Summer at the Pool, 1845

Summer activities at the Pool in 1845: not much has changed in 170 years!

by Toni (Stackpole) Russin

On August 14, 1845, three children sat down to write their father and tell him about their summer holidays at the seaside. Their activities were surprisingly similar to those young people enjoy today, including swimming at the beach, boating and fishing.

John, Joseph and Helen Smith, ages 15, 14 and 10 respectively, were vacationing at Biddeford Pool with their mother, Agnes Ferguson Smith, while their father, thread manufacturer John Smith, was at home running the factory in Andover, MA. The Smith family were among the earliest summer residents of the Pool, which at that time was primarily a small fishing village.

John's letter. click to enlarge

Joseph W. Smith (1831-1907), the middle child, grew up to be the author of Gleanings from the Sea, first published in 1887, a book about Biddeford Pool and about fishing and the ocean. His daughter, Mary Byers Smith, who was my great-aunt, found and transcribed their letters, and these typed copies eventually came into my possession.

The children’s father, John Smith (1796 -1886), came to the United States around 1812 as a penniless 17- or 18-year-old immigrant from Brechin, an industrial town in Scotland. From working in the Scottish mills, he knew something about linen manufacturing and how to make the machinery for this. By 1845, he and his younger brother Peter and Scottish friend John Dove had established a successful linen thread factory in Andover. Linen thread, made from imported flax, was first used for sewing shoes and sail making.

According to Smith family lore, John remembered that prosperous families in Scotland sent their families to the seashore to escape the pollution and summer heat in the factory towns where they lived. So in the 1830s, with his business already doing well, he started looking at coastal fishing villages and came upon what is now Biddeford Pool. At that time it was known as Fletcher’s Neck.

While Biddeford Pool did not yet have any big hotels, it did have the Mansion House (later called Auldstocke), run by the Hussey family. Mansion House had been welcoming “summer boarders” since 1833. Years later, in Gleanings from the Sea, Joseph recalled that Peter Lawson and Alexander Wright were the Pool’s first summer boarders. They first came in 1833 and continued to be summer visitors for 50 years.

Helen's letter

In his book, Joseph wrote, “It was at this house my father stopped on his first visit to the Pool, and for many years the family found at Mr. Christopher Hussey’s a restful summer home. My memory takes me back to 1838, and I can remember the jolly time we had with ‘Uncle Chris,’ as he was called.” Joseph recalled pleasant times spent under the old Balm-o’--Gilead tree, or strolling on the shores, gathering shells and mosses, or taking an evening row to Wood Island in the boat Jabe. Also, he noted, Mrs. Hussey was a good cook. ”Transient visitors from Saco and Biddeford came to spend the day and get a nice fish dinner, gotten up in Mrs. Hussy’s best style.”

Joseph described hanging out at the old store built by Capt. Cutts. “As a boy, I used to climb the winding stairs and go up into the cupola where, with other boys my age, I would sit for hours at a time, cracking nuts and looking out upon the ocean, watching the vessels as they sailed up and down by the Pool. The view from the cupola was grand: Saco Bay with its islands, the harbor and shipping on the one hand, the broad Atlantic on the other.”

Joseph's letter

The Smith family started summering at the Pool when the children were very young, although it was a long trip in those days. “The Portland, Saco and Portsmouth railroad was not built,” Joseph recalled in Gleanings from the Sea. “My father took his family from Dover NH, by the old stage route, to Biddeford. I can just remember the old-fashioned stage, the jolly driver, and how we children enjoyed the ride.”

How did the Smith children pass their time at the Pool in 1845? Their letters tell us quite a bit. Helen had one sail in Mr. Hussey’s boat over to Wood Island. She went bathing every day, but was homesick for her school. She explained that she did not go to church that Sunday because there was no boat on the Saco River that morning, but that her brothers had walked to church. (They probably attended services in the building known as the Meeting House, on Pool Road.)

John told his father that he went clamming with the family and bathing every day except Sunday, adding that he hoped to go fishing for mackerel. He also enjoyed observing the people from Saco who boated to Wood Island for fish chowder two or three times a week.

Joseph wrote that he went fishing almost every day. He enjoyed observing the mackerel business in great detail, talking to the fishermen and learning how they fixed the bait. Even at age 14, the future author of a book about fishing and the sea was fascinated by this subject.

Note: My Great Aunt Mary B. Smith, Joseph W. Smith’s daughter and younger sister of my grandmother Agnes Smith Stackpole, found these letters and made these typed copies. The originals might be in the Andover MA library or historical society collections. All three are written from “Fletchers Neck, August 14, 1845” We can assume that John, Joseph, Helen and their mother were staying at the Mansion House with Mr. Hussey when they each wrote a rather formal letter to their father. It might have been a rainy Sunday afternoon that kept them inside.

As for my great Aunt Mary, she also loved and summered at the Pool all her life. She built “The boat house”, almost the first bungalow on the Big Beach, and later the small house at 15 Lester Orcutt which I now own. Her second cousin Ester Smith, also a single lady, built the first house on the Stretch, known even today as “The Shack.”

(first posted Nov. 22, 2018)