Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1926-03-24
STORY or Ills RETURN TO THE PLACE
OF HIS BIRTH
Reception to the Famous Frenchman Given at
DesIsles Tavern, Now ashore Acres"---A Pic
ture of Merrymaking Among Early French
Settlers.
(By J. Sherman Douglas)

uOuS0WOIh. LOulo bupIS DOoloIOo
was working on the ell to their new
house. Aunt Mary looked out of her
window, and saw small boat sail
ing near the shore. She called to
her husband, and told him to look.
He came, looked in the direction in
which she was pointing, and saw a
strange sail.
"That is not one of our boats" he
said, and he started for. the shore
towards which the boat was heading.
Arriving at the beach, he waited un-
til the sloop grounded, then went
alongside. A voice greeted him,
Good morning, Mr.. DesIsles," and
the speaker grasped his hand. II re-
member we'll the assistance you gave
me one day down the bay, when my
were about to swamp ME. l am Capt.
Cobb, of Gouldsboro. This is Capt
Jerry O'Brien, of Machias, and this
gentleman is Monsieur Tallyrand, of
France"
90, no." said that gentleman, 81
am. now an American, having signed
my papers in Philadelphia. Bon
soir, Monsieur DesIsles."
Then followed an embrace and
kissing on each cheek, and an excited
conversation in French, for it had
been quite a long while since Louis
had seen any one from his beloved
France. He invited them up
to his new house. There
all was soon excitement. Tally
! rand is here" Now, to hustle
Of biY,r To
suitable for such an important per-
sonage! Up the road, one of the
Googins girls had seen the strange
sail and hurried down to Mrs. Des-
Isles her sisters, to find out what
was up. She was hurriedly sent
home for various things, and arriv-
ing there, she told the news that the
great Tallyrand was there-the boy
who had gone from there twenty-five
years before, according to tradition
which their father, Roger Googins,
had heard upon his arrival at Kill
kenny stream in 1862. One of his
five girls had married Louis Des-
Isles. nearby was Benjamin Googins'
family, and from there the news was
carried to the Berrys, who lived a
little farther up the road. In these
times "a little farther" meant any
where from one mile to five.
Soon the Gilpatrics knew; then it
spread to the new settlement at what
is now Ellsworth, from there to Han
cock by Abner Lee, and by fisher
man to every fishing hamlet to Cas-
tine.
Now we will return to the home of
the DesIsles. The DeLaittres had got
the word, and hurried to get word
of French from home. BY mid
afternoon, it was evident that the
visitors would not get away that
night. 1t was finally decided that
Capt. Cobb and Capt. o. rien would
sail for home and come back in few
days for Tallyrand, who had ex-
pressed a desire to visit the shore
and pick out the spot where he was
born.
That evening was long to be re-
membered by those few French peo-
IIeul 10 seIoQs 9ql lJeI pBQ oqM cid
beloved France, many of them never
to return. Only one of them ever
saw France again, and that was
Louis Dupre DesIsles, and he never
got back to his American family.
Aunt Mary could not understand all
that was said, but living with Louis
so long as she had, she was able to
understand quite a bit. She was
very busy woman getting her best
room ready for such a distinguished
guest. She put him in her best room,
which, by the way, is almost exactly
as it was that day, modernlzed by
two new doors, but the wainscotlng,
floor and one door are the same and
can be seen any time at Shore Acres
hotel, which was Louis Deslsles'
tavern, where IMAM and beast were
accommodated. All the fine things
that he had had from Madam LeVal,
with whom he came from France as
confidential secretary, were now
brought out for use on this great
occasion.
Next morning, Mr.. Deslsles was
very anxious to show his visitor MS
new house. He had the year before
leveled off and grassed over in front
of his home what was to be his gar
den, eventually to be surrounded by
a nice picket fence, painted white,
but now Just a green patch in front
of his new house, later to be useo
for purposes not in his mind at that
time. AS they walked towards the
shore. his visitor remarked now
familiar everything looked to him,
and that it was all coming back to
him. There is the big rock on
which played, and look, there is the
very rocks which piled up for nre-
place."
out the very spot where the tar POT
upset and burned his leg, From tnat
burn he never recovered, and limped
his whole lifetime. He stood on the
spot on which his grandrauner
cabin stood, pointed out all the little
things that a boy would remember,
and no doubt there were tears in the
eyes of this man who had gone out
and carved a way in life SO much dill
ferent than had his playmates, ana
now to come back and stand on the
n rh{IIhnnd with one