This circa 1890 photo shows Matilda Hatchard of Boothbay’s Ocean Point (formerly Green Island Cove) in her humble doorway. Her tattered house and clothes give a good indication of how hard life could be in a little fishing community at the rockiest end of a rocky peninsula. The general location was called Green Island Cove before the 1870s brought summer colonies and name changes to entice tourists. Her house was about where Ocean Point Inn is.

Matilda Hatchard was born in Lebanon, Maine, in 1814 and married her second husband, Henry Hatchard of Ocean Point, when she was 68 in 1882. It was also the second marriage for Henry. Born in West Wareham, England in 1811, he came to America in 1828, and permanently moved to Boothbay by 1842. Henry died in 1890, Matilda in 1894.

Matilda, her house, her clothes

Matilda's clothes are old and mended many times over. She's adapted a man's vest with its watch pocket as her upper outer garment. Patched at the end of the right arm, there are also careful stitches – noticeable because of their lighter color – acting as a selvage running up the edge of the front from the lowest button. Matilda's skirt is so much repaired that the largest patch is the size of an apron. Her shoes are obscured by age marks on the photo.

Many of the clapboards barely cling to the house, and there is nothing so fancy as a doorknob. When Matilda is out, the door is secured with a chain, like a barn. The edge of the lowest stair tread behind Matilda is broken off.

Everything is worn, the house, the clothes, and even Matilda. Toothless and bone-tired, she supports herself on the door frame and stares unflinchingly, straight into the camera, neither proud nor ashamed. She's seen a lot and little surprises her, not even a man with a camera at the door. But her arm across the doorway, barring the threshold, sends a message, "This may not be much, but it's mine."

Matilda's husband Henry

Henry's death notice in the 1890 Register paid tribute to him. "He sang in the choir with many of the old patriarchs who have long since passed away. He gained a livelihood from fishing and marketing lobsters, for many years making trips once or twice a week to Bath before the steamers run upon this route. [It was the norm to get to Bath on your own by rowing a dory, possibly with a simple sail to use if conditions were right.] He was a man who always promptly met his obligations, was a good neighbor, and in his day and generation did his duty, and though it may be in a humble way, few could do more." Just from Matilda's appearance, I think the same high praise could be applied to her.

Many thanks for info and the loan of the photo from Royall Dodge, Henry Hatchard's great-great-grandson, one of countless local Hatchard descendants. Royall's daughter, Sandy Tibbetts, also provided some information.