Nancy Skaggs DeSpain, Daughter of The Long Hunter!

Dear Grandchildren of the Durham/DeSpain line:

Your Eighth Great Grandfather was Peter DeSpain, a 5' 5 3/4" farmer born in NC in 1764, before the Revolutionary War. 8GGdad Peter did grow in Virginia where he enlisted as a private for 18 months in the Revolutionary War. Peter served in Capt. Bentley's Company and Colonel Hawes Virginia Regiment and saw several battles including Camden, Guilford Courthouse, Ninety-Six SC and Eutaw Springs SC.  His last battle was in 1781.

Ten years later he married Nancy Skaggs in Green County, KY.  

8GGmom NANCY SKAGGS DESPAIN, born in SW Virginia in 1759,  had an interesting history also.  She was the daughter of Henry Skaggs, a Scotch-Irish pioneer known as The Long Hunter who lived to be 86...from 1724 VA to 1810 KY.  When Nancy was born her dad was 35; her mom Mary Skaggs was 20. 

As a Long Hunter, your 9GGdad Henry was a hunter, explorer and a pioneer who traveled for long periods in the frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee during the 1700s.  Henry would be gone for months upon months for hunting in the Trans-Allegheny wilderness.  He eventually worked as a land agent with Daniel Boone, exploring Middle Tennessee and Eastern and Central Kentucky.  Henry became a veteran tracker as well as an Indian Fighter.  

LONG HUNTERS:

An exploring party of 13 "Long Hunters," so named because of the long periods of time spent away from home, camped along Barren River in 1775. Their names were carved on a beech tree, a silent record of the first white men in this area. 9GGdad Henry Skaggs and Joseph Drake of this group had been among the first Long Hunters, 1769 - 1771, whose exploring helped open mid-Kentucky.  


This drawing depicts how 9GGdad might have look on the trails. 

JENNY WILEY, CAPTURED BY INDIANS:

One of your 9GGdad's many adventures was when he helped Mrs. Jenny Wiley in her escape to avoid recapture by the Shawnees in October 1789.

Jenny Wiley married Thomas Wiley, an Irish immigrant and they built a log cabin.  On October 1, 1789, her husband road to a trading post on a horse laden with ginseng.  He would barter the ginseng for necessities and would be back late that day.  He had been gone only a few hours when Thomas' brother-in-law John Borders was searching for sheep that had escaped their fencing, and heard what sounded like owl hoots when he approached his Thomas' cabin.  John knew the hooting could be caused by owls and the dreariness of the cloudy day or could be well be pre-attack signals of Native Americans who would attack at dark.  He got Jenny to agree to go to his home as a precaution.  Since attacks were fairly common and occurred at night, she lingered to do a final few minutes of weaving on a piece of cloth she was creating and to feed the livestock.  Mistake!

Eleven indians (2 Cherokees, 3 Shawnees, 3 Wyandots, 3 Delawares) stormed their Virginia log cabin during daylight, mistaking the Wiley cabin for one where an enemy lived.  Though they tried to barricade the door to the cabin, and then to fight the indians, her younger brother and all but one of her children were slain.  Jenny who was pregnant and her youngest child of fifteen months of age were taken captive. Her child became ill and he was killed while Jenny slept.  She gave birth to her baby but he was was ultimately scalped.  Jenny still lived.  She was a captive in what is now Little Mud Lick Creek in Johnson County KY.    

Jenny finally escaped when left alone, bound with rawhide, while the Indians hunted.  It was raining hard and she was finally able to escape by stretching the rawhide ties and began her arduous flight to freedom. As she neared a fort blockhouse, she screamed her name and situation.  Out of the fort emerged your elderly 9GGdad Long Hunter Henry Skaggs whom she knew as a friend of her father's!  Henry was in his 80s by now but was not daunted in his efforts to save Jenny. They both knew she was in imminent danger of recapture. To get to Henry she would have to cross a river.  Others at the fort had taken the only canoes on a hunting trip, so Henry and one of the women at the fort had to construct a rough raft as quickly as possible. Henry told Jenny to try to ford the river herself if the Indians found her before he could get to her.

Skaggs and the woman felled a dead mulberry tree which broke into three fairly even pieces, wrapped it tightly with grapevines, gathered his rifles, and he took off across the overflowing river to get to Jenny. The raft drifted far down river but Jenny kept pace and hopped onto the raft when it was finally made shore. The river was still raging enough to carry them further adrift, and the raft tried to break apart about mid-river, but they got near enough to shore to grab overhanging branches on the fort side about a half mile downriver.  

Jenny  was returned to her husband, eventually moving to Kentucky themselves.  

Harpe Brothers, America First Serial Killers (PIC BELOW):

Upon the request of Governor Gerrard in 1799, 9GGdad Henry Skaggs led an attempt to capture America's first reputed serial killers, the Harpe Brothers in Western Kentucky.  Several posses had been assembled to capture the brothers, but the only posse that found them ended up fleeing to safety.  Skaggs was "enraged" and tried to reassemble to scattered posse, to no avail.  Henry went after the brothers on his own! Henry came upon drunken men celebrating after a house raising. When hearing the news of the Harpe brothers not being captured, the drunks grabbed liquor and rifles and began the search.  The euphoria of the expedition quickly died and Skaggs had to go on alone once again.  He arrived at the cabin of Col. Daniel Trabue, another old Indian fighter, and Trabue agreed to join Henry as soon as his 13 year old son returned from an errand to borrow flour and beans from a neighbor.  The son did not return; the Harpes killed him first and discarded his body in a sinkhole.  The son's dog arrived home instead. Trabue and Skaggs hurried to find Trabue's son, finding instead his body which had been beaten and tomahawked.  Though the enraged Skaggs and Trabue searched for days, the Harpes were evidently long gone.  The attempt was woefully unsuccessful.


Your 9GGdad "Henry Skaggs was a "bold, enterprising and fearless" man, a true adventurer of the early frontier"  (Thwaites and Kelloggy, Dunmore's War p. 239).

"Be safe and keep your powder dry" *

====
Henry Skaggs family is Scotch-Irish.  He was not part of the Irish Catholic immigrants who came to America due to the late 1840s potato famine. Instead, they were of Presbyterian background

References:
Ancestry
Wikipedia
https://archive.org/stream/foundingofharman00conn#page/n9/mode/2up
https://www.facebook.com/Daryl.Skaggs777/posts/461811470623865
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-terrifying-true-story-of-the-harpes-who-terrorized-tennessee-two-centuries-ago-and-paid-with-their-heads/Content?oid=3946434
*http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18847337-be-safe-and-keep-your-powder-dry-henry-long-hunter-skaggs

http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/b8f909f1-bdba-42ec-9dd8-93fd93071f7f/2247595/6929236105?_phsrc=rhr4311&usePUBJs=true 

G. Fox & Company Store in Hartford, CT

Growing up in the 50s in Wethersfield CT, we would often go to Hartford.  Our Dad would drop Mom, Caren and me off and we would go to the dentist on some trips, followed by a trip to G. Fox and Co. Department Store where we loved to go up to the mezzanine and look at the books.  Often we bought a new book such as Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and the Hardy Boys.  So much fun even if the first stop was the dentist.  We would then take the city bus home typically, getting off at Silas Deane Highway near or at Mill Road in Wethersfield.

G. Fox is no longer there though the building is comprised of small retail spaces and offices I think.  G. Fox was located at 960 Main Street and was a family-owned department store which opened sometime in the 1850s and was sold to the May department store group in the mid 1960s - about 100 years.  I can't personally think of a family-owned department store like that today in America.

Dewey Utsler, second husband of my Great Aunt Annie Mae Bennett

My Great Granddad Albert R Bennett

Anna "Annie" Mae Bennett is my Great Aunt.

She is the daughter of my Great Grandparents, Albert Rudolph Bennett and Mertie Mae Titcomb Bennett. Annie could be my Mom's sister instead of cousin.

Great Grandma Mertie Mae

Annie Bennett Utsler

Originally all from Maine, they moved to California to seek a better life during Maine's very tough times in the 1920s.

Dewey Myron

Although Dewey Myron Dewitt Utsler was the second husband of Great Aunt Annie, I thought his life and that of his son Dewey Rudolph "Jr" Utsler were interesting and decided to share some of my understanding of snippets of their life journeys on this blog.

Dewey Myron was born in Lockport, PA in 1898, so he was much older than Annie who was born in 1914.  At age 19 (or so he stated...as many young men accelerated their ages in order to join the fight in WWI), he joined the National Guard; actually he joined on my birth date and month (July 28) but long before I was born - 1917.  During WWI he was slightly wounded.  Also, mustard gas harmed the valves of his heart for the rest of his life.

His blessing came though when he found his long lost half brother, John E. Utsler who was also serving in this war.   Both were from Ohio - not far from one another, but it took a war to bring them together.  A wonder in life!

Dewey Myron Utsler

Great Aunt Annie married Dewey Myron when she was just a young teenager.  She and her husband, and her brother Norman Erwin Bennett (my great uncle), lived in the mountainous part of California called Springville.  My Great Uncle was a bootlegger!  He and Dewey produced their moonshine in the mountains and ran it to and from the San Joaquin Valley of California including the Santa Barbara area.

Dewey had a reputation for being a bit of a braggart, and one of his stories was that he could outrun any revenuer.  Perhaps it was true, as Norman shared similar tales, including a jail term.  This is so interesting to me because my husband's Grandmother Ruth Ridgeway died following an auto accident in which revenuers, chasing bootleggers, struck the car she was in; this happened in the District of Columbia.

All of the Bennetts tended to be short in stature.  For example my grandfather Charles Bennett (Annie and Norman's brother) was only 5'1" tall.  Evidently the Utsler side was similarly short.  Supposedly there evidently is a photo somewhere of him, the shortest man in his unit, standing under the arm of the tallest man in his unit in Europe.  I have not seen it.

Great Aunt Annie and her family, Dewey Myron, Dewey Jr, and daughter Loda, moved to Oregon ultimately. There is a family story that the farm they rented belonged to Ginger Rogers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fame!  Since Ginger did indeed have a farm and ranch in Oregon that she purchased in 1940, this is likely very true.  The family memory is that when the Utslers went to pay the rent at her home one day, there was a bearskin rug on the floor which had a red eye and a green eye - must have been Christmas!

Dewey Jr was playing on some logs in an Oregon lumber yard, slipped, and fell in the pond. Dewey Myron rushed to save him, and did.  Either at that event, or soon thereafter, Dewey Myron suffered a heart attack and died.

Great Aunt Annie returned to California for a bit and then went back to Oregon to her children.

Dr. Joseph C. Placak, Pioneer in the Treatment of Tuberculosis

Dr. Joseph C. Placak

On February 22, 1882 a child named Joseph Charles Placak was born in Cleveland to parents Anthony and Jennie Goldstein Placak of Austria. He would grow up to marry Eunice S. Emde. He would become an educated man, and a doctor, graduating from The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western Reserve University in 1903 and receiving his post-graduate degree from the University of Prague, Austria. Joseph completed his residency as both a pathologist and a physician at Cleveland City Hospital by 1905.

MARRIAGE

On September 25, 1888 a child named Eunice Sabina Emde was born in Ohio to Fred Christian Emde and his wife Jesse Williams Emde. Eunice would grow up to marry the renowned tuberculosis expert Dr. Joseph C. Placak and they would have four children, Joseph Jr. (1907), Frederick (1910), Robert (1913) and daughter Jean (1917).

When he was 25 and Eunice 19 they wed on March 20, 1907 in Cleveland. His mother on the marriage record was listed as Grace B. Dushanek. By the time of the 1930 Census for Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Joseph was 48 and Eunice was 41. Their 4 single children ages 12 to 22 still lived at the family home valued at $50,000 '" a remarkable amount for that period of time, in a wealthy Cleveland neighborhood at 2228 Woodmere Road.

COOLEY FARMS

As a young married man, he was the Medical Superintendent at the 2000 acre Cooley Farms in Warrensville, which housed the municipal tuberculosis sanatorium for Cleveland '" the first person named to this position. Those infirmed here had access to the outdoors that aided their comfort while confined to the sanatorium. He worked with the disease of tuberculosis and lectured on internal medicine at the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons until 1911. In 1915 he was the head of the Division of Tuberculosis for Cleveland City Hospital.

WWI AND THE HAYMARKET DISTRICT

During WWI, he was a Major in the Medical Corps of the Army and Chief of Medical Services for Evacuation Hospital #5 at Coblenz, Germany.

Tuberculosis was to always be the focus of Joseph's medical career. He became the physician in charge of the Tuberculosis Dispensary in the Haymarket District, visiting pathologist for Eddy Road Hospital, and a member of the American Medical Association regarding the study and prevention of this dreadful disease.

DR. HARRY PLACAK, PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST

In 1940, Joseph's relative, Dr. Harry Placak, a prominent pharmaceutical chemist from Cleveland, Ohio, with a "masked value" selective service classification, moved to Skyuka Road in Tryon, NC. His property included his home and his laboratory where he conducted research on animal feeds, including being an advocate for the soybean. He lived there until his death at St. Luke's Hospital in 1967, following breaking his hip in a fall at the elderly age of 96. Dr. Joseph C. Placak was the informant for the death certificate. More information on catorfamilies.com

MEMBERSHIPS, POSITIONS, & WWII

In 1941 Joseph Placak held memberships with the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians. He was on the board of directors for the National Tuberculosis Association and on the Board of Regents for the American College of Chest Physicians. He was elected President of the Anti-Tuberculosis League of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County and named Chief of Staff at Mount Royal Sanatorium for Tuberculosis plus he consulted at Lake County Memorial Hospital and wrote many papers on chest illnesses and public health. Joseph Placak was known by many as the physician who did the most to prevent and cure tuberculosis.

WWII came and in 1942 at the age of 60 Joseph completed his Draft Registration Card listing his home as 2228 Woodmere Road, Cleveland, his wife as Eunice, and his career as physician with his place of business being the Carnegie Medical Building in Cleveland.

RETIREMENT

Six years later the Spartanburg Herald-Journal Sunday morning paper announced that noted Dr. Joseph C. Placak, head of the tuberculosis division of City Hospital in Cleveland and president-elect for the American College of Chest Physicians and Surgeons, would retire to his long-owned mountain home on Tryon Mountain on Skyuka Road, NC '" in the vicinity where Dr. Harry Placak also resided.

Under the directorship of Joseph, the Polk County Museum was started in the Tryon Depot to house records, books, photographs and artifacts. It is still open today. It is likely that Dr. Joseph Placak is the Joseph Placak that wrote an article on Polk County.

Interestingly, in March of 1970, Eunice died at the age of 88, but, if her death certificate is correct, she was no longer Joseph's wife '" they had divorced at some point. Her son, Dr. Joseph Charles Placak Jr., was the family member who handled the notification; he lived in the area and was at some point, the coroner for Columbus, NC. Eunice was cremated in Atlanta Georgia following her passing at Saluda Nursing Center in Columbus, NC. Dr. Joseph Placak, Jr., son of Joseph and Eunice, died on the 2 ^nd of July in 1988 in Columbus NC at the age of 80. Their son Fred Emde Placak died there at the age of 81 in 1992.

Per the Social Security Death Index, Dr. Joseph C. Placak (Sr.) died in Abington, Washington County, VA in November of 1970 at 88 years of age.

HANNAH DUSTIN

7 Interesting Facts About Indian Captive and Escapee Hannah Dustin, an ancestor of my Great Grandmother, Alvra Cunningham (Mrs. Ralph Southworth)...and me

Hannah Emerson Dustin is one of my ancestors who had a moving and horrifying life experience. Hannah was born in 1657 and lived until about 1737. During the King William's War Hannah was abducted by Indians. People of that era were very hardy as they did endure hardships daily. She unquestionably was strong-willed and survived an intensely violent attack. Hannah, her nurse, and her newborn daughter were captured by Abenaki Indians in colonial Massachusetts. This is the story of her capture, her heroism, and some other interesting tidbits about her life.

1. Hannah, wearing her nightclothes, was abed holding her newborn infant when Indians came upon the homestead. Thomas, Hannah's husband ordered the older children to flee quickly to a garrison. Hannah sent Thomas after the children for their well-being, though it meant terror and impending death or capture to herself, her baby and a young nurse.

2. Thomas shot one Indian while rushing the children to hurry. They made it to the garrison alive but exhausted.

3. When the Abenaki Indians attacked, 40-year old Hannah (March 1697), her one-day old infant daughter, plus a young nurse Mary Neff were captured in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Almost 30 others from the frontier families were slain.

4. The captives were hastened to an Indian camp where the infant was slammed against a tree and died quite quickly from severe head injuries. Some tales speak of it being an apple tree. Mary's revenge ignited.

5. Hannah and her nurse were forced to march for several days in a northerly direction of about 75 or more miles. They were joined by another captive who was just 14 years of age, Samuel Lennardson, who had been a captive for about 18 months and was somewhat adapted to being an Indian captive versus risking escape. Samuel knew how the Abenaki killed and scalped captives. He shared this info with Hannah and Mary. Hannah during this travel was still in nightclothes; she may have had no shoes. The ground was somewhat covered with old snow, and the streams were touched with bits of ice. The women and Samuel likely suffered greatly from the cold.

6. The Abenaki Confederation were allies with the French in Canada. Some Indians she encountered spoke French. It is likely that Hannah and the others were being marched to Canada where they would be sold into slavery.

7. Hannah plotted their escape, and told Mary and Samuel to stay vigilant. The Indians did not have adequate guarding of the campsite. I have read that Hannah prepared soup for the captives and the Indians on the night they escaped. Some say that when serving, she may have tossed in an herb to help the Indians sleep or may even have added a local mushroom causing amatoxin poisoning. True or not, the Indians were evidently listless when shortly after midnight Hannah, Mary, and Samuel seized the Indian weapons and killed 10 Indians; 2 escaped.

8. The captives fled the scene, but Hannah returned shortly when she realized either that she might need proof of this adventure, or she remembered that Indian scalps provided precious monetary rewards. Hannah scalped the 10 dead; they did receive their rewards for killing the captors and having the scalps.

9. The group traveled south to home by canoe, traveling only during night's darkness. The trip took several days, but they did arrive home in Haverhill.

10. Hannah was the only female captive in New England history to massacre her captives and escape. Indian attacks had been endured for years; her escape was viewed as heroic.

11. Henry David Thoreau immortalized Hannah Dustin in his written works. In 1870 a statue of the courageous Hannah Dustin was positioned in the town square. There is also a statue of her in New Hampshire where Hannah and the captives killed the raiders and escaped with the scalps. Hannah's harrowing experience sparked the imagination of her fellow frontier colonists, just as it has endured and appealed to the people of today. Hannah Dustin Memorial statue was the first statue erected in NH using public funds. This occurred long after her death, in 1874.

12. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of Hannah in his Legends of New England in 1831.

13. Cotton Mather penned Magnalia Christa Americana, in which Mather shared his respect for Hannah. He knew Hannah and spoke with her about the frightening incident himself. His version included moral questions which do not take away from the horror, but does speak of using the situation, perhaps, for his own means.  Remember that Cotton Mather was a Puritan and a witch hunter in Salem.

14. Her husband Thomas participated in building more garrisons around Haverhill to ward off Indian attacks.

15. Hannah was a survivor and a heroine in her time. Since not much is known about her life after this harrowing event, she evidently proceeded to live a calmer existence until she died around 1737.

16. Sadly, Hannah had a sister, Elizabeth, who was severely beaten by their father as a child with a flail swingle and by her father's kicking of her body. Violence towards children was not uncommon, but her father Michael was brought to court and punished for his overzealous actions. Elizabeth did not marry, but had three bastard children. Years later, Hannah's sister killed her own illegitimate twin daughters immediately after birth. This was discovered and Elizabeth was hung.

17. Hannah and Elizabeth's surname is written many ways, such as Dustin and Duston. This is common in colonial history.

Thank you, ancestor Hannah Dustin, for being a survivor!  

This was originally published by me on http://voices.yahoo.com/17-interesting-facts-indian-captive-escapee-12171756.htm

Sources:

http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=characters&FileName=dustin.php

http://wprokasy.myweb.uga.edu/Emerson2.htm

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-story-hannah-dustin-joan-arc-lizzie-bordon-116091.html?cat=37

http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/NativeAmericans&Blacks/HannahDuston/MMD2169.html

http://www.nhstateparks.org/explore/state-parks/hannah-duston-memorial-state-historic-site.aspx

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hannah-dustim-statue-boscawen-nh

Reverend Joseph Park, My 6th Great Grandfather

March 12 1705 in Newton MA to March 1 1777 in Westerly RI

AHA!  A granddad who graduated from Harvard!!!

Ok, so he graduated when Harvard was a college in Cambridge and was much smaller, but Harvard is Harvard, even in 1720 when he earned his B.A. and 4 years later earned his M.A in Religion.  The graduating class for 1720 was less than 40 in number!

After so much education, Joseph was ordained in 1730 and moved to Westerly RI to begin his own ministry.

In 1732 Grampa Joe and Gramma Abigail Green became husband and wife.

Reverend Park's home:  From The Avery, Fairchild & Park families

 of Massachusetts, Connecticut & Rhode ... By Samuel Putnam Avery

Grampa Joe was appointed as a missionary to Native American Indians - including the Narragansett Tribe -  and to also minister, of course, to any and all English who might attend his services in Westerly.   Grampa built his home for his wife, his children, and his always welcomed parishioners.  


Few Native Americans attended his services, meaning that his missionary work was slow to evolve. In the 1740s a large number of the Narragansett tribal members converted to Christianity, during the 1741-42 major religious revival known as the Great Awakening. Grampa Joe, as were other preachers, known as a "New Light" minister and ministry.  Joe's New Light Congregational church ministered to the English and the Indians.  

Grampa Joe wrote in letters that this religious conversion helped the Narragansett to adapt to the English colonial life, including less drinking, quarreling, and more education.  A letter he wrote in 1744 relayed "there is among them a change for good respecting the outward as well as the inward man.  They grow more decent and cleanly in their outward dress, provide better for their households, and get clearer of debt....they have been desirous of a School among them."  He, or others in his community, arranged to have an Indian Woman to "keep School" in a Wigwam.  Interestingly, the New Light churches failed when faced with the remaining Old Light ministers and shortly, by 1745, many of his English and Narragansett members withdrew to the leadership of the Narragansett Samuel Niles who evidently was a well thought of preacher though he was unable to read or write..  
      

           From "The Reservation Period" Chapter 4, Narragansett, Indians of North America.

So what do historians say Grampa Joseph was like?  Self-sacrificing, patriotic, public- spirited.  

His thoughtful and brave care of others and his self-sacrifice of himself did get him into hot water with the law and fellow citizens over smallpox outbreak. Rev. Joe took in a smallpox ridden woman who had been driven out by her town's fear of this horrendous illness. Joseph found himself tried for contempt for trying to help this woman. Not to be shackled by the fears of others, he preached a sermon in 1756 which vindicated his position and he remained a highly regarded man.

Abigail died in 1772; Joseph died 1777 at 72 after 45 years of successful ministry, though at times a bit bumpy!

In our family there are many encounters with American Indians, including marrying Native Americans.  Some encounters are harrowing such as that of Hannah Dustin, kidnapped by Indians who killed her babe and she avenged this death by scalping many of them.  Rev. Joseph Park's encounter was calmer, meaningful, and memorable.

Grampa Joe's and Grammy Abby's daughter Anne became my
 5th Great Grandmother with her husband Peleg Pendleton

For more on this man of God and his family:Some account of the Park family and especially of the Rev. Joseph Park, M.A., 1705-1777, and Benjamin Parke, L.L. D., 1801-1882

https://archive.org/details/someaccountofpar00west 

Sears Island, Maine, and my Mom, Marjorie Bennett

This two-mile long and one-mile wide island is close to the mainland of Searsport Maine. The Wabanaki American Indians called it Wassumkeag which means shining beach or bright sand beach. When the island was discovered by European explorers before 1775 they named it Brigadier's Island. Regardless of its moniker, this land has historically been an uninhabited or sparsely populated island.  

The island, today and in the days when my mom lived in Searsport, was separated from the mainland as a barrier island due to its tidal bar.  When the tide came off  Penobscot Bay, it was an island; when the tide rolled out, she could walk or stroll to the island but, of course, had to be alert to the tides and the daylight so as not to get marooned overnight. 

I don't believe there were any farmhouses there when my mother was, but were in generations before her time in Maine. Actually, in the first 1790 census six families lived or squatted here among the birch and maples of Maine. Now visitors can find stones marking the cellars of long gone homes.  In 1917 a gas-powered piece of farm equipment created a fire that destroyed the few Sears Island farm buildings. 

During prohibition, the island was a secluded way to the smuggle liquor off the waters of the Bay. Perhaps this even occurred when mom played on the island - in the daytime, thank goodness - when she was still under the age of 10.

Mom and her brothers used to love to go to Sears Island to camp, swim, gather shells, picnic, snowshoe and horseback ride.  Hiking might be an adventure to people today, but in mom's day hiking was a mode of transportation - her mode, a means to an end. I believe the island is about 2 miles from her home on Turnpike Road in Searsport.  Since she walked to neighboring towns often, such as Stockton Springs to roller skate, the trek to Sears Island was a fairly short half-hour walk for her. Today there is a causeway to and from Sears Island, but no further.  Once on the island, people walk, bike or ride horseback to see more. 

LtoR: Albert, Gerry and Marjorie Bennett

Some sounds mom would hear were the waves lapping along the shoreline, whispering and swirling winds and leaves, and the unique bantering of sea gulls...and silence, blessed silence. 

The island waters in her day were known for abundances in lobsters, clams, scallops and such. No wonder I like seafood (but not fish particularly). Although I have been very near to Sears Island, I did not walk in her footprints of long ago. My grandmother and my great grandmother also walked and played on this island. I should have.

Love you Mom!