Lubec, Maine

Timeline - Selected Events in Lubec’s History
Text by Jennifer Multhopp

Pre-1700s

• Passamaquoddy encampments in North Lubec – shell middens found on South Bay and Mill Creek. Portaged canoes over Carrying Place bog to reach ocean travel routes. Harvested smelts and sweet grass.

1700s

1754 – 1763
• Maine Indians forced north into eastern Maine during French and Indian War
1755
• British deport Acadians to Maine and other New England communities
1775
• Machias residents capture British ship Margaretta in the first naval battle of War of Independence
1777
• John Allan appointed Superintendent of Eastern Indians by George Washington
1783
• War of Independence ends with signing of Treaty of Paris
1789
• Louis Delesdernier appointed first collector for customs District of Passamaquoddy, office at Flagg’s Point (Lubec)
• John Allan settles on Treat’s Island (Allan’s Island)
1790
• John Cooper, acting as agent for North Lubec (Seward’s Neck) settlers, petitioned Massachusetts General Court declaring allegiance to Massachusetts and requesting that settlers be confirmed in their land holdings
• President Washington organized Revenue Cutter Service commissioning Hopley Yeaton as its first officer – America’s first commissioned naval officer
1791
• Cooper’s petition accepted by Massachusetts.
• Committee appointed by General Court to lay out township into lots of 100 acres each – Solomon Cushing initiated the survey
1792
• Hopley Yeaton given command of the new Revenue Service frigate, Scammel. Purchases land in North Lubec
1795
• Cushing survey of North Lubec completed – lots assigned to settlers on payment of $5
1797
• Daniel Ramsdell cures first herring by smoke in Lubec, a process learned in Nova Scotia
1798
• Eastport (Moose Island) incorporated – includes Lubec and North Lubec – 583 inhabitants

1800 – 1850

1804 – 1830
• Twenty vessels launched from Lubec shipyards
1804
• First schooner, Hope, built at Seward’s Neck by Capt. George W. Allan
1805
• Col. John Allan dies – buried on Treat’s Island
1806
• Hopley Yeaton petitioned President Jefferson to establish a light at West Quoddy Head
1807
• President Jefferson initiates trade embargo. Illicit trade increases in Passamaquoddy region
1809
• First lighthouse at West Quoddy Head. Thomas Dexter was the first keeper
1810
• Committee chosen by people of Seward’s Neck to petition the legislature in Boston to be set off from Moose Island and to be a town by itself
1811
• Jonathan Weston, Jabez Mowry, Sherman Leland, Samuel Beals, Joseph Clark Jr. and Benjamin Reynolds appointed to draft the bill of incorporation
• “Lubeck”, as it was spelled in the Act of Incorporation dated June 21, 1811, was the 188th town in Maine and included Dudley, Frederic, Mark and Roger’s Island
• Incorporation approved by governor of Mass.
• Warrant for first town meeting issued July 7, 1811

1812
• War of 1812 leads to extensive smuggling operations between British and American territories along Passamaquoddy Bay
1814
• Eastport captured and occupied by the British
1815
• Jabez Mowry and other Eastport merchants relocate to Lubec
• Post office established in Lubec. Road connecting Lubec and East Machias under construction
1817
• First village schoolhouse built and included meeting hall on second floor. A school in North Lubec was already in existence
1818
• Boundary dispute settled, Eastport evacuated by the British
• Boundary between Canada and U.S.; Campobello and Lubec established
1820
• Maine separates from Mass. And enters the union as 23rd state on March 15.
• Road to East Machias completed
• Stage coaches for passengers run by William Chaloner who also kept a hotel in Lubec
• First Christian Church built in Lubec
• Brush weirs for the capture of herring came into wide use in Passamaquoddy
• Census results – 1,430 population
1821
• Twenty smokehouses operating in Lubec – produced 50 to 60 thousand boxes of fish annually. Became national leader in smoked herring production into 1880s
1824
• Solomon Cushing conducts survey of town of Lubec
• Freemasons opened lodge
1830
• Lubec began sending vessels to Magdelen Islands to meet smokehouse demand for herring
1832
• Plaster mills erected at North Lubec Canal. Jeremiah Fowler employed 125 men. Operated by tidal power; later by steam
1850
• Census – population 3,000
• Three post offices – Lubec, W. Lubec, N. Lubec
• Increased commercial activity – smoked herring, fishing, farming

1850 – 1900

1860
• Lead mines established on South Bay in North Lubec and in West Lubec
1861
• 200 Lubec men, 18 to 40, entered the Union Army, one for every 12 inhabitants
1862
• On December 14 Albion K.P. Avery became the first Lubec soldier killed in action (Battle of Fredericksburg)
1864 – 1874
• Period of great commercial prosperity
1865
• Peak of smoked herring industry
• Thirty smokehouses from N. Lubec to Bailey’s Mistake
1869
• The Saxby Gale, November 4, caused much destruction – 90 to 100 mph winds
1873 – 1874
• Due to increasing ship traffic Quoddy Head Lifesaving Station constructed at Carrying Place Cove – 1.5 miles west of West Quoddy Head
• Last sailing ship built in Lubec – Charles Sears
1879
• Number of active weirs down to 31
• 74 smokehouses remain in Lubec – many idle or little used

1880
• Moses P. Lawrence, Henry Dodge and Julius Wolff established a sardine factory in North Lubec, built on the site of former plaster mill at “Devil’s Half Acre”, called The Lubec Packing Company
1881 – 1898
• 23 sardine factories established in Lubec
• E.W. Brown & Co. constructed first sardine factory on Water Street
1882
• The Passamaquoddy Ferry Co. founded for the purpose of running a steam ferry between Eastport and Lubec
1884
• The Lubec Herald begins publication
1889
• Torrent Fire Co. founded by F.M. Tucker, the first chief
1890s
• Virtual explosion of sardine canning on Passamaquoddy Bay – new technology and expanding markets
1893
• SS Cumberland made its first voyage from Boston to Lubec, inaugurating steam ship service to the town. Arrived to great fanfare.

1897 - 1898
• Telegraph service established
• Resort hotel Ne-Mat-Ta-No built in North Lubec by Portland YMCA
• “Klondike” – Electrolytic Marine Salts Co. established in Lubec
• First Lubec High School class graduates (1897)

1900s

1900
• Census results – 3,005
1902
• Lubec Water & Electric District established – water mains laid throughout village and outlying areas
1904
• Lubec’s Civil War Monument dedicated
1907
• American Can Co. builds plant in Lubec for manufacture of two-piece drawn cans
1910
• Census results – 3,363
1911
• Lubec Centennial Celebration held on July 4 -- Visit the Centennial Exhibit
1916
• Eagle Theater opens – movies, vaudeville, summer stock, Houdini!
1919
• Passamaquoddy Tidal Project proposed – two dams built in Eastport, one partially constructed in Lubec. Project abandoned in 1936
1950
• From peak production sardine industry begins steady decline
1956
• Gymnasium built adjacent to Lubec Grammar School
• The Lubec Herald ceases publication

1960
• The Lobster Trap Gift Shop opens – first gift shop catering to tourists
1962
• Roosevelt International Bridge opens linking Lubec and Campobello Island
• West Quoddy Head State Park established
1965
• Lubec High School Marching Band represents Maine in the Cherry Blossom Parade, Washington, D.C.
1971
• Regional Medical Center founded
1972
• American Can closes in Lubec
• Movie theater burns
• Lubec Crafts Council incorporated

1975
• McCurdy Smokehouse is the only remaining business of its kind in U.S.
• Sardine plants in Maine dwindled from 48 to 15
1976
• Completion of school additions to create a single complex – Lubec Consolidated School
1977
• Construction of Lubec Municipal Building on site of the old Hilltop School
1980s
• Growth of salmon aquaculture, sea urchin, scallop, lobster fisheries
• New England Aquarium establishes Bay of Fundy Right Whale Research Field Station in Lubec

1990
• R.J. Peacock Canning Co. suspends sardine production
• West Quoddy Life Saving Station added to National Register of Historic Buildings
1991
• McCurdy’s Smokehouse closes
1995
• Lubec Marina constructed, after a series of damaging storms it was dismantled
1999
• 50 lobster/crab, 89 commercial shellfish, 54 scallop, 38 commercial fishing, 42 urchin licenses issued in Lubec
• Successful completion of Community Playground project
2001
• New Lubec Memorial Library building completed
• Connors Brothers plant (former Booth Fisheries Factory B) closes – last sardine plant in Lubec