TO MARKET, TO MARKET
With North Haven’s location on a busy, coastal, shipping highway, farmers could export products to markets near and far. In the mid 1800s, shipping connections became quite reliable when steamships established routes along the Maine coast. Twice daily, these ships stopped at North Haven, providing regular overnight connections to and from Boston. From the island, farmers could send their product in the evening and it would arrive in Boston the following morning.
Since shipping was done in the cool of the night, refrigeration was not a concern. Samuel Beverage recalled how his father, Hiram, prepared meat for shipment to Boston:
The butchering was done in the forenoon and the meat given a chance to cool naturally before being wrapped...Father wrapped them up good starting with a heavy waxed meat paper, then a layer of common store paper and then the whole sewed up in burlap grain bags. He used binder type twine and a large, special, curved needle. One veal to a wrap but lambs could be two to three in a bundle depending on size.
A commission agent in Boston met the steamships upon arrival, distributed the products, and sent the proceeds back to the farmers. The steamships were the vital link in this trade and the success of farming on North Haven for many years depended on the continuation of regular steamship service.
Farmers on North Haven relied not only on urban markets but also on the support of local customers. They regularly sold eggs, butter, cheese, produce, and meat to island stores. North Haven had several stores, scattered around the island from Bartlett’s Harbor to Pulpit Harbor to the Thoroughfare. In addition, farmers sold products to the island’s one hotel, the Mullin House, later known as Haven’s Inn.
Some farmers also kept a milk route and delivered fresh milk to homes around the island. Jim Lewis remembered the milk routes of his childhood in the early 1900s:
Probably my father had the first milk route. Cows were so plentiful that families that wanted milk simply sent a child to a neighbor’s house where they had one or more cows. The stores didn’t sell milk at all. Didn’t until the farmers gave up their milk routes. There were seven or more such routes when I was a young fellow...No milk ever came from the mainland.
In addition to selling on island and shipping to Boston, farmers on North Haven also did business with customers on nearby islands and with stores on the mainland. Thorndike and Hix, Inc., a supplier of “meats, provisions, fruit, and produce” in Rockland, inquired through letters about buying lambs from North Haven in 1917:
We are in a position to handle these lambs as cheap or cheaper than anybody….You know pretty near what Thorndike and Hix will do for you. We have bought lambs over there for thirty odd years and never had any trouble...Just as quick as you have some that you want to get rid of let us know...what we want is some lambs to come off the first of July.
Florence Dole Brown who grew up on the farm belonging to her parents, Will and Lizzie Dole, wrote about farm life and recalled her father doing business with the same Thorndike and Hix, Inc. of Rockland, mentioned above:
When father went to Rockland every fall to settle up with Thorndike and Hix, where he sold all our pigs and calves and poultry...he would come home with a side of good grade beef, two barrels of flour, 50 pounds of fine cornmeal, 100 pounds sugar, a whole cheese, 25 pound box of saltines, 25 pound box of pilot crackers, and a few gallons of molasses.
As Florence recalled, most island farmers supplied enough for their family and then sold any surplus, often butter, eggs, or meat. These items could be traded for bulk commodities like flour and molasses. With only a few select store purchases, most farm families maintained a largely self-sufficient existence for decades.
Since shipping was done in the cool of the night, refrigeration was not a concern. Samuel Beverage recalled how his father, Hiram, prepared meat for shipment to Boston:
The butchering was done in the forenoon and the meat given a chance to cool naturally before being wrapped...Father wrapped them up good starting with a heavy waxed meat paper, then a layer of common store paper and then the whole sewed up in burlap grain bags. He used binder type twine and a large, special, curved needle. One veal to a wrap but lambs could be two to three in a bundle depending on size.
A commission agent in Boston met the steamships upon arrival, distributed the products, and sent the proceeds back to the farmers. The steamships were the vital link in this trade and the success of farming on North Haven for many years depended on the continuation of regular steamship service.
Farmers on North Haven relied not only on urban markets but also on the support of local customers. They regularly sold eggs, butter, cheese, produce, and meat to island stores. North Haven had several stores, scattered around the island from Bartlett’s Harbor to Pulpit Harbor to the Thoroughfare. In addition, farmers sold products to the island’s one hotel, the Mullin House, later known as Haven’s Inn.
Some farmers also kept a milk route and delivered fresh milk to homes around the island. Jim Lewis remembered the milk routes of his childhood in the early 1900s:
Probably my father had the first milk route. Cows were so plentiful that families that wanted milk simply sent a child to a neighbor’s house where they had one or more cows. The stores didn’t sell milk at all. Didn’t until the farmers gave up their milk routes. There were seven or more such routes when I was a young fellow...No milk ever came from the mainland.
In addition to selling on island and shipping to Boston, farmers on North Haven also did business with customers on nearby islands and with stores on the mainland. Thorndike and Hix, Inc., a supplier of “meats, provisions, fruit, and produce” in Rockland, inquired through letters about buying lambs from North Haven in 1917:
We are in a position to handle these lambs as cheap or cheaper than anybody….You know pretty near what Thorndike and Hix will do for you. We have bought lambs over there for thirty odd years and never had any trouble...Just as quick as you have some that you want to get rid of let us know...what we want is some lambs to come off the first of July.
Florence Dole Brown who grew up on the farm belonging to her parents, Will and Lizzie Dole, wrote about farm life and recalled her father doing business with the same Thorndike and Hix, Inc. of Rockland, mentioned above:
When father went to Rockland every fall to settle up with Thorndike and Hix, where he sold all our pigs and calves and poultry...he would come home with a side of good grade beef, two barrels of flour, 50 pounds of fine cornmeal, 100 pounds sugar, a whole cheese, 25 pound box of saltines, 25 pound box of pilot crackers, and a few gallons of molasses.
As Florence recalled, most island farmers supplied enough for their family and then sold any surplus, often butter, eggs, or meat. These items could be traded for bulk commodities like flour and molasses. With only a few select store purchases, most farm families maintained a largely self-sufficient existence for decades.
C.S. Staples general store, later known as W.S. Hopkins, North Haven, circa 1890