Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1911-02-15
"REMINISCENCES or sEDawIcK,
IBy r. g. F. candage, Of aleasondale. Nass.,

BY n. @. F. candage, OF Gleasondale, Mass.l
spent q few days at Sedgwick last
August, with which in my youth l was
we'll acquainted, but found there only two
or three people whom l had known, for
sixty or seventy years thin their ranks
and make one feel that time spares none.
sat upon the piazza OF the Travellers
Home smoking my cigar one afternoon,
alone with my thoughts. Before me lay
the bridge over Benjamin's river, said to
nave been named in honor of an early
| settler, Benjamin Friend, from Beverly,
Mass. Below the bridge were remnants OF
the dam upon which, in my boyhood,
! stood the tide mills built by Joel Long,
who, came from Boston and who later re-
moved to McHard's stream, now East
| Bluehill, where he settled, built the mills
there and house still standing in which
he continued to reside till his death at an
advanced age.
| Across the river, now part of Brooklin,
| but formerly Sedgwick, still stands a
mansion house, built, owned and formerly
occupied by Col. Rowland Carleton, who
in my youth was a prosperous ship-owner
and wealthy man for those days. He was
the son Of Maj. David Carleton, who with
his brothers Dudley and Moses, came from
Andover, Mass, took up land and built
Carleton's mills in Bluehill, near the
Sedgwick line, afterwards known as
Aliens mills.
| Col. Carleton had four or five sons, three
OF whom were shipmasters, and also one
or more daughters, all Of whom are dead,
the last being Dudley, the youngest, who
occupied the old house at the time Of his
death. few years after his death the
place was sold to Massachusetts, man
who now owns and occupies it. 1t is q
fine old place, conspicuous from the Sedg-
wick side Of the river, and an interesting
place to those who know its history.
To the right OF the Travellers Home a
short distance stands the Baptist church,
a fine piece of architecture and ia good re-
pair, though built some seventy years ago.
All who then worshipped therein have
gone to their reward. The first preacher
to occupy the pulpit in that building was
Elder Nutter, an Englishman of good
ability and talent whom I remember to
have heard once preach in boyhood from
the text: "Break up your fallow ground. p
Though the son OF 9 farmer, was too
young to know the meaning Of "fallow
ground", and on that account have re-
membered the text, as it was strange to
me then, and sought out its meaning.
In 1895 or 1887 my eldest brother engaged
to 60 mate OF the new schooner Orazimbo,
commanded by Capt. Mckenzie, and
drove the team which took him to Sedg-
wick to join her. She was built on the
Sedgwick side Of the river below the dam.
We arrived at the yard in time to see her
glide gracefully from her ways into the
water. have no personal knowledge as
to her owners or her after career further
than that a frieEd of mine informed me
that he remembered her as a very old YES
sci.
Capt. Mckenzie at that time was at his
height OF popularity as ship master, had
a wife and two lovely daughters, and tits
OF them and OF their career OF which I
shall write. They attended Bluehill
academy and in passing to and from their
home to the academy they passed my
fathers door, where frequently saw and
knew them, though they were a few years
older than 1.
The elder, Rosetta, married Capt.
Charles Emerson, Of Bucksport, COM
mander Of ship Sobieskie, OF that place,
for his second wife, his first having died
of yellow fever few days out from New
Orleans, when all hands were down with
the fever except Capt. Emerson, who was
obliged to prepare and bury her body at
sea with his own hands.
l shall now leave the story OF Rosella's life
to take up that of her younger sister, with
whom l became personally acquainted.
She married DR.. Henderson, of Orland,
at the time thought to be an advantageous
match for both, but alas! it did not prove
so. She accused him of ill treatment, the
breach widened and she left him never to
return. Her mind gave way under the
strain, she was sent to an asylum, and in
course of time died, some said OF broken
heart. Her mother had died; her father
lived to come to want and died poor and
broken old man.
| Capt. Emerson and his wife Rosella
went to California in the early days and
resided at Contra Costa across the bay
from San Francisco. They were very
happy together. Two children were born
to them, and life was to them pleasant
dream, but black and fatal cloud hung
over their home. One day she and her
children took the ferry boat for San Fran
cisco, the boiler exploded, and Rosetta and
her children met a terrible death, roasted
alive by the escaping steam. Poor, be-
reaved Capt. Emerson was heart broken,
and years after, in 1856, when he related
this story to me in Hong Kong, he could
not keep back the tears, nor / a tear of
sympathy at witnessing his distress.
saw him but once, eight years there
after in San Francisco, an old and broken
spirited man. He handed me letter to