Two of the three first settlers of Islesboro, Maine, were Pendletons
who moved north from Westerly, Rhode Island. They multiplied, and had
lots of sons, and as a result the island's surname history is heavily
biased towards Pendletons.
Many Pendleton place names
Eleven of 48 World War I veterans from Islesboro
were Pendletons, as were 8 of 26 Civil War veterans from Islesboro.
Islesboro lies in the middle of the Maine coast, in Penobscot Bay. The road south from
the ferry goes to Pendleton Point,
the Pendleton Cemetery is not far from the
Alice Pendleton memorial library, and we stopped taking cemetery pictures well
beyond 100 Pendleton graves. All these people are no closer than 5th cousins,
though. It's fun to go to a place where everyone knows your name and how to
spell it. What's more, everyone waves to everyone as they drive or walk
around the island. Not just fingers either -- big full arm waves! It's
possible that the folks in Islesboro drive even friendlier than the folks in Texas.
Just getting to and from Islesboro from Bangor took up most of the day. We drove
down the west bank of the Penobscot River;
Foggy Linconville ferry harbor
it was low tide, and we found it hard
to imagine a cruise boat sailing out of Bangor, but that is the plan someday. We
continued south along the coast on Highway 1 through picturesque Searsport and
on to Lincolnville, where on reaching the ferry terminal we queued up in the
ferry staging line. When traffic is light the ferry departs every half-hour,
going back and forth from Islesboro. But this morning traffic was heavy, filled
with contractors and dump trucks and Maine Highway Department supervisors and
the like. So the ferry departed every hour.
Old Islesboro lighthouse
Worse, we missed the 9:00 and the
10:00 ferry, so we were on the 11:00 ferry, and we did not see a restaurant on
Islesboro. So we toured the island, taking pictures of everything that said
Pendleton, and met the librarian. She wasn't in the library -- that was closed
-- but she was walking her dog near the north cemetery, which, she said, was
full of her husband's people -- Beckets -- although she admitted to being
distantly related to the Pendletons. "There's three groups of Pendletons,"
she told us, "and they don't get along." We didn't stay to investigate this
internecine rivalry,
One set of Pendletons
but followed her directions to Pendleton cemetery.
The island was cheery and attractive, with big old New England homes.
Many of the year-round residents make their living from the sea -- several homes
were surrounded with lobster pots. On the other hand, the southern part
of the Island, Dark Harbor, was filled with very posh-looking summer homes
with plenty of land and plenty of privacy.
A typical island house Altogether Islesboro seemed
especially charming to us. But living on an island is not in the cards for
these wanderers!
Back on the Maine-land, we had a late and sumptuous luncheon at The Lobster
Pound in Lincolnville. The floors were brightly varnished wood, and the
harbor view was nice.
A Verona Bridge tower
One last sight was the marvelous construction of a new bridge across the
Penobscot River at Bucksport. It is a suspension bridge, with two towers.
Instead of cables connecting the towers, the construction proceeds with one
cable on each side of each tower, and the roadway built out in both directions
from the towers. Thus the bridge construction is proceeding at four points:
From the east tower stretching west over the river and stretching east towards
Bucksport, and from the west tower stretching east over the river and west towards
land. The enormous weight of steel and concrete on each side of each tower is
kept in balance, with an equal load on each side. New suspension cables are
added as the bridge extends. When we observed it today, the bridge needs about
two more cables in each direction on each tower (say eight in all) to be finished.