Out of Our Past

Damariscove's Attempt to Secede

Wed, 07/18/2018 - 8:30am

It's not hard to come up with reasons for islands to leave towns. Islanders could feel they're supporting amenities that they rarely use: roads, a large school system, town paupers, and so on. Just nearby, Southport left Boothbay in 1842 and Westport left Edgecomb in 1828. Many of those islanders might have trafficked more with towns and stores to the west, such as in Woolwich, Wiscasset, and Georgetown.

State's Permission to Pursue

In February 1885, the Boothbay Register reported the state committee on towns in Augusta had met to hear petitioners who wished to set off Damariscove from Boothbay. They were represented by "Attorney Pierce" of Rockland—I'm sure he was True Pierce of Rockland who pleaded for the Harbor when it succeeded in seceding from Boothbay in 1889. For some reason Clark Nelson of Southport, who was the local state representative, took over the case from Pierce. Arguing for the town was Nelson's brother-in-law, Wilmot Lewis 2nd, a Boothbay selectman and the Back River postmaster. According to the Register, Nelson handled the case in such a "decidedly able and skillful manner" that the state legislators voted to unanimously let Damariscove withdraw from the town of Boothbay. One hurdle down. But why? Being somewhat close to the tip of Southport, perhaps they wanted to join that town and that is why Nelson took over, but there's no proof unless Nelson family papers survive.

Broad Cultural Reasons

The 1880s brought sweeping changes to the region. While a few tourists and summer residents had been coming here before that decade and some colonies had their start in the 1870s, the 1880s was the first big summer boom, with many local summer colonies having their beginnings then. Industrialization elsewhere had greatly increased the middle and upper classes, providing the means for many members of those groups to indulge in second homes or long hotel stays in a pastoral spot.

Such developments were propelled by the railroads and, in Boothbay's case, the steamers that came and went multiple times a day with various destinations. Telegraph and telephone lines were also becoming widely available, so travel and communication were becoming easier for those who wished to visit and communicate about arrangements. Letters and postcards were not the only way any more.

Prosperity Dreams

The dreams of prosperity through attracting summer people infected islanders too, like those on Squirrel, Capitol, Mouse, and Isle of Springs. And those on the small outer islands weren't immune. Fisherman's Island owners hoped for a small summer colony in the 1890s, and the people living on Damariscove wanted to chart their own course separate from Boothbay in 1885. The residents on Damariscove then were at least Stackpole, Stetson, and probably transient and permanent fishermen. Absentee owners, the Wrights, who installed James Coggins to run a dairy farm and deliver milk to islands, were probably the main instigator of the secession plan, perhaps with visions of selling off lots. But given the known residents, it's hard to believe there were more than 20 all told, which is about the same number as in 1810 and hard to believe the legislators backed the plan for so few people.

More reasons for Damariscove's assumed soon-to-be-realized prosperity in the 1880s were: the 1882 plan to build a lifesaving station on the island, a surefire draw; nearby Ram Island light had just been finished in 1883; and there had been a store on Damariscove in 1859, so perhaps becoming a town was not so farfetched. The lifesaving station did become reality, but not for a decade or more.

The Effort Dies Out

In the end, nothing came of the mid-1880s effort. B. T. Cox, the paper's editor, was an outspoken, acid-toned, judgemental man who was, as they say, "death on liquor." He was eventually horsewhipped by one disgruntled reader and had a short career at the Register. He wrote on November 28, 1885: "It is reported the owners of Damariscove, who have heretofore acted as independent as though Boothbay was some insignificant country and entirely unworthy their notice, have at last waked up to the fact that Boothbay and not Damariscove is the resort known to tourists and excursionists and will next season provide a steamer to ply between their beautiful sea-girt isle and Boothbay, that the people may have an opportunity of looking upon old ocean from the outlying rocks of Boothbay."

There was no further word of the secession attempt. Except for the Register's reports, the foregoing is my speculation on the probable reasons for the pursuit of secession. As far as I know, nothing survives to confirm the reasons for the attempt or explain why the effort was abandoned.