"The Triumphant March of an Idea. "Hancock County Truestees of Public Reserestions: An Historical Sketch. 2nd ed. 2016 Maine possible The Hancock County County Trustees of Public Reservations PO Box 1478 Ellsworth, Maine 04605 The Triumphant March of An Idea in 1905 (2). Twenty years later it second edition reframed the narrative and included new content. By that time the principle his father articulated in his 1904 by Ronald H. Epp The Right Development of Monni / Desert that the entire island ought 10 be treated as il public park - further distinguished SAE IN 11 historian. The 2016 celebration of the centennial of the National Park Service and Acadia National Park prompts the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations Consequently, when the preparation and printing of a historical report on to benchmark their own one hundred and fifteen year history. the first thirty years of the Trustees was put forward as a motion by Charles William Eliot, 2nd at the Trustees 1931 annual meeting, the name of his father would be considered. Intended to "stimulate interest and support of the work This essay places the corporation within an enlarged historical context, providing of the Trustees," the motion included an offer to prepare a map "showing the land he backstory of the HCTPR not only for its critical first four decades but to the Reservations has owned, by whom it was donated and when transferred 10 the he present day. It identifies key roles played by the Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926) Government or others." Rev. Eliot agreed to research and draft the narrative conten family that both modesty and tact prevented his younger son, Samuel A. Eliot which was first disclosed in the Bar Harbor Times, two years before the Trustees (1862-1950), from discussing in his 1936 essay. Finally, it alludes to the "human published An Historical Sketch and a Record of the HCTPR which included it property side of these property transactions" which its first vice-president, George B. Dorr map and documentation for each of the 129 properties. (1853-1944), delineated in his Acadia National Park, published three years after the Trustees first edition. In varying degrees, these three publications incorporated underlying heritage themes that distinguish the New England approach to conservation from those of On September 6, 2016, as part of the Acadia National Park centennial celebrations, other regions. (3) That is, the regional emphasis on place-based innovation, civic the Trustees installed a HCTPR momument at the Blue Hill Overlook on engagement, moral and ethical concerns for the environment, commitment 10 Cadillac Mountain. It will inform future generations of park visitors about the self-determination, and reliance on individual leadership. seminal role of the Trustees in park creation and development. This fitting tribute is hot the first recognition of Trustee achievement, for no fewer than eight memorials to HCTPR members have been erected on Mount Desert Island, the best known To be sure, the 1936 essay credits Charles Eliot (1859-1897) - SAE's brother with being the Dorr Memorial. (1) A comparative study of the professional lives of conservation principles derived from his Garden and Forest essays where he forecast the first generation of Trustees and their respective stewardship roles has yet that private land ownership "might soon deprive the public of access" to island hills, lakes, and views. In that Charles Sprague Sargent serial, Eliot also envisioned to be written. a conservation organization "where generous men and women would be ready 10 buy and give into its keeping some of these fine and strongly characterized works ( ) The Eliot family was aligned with a basic principle of Frederick Law Olmsted nature just as the public library holds books and the art museum pictures for regarding the recuperative power of natural scenery and the conservation efforts the use and enjoyment of the public." of New England village improvement associations which found their prototype in the 1853 founding of the Laurel Hill Association in Stockbridge, MA. Its aim was Yet the Trustee historical sketch omits the fact that a decade earlier Harvard College to "do such things as shall serve to improve the quality of life and environment," with a focus on streets, walks, and public grounds - and from their experience undergraduates Charles and Samuel Eliot in March 1880 persuaded a half dozen of Mount Desert Island village improvement societies took their lead. their more scientifically-inclined college chums to join them on a summer camping trip to Mount Desert Island, not only to enjoy the splendid landscapes but also to apply their diverse investigative interests. The origin of conservation in Maine is Hindsight and newly uncovered archival resources support the enduring significance envisioned in a Cambridge Massachusetts college residence building two decades of this essay by Reverend Samuel A. Eliot. The first born son of the founder and prior to the well-known August 1901 meeting called by the college president. first president of this organization, Charles W. Eliot, "SAE" (as he sometimes referred to himself) began researching the origin and evolution of this organization For two months each summer over the next four years this Champlain Society three decades prior to the 1939 publication of his history. Following the death in 1903 of Congregational minister George Street, his family asked Rev. Eliot engaged in field studies, recording at Camp Pemetic climatic, botanical, geological to edit the rough drafts of Street's Mount Desert. A / listory which was published and biological data. Throughout the 1880's the Champlain Society compiled the 11 preserved by the Mount Desert Island Historical Society-are the earliest surviving documents advocating the protection of Maine's landscape. As early as 1881, budding botanist Edward L. Rand wrote that there was only one "feasible [strategy] to protect the beauty of the Island.. A company of interested parties could buy at a small cost the parts of the Island less desirable for building purposes [and] add from time to time such of the more desirable lots as they could obtain control of either by purchase or by arrangement with the proprietors [and] this park shall be free to all." (4) Rand credits this idea to Charles Eliot, who wrote in January of 1884 that an organization for the preservation of Mount Desert Island was "a necessity." (5) Following an exhaustive study of the conservation challenges faced on several continents and extensive collegial consensus building, Eliot accomplished the pivotal step on May 21, 1891 when he secured the legislative charter for the Massachusetts Trustees of Public Reservations. As the first land trust in the world, Harvard University president C. W. Eliot was asked to serve in its preeminent role shortly after the untimely death of his son Charles; he held that role from 1905-1926 while serving as well from 1901 to 1926 as HCTPR president. In his 1902 literary homage to his son, Charles Eliot. Landscape Architect, the father embraced and extended the principles of his eldest son who pointed out in 1890 the threat to coastal Maine of "this annual flood of humanity as to rob it of that flavor of wildness and remoteness which hitherto has hung about it, and which constitutes its refreshing charm." Another threat emphasized by the Trustees longest serving officer, George L. Stebbins (1862-1952) was a turn of the century deforestation innovation, the portable gasoline saw mill which kept the Trustees "just one jump ahead of the lumbermen." (6) As a result of the Seal Harbor gathering called in August 1901, this second American land trust was created days before Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th president of the United States-inaugurating the Era of Progressivism. The distinctive New England conservation theme of individual leadership is emphasized in Samuel Eliot's essay although more attention is rightly given to the leadership zeal of his brother Charles, his father C. W. Eliot, and George B. Dorr. The Trustees broadened their constituency in the early years by adding not only members from the dominant elite financial and intellectual circles but local professions and merchants. For three decades George B. Dorr was the principal land acquisition agent. The forces of leadership were extended Previous page- Sand Beach 15 Trail at Sier de monts Spring when philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) responded to a 1915 roads on the landscape, and the growth and development of island villages SO Trustee appeal from C.W. Eliot for financial assistance to cover title search that "harmonious relations" between these lands and those of the Park can be expenses associated with approvals for national monument status. When this jointly devised. unprecedented gift was offered to the United States Department of the Interior, donors were greeted with hostility by congressmen suspicious of any expression of These concerns were quite unlike the agenda items documented in HCTPR minutes. public philanthropy. John D. Rockefeller Jr. was not alone in judging this BHVIA publication as a new assault akin to the 1924 Lafayette National Park Road Hearings before Secretary Unlike the small land parcels secured by village improvement societies, Trustee of the Interior Hubert Work that were championed by wilderness advocate U.S. success in securing large tracts of land raised new boundary issues since contiguous Senator George Pepper. Rockefeller interpreted the BHVIA report as a reprise of properties had benefits for wildlife management. Moreover, after the attempt by the criticism four years earlier. That is, a more concerted local effort to gain control local merchants in 1913 to influence the legislative revocation of the HCTPR tax- of park development, segregate island wilderness areas, and disrupt motor and exempt status, the stricter requirements of the federal government again forced the carriage road construction. Trustee counsel to double-down efforts to document ownership. Eliot's report did not arouse public support and its recommendations were not The narrative of Rev. Eliot skirted the legal and political processes that led to the supported by Rockefeller or the National Park Service. Despite this response, over establishment of the Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916 and its elevation the next six decades Charles W. Eliot 2nd actively scrutinized the HCTPR and to Lafayette National Park three years later, the first national park in New England Acadia National Park with a degree of persistence and abiding concern that rivaled and east of the Mississippi River. Federalization elevated the HCTPR to national the historic conservation efforts of his father (SAE) and grandfather, arguing prominence as its officers wrote articles on this achievement, some solicited fiercely to the end of his days for the importance of not imposing boundaries on by National Geographic Magazine. Furthermore, a most important National Parks future park development-- and for the acquisition of new properties that established Association publication in 1924 by its executive secretary, Robert Sterling Yard, "whole natural units," what today would be described as ecosystems. made clear that Acadia "did not originate in a desire to have a National Park on Mount Desert Island, but in the need to preserve an area of beauty and distinction," Coincident with the appearance of this report, the citizens of Hancock County SO that future generations might have a place that was free-in Dorr's own words- received an enduring gift from a native born Ellsworth son, George Nixon Black "from the encroachments of commercialism [where] the wildlife, both plant and Jr. He was 86 years of age at the time of his death in October 1928 and his Black animal, [is conserved]."(7) House estate joined the Ellsworth Public Library as tangible evidence of his attachment to his hometown. (8) The Black family 180-acre estate was conceived by With the number of acres under federal authority nearly tripled at the close of its donor as a legacy instrument, a museum, and public park. the first decade of the Park, local concerns about external control over island governance issues came to a head. Landscape architect Charles W. Eliot 2nd (1899- The Trustees accepted the gift and created a special committee to administer it, 1993) was enlisted by the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association to research chaired by Boston attorney Richard Waldron Hale (1871-1943). Trustee activities island development and prepare a report. Much earlier in 1895, their Roads and shifted from Bar Harbor to Ellsworth where Trustee and Islesford museum Paths committee had advocated the purchase and preservation of island landscapes curator William Otis Sawtelle (1874-1939) soon uncovered in the Black House attic but three decades later the issue appeared fraught with complications. extensive collections of manuscripts and documentation covering three centuries of New England history. These findings energized Hale's committee and later engaged Trustee minutes disclose recurring evidence that the future health of the island the interest of John D. Rockefeller Jr. was bound up with the future of the park. But unlike past Trustee behavior, the grandson of the recently deceased Trustee president was convinced that greater On August 29, 1929, the Trustees conveyed "to the United States all lands owned local scrutiny of park policies was necessary to correct the perceived negative by the Corporation-at that time-on Mount Desert Island." After three decades impacts of park expansion. The 1928 report, The Future of Mount Desert Island, of active property pursuit and the administration of vast public lands, the emotional emphasized current uncertainties about the extent of Park growth, the policies elevation of this culminant act was offset by quiet concern about the future of governing the selection of wilderness areas, the impact of carriage and motor the corporation now that its mission had been realized. Instead, throughout the 17 18 Great Depression and without any formal declaration, the Trustees shifted from pursuit of permanent security for their properties to development of the cultural potential of the Black House. Archival records are sketchy on the issues that now faced the Trustees though there is a public record that Hale submitted a letter to the editor of the Bar Harbor Times on January 2, 1931-without official sanction-declaring his intention to make a motion at the August meeting that the Trustees declare themselves in favor of "well-known [mountain] names." This volley targeted by implication Trustee vice-president George B. Dorr. Beginning in 1917, the new Sieur de Monts National Monument custodian made successive requests to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to rename Mount Desert Island mountains. At a public celebration a year earlier, Luere Deasy (1860- 1940) had praised fellow Incorporator Charles W. Eliot for "taking nearly half the hills of the island as a national monument." While Dorr's motives for renaming were complex, he argued repeatedly that most island mountain names were "undistinguished" as opposed to the recommended names that connoted French and indigenous historical associations that would persist in the consciousness of future generations. Nonetheless, for fifteen years most of his renaming requests were approved and subsequently identified on published maps, much to the chagrin of some. R. W. Hale and historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887-1976) favored traditional names.(8) The Trustees were polled on this issue, editorial letters were published in the Bar Harbor Times, and while specific reference to Dorr was unstated, this controversy brought to public attention internal discord within the corporation which persisted for years. Such controversy only fueled Trustee apprehension about their mission. Had the corporation shifted mission from Hancock County land conservation for the public good to preservation of an Ellsworth historic residential property? Reverend Eliot's 1936 historical essay made the point that it was not a choice between one or the other. In its opening paragraph he affirms that "the origins and achievements of this organization need to be recorded, its activities extended, its endowments enlarged, its methods adopted elsewhere." In its concluding paragraph, he affirmed that the Trustees are "ready to accept and administer additional gifts or land or money" both within or outside Acadia National Park. He then identifies numerous locations where properties are needed "to round out the Park or to protect the views from the hilltops [and secure] more access to the shores and the fine headlands and beaches." Ferns along the Park Loop Road 20 Eliot also acknowledged "the often complicated task of searching titles and passing leaders, the Hon. John A. Peters and G. L. Stebbins (who served as its treasurer and deeds under the diligent care of Mr. Albert H. Lynam [and] Mr. Schuyler R. president for more than fifty years). New challenges and opportunities arose for Clark." To these names must be added Luere B. Deasy (1860-1940) and Ellsworth's the Trustees in the last half of the 20th-century. Nonetheless, historian Edward own Hon. John A. Peters (1864-1953). In 2008 the professional library of John P. Moses captured the thrust of the HCTPR achievement. Namely, that they A. Peters was discovered in the Ellsworth attic of attorneys Hale & Hamlin. This developed an adaptable donation-based strategy for transforming a local land trust author and Woodlawn Museum Executive Director Joshua Torrance secured access. into parkland protected by the enduring power of the federal government. In 1933 Therein were unique documents relating to the Black family, George B. Dorr, this Great Smoky Mountains National Park historian identified the scope of this the Richard W. Hale family, John D. Rockefeller Jr., and George L. Stebbins that new philanthropic concept: The Trustees "started something, which has already demonstrated the scope of Peters' conservation legacy both within and outside gone from the coast of Maine as far west as California [and] I can recall no such Hancock County. triumphant march of an idea in the history of this country since the Armistice." Similarly, confidential files of the Bar Harbor law firm of Deasy & Lynam were first opened to scholars in 2010. Client records for thousands of transactions from 1884 NOTES to 1960 enabled researchers to appreciate the complexities of title and deed searches that Luere B. Deasy and Albert H. Lynam (1871-1934) completed for George B. 1. Other memorials were established within the park 8. Will of George Nixon Black. Probate No. 236276. Dorr and John D. Rockefeller Jr. The Douglas B. Chapman Archive of Deasy- or neighboring villages for Trustees Waldron Bates, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. See also William N. Lynam files show the professional collaboration with John A. Peters as well as the George B. Cooksey, Charles W. Eliot, Ernesto Fabbri, Banks, "History in Houses," Magazine Antiques 163 Charles T. How, John Innes Kane, and William Otis (January 2003) and Jane Goodrich, "Curious George: daunting legal tasks these Hancock County attorneys faced, especially when further Sawtelle. Woodlawn's Enigmatic Benefactor," Woodlawn Museum challenged by the rigorous standards of the distant federal government. (10) Newsletter 3, #3 (Summer 2006). 2. An important brief essay by Rev. Eliot's grandson (Michael McGiffert) on the first edition of Street's New Trustee president David H. Morris (1872-1944) expanded Rev. Eliot's 9. See Ronald H. Epp, "Superintendent Dorr and the history was published in The Mount Desert Island Mountain Naming Controversy," Chebacco: The Magazine published commitments the following year, arguing that "we keep the corporation Historical Society History Journal (1999). of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society 15 (2014): not only technically, but also, substantially, alive and vigorous and endeavor to serve 84-94. the community in the field of owning property for public access and enjoyment." 3. "Land Conservation in New England," in Twentieth- He further broadened the mission by emphasizing Trustee responsibility "to form Century New England Land Conservation. A Heritage of 10. Of the 129 properties recorded in the 1939 public opinion," noting that future gifts "might favor national and remote control." Civic Engagement. Ed. Charles H. W. Foster. Cambridge, publication, a chronological analysis reveals that 25 were MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. recorded between 1908 and 1913 when the HCTPR Morris thought strategically, focusing attention on the need for a new vision, charter was threatened in Augusta. Then from 1914 organizational structure, and commitments more far reaching than financial support. until the establishment of the national park in 1919, 4. Charles W. Eliot 2nd, "S.A.E. and Champlain 55 properties were secured, and the remaining 49 Society," handwritten chronology. Mount Desert were added before the "final" transfer to the federal Island Historical Society Archives. The death in 1944 of George B. Dorr was another signal of the end of an era, government in 1931. prompting his executor, John A. Peters, to engage the Trustees in a plan for a fitting memorial at Sieur de Monts Spring that recognized the "Father of Acadia National 5. Report of the Botanical Department. 1880. Edward Lothrop Rand Papers. Gray Herbarium Archives. Park." The August 29, 1947 dedication address delivered by Peters emphasized Harvard University. anew the importance of the Trustees when he noted in his address that to secure these parklands "our Government had to be powerfully stimulated to take action 6. Opening remarks. Dorr Memorial dedication. [for] government inertia which clogs initiative in such matters had to be overcome August 1947. by personal energy and intelligent persistence." So too, it was not the government but the Trustees who established through this memorial "a permanent record to 7. Robert Sterling Yard. An Analysis of Lafayette advise posterity of the name of their benefactor and the boundaries of his life." National Park (Washington, D.C.: National Parks Association, 1924). In a few years, Hancock County communities would again experience Trustee- related loss when hearing of the deaths in 1952 and 1953 of two other exceptional 21 22 The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations A Skeleh 2nd edition Ellsworth, ME: H.C.T.P.R., 2016] Pp. .11-22.