Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1912-05-01
AN OLD LANDMARK.
Travellers Home, Sedgwick, Which
Was Burned Recently

Travellers Home, Sedgwick, Which
Was Burned Recently.
The Burning last February of the hotel
al sedgwick, known for years as Travel
ers' Home, was reported at the time in
THE AMERICAN.
The destruction OF this hotel removes
ene of the oid-time landmarks OF Han
cock eonnty-one OF the few remaining
4'taverns'' eff the good old days.
General Daniel Dority, the first landlord
Of the Travellers Home, was man OF high
character, remarkable personality and
+'hig man'' In the community. He gained
his military title by service in the famous,
as bloodless, "Aroostook war; when he
led 8 company of husky down-easters TO
Bangor to join the main .army"-and led
them back again.
Seeing an opening Tor a tavern, he
bought the Hezekiah Dodge homestead
in sedgwick, and, taking 1t for a main
house, added and enlarged according to
his own ideas. and in April, 1888, opened.
The Travellers Home, for the enter
tainmeut of man and beast.
The opening was celebrated by a grand
turkey dinner, and people came for
miles around. But sensation deveIoved
en- the start. There was no bar; no rum
On the p4acel a tavern without rum was
onheard of, amazing, ineengruous and
bound to be failure, every body said All
knew that .'Gin'ralr Dority was a deacon
OF the church and did not drink liquor
himself. but no one dreamed that he
would think OF running a tavern without
rnm.
Those were the days of the old New
England product which sold for three
eentsa glass. Rum was considered nee
esssry for every occasion, from a barn
raising to a funeral 1t was the first
courtesy to the visitor to bring out a little
rum, AID macy good minister who ex-
pounded the gospel in the uateated
meeting house took a nip before and after
showing the way of salvation.
Nothing more was thought of taking a
sip of rum than drinking a cup of tea, and
tavern without its hot drinks in which
rum played a prominent part offered q
cold welcome to the traveller Bot Cen
eral Dority was convinced in his oxn
mind that run was BAD, that the sale OF 1
was wrong. He had no objection to any
ones personal views, but there was to be
no rum ia his hotel.
Travellers soon found that while the
Travellers Home was lacking the essential
feature of a bar, that in all other particu-
lars 1t was q home indeed. The rooms |
we're large and airy, and beds of the best
live geese feathers. The table was loaded |
with the best, and when the guests were /
all down and at work the great diaing-
room was more like a reunion at the old 1
homestead than public house. A team
connected with the steamer 4. r. Secor, /
the first steamboat to land here.
General Dority was an ideal tavern |
keeper OF the old-fashioned type, nov /
practically extinct. He was there TO well
come the coming and speed the parting |
guest, and il ever one went from the door
of the Travellers Home dissatisfied, the I
fact was never known. Mrs. Dority
shared with her husband in making the
hotel famous kindly, motherly woman
who was always ready to act the com
forter and nurse to the ailing and to those
in trouble.
In 1851, General Dority died after brief
illness, and his son Daniel Proctor Dority
and his wife, most estimabie lady, took
up the burdens of landlord and landlady,
and kept up the old tavern on the same
lines as established by General Dority.
After forty-five years actively engaged in
the couple turned over the
place so their son, Stirling Dority, who
kept it until his death, when the place
was sold to Irving Candage, who con-