Maine Town History:
Deer Isle. Deer Isle is split from the
mainland by the Eggemoggin Reach waterway, or as its called, "the
Reach."
The first permanent white settlers of Deer Isle were William Eaton
and his wife Meribah. They arrived in 1762 at the head of a number of
pioneers. Records show over a dozen men, including Eaton, petitioned
the
state of Massachusetts [which laid claim to and governed the lands of
Maine
until 1820] for land titles as early as August of that year. As
mentioned,
wild game, mostly deer, was abundant. The settlers named their new home
for the thriving herds. But it would be the harvest of the ever present
sea that would always be the predominant provider. The Eatons and
others,
such as Jonathan Greenlaw, a man of importance among the
early
settlers, put up their dwellings along the shores to take advantage of
the
sea. The first settlers lined North and Little Deer Isles along "the
Reach."
Only after the lands to the north were claimed did new settlers begin
to
move into the interior and southern reaches of the islands. As is
requisite
of local history narratives, Hosmer provides us a testament to the
hardships
of these settlers’ daily lives: "eastern Maine was unsafe for
settlement,
[but] thereafter expeditions rapidly began and hundreds of people from
Massachusetts
began exploring the coast." Once a border wilderness, Maine became a
focus
for pioneers and settlers. It drew William Eaton and Jonathan Greenlaw. Others
followed
in droves and the population of Deer Isle grew. The traits of a
civilized
culture began to replace backwater characteristics. Nathaniel Kent
opened
a gristmill in 1768, which he sold to Joseph Tyler who then opened a
sawmill.
Ezekiel Morey is said to have built the first frame house on Deer Isle
in
1771. The first meeting house was constructed in 1773 and couples were
being
"properly" married, "according to Protestant forms," by an ordained
minister
at the nearby British fort. It seemed that life here was all that many
could
have hoped for. But peaceful times soon revealed internal dissent.
Difficult
days lay ahead.
With the beginning of the Revolution in 1775,
inhabitants were forced to declare their political leanings; or hide
them well. From what has been written, it seems that Deer Isle was a
divided community. The majority were in favor of the new country. Those
who openly defied the British presence were in danger of being turned
in by local "Tories" and punished through forced labor details,
whippings and ostracism. Many residents were forced to build up the
British defenses at nearby Castine, or "working out their tour," as
described by Hosmer. The British commanding the area required either a
pledge of allegiance or neutrality to the crown from all area
residents. Though there were undoubtedly many loyalists, there are many
more defiant colonials on record. William Eaton and others refused to
take
an oath of loyalty and left. Vernal Hutchinson, who as well as his
Civil
War narrative wrote a volume that documents the region during the
Revolution, names a dozen residents as serving in the Continental Army;
from the siege of Boston on. Some of the more notable were Caleb
Haskell, who was in the ranks of Benedict Arnold’s ill-fated 1775
expedition into Quebec, Joseph Tyler
and George Grouse who fought at Saratoga and Courtney Babbidge who was
on
hand at Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown. The only fighting that
occurred
in the region was at Castine in 1779. A poorly executed plan designed
to
take the British fort by amphibious assault proved a complete failure.
Over
30 Deer Isle men were involved in the colonist’s raid. It has not been
recorded
how many fought from within the Castine defenses. This minor fight
would
be the only regional threat posed to the empire’s comfortable hold on
the
Maine coast during the Revolution. Yet with Cornwallis’s stunning
capitulation
in 1781, local loyalists were quite suddenly without a country. The
British,
per terms that officially ended the war, gave up their sovereignty over
the
colonies. Loyalists, now fearful of reprisals or unwilling to accept
the
new government, packed up and moved out; taking up residence in the
"Provinces." Many areas of northeastern Canada can trace their lineage
directly to this influx of Tory refugees in the early 1780s; Saint John
and Fredericton in New Brunswick and Shelburne in Nova Scotia being
towns that were literally created from this exodus. Yet to those who’d
cast their lot with the American cause went the spoils. And Deer Isle
was a rich reward.
"I'm descended from David Greenlaw father to John Greenlaw whom is
father to William Greenlaw b. 9 Mar 1712, born unto Jane whos last name
is unkown presently. William and Jane
Greenlaw
and their family sailed to America: They set sail from Greenock,
Scotland
aborard the ship "Dolphin"
and arrived
on the coast of Maine in the summer of 1753. See Greenock Harbor,
Scotland.