For those who are desirous of exact knowledge concerning thep"Story of the Boundary Line," and the political history of Eastportand its vicinity, there is no more comprehensive work than that byWilliam Henry Kilby, Esq., entitled, "Eastport and Passamaquoddy."To him, and also to two friends who kindly gave me the names of afew of the Island flowers, do I express my gratitude.
THE mysterious charms of ancestry and yellow parchment, of petitionsto the admiralty and royal grants of land, of wild scenery and feudalloyalty, of rough living and knightly etiquette, have long clusteredround a little island off the coast of Maine, called on the charts PassamaquoddyOuter Island, but better known under the more pleasing nameof Campobello.
Its Discovery. It belongs to the region first discovered by theFrench, who, under Sieur De Monts, in the spring of 1604, sailed alongthe shores of Nova Scotia, and gave the name of Isle of Margos (magpies)to the four perilous islands now called The Wolves; beheld Manthane(now Grand Manan); sailed up the St. Croix; and established themselveson one of its islands, which they called the Isle of St. Croix. The severityof the winter drove them in the following summer to Annapolis, and formore than a hundred and fifty years little was known of this part of thecountry, though the River St. Croix first formed the boundary betweenAcadia and New England, and later the boundary between the Provincesof Nova Scotia and Massachusetts Bay.
Campobello itself could scarcely be said to have a history till towardsthe end of the eighteenth century. Moose roamed over the swamps andlooked down from the bold headlands; Indians crossed from the mainlandand shot them; straggling Frenchmen, dressing in skins, built huts alongthe northern and southern shores, till civilization dawned through thesquatter sovereignty of two men, Hunt and Flagg. They planted theapple trees whose gnarled branches still remain to tell of the winter stormsthat howled across the plains, and converted the moose-yards into a fieldof oats, for the wary, frightened animals vacated their hereditary land infavor of these usurpers. Their mercantile skill taught them how to use,[Pg 6]for purposes of trade rather than for private consumption, the shoals offish which it was firmly believed Providence sent into the bay.
Post Office. There were not enough inhabitants to justify the maintenanceof a post office till 1795; then the mails came once in two weeks.Lewis Frederic Delesdernier was the resonant, high sounding name of thefirst postmaster who lived at Flagg's Point (the Narrows). But when apost office was opened in Eastport, in 1805, this little Island one wasabandoned, or rather it dwindled out of existence before the larger oneestablished by Admiral Owen at Welsh Pool.
Welsh Pool. The Narrows, because of its close proximity to themainland, was a favorite place of abode in those early days. Yet Friar'sBay, two miles to the north, was a safe place for boats in easterly storms;and thus, before the advent of the Owens, a hamlet had clustered aroundwhat is now called Welsh Pool. A Mr. Curry was the pioneer. Thehouse opposite the upper entrance to the Owen domain was called CurryHouse until it became "the parsonage," a name abandoned when thepresent rectory was built. Curry traded with the West Indies, and owned,it is said, two brigs and a bark.
People also gathered at the upper end of the Island, Wilson's Beach,and on the road between Sarawac and Conroy's Bridge, where there wereseveral log houses.