Reviews of the following books:  Island in Time: A Natural and Human History of the Islands of Maine by Philip W. Conkling; A Seafaring Legacy: The Photographs, Diaries and Memorabilia of a Maine Sea Captain and His Wife by Julianna FreeHand;  Coming of Age on Damariscove Island, Maine by Carl R. Griffin III and Alaric Faulkner; The Identity of the St. Francis Indians by Gordon M. Day;  Soldiers, Sailors and Patriots of the Revolutionary War: Maine by Carleton E. Fisher and Sue K. Fisher

Barry, William David

Bibber, Joyce K.

Gaffney, Thomas L.

Jacobson, Bruce

Ray, Roger B.

English

University of Maine

Maine History Volume 23 Number 3 Article 3 1-1-1984 Book Reviews Bruce Jacobson Harraseekett Project Joyce K. Bibber University of Southern Maine William David Barry Roger B. Ray Thomas L. Gaffney Maine Historical Society Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal  Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Jacobson, Bruce, Joyce K. Bibber, William David Barry, Roger B. Ray, and Thomas L. Gaffney. "Book Reviews." Maine History 23, 3 (1984): 123-141. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol23/iss3/3 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact um.library.technical.services@maine.edu. BOOK REVIEWSIslands in Time: A Natural and Human History of the Islands ofMaine. By Philip W. Conkling. (Camden, Me.: Down East Books, 1981. Pp. xviii, 222. Cloth. $16.95.)Islands in Time is an informative look at Maine’s coastal islands, as seen through the eyes of an experienced observer. Philip W. Conkling is a trained naturalist, who is not content with merely recording what he sees. He ventures to under­stand the complex natural processes and human actions that have shaped the islands and our perceptions of them. His curiosity ranges from hurricanes to mackerel, “cobblestone” beaches to spruce trees, and hawks to people. This rich diver­sity is what makes Islands in Time so appealing and so distinc­tive. The book’s subtitle, A Natural and Human History of the Islands of Maine, appropriately reflects the author’s wide- ranging interests.Unlike guidebooks and island histories of narrower geo­graphic focus,Islands in Time deals with the Maine archipelago in its entirety. The islands are viewed as a comprehensive unit in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. Yet, specific anecdotes about individual islands and people illustrate common themes. These stories keep the text interesting, and the inquiring reader is bound to End a few gems of information about islands located in his favorite bay. In the section on the physi­cal and cultural settings of the islands, Conkling reminds the reader that there are seventeen “favorite” bays from Kittery to Calais.Conkling's topics — island ecology, landforms, vegetation, birds and mammals, and fisheries of the Gulf of Maine — are not new, but his approach raises new questions. His descrip­tion of the f orests of the islands is perhaps the best anywhere. In fact, Conkling’s experience as a professional forester shines through the entire chapter on island vegetation, mak­ing it one of his best.133BOOK REVIEWSThe author's extensive research is evident in the presenta­tion of obscure scientific and historical information. A popu­lation study of rodents on the Merchants Row Islands and an analysis of Christopher Levett’s accounts of seventeenth­century forest growth are but two examples of the more unusual topics treated. Readers interested in delving into such subjects need only to consult the annotated listing of 132 books and articles provided at the end of the book.Conkling’s humor and easy-going conversational style, combined with seventy-six contemporary and historical photographs, and numerous illustrations and maps, makes for enjoyable reading. Anyone interested in the coastal islands ol Maine should read Islands in Time, keeping in mind the author’s admonition that “getting to know Maine islands takes a lot ol time — a lifetime — and you cannot be in a hurry.”Bruce JacobsonDirector, llarraseeket ProjectFreeport, MaineA Seafaring Legacy: 77/e Photographs, Diaries, and Memorabilia of a Maine Sea Captain and His Wife, 1S 59-190S. By Julianna Freelland. (New York: Random House, 1981. Pp. 210. Cloth. $18.50.)For many historians, there is a recurring drcam. Some­where, tucked away in ail old trunk or on a back shelf, is a collection of hitherto unknown papers, the editing of which will provide a pleasurable challenge and the publication of which (when the*  choice between anxious publishers’ oilers has been made) will illuminate some previously dark corner ol history. Such was almost the scenario for Julianna Free- Hand’s A Seafaring Legacy. What she discovered in a Yar­mouth home were a short journal, numerous diaries, a group of old photographs and glass negatives, and collection of letters, all contributing to a picture ol the lives of a nineteenth-century sea captain and his wife. She has woven 134BOOK REVIEWSthese together with family memories and outside research into a fascinating whole.The lives of this small-town couple, even if they did travel lar away from their Maine home, were quite unremarkable. Neither did anvthing trulv unusual. He captained a lew ves­sels and sailed on others. She accompanied him on a few short voyages and on two to Asia. 'There were no mutinies, no shipwrecks, no encounters along the wav with great historic figures. Sumner and Alice Drinkwater lived lives of obscurity, but it is this obscurity — or normality — that makes their story of interest, for a while, we glimpse the thoughts of real people in a changing world.Indeed, change becomes a theme of the book, as the cap­tain, who lu st shipped out at the ageol sixteen, found less and less call for his knowledge of sailing vessels and had to leave the sea when he was fifty. I lis letters and diaries record some of the problems of the wanning days of sail — of getting good crews, of finding cargoes to carry. and of complying with incteasing government regulation as well.There are also lesser signs ol change: among the period's cra/es in which Sumner and Alice took part was bicycling. He began bv renting one to get around in a foreign port, and on latet voyages they took (heir own. (A true Yankee, the captain knew he could get his investment back bv selling the bicycles before returning homed 1 lowever. Alice had one tor exercise and v isiting around in Yarmouth, too. and she was obviously not alone in this, as the town voted lor a new bicvcle road that vear.The book has its problems, not the least of' which is an unevenness in the text. Maine people mav find local practices overdetined and not quite accurate (an ell is more than a "covered corridor to the woodshed"), while historians will look in vain to learn the sources of "facts" that mav simply be family tradition. That a lew of the photographs are unlabeled mav not matter, but the newspaper "storv" about Cleveland and Harrison should certainly be explained, though its in­formation mav be no more garbled than the account of the BOOK REVIEWS1884 election, on the same page, which saddles poor James G. Blaine with both the Mulligan letters and an illegitimate child!Overall, however,Seafaring Legacy proves worthwhile and gives an interesting view of a small segment of society. Al­though it omits much (there is little comment on industrial growth, even though Yarmouth itself had flourishing mills at the time), this may be due as much to the selectivity exercised by the Drinkwaters, who saved only some of their letters, as to the fact that they lived in a more rural part of town. A good deal can be learned about housing patterns (rental apart­ments in old farmhouses was not a twentieth-century de­velopment) and of family and neighbor relationships in a Maine coastal town, as well as of life on a trading vessel. It is well worth reading — or owning.Joyce K. BibberUniversity of Southern MaineComing of Age on Damariscove Island, Maine. By Carl R. Griffin III and Alaric Faulkner and including the reminiscences of Alberta Poole Rowe. (Northeast Folklore, Vol. 21.) (Orono, Me.: Northeast Folklore Society, 1981. Pp. 116. Paper. $6.00, non-members. $5.00, members.)Damariscove Island, outside of Boothbay Harbor, is one of the most beautiful and historic of Maine islands. As a historian and avid explorer of the coast, I have long been intrigued by the place and its dilapidated, Wyethesque buildings.Coming of Age is largely about the Poole family, whose mem­bers made the last hardscrabble attempt to make Damariscove a year-round, working proposition. The story is told by Al­berta Poole Rowe, who lived on the island from 1910 until 1922. Her recollections are crystal clear and fit very closely to the historic record, though she was only a child at the time. Here, in breadth and detail, we get a rare view of the last days of island existence. It is a view that can, with caution, be extended along the coast. Indeed, though the islands were the 136BOOK REVIEWSfirst places in Maine to be settled by Europeans, civilization passed quickly to the mainland. Until Maine became “Va­cationland,” the offshore settlements were generally isolated, out of touch, and impoverished. In the era of the Pooles, other, poorer island settlements were being dismantled by the state.Nearly every aspect of life on Damariscove during Alberta’s youth is explored. Nothing, including social affairs, educa­tional opportunity, farming, fishing, and religious life, is stinted. We learn about attempts to develop dairying to serve the tourists and about the failure of sheep raising during the last three years the Pooles’ stayed on the island. Alberta’s remarkable eye for detail will surely assist future historians and writers. For example, she notes:None of the small boats ever had any paint on them. Neither were most of the houses painted. Paint would never have lasted one year. The salt water and salt air would take the paint right off and make the labor worth­less. The big boats were painted, most always white, to preserve them. Papa’s was white and Johnson’s was painted black.Detailed information such as this is either difficult or impossi­ble to obtain elsewhere.Coming of Age is the result of two independent research projects. Carl Griffin, now an attorney in his hometown of Boothbay, began interviewing Alberta Poole Rowe in 1975 as an undergraduate history project at Bowdoin College. In 1979, University of Maine archaeologist Alaric Faulkner began fieldwork on Damariscove aimed at establishing how the island had changed since Sir Ferdinando Gorges had first planted a fishing station there in 1622. In the course of re­searching the island’s history, Faulkner discovered Griffin’s work and the two projects converged.The content of the publication is largely provided by Al­berta through Griffin. Faulkner offers a good, brief summary history of Damariscove beginning with the year-round fishing station of 1622. The whole is complemented by the generous number of interesting photographs and maps. On balance, 137BOOK REVIEWSthe authors and the Northeast Folklore Society have rendered a valuable service in gathering and organizing the material. If the study is flawed, it results from the feeling one gets of reading a work-in-progress. While the information is excel­lent, the presentation is a little skeletal in places. At one point Griffin writes:The essence of three Damariscove communities emerged with clarity and vitality; the year-round farming and fishing residents, the seasonal fishermen, and the Coast Guard crew. Significant contradictions in their portrayal occured in only a few instances. At odds were such mat­ters as the effectiveness of the Coast Guard, the health of the residents, and the past history of the house of Alberta’s Uncle Will. These and other discrepancies re­main uncorrected in the book and are left for the reader to resolve.This attitude seems a bit lazy, especially where it concerns the Coast Guard station. Obviously, nothing in history is definitive and some things must go unanswered. However, it would appear that no effort was made to find the station’s records, which must certainly exist. Perhaps this is a trivial thing, sparked by the prejudice of my training as a historian. Still, it bothers me.Filled with interesting and important information, Coming of Age joins a number of other works that are gradually fleshing out the human history of our island perimeter.William David BarryThe Identity of the St. Francis Indians. By Gordon M. Day. (National Museum of Man Mercury Series. Canadian Eth­nology Service. Paper, No. 71.) (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1981. Pp. iv, 157. Paper. Price available through the National Museums.)Since the eighteenth century, historians, ethnologists, and anthropologists have proposed conflicting theories about the138BOOK REVIEWSorigins of the St. Francis Indians. Now, after nearly twenty-five years of intensive research, Gordon M. Day has produced a study that should end the confusion and con­troversy.The St. Francis Indians live in a settlement known as Odanak, which is located four miles below the mouth of the St. Francis River, which flows northward into Lake Peter, a part of the St. Lawrence waterway. One of the most influential theories regarding their origins was given currency in 1832 by William D. Williamson, one of Maine’s most noted nineteenth-century historians. In his History of the State of Maine, Williamson stated that the first settlers at Odanak were the Anasgunticooks of the Androscoggin River in Maine. In fact, however, Day points out that available evidence indicates that the Sokwaki (Sokoki) Indians, originally from the area of Northfield, Massachusetts, first settled Odanak about 1670. From then until about 1798, Odanak experienced frequent in- and out-migrations of Pigwackets, Norridgewocks, Missis- quois, Penacooks, Cowassucks, and numerous other tribes fleeing the pressures of war and other unsettling events.The fact that Odanak served as a refugee village gives special urgency to the search for the origins of the St. Francis Indians. Many of the tribes that had once sought refuge there no longer exist. Consequently, the current inhabitants consti­tute a unique source of cultural and linquistic information for the study of those extinct tribes. The work, however, must be done before the remaining St. Francis Indians are absorbed into the mainstream.Day has carefully studied family dialects and other available sources of information on the St. Francis Indians. He has meticulously traced the migratory movements in and out of Odanak over the past two centuries and has concluded that “the twentieth century language and culture of the St. Francis Indians derive from the related Sokwaki, Cowassuck, and Penacook tribes of the upper Connecticut Valleys in New Hampshire and Vermont.” He believes that other persisting traits may be attributable to the tribes of the middle Connec­139BOOK REVIEWSticut Valley in Massachusetts and to Maine’s Abenaki tribes.The author does not claim to have written the last word on this subject. He frankly admits that other conclusions are possible and that much difficult work remains to be done in sorting out and properly attributing the linguistic and cultural heritage of the present-day St. Francis Indians. Nonetheless, this study marks an important milestone in our quest for accurate knowledge of the '‘mysterious” people who live at Odanak.Roger B. RaySoldiers, Sailors, and Patriots of the Revolutionary War: Maine. Compiled by Carleton E. Fisher and Sue G. Fisher. (Louis­ville, Ky.: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1982. Pp. xv, 917. Cloth. $30.00.)Containing more than 26,000 entries, Soldiers, Sailors, and Patriots is a boon to genealogists and to those seeking admis­sion to lineage societies such as the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Here, under one cover, General and Mrs. Carleton E. Fisher have compiled the most complete index available of Re­volutionary War veterans who served from Maine or who later moved to Maine, and of those patriots who rendered some other form of public service during the conflict.General Fisher, a retired major general in the United States Army and a native of Clinton, Maine, is well known among genealogists and has numerous publications to his credit. He has held responsible positions with the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the National Genealogical Society, and the Board for the Certification of Genealogists.In compiling this work, the Fishers have painstakingly sifted through vast quantities of data: militia rolls; pension records; court records; town records; private journals, diaries, and memoirs; obituary records; cemetery records; town histories; and a host of other relevant sources. The 140BOOK REVIEWSresulting entries are alphabetically arranged by name of vet­eran or patriot and are keyed to the twenty-five pages of refer­ences cited by the compilers. For each veteran and patriot, the Fishers have provided, when possible, the place and year of birth, place of residence, place and year of death, and wife’s first name. For veterans, the military unit is identified and the rank of non-commissioned and commissioned officers is stated.Since Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, most Maine veterans are listed in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (17 vols.; Boston, 1896-1908). That massive compilation contains more detailed descriptions of military service than the Fishers attempt to provide, but it does not include information on the patriots or the birth, death, and marital data that is so helpful in differentiating veterans having the same name. The Fishers also give a more complete picture of Maine’s contribution to the war by iden­tifying those Mainers who enlisted and served in New Hamp­shire units, a rather common occurance among inhabitants of border towns such as Kittery.Soldiers, Sailors, and Patriots is intended to be used in con­junction with other standard references and not as a replace­ment for them. As with all works so ambitious in scope, the user should be on guard for possible errors. The Fishers have conscientiously attempted to note the deficiencies of their sources, but some have undoubtedly escaped detection.This book represents an enormous undertaking. It fills an important need and will not soon be superceded. Genealogists and historians alike are indebted to the Fishers for having brought it to successful completion.Thomas L. Gaffney Maine Historical Society141

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