When the last of the abandoned Penobscot camps near Government Wharf were torn down in 1936 the local newspaperman reminisced about how fondly some of its peaceful inhabitants were still remembered nine years after they had all left. The very athletic Sockalexis cousins came to mind.

The famous Louis Francis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play professional baseball in 1897, and the one for whom the Cleveland Indians was named, had summered with his family at Cape Arundel as a boy where he was already known for his remarkable baseball talent. His second cousin, Andrew Sockalexis was still just a boy in 1902, when Louis reappeared on the Kennebunkport summer baseball team’s roster after his pro ball career was cut short.

Andrew Sockalexis learned long distance running from his father, Francis Sockalexis, who built a track around his Indian Island home for the boy to practice on. Andrew’s first competitive race was the Boston Marathon in 1911, in which he finished 17th.

He ran the Boston Marathon again in 1912, finishing second, trailing the winner by only 34 seconds. His performance so impressed the crowd that Andrew was invited to the tryouts at Harvard University for the 1912 United States Olympic Team. He qualified and was the first Mainer to ever compete in any Olympic event.

Andrew came in 4th in his marathon run at the Olympics in Sweden. The 20-year-old Penobscot man had lost 7 lbs. during the race. He returned to Maine as a hero.

Pauline Shay, whose bother Leo was a regular at Cape Arundel, promised to marry him if he won the 1913 Boston Marathon. She followed Andrew in an automobile and threw roses at him as he crossed the finish line in second place. She married him anyway later that year in a very traditional Penobscot ceremony.

During a Memorial Day 1913 marathon at Maplewood Park Andrew fell three times and finally collapsed. He was never able to run again. He was admitted to the Hebron Sanitarium with Tuberculosis and died of an acute attack in 1919 at the age of 28.