This article first appeared in The Georgetown Tide, spring of 1977

Ralph Davis Remembers When…and Who

by Pat Morgan

One summer day not quite two years ago, I called on Mr. Ralph Davis at his home in Georgetown Center to listen to his reminisce on his long life in Georgetown and Five Islands. Since his memory was keen and his recollections strikingly vivid I wrote as he talked and this is essentially what he said:

The Old Stone Schoolhouse on the Bay Point Road, the oldest building in Georgetown, was built by three Irish families so their children could attend school there

There was an old mill in Georgetown Center at the Cove where corn was ground and lumber was sawed. Ships were built there at the Cove and launched on both sides of the bridge. One ship in particular was named “Sunbeam” and was owned by Byron Campbell. (The chair Mr. Davis was sitting on came from a ship built in the Cove.)

There was a Howard Trafton of Georgetown who lived to be 106 years old.

There was a dirt road from Bath through Georgetown over which Moses Rowe carried the mail by horse and team. In 30 years there was only one day on which he could not get through. Moses Rowe lived in Five Islands in the house where Arthur Cochrane lives now. This is probably the oldest house in Five Islands.

Benjamin Rowe, “Uncle Benny”, was Moses brother and postmaster at Five Islands. A store there was known as Grover’s General Store and he lived in the “Hite” Rowe house now owned by his heirs, Francis and Helen (Rowe) Bacon.

A Fourth brother, Capt. Joseph Grover Rowe, was in the coasting schooner trade from Bath and Five Islands to Boston, New York and cities further south. He lived in a house now owned by Everett Arnold of Farmington.
Capt. Rowe’s wife, “Grandmother Rowe”, was the clerk in the store, then known as H.G. Rowe, Dry Goods and General Merchandise.

The recently demolished Howard Hall, known as The Rink, was a dance hall and roller skating rink. The minstrel shows were put on there. I was a tap dancer and a singer.
On occasion the minstrel shows were put on by real black people and because they were insulted during the performance they closed the show.

Dell Lewis and I were the prize waltzers in Five Islands and people always made room for us in the center of the dance floor.

Behind the rink uncle Hite had an ice pond and ice house. The pond is still there behind the new parking lot. On the hill over that lot was the Otter Cliff Hotel which burned down about 30-40 years ago. It was built by George Hagan. Before prohibition liquor was sold there. During prohibition people bought “bootleg hooch” behind the rink. One night, Hagan, who was also the owner of the hotel, was beaten up by Will Reid, brother of Walter from whom the park is named. The policeman at the time was John Lang Berry.

To go to Bath, instead of traveling the main road one could travel the North End Road by horse and team to Lowe Point. From there, driver, horse and team boarded a scow which carried them across to Riggsville where Robin Hood Marina now is. Then one drove down through Riggsville to the main road and on to Bath.

On one occasion Joe Stevens ( Carolyn Stevens Thompson’s grandfather) carried a load of turkeys to Bath by this route and returned home on the scow from Riggsville. He landed his oxen and team on the North End of Five Islands near Lowe Point and was starting home toward the village when he was struck on the head and robbed of his gold watch and all money from sale of all those turkeys. Tom Hagan, however, came to his rescue and recovered the money and the gold watch and tended to Joe Stevens head injuries. Tom Hagan also apprehended the robber who had been living in the old North End schoolhouse and was then sent to Thomaston Prison for 15 yrs.

There is a very old cemetery down in “Old Town”. Slabs were placed over the graves to keep out the mink and wolves which used to be hunted on the island. Some of the earliest settlers are buried in this ancient cemetery on the edge of the Kennebec.

My mother was Rosabel Stevens, a sister of the 3 Stevens sisters who married the 3 Lewis brothers:

Andelia Stevens--Winfield Lewis
Almira Stevens-- Capt. Ira Lewis
Angeline Stevens-- Chauncey Lewis

Tom Lewis, father of the 9 brothers, lived to be an active 93, picking blueberries with a 10 qt. pail and always running, never walking.

Chan (Chauncey) Lewis was the champion tobacco juice spitter in town—14 ft. dead ahead.

Chan Lewis was also the local poet, a gifted rhymester who set to verse events which occurred daily in town. Unsuspecting island folk perchance found themselves in uncle Chan’s verses, like these:

There once was a man who shot a cat
I knew him as old Sam Stone
What manner of man could ever do that?
But a man with a heart of stone

Poor old Ben Rowe kept losing his specs
Always looking at some fair sex

(It seems that the previously mentioned Ben Rowe lost his spectacles so many times that during his lifetime he went through 17 pairs. Although the original poem was longer, Mr. Davis remembered only these two initial lines.)

Ralph Davis once had a lovely cat
Who strolled over Robinson’s lot
How sad—she died by the flowing tide
In Scott Harley’s lobster pot

(Mr. Davis’s cat drowned at the head of Harmon’s Harbor.)

A man named John Hagan persuaded Chan to write a humorous epitaph for him before he even died. John Hagan chewed so much tobacco he was the largest single consumer of tobacco at the Five Islands store. Reluctant to write a premature epitaph for his friend, Chan finally did accommodate with this verse:

Here lies the body of good old John
He’s claimed by death the reaper
What’s one man’s loss is another man’s gain
For tobacco will be cheaper

It is remarkable that Mr. Davis on that one afternoon was able to recall with such clarity all these events and verses that are part of Georgetown’s past. His quiet patience and good natured willingness to take time to contribute to the archives of the Georgetown Historical Society left me with a very happy memory of a pleasant visit with one of the fine gentlemen of the island.