Islesford Historical Society
1999 News

Hugh Dwelley's 1999 Winter Letter to Members

Islesford, ME 04646
November 15, 1999

Dear Members and Friends:

The summer of '99 was a good one for your Society. A fresh edition of Rachel Field's God's Pocket was introduced at our Annual Meeting on July 19th. Introduction of the novel served as the center piece for an Evening With Rachel Field. There were readings of several of Field's poems dealing with our islands and a skit depicting Sammy Sanford's meeting with young Miss Field in a raspberry patch and telling her the adventures of his grandfather, Samuel Hadlock Jr.

God's Pocket sold well throughout the summer. Proceeds from those sales will help us publish our own HISTORY OF LITTLE CRANBERRY ISLAND next spring. God's Pocket, The Story of Capt. Samuel Hadlock Jr. of the Cranberry Isles, at $24 per copy [$26 for non-members], will make great Christmas gifts for all of your friends or family members with an interest in the Cranberry Islands! See the order form enclosed and send it soon.

Nelia and Charlie Dunbar were gracious hosts for coffee at Bear Island on the sunny morning of July 10th 1999. Ambassador Dunbar toured thirty of us through the island cottage and then gave us an outline of the Dunbar family's ownership of the property since 1884 when they purchased it from the estate of William Moore of Sutton Island. They own the entire island except for the site of the lighthouse.

The Dunbar Cottage on Bear Island

Nelia & Charles Dunbar accepting a manuscript from Hugh Dwelley (right)

Incidentally, while at the Dunbar's, Dan and Polly Pierce told us of a recent visit from naturalists who were banding the ospreys that nest just in front of their cottage on Sutton Island. Tracking radios were attached to the adult birds. When last heard from, the female was in the Dominican Republic while the male had only recently left Sutton on a southerly course. If you want to track them, you can do so via the cranberryisles.com web site.

A copy of a recent notice that an   islesford.com   website is being set up is enclosed. This sounds like a great idea and we hope that many of you will participate. Our society has a page on cranberryisles.com and we hope to have one on islesford.com as well.

As many of you know, the manuscript for A HISTORY OF LITTLE CRANBERRY ISLAND is complete. I have spent a great deal of time this fall visiting printers and binders. At the urging of printers, a young lady at nearby George Mason University is currently typesetting the manuscript in Microsoft Word for Windows 3.1. None of the printers could work with my old faithful First Choice computer language. We have a $5000 grant from the Stephen & Tabatha King Foundation and a number of contributions were made in memory Of Dot Brooks and Ege Sawtelle. So our treasury is in pretty good shape to cover printing costs. We hope to introduce the history as we mark the millennium next July.

We are also planning to bury a time capsule next summer. Copies of our publications will be placed in it to be opened in 2100. Cindy Thomas is collecting other items for possible inclusion at the library. Your suggestions and contributions will be most welcome. Black & white photos of island people and events might be particularly appropriate. We are told that color photos won't last very long.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Y2K to all. Maybe those of us at Islesford will have to subsist for a time on a diet of lobsters and clams!

Sincerely,
Hugh L. Dwelley, President

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