My interest in Lincolnville’s past really started at Ducktrap, the magical little cove, hidden right off Atlantic Highway, and invisible to most motorists. Neither Wally nor I can remember the first time we went there, or how we even knew about it, but I suspect, like many of our first favorite places around here, we were led there by Nat and Vonnie Stone.

 We bought our house from them, and due to the very prolonged project of financing it through a VA loan, we got to know Nat and Vonnie pretty well. In fact, long before the actual closing date, we had painted the entire house, meeting there after work on many afternoons. Or, as Wally would remind me if he were reading this, he painted the house while I sat inside with Vonnie and a couple of her women friends, drinking bourbon and hearing tales about our new home. (Honestly, the bourbon part happened only once or twice, but Wally’s version makes a better story.)

 Finally, in early July 1970 the house was ours. To celebrate Nat and Vonnie took us to dinner at the Beach Inn (today’s Chez Michel) and treated us to the double lobster special ($5.95). After dinner they showed us all their favorite spots around the area. Surely, Ducktrap was on that list.

 Unlikely as it seems today, Ducktrap was once a thriving beehive of industry, a perfect little microcosm of an early 19th Century village. Waterpower was the big draw initially, that and easy access to the sea. The Ulmer brothers, George and Philip, sons of German immigrants, arrived from Broad Bay (Waldoboro) after the Revolutionary War, and took up residence on extensive acreage granted by Henry Knox, proprietor of the Waldo Patent.

 George built a wooden dam across the mouth of the Ducktrap Stream to power a sawmill and began sawing the lumber harvested on his 1,000+ acres of backcountry forest. Philip, for his part, became a driving force in the formation of the new town of Lincolnville, incorporated in 1802. The brothers built matching Federal style houses on opposite sides of the Ducktrap. George’s still stands on the east side, on the corner of South Cobbtown Road and Atlantic Highway. Philip’s house stood until the 1930s when it burned to the ground; the Ducktrap Motel is built on its site. Philip apparently lost that house during some financial difficulties and moved to a house a mile back from the shore; it’s that dwelling that has been the site of a recent archaeological dig on the Whitney Road.

 By the middle of the century local businessmen erected a “patent” lime kiln on the west bank of the Stream, just about where the bridge starts today. Next they built a four-mile horse-drawn railroad to carry lime rock from Coleman Pond quarries to the shore. The kiln burned hundreds of cords of wood, turning rock into powdered lime; coopers made thousands of barrels to ship the finished lime out of the Trap.

 At the same time, ships were being built at Ducktrap, where there were also  a brickyard, a grist mill, and a store. School District #9 built a schoolhouse on Atlantic Highway, west of the Trap, and in 1865, King David’s Lodge erected their own hall on Howe Point Road. Just down the road towards Lincolnville Beach a church, today’s Bayshore Baptist, was built in 1835.

 What’s left of all this industrious and civic activity? While the school, kiln, mills, and store are gone there’s still quite a bit, if you know where to look. King David’s Lodge still stands, and is in use, on the side of Howe Point Road, right next to the cellar hole and foundation of the once-bustling store. 19th Century houses make up most of the remaining buildings in the area, houses where Trap workers lived. One particularly interesting building is the brick house on the corner of the Whitney Road and Atlantic Highway. It may date back to the time of incorporation, and has seen many additions and changes over the years.

 Remnants of the dam are still visible at low tide above the bridge. Hike upstream and you’ll find it, stakes driven into the stream bed. Poke around at the base of the bridge’s west end, and you might uncover a fire brick or lime chunks, left from the kiln. And still embedded in the rock at the very end of the Point, where the stream meets the Bay, is a large iron ring, once used to winch schooners through the narrow passage into the Trap.

 Finally, though this is on private land on the Point and can be viewed only with permission of the owner, is the Ulmer Cemetery where Philip and Christiana Ulmer lie, along with several other early Ducktrap settlers.

 The Schoolhouse Museum, 33 Beach Road, has an extensive collection of Ducktrap photos, many taken with big box cameras at the turn of the 20th Century by Austin Wade and Will Davis, two Ducktrap descendants who came back from their Massachusetts homes every summer and recorded what was left of Ducktrap’s early days. The Museum is open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 1-4 p.m.; admission is free. Stop by and explore your town’s history!

School Starts This Week!

David Kinney

Most of us in town are now aware that our town administrator, Dave Kinney, suffered a serious medical event last week and is at Maine Medical Center recovering. When every minute counted, first responders from the Fire Department were there, followed quickly by Northeast ambulance. Assessment at the Waldo County emergency room determined he needed surgery in Portland, and within half an hour, thanks to LifeFlight, he was in the Maine Medical Center operating room. Our wishes, thoughts, prayers – however you phrase it – are sent his way, to Michelle, and to their children. Many wonder how they can help the family; contact Jodi Hanson at the Town Office to find out how.. As I’ve heard countless times this past week, “Dave’s a good man.”

Children’s Church

Several years ago, recognizing that young children are often brought to church, United Christian Church began starting every service with a Children’s Message, when any children present are invited to the front. One of a small group of volunteers welcomes the children, and gives them a simple explanation of that Sunday’s message. All then gather around to light the Peace Candle. Recently a new element was added: Children’s Church. Following the lighting of the candle the children are led out of the sanctuary and into the Parish Hall where a rotating group of volunteer teachers, always at least two, present the season's lesson to the children through play-acting, puppets, and stories. The curriculum is from Godly Play, where the children are invited to engage with the story.  The children return at the end of the service, arriving in time for the closing hymn and blessing. Parents, who have often given up bringing squirmy children to sit through an hour service, have the luxury of a child-free 45 minutes to worship. One couple put it this way: “It’s like a date night!” And we here in Lincolnville now have a small cohort of pre-schoolers who can explain the shepherds, the Wise Men and the Baby Jesus. As Pastor Susan Stonestreet says every time the children troop out behind the teachers, “It makes my heart sing!”  Children from toddler age up are welcome.

LBB Pick of the Week