Melissa Elwood Colby, born in 1844, died in 1920. Her father was Oliver Colby (grandson of Joseph Colby, Jr.), her mother was Abigail Knowlton. They lived at Webb's Cove (Tea Hill)[Stonington].
Her first husband was Joseph Davis. Their children were: Floreston, who drowned at sea in 1888, Charles, Lizzie, who married Frederick Pierce and died in 1957, and Carleton. Lizzie's daughter Dorothy died in 1946.
Following the death of Joseph Davis, Melissa married her former school teacher, Amasa Holden, who had four children by a former marriage, all older than Melissa. Mr. Holden was by now retired from teaching and had secured employment as keeper of the Mark Island Light at Stonington (Deer Island) Thorofare, Penobscot Bay (Green's Landing). Here their son Amasa Amidon was born. Amasa A. became a teacher, as had his father and grandfather before him, then principal of a high school in York, Pa. and later a county superintendent of schools in New Hampshire.
When Amasa Holden died, Melissa was appointed Lighthouse keeper (quite a coup for a female in those days!). Melissa kept the light for several years, at the same time caring for her four small children on the lonely island.
As was the custom of the time, she kept the table 'covered', that is, set with plates and silver for the next meal with a cloth draped over all. Under the cloth Melissa kept a loaded gun. Whenever a sailor landed at Mark Island and approached the house, she remained near the covered table. She reported proudly in later years, "I never had to use the gun."
Her third husband was the captain of a three-masted schooner that carried loads of hay, apples, fish, etc., up the Penobscot River from Stonington. He and his four brothers had grown up at sea with their father on the family fishing vessel. He had two sons, William and Percy, by a former marriage to Lizzie Stinson, presumably of Deer Isle. (The Stinson settlement adjoins that of the Joseph Colby, Jr. lot. Charles Cousins Cousins' two wives may have been related, a Charles Stinson, the original settler of the lot, married a daughter of Joseph Colby, Sr.).
There were many wrecks on the rocks around this island [Mark Island] during the eighty years from the first settlements at Deer Isle up to 1857. In that year, the last year of President Pierce's administration, this lighthouse was erected. The tower is a square white tower, attached to the dwelling house. It was 32 feet high, and the light is 52 feet above the water.
The fog bell sounds a pair of strokes every 15 seconds during fog. The light is a steady white light, and lard oil is used in the lamps. The light's chimney is made in the form of circular prisms, one above the other. The light, instead of spreading in all directions, is thus directed to the place where it is most needed. The lamps are so made that their heat is used to keep the oil in liquid form after the lamps are lighted; nevertheless, it is necessary to warm the oil in winter time before filling the lamps.
No other lighthouse on the Atlantic coast is exactly like this one in appearance. In fact, no two lighthouses on the coast are exactly alike. Thus a sailor may know just where he is when he sees a lighthouse.
Receiving mail at the lighthouse was a little complicated and delayed. A storekeeper in Rockland gave the papers and mail to the captain of some ship sailing east from Rockland, and when the vessel passed the island, he would throw a tightly rolled package of papers and letters upon the water. Since it was a part of the lighthouse keeper's duty to record the passing of every ship, he was always on the watch for them and would see his mail dropped, and if he saw the ship before it reached the island, sometimes he could get far enough out in his rowboat so that the captain could toss the package directly into the boat. Otherwise, he moved as rapidly as possible to get out and pick up the paper and mail package so that it did not have time enough to become water logged.
The house Melissa and her family lived in has burned down, all that remains is the lighthouse tower, and a newly constructed storage shed. How beautiful it is still!
Thieves or tramps never troubled anyone on Mark Island, for the very good reason that nobody could land there without the help of the people on the island. Otherwise there was too much risk of having the boat capsize. So all the family were surprised one morning when they found the back door not only unlocked but swinging ajar.
Father was sure he had locked it the night before, and he was even more careful to lock it after that. But a few mornings later, it was found open again, and Father decided that he would leave his bedroom door open so that he could hear anyone who came to the outside door.
Not long afterward, he was wakened one night by the sound of a step crossing the kitchen floor. He got up quietly, and, looking into the kitchen, saw his daughter Emma. She went to the door, unlocked it, and walked down to the shore. She kept on along the shore until she came to a large tree, which grew on the bank and overhung the water. She walked out on the large, almost horizontal, trunk and calmly sat down.
Father, following her, realized then that she was asleep, for he knew she would never have dared to do that if she had been awake. He moved quietly for he had heard that it is not safe to waken a person who is sleepwalking.
As she sat on the tree trunk, her feet were only a few inches from the water, which at that spot was more than ten feet deep. She stayed there for a few minutes, then rose, walked straight to the kitchen door, opened it, and went upstairs to bed. In the morning she knew nothing about her midnight excursion.
However, that was the last sleepwalking trip she ever made, for after that Father was careful to remove the key when he locked the door. The next time she tried to leave the house, she felt for the key, and not finding it stood by the door a short time, then turned, and went to bed. That was the last time Emma was ever known to walk in her sleep.
[Note: This story has been related by Hosmer in Historical Sketch of Deer Isle. And is also related by THE ISLAND AD-VANTAGES on theColby Family Page The versions are interesting to compare.]
As they were eating, Mr. Eaton told Forrest that, while rowing over to the island, he had thought of the story of another trip in a rowboat. It was a journey from Green's Landing to Bagaduce, which Forrest's great grandmother had made almost a hundred years before.
This was Mr. Eaton's story, told as the family sat around the dinner table. The British General Cornwallis, was badly beaten in 1781, and he and his soldiers were obliged to surrender. So the American Revolution came to an end, with the Americans victorious.
News traveled slowly in those days, and it was a long time before all the British soldiers knew that the war was over. The captain of an American vessel, which came to Isle au Haut, not far from Deer Isle, had a number of handbills telling of Conwallis' surrender. He gave one of these to a man whom he happened to meet there.
This man later went to Green's Landing, where he met Great Grandmother and gave her the handbill. Great Grandmother was very loyal to the American cause and angry with the British because one of her brothers had been impressed into the British navy and had never been heard from afterward. At that time the British had a fort at Bagaduce, now known as Castine, where many British soldiers were stationed.
Bagaduce was a good place to do one's shopping, so Great Grandmother decided to kill two birds with one stone. She decided to do some shopping and also to tell the British at the fort that the war was over and the British defeated.
Her sons, Joseph and Thomas, boys of fifteen and thirteen, went with her. She rowed most of the way herself, although the boys no doubt "spelled" her, as they would have said in those days. Perhaps Joseph helped her a great deal, for he later became a large, strong man.
[Today, if you should go to his old home, you would see a large stone that he rolled over and placed on end as a gatepost, a stone so large that a yoke of oxen would be needed to move it.]
They started from Green's Landing in the afternoon, and rowed all night, with the water snapping and shining at the bow in the clear moonlight. While Joe was rowing, his mother told him stories, one of which he especially remembered, of a skating trip which she made across the bay, and another about a good old Chief Madocowando, which I may tell you sometime.
They landed at Bagaduce early in the morning and were met by a British officer who said, "Well, madam, what is the news this morning?"
Can you imagine how proudly she stood as she answered, "Not much, Sir, but my Lord Cornwallis has surrendered."
The officer told her it foolish for her to talk like that. He thought it impossible for untrained Yankees to defeat the trained British soldiers. In triumph she showed him the handbill, and he was convinced that she spoke the truth.
I do not know whether Great Grandmother rowed back to Green's Landing with as much pleasure as she made the trip to Bagaduce, carrying the news, but I am sure that the long row could not have been a great hardship, because she lived fifty-two years after that, dying in 1833, in her ninety-seventh year.
The children all thought it a good story and felt proud of their pioneer grandmother. Father then told them that although the British compelled the Americans to build the fort at Bagaduce for them, yet they were not all cruel. To prove it, he told them the story of the Silver Spoons.
John Wadlin kept a tavern at Bagaduce, and the British soldiers came every day and often many times a day, to partake of the refreshements served by the innkeeper.
Caroline was the baby daughter of the innkeeper, and her flaxen curls and pretty ways made her a favorite with the soldiers. They loved to hold her on their laps and tell her about their own little girls in a faraway England. Many of the officers belonged to the English nobility and were wealthy, so it was quite natural for them, when they left the tavern, to leave bright pieces of silver money in Caroline's little dimpled hand.
Caroline's mother kept this money for more than twenty years, and when Caroline's wedding day arrived, her mother presented her with a dozen silver spoons, made from the coins. The spoons were part of her wedding outfit, and she used them in her home for more than sixty years. Now each of her granddaughters has one of them, which she cherishes as a precious heirloom.
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