Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-12-06

Parker and his wife were members of the
Baptist church OF Bluehill, ne joining in
1916 and his father, Peter, in 1906, at its
| organization.
The present owner. David Friend, has
sold the greater part of the Parker farm,
retaining few acres near the house, the
balance having gone to those interested
IN building summer cottages upon it near
the bay shore.
THE EDWARD SINCLAIR PLACE
upon the other side Of the road is the next
house to be described. which is said to
have been built about 1926 by Captain Ed
ward Sinclair, ir., who occupied it a few
years when first married. The occupant
first remembered by the writer was Edwin
Wood and family, son of Israel Wood, jr.
He was born January 20, 1910, and married
Susan Higgins July 20, 1899. He lived
there for few years and then moved
elsewhere.
The next occupant of the place was
Phineas Dodge and family, then Israel
Wood, brother of Edwin, whose wife
was Mary Walker Gray, of Sedgwick.
Israel Wood was greatgrandson OF JOS
eph Wood, and his wife a great grand
daughter OF John Roundy, the first set
tiers of Blue Hill. Israel Wood and family
removed to Ellsworth, where he and his
wife died some years after Others have
| occupied the place, and at this writing it
Is owned by Capt. Duffy and family.
THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE,
the next building upon the road,
| stood upon ledge at the left corner of
what is now the shore road to Parker's
Point. II was an old-style square struc-
ture with square roof, Imprinted and
notwithstanding, that had been moved
from beyond Bragdon's brook, its first
location, about 1880 or 1881.
Ii was the first school building, on its
original site, where the writer attended
school and afterwards upon this site. In
winter II was attempted TO be heated by
wood fire in an open Fireplace, but few
feet from the fire it was as cold as barn
with the cold wind passing under the
building aud up through cracks in the
door which set the scholars shivering
with the cold, which, even the thought of
aow, causes an unpleasant sensat on to
the writer.
Moses Pillsbury was the teacher for
years in that house, and the school was a
mixed one, containing scholars from four
TO twenty years OF age. The writer cannot
think OF one beside himself now living
who attended that school with him yes,
there Is one, Almira Wood, now Mrs. J.
q. A. Butler, of New York. She probably
would remember the incident of a dead
crow being thrown down the chimney by
boys outside, and the stir and smell it
made in the sehoolroom, " hen the feathers
and flesh Of the bird began burning, and
the anger Of Master Pillsbury at the trick
played upon him and the school.
The old schoolhouse took fire on a Sat-
urday afternoon in 1893, and was entirely
consumed, with no scholar to mourn its
loss. The writer was on the spot to see
the last OF its frame all afire, fall and he
consumed. A boy OF the neighborhood,
but not native, was an attendant at that
school and related to the writer under a
promise of secrecy how the building took
fire. As he has been dead many years and
his name Is not to be revealed, there is
now no harm in stating how the fire origi-
mated.
He said that passing in the afternoon he
went into the schoolhouse. The fire of
the forenoon was still smouldering in the
fire. place. He thought Of how he and
others had suffered with the cod therein,
and the desire came to him to have it
warmed up for once, and then better and
warmer house would be built.
He took live coal from the embers,
placed it in crack in the floor, famed it
until the fire had good Roadway, then
slipped out, fastened the door and made
his escape down through the pastures in
in rear and back to the highway and
shouted fire with all his might
The result was the total destruction of
the old house and the erection of better
and warmer one upon another site nearer
the tide mills. Great was the wonder
how the old house took fire two boys
only knew the secret as above. No one
ever mentioned that boys name in con-
neetion with its destruction, and until
now, for more than seventy years, the
writer has kept the secret committed to
him.
THE SAWYER HOUSE
and place next to the old schoolhouse site
the writer well remembers. The house
was built by Mr.. Sawyer, the shoemaker
from Biddeford, who first worked in the
neighborhood for John Cheever. Mr..
Sawyer married Miss Curtis for his first
wife; she died and he married her sister
for second wife. He built this house
previous to 1910, the exact date the writer
does not know, and lived in it a number
OF years, then removed TO the village and
later from the town.
The next occupant was Capt. John
Robertson, son Of Robert Robertson, who
married Miss Nancy e. Brown in 1881.
Children were:
/. Robert H., born August Is, 1915; died
September Is, 1916.
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