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Creating Community: The Hamilton
Connection
Great Chebeague
Island in Casco
Bay will mark an important milestone during the summer of
2006. Two hundred fifty years ago a young man named Ambrose Hamilton bought
fifty acres of land on the island. Within a few years he had more than
doubled the size of his homestead, cleared enough of the lot to build a
home, and married a young woman named Deborah Soule who had deep New England roots going back to the Mayflower. The
story of the Hamilton
family is in some ways the story of Chebeague, because the foundation that
they laid is the underpinning of the community today.
The Hamiltons
had fourteen children and seventy-two grandchildren, the majority of whom
settled on Chebeague. Just by numbers alone one might expect that the Hamiltons played an
important role in the history and evolution of Chebeague, but they did more
than outnumber the folks who moved to the island over the generations. The Hamiltons welcomed
these new neighbors. Their sons and daughters married the new settlers
children, and the families shared grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Each succeeding generation did their part to strengthen the community.
Their story survives through the logbooks they kept, the houses they built,
and the tales they told.
Creating Community examines a time of change on Great Chebeague Island. The
island experienced an out migration that began after the Civil War and
continued until after World War I. The year round population is estimated
at 700 in the 1890s, but by 1920 fewer than 400 people lived on Chebeague.
Had it not been for the community's entrepreneurial spirit the decline
would have been even more dramatic. The islanders were able to adapt to
changing conditions. As the marine contracting business, also known as rock
slooping declined, Chebeaguers reinvested their capital and created a
desirable resort community that provided opportunities for islanders to
cater to summer people in a myriad of ways. Islanders transformed their
homes into boarding houses and took in laundry. They worked in gardens and
took out sailing parties. Several stores flourished sending several horse
drawn teams from one end of the island to another to take grocery orders.
The increase of summer visitors created a demand for souvenirs, so island
entrepreneurs and photographers immortalized hundreds of island scenes on
the thousands of German made postcards that were mailed from Chebeague
daily as well as souvenir china. Year after year more than a dozen new
cottages were built annually, as multi-generational farms were subdivided
into cottage lots, and their owners looked for opportunities ashore.
Creating Community: The Hamilton Connection presents a picture of life on
Chebeague at a time of change. The exhibit provides visitors with the
opportunity to consider the impacts of innovation and ingenuity on a
community that was both complicated and strengthened by familial lies. In
addition, one can speculate what Chebeague would be like today if islanders
had not been rock sloopers, boarding house proprietors, or shopkeepers or
if a man named Ambrose Hamilton had not bought one hundred acres of land on
Chebeague in 1756.
-Donna Miller Damon
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