The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-10-19
MONEY m MAINE ISLANDS.
Miss Rose Cleveland One of the Women
Who Have Specialized in Them.

The following letter, which appeared
in the New York Sun, contains state
ments which must be taken with some
grains of allowance. Ii Miss Cleveland
has bought the whole of Seven Hun
bred Acre island the county records do
not show it, nor do they show the
transfers by her of house lots that
would aggregate the handsome sum
named. Her title of absolute queen"
may also be questioned. Charles Dana
Gibson, the we'll known artist, has a
summer home on the island and would
have an equal right to claim the title
of king. AND there are others. AS to
Mrs. Nichols island holdings we know
nothing; but give the whole story for
what it is worth:
CAMDEN, Oct. 8. eff finaGcier had
the Maine coast twenty years ago"
said a real estate dealer, che could have
cleaned up more than half million
dollars from his holdings today. There
is no boom town in the West where the
increase has been SO rapid as off the
rocky shores of Maine.
about twenty years ago Miss Rose
Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of ex-Presi-
dent Cleveland, paid $500 for Seven
Hundred Acre Island, few miles from
Camden. Since then Miss Cleveland
has sold house lots enough on the is
land to yield her a sum which has been
estimated as high as 100000 and she
has acres still to sell to those who will
accept her terms She is absolute queen
of the island, and, by enforcing her
rules rigidly, Miss Cleveland and her
associates are enabled to be as much
alone as if they were dwelling on an
uncharted island in the middle of the
Pacific coast.
'Since Miss Cleveland made her ven
ture in island property many others
have followed her example. One of the
heaviest owners il Maine islands is
Mrs. lothian Nichols of Philadelphia,
who has inherited some 200 islands from
her husband, formerly a shipmaster at
Searsport, Me. Mrs. Nichols refuses to
part with her property on any terms
declaring that the islands are the best
kind of an investment that woman
can own.
She has rented about forty of the
larger ones to sheep owners, who pay
her fair sum for using the grasses and
seaweeds in feeding their sheep. The
climate is very mild.
"A conservative estimate of the
value of Mrs. Nichols island holdings
in Maine places the property at more
than a million dollars. Upon this she
pays a State tax of about $500 year
and nothing else. AS her rents bring
her in more than $4,000 a year, she can
live in comfort and permit the property
to lie idle and untenated.
The advance in the price and the
rapid settlement of the islands fall
heavily upon the fishermen, who have
gained precarious living along the
shores for several years. These people
build huts of fiat stone and logs near
the shore, where they and their families
reside throughout the year, picking up
a living from catching fish and Holsters
and digging CLANS for market.
Steamers from Rockland or Port
land come along every day and pay cash
for every product IT the sea that is
salab!e Having no rent or taxes TO
pay, getting their fuel from driftWood
and their food from the water, these
uMenumerated and untaXed citizens of
Name can support Iamlly OF I'VE per-
sons for a cash outlay Of $50 year.
The coming of the summer residents
who seek Seclusion from the world by
1 buying OF leasing islands has eyicted
most of the old settlers and cast them
adlift on the world, where they are
making a losing struggle with civiliZa-
ton. Not a few of them have gone to
almshouses or become State paupers,
allinG not a little to the hur1pn of
taxation.