Throwback Thursday

I received a research request for information about anti-slavery sentiment in the Kennebunks. While the subject is broad enough to fill a thousand 330-word Throwback Thursdays, one example that I first learned from the diaries of Kennebunk Town Clerk, Andrew Walker, speaks volumes. Walker’s diaries are available through DigitalMaine. Eunice Dorman (1803-1852) and her little sister Hannah (1812-1880) were abolitionists in the Kennebunks at a time when shipping fortunes were being made here on the backs of enslaved people in the West Indies and the southern United States. The sisters, founding members of Second Parish Congregational Church on Dane Street,...

Kenneth L. Roberts is best known for his set of historical novels, The Chronicles of Arundel, but he was still a young newspaperman when he bought an old stable at Kennebunk Beach from his wife’s aunt in 1919. Roberts jokingly dubbed it ‘Stablehurst’ but His friends, Booth Tarkington and Hugh Kahley thought the name lacked elegance. They christened it ‘Stall Hall.’ “Though our resources hadn’t allowed us to make extensive alterations,” Roberts wrote in his book ‘I Wanted to Write’ “It already boasted a bathroom, a cookstove, a bed, and a commodious set of living-room furniture I’d made myself out...

The Kennebunk River is and always has been our source of commerce and entertainment. It wasn’t a coincidence that Captain Nathaniel Lord built his mansion during the War of 1812 overlooking that river with shipbuilding ways and merchant wharves in his line of sight. Fishermen still keep their boats in the Kennebunk River as do pleasure boaters of all kinds. Kennebunkport marine artist, Frank Handlen was living on the Kennebunk River in June of 1975 when he launched his homemade ferrocement schooner Salt Wind. When he started to model a heroic size statue honoring Kennebunkport fishermen and their families, he...

Capt. Joseph A. Titcomb, Capt. Fordyce B. Perkins, and Silas H. Perkins, who all ran the Perkins Coal Wharf in Dock Square had much in common. First and foremost, they were all related, either by blood or marriage to each other and to the family who built and occupied the Nott House now owned by the Kennebunkport Historical Society. They also all sailed aboard the Saco-built ship Mount Washington to places like India, China, and the Philippines. Capt. Titcomb was her master from 1868, a year after she was launched, until 1874, when he handed her command over to Capt....

Even the tiniest buildings in Dock square have fascinating history. Taking a walk in the neighborhood the other day I noticed that Dock Square Coffee Shop on Perkins Wharf is for sale. It got me thinking about the history of that small building and the tiny one beside it that now houses part of the candy store. Capt. Eliphalet Perkins was in the West Indies trade. His original 1775 store is now Copper Candle. Perkins Wharf was often piled high with casks of molasses and rum from the West Indies in Eliphalet’s day. When the spiritous liquors trade became illegal...

THROWBACK THURSDAY is appearing early this week in light of today’s relatively rare occurrence. The earthquake experienced here in 1727 was noted as the fourth great earthquake that had happened in New England since the Pilgrams landed at Plymouth Rock. The first one had been in 1638, the second in 1658, and the third in 1663. The one on Oct. 29, 1727, was more violent than any of the preceding ones. There were also several reports of an unusual phenomenon called “Earthquake Lights” before and after the 1727 earthquake. Kennebunkport Historian, Charles Bradbury wrote that many chimneys and stone walls...

I love walking around my neighborhood thinking about the lives of the people who have occupied these old houses in historic Kennebunkport Village. Believe it or not, it’s what I do for fun. Twin houses built during the War of 1812 used to stand on Ocean Avenue between Elm and Chestnut Streets. Cooper Nahum Haley, who had a barrel makers shop across the street, lived in the twin at Chestnut Street. Oliver Davis, a pump and block maker who also had a shop across the street (where my house is now) lived in the twin at the corner of Elm...

Before you read today’s THROWBACK, look at the 4 pictures and take a guess where these columned Greek Revival houses stand in the Kennebunks today and in what order they were built. Master builder Beniah Littlefield built Nathaniel L Thompson’s house at Summer Street in 1842. Shipbuilder N.L. Thompson was a trendsetter. Not only did he set a new standard in opulent home design in the Kennebunks, but he was the first to publicly celebrate Christmas here with a Christmas tree laden with gifts for his children in 1852. Kennebunk diarist, Andrew Walker was at first quite taken aback by...

Seth Emery Bryant was a historical record keeper by vocation and clearly, by nature. Though he was technically from away, the contributions he made to the record of the history of the Kennebunks are immeasurable. Seth Bryant, the eldest son of William M. Bryant and Kennebunkport Perkins family descendant Mary E. Emery, was born in Rochester, MA in 1826 but he came with his family to live in the Kennebunk Lower Village House that is now occupied by Mornings in Paris, at the age of five. As a young adult, he ran a country store, then a stage-line and livery...

Theodore Lyman left his Kennebunk shipyard and mansion for Boston in 1790 never to return, but he continued to influence our maritime history for decades. Theodore’s brother-in-law, Dr. Oliver Keating, occupied the Lyman property as an agent for Theodore until 1799. Lyman then installed his cousins, the Plummer brothers there. The House and shipyard were occupied by shipbuilder John Bourne starting in 1806, after he had married the widow of Captain Israel Wildes. He continued to build Lyman ships, as did his son George W. Bourne and his son-in-law Henry Kingsbury. The Kingsbury family occupied the Lyman mansion into the...

Annie J. Crediford was our first newswoman in the Kennebunks. Born into a Brunwick, Me maritime family, she had traveled the world and lived in Japan before she reached marrying age. Upon her return to Brunswick as a teenager she went to work for the Brunswick Telegraph, learning every aspect of the newspaper business. She did marry Dr. David B. Crediford and had one child in the mid-1890 but her son Richard was still a toddler when his father ran off to California with another woman. Mrs. Crediford was granted a divorce in Kennebunk in 1900. To preserve her reputation,...

Another one of my Kennebunkport history heroes was Julian C. Howard. Born in Boston in 1891, Julian spent his whole life visiting Goose Rocks Beach every summer. He graduated from Harvard in 1913 with a degree in Chemistry but also became a registered surveyor in Massachusetts and Maine. After a long and productive career in his fields he finally became a year-round resident of Kennebunkport after the fire of 1947. In Kennebunkport, Julian served on the Board of Selectmen, surveyed and drew town maps, started the Town Forest, and helped with reforestation after the fire of 47. He also served...