bayville
passengers and freight were
discharged at the Harbor and
transportd to Bayville by horse
and wagon owned by Sam Boyd, son
of Thomas. An advertisement in
the July 7, 1888 issue of The
Boothbay Register shows
"Passenger fare Boothbay to
Boston $1.50, return $2.75."
Staterooms were $1.00 and supper,
a substantial meal, 5Oc.
During the summers of 1896, 1897,
1898, 1899, Boothbay Harbor had
direct service to Boston via the
steamer "Lincoln."
Week-end traffic was heavy, but
for the rest of the week it was
light; so as a whole the
"Lincoln" was not
profitable and she was sold to
the Florida East Coast Railway
and renamed
"Martinique." The last
direct service between Boothbay
and Boston ended in the fall of
1926 with the "City of
Bangor" which soon
thereafter either was burned or
scrapped.
Most of the shopping by Bayville
people was done at East Boothbay
which was called "Hodgdon's
Mills," or "The
Mills" for short, until
about 1900 when that name faded
out. It was mostly a cash and
carry proposition, though once in
a while some merchant would
operate an order-and-delivery
wagon during the summer only. We
rowed over to Murray Hill and
tied our boat at one of the
floats there or to the launching
ways a little further along where
Mr. Jacob Fuller, grandfather of
Mr. Earl Fuller who operated the
First National Store at East
Boothbay, had a shipyard,
building two and three masted
schooners as late as 1883. Then
we walked down to the village and
brought our purchases back and
rowed home. If purchases were to
be made at the Harbor, one walked
through the woods or rowed to
LobsterCove, tied up the boat and
walked across. Sometimes we
sailed around Spruce Pt. Such a
trip took most of the day.
The writer was in his teens
during the decade between 1890
and 1900, and the boys and girls
did much the same then as they do
at that age now. They did not
range over quite such a large
area as they do now because the
only means of transportation was
by rowboat or shank's mare. Most
of the cottage colonies had a
social center, called a
"Casino" where there
was dancing, card parties, etc.
Bayville had no casino, so such
festivities were held in the Boat
House, which was built for winter
storage of row boats. Through
community efforts, a stage was
built, a piano bought, and
benches built along the sides.
Card parties were held there, and
there was informal dancing most
every night. One of the boys was
a born piano player and knew all
the popular numbers by heart. We
danced the Two Step, Waltz,
"Dip" and Schottische.
The Two Step was the most
popular, because at that time
John Philip Sousa was at the
height of his popularity and the
Two Step was danced to his
marches.
The Boat House, greatly enlarged
and rebuilt, is now Linekin
Lodge. Occasionally we went to a
Saturday night dance at the
Citizens' Union Hall at East
Boothbay, which now houses the
fire pumper. Round dances were
alternated with square dances
because the East Boothbay boys
did not know round dances. One of
the diversions of the short pants
age was for the gang to go to
EastBoothbay for ice cream at
A.0. McDougal's, where the post
office is now. Five cents bought
a huge scoop. The taste of the
corn starch in it pretty much
overpowered whatever flavor the
ice cream was supposed to have,
but we were not fussy. There were
picnics on Fish Hawk, Cabbage,
Little River, and occasionally we
hired a sailboat for all day for
$5.00 and went to Christmas Cove
or Inner Heron Island, or even to
Monhegan and back when conditions
were particularly favorable. The
writer has pictures of some of
those sailing parties; most of
the members are grandparents now.
There was a tennis court at the
top of the hill, and the boys
used to play scrub in front of
the Merrill cottage with home
plate near the present well
house. Occasionally we got
together a team and played at
Boothbay Center, Boothbay Harbor
or even at Squirrel Island.
On one occasion, when playing at
Boothbay Center, a farmer was
engaged to take the team and the
rooters in his hayrack. The game
had to be called before the ninth
inning because the farmer had to
get back to milk his cows. On
another occasion Bayville was
invited to field a team at
Squirrel Island during Fete Week.
The implication was that of
course any team that Bayville
might send would be no match for
the Squirrel team, but they
wanted to have some sort of
entertainment for their guests.
As it happened, there was a group
of young men from Arlington at
Bayville that week. They were all
good average ball players, but
the pitcher was outstanding and
more or less of a showman
besides. He made monkeys out of
some of the Squirrel players.
Bayville won and the score was
not even close. The late George
Merrill at first base is the only
player whose name the writer
remembers.
It was some time before movies
came to The Harbor, but instead
there were touring repertoire
companies that played short
engagements at the Pythian Opera
House. We sometimes went more to
razz the actors than anything
else, but they were used to it
and were able to hold their own.
Another boy and I got acquainted
with two of the actors of one
company---I've forgotten
how---and took them out sailing
one afternoon. One of them
confided to the other lad that he
had fought in the Spanish War and
that his salary as an actor was
$8.00 a week and expenses. If one
saw a man on the street in a silk
hat, soiled white collar, Albert
frock coat, and frequently a
cane, he could be perfectly sure
that said individual was one of
the actors in the company then
playing the town. The Frankie
Carpenter Stock Company regularly
played Boothbay every summer.
Frankie's husband, Jere Grady,
was her leading man. Years after,
the writer saw Jere Grady playing
in support of George M. Cohan.
During the early part of the
period covered by this sketch,
most of the summer settlements
had distinctive cheers or yells,
not unlike college yells. When
visitors took the steamer for
home after their vacations were
over, they received as a parting
salute the cheer of the local
settlement. When large sailing
parties came within earshot
similar salutes were exchanged.
The Bayville yell was "B A Y
V; I Double L E; Rah; Rah, Rah;
Rah, Rah, BAYVILLE." Another
one was something like
"HOBBLE GOBBLE, RAZZLE
DAZZLE, SISSBOOM BAH, GIDDY
GIDDY, MOUNT PLEASANT, RAH, RAH,
RAH."
Sailing for the mere pleasure of
sailing, not necessarily with the
idea of getting to some place,
was enjoyed by many of the summer
people, though regular yacht
races were few and far between.
Bayville had several, maybe half
a dozen, small cat boats and
sloops fifteen to eighteen feet
long. The "Mabel,"
"Jeanie," "None
Such" are some of the names
that come to mind. The larger
ones included the
"Aspenet,"
"Bowler,"
"Megaleep" and
"Nereis." The latter
was a plumb stem, English-type
cutter, about twenty-five feet
over all, narrow, drew six feet
and had six feet of head room in
her cabin. She carried a cloud of
sail; her main boom was so long
it had foot ropes. With main
sail, club topsail,fore staysail,
jib and jib topsail all drawing,
she made a beautiful sight. There
was but one "Naptha
Launch" in Linekin Bay. The
motor boat as we know it was
practically as unknown as the
automobile.
There have not been as many
changes in the appearance of
Bayville during the last sixty
years as one would expect. To be
sure, most of the old fishermen's
houses have been replaced by
summer homes. The most striking
change, as disclosed by
photographs of the settlement
taken in the early 1890's is that
areas, which at that time were
relatively clear, are now more or
less covered with trees.
Although the physical changes in
this community have been
comparatively slight, the
industrial changes have been
profound. Cutting and shipping of
ice, fishing, coasting, and ship
building were industries of major
importance and gave employment to
large numbers of men. On every
body of fresh water near the sea,
ice was cut, stored in ice houses
to be shipped south during the
summer. In 1890, there was the
remains of an old pier at
Appalachee where schooners loaded
ice cut on that pond. On the way
to the Harbor, the road now
passes across a meadow which was
flooded. Ice used to be cut and
stored in an icehouse at the head
of Lobster Cove, and the writer
remembers seeing a three-masted
schooner loading ice there.
Incidentally, all the ice used in
Bayville for a number of years
came from the little pond this
side of Mrs. Harrington's house.
It is needless to say that
mechanical refrigeration put an
end to that business.
At Boothbay Harbor, Nickerson
Bros. sent several vessels to the
Grand Banks in the spring and
fished until they had a hold full
of salt cod. The salt mackerel
business was touched on earlier
in this sketch. Icing fish as
soon as caught, rushing them to
market and quick freezing
processes have reduced the salt
fish business to a mere shadow of
what it once was. The fishing
industry was represented in
Linekin Bay by two pogy
factories, one at the Elbow and
the other a short distance north.
Pogies or menhaden are a very
oily fish belonging to the
herring family and are of value
only for their oil, not being
edible. The fish were sought by
steamers,carrying purse seines in
seine boats on davits, and, when
they had a load of fish they
headed for the factory. When
abreast Negro Island, a steamer
blew one blast of the whistle for
each 100 barrels of fish so that
the factory could get ready to
process them. Sometimes they
brought in as many as 1,800
barrels at a time. The pogies
were steam cooked in vats, the
oil expressed and barreled for
shipment, the residue allowed to
accumulate until there was enough
to send away to fertilizer
factories. The odor from the
factories was such that it was
said to have depressed real
estate values thereabouts, and
when the wind was easterly,
Bayville got a full measure of it
too. For many years now menhaden
have not come to this coast in
sufficient numbers to make
fishing profitable, but now it is
said to thrive in our southern
Atlantic states.
Within the memory of the writer
there were two brick yards on the
Damariscotta River which sent
their product to Boston. They are
long since gone.
Before the Panama Canal was
built, countless cargoes of
spruce lumber were shipped out of
Bangor for eastern ports and even
to the West Indies. After the
Panama Canal was opened northwest
fir could be laid down in New
York and other eastern sea ports
cheaper than eastern spruce,
which could no longer compete,
and now most of the timber cut in
the Penobscot valley goes into
pulp.
Coasting schooners carried
granite paving blocks from Vinal
Haven and Stonington, and
Rockland shipped lime the same
way. Both of these items have now
been pretty generally supplanted
by Portland cement. The result of
all this is that there is hardly
a single coasting schooner left
on this coast. The rotting hulks
at West Boothbay Harbor and
Wiscasset tell the story.
With the decline of the coasting
business, there were no more
schooners built, and the old ship
carpenters have died off and
their sons have gone into some
other line of work, garage
mechanics perhaps. The same is
true of the sailors who used to
man the coasters. The change is
exemplified at East Boothbay,
where before 1900 there were at
least one, two, three or
four-masted schooner on the
stocks in the Adams (now Goudy
& Stevens) yard and the
Hodgdon yard every summer. I
might add that one of the events
of the summer was to be on board
a vessel when she went overboard.
What this old timer misses more
than anything else is the parade
of vessels between Ocean and
Spruce Points heading into
Boothbay Harbor to wait for a
favorable wind, or to ride out a
threatening period of bad
weather. In the old days, the
Harbor has been so full of
vessels at anchor during a storm,
that it would seem as if another
one would have difficulty in
finding a berth.
One of the great satisfactions of
us of the older generation is
that the third generation still
likes it here well enough to
return and take up the old
places. In closing, it might be
in order to quote the remark made
by a lady from Arkansas who
visited a friend not far from
Bayville. When she bade goodbye
to her hostess, she said,
"And to think that I might
have died without having seen
this beautiful country."
SOURCE: "Bayville Maine,
Past and Present, Told by Those
Who Know" (undated booklet)
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