scribner’s mill homestead

Scribner’s Mill & Homestead: A Living History Museum

by leigh macmillen hayes

In 1974, while John and Marilyn Hatch were vacationing in Maine’s Lake Region, he began making measured drawings of the mill he had found on the Crooked River.

Ed Scribner, fourth generation owner of this historic site, had seen John’s van return to the site repeatedly and one day said, “I’ve seen you over here every day this week and I’m wondering what you are doing.”

John, an Industrial Arts teacher in Rhinebeck, New York, replied, “Oh, it’s such a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Scribner. This mill needs to be saved and I’ve been here doing measured drawings so there’s a record of it and what was in it.”

Ed said, “Well, you need to talk to my son, Bourdon.”

When John returned the next day, he met Bourdon and Ed, and the two younger men hit it off right away. As she related this story to me, John’s widow, Marilyn, said, “They had sorta the same kind of mind.”

John encouraged Bourdon to save the building, stating that it was an important and rare piece of history.

That winter, Bourdon and a small group worked to form a not-for-profit organization and by the time the Hatches returned in 1975, Scribner’s Mill Preservation, Inc. had been created with 501(c)3 status.

The organization consists of four officers and six directors who have overseen the restoration of the mill since then. In 2021, the Scribner Homestead was deeded to the Preservation, keeping in tack a story that dates back 175 years to 1846.

A few years prior to construction, Worthy Columbus Barrows, who owned a tannery business and leather store in Bolsters Mills, had purchased lot #144, which included Carsley Falls on Crooked River in Harrison to fulfill his vision of creating a sawmill.

A blacksmith shop was one of the first buildings to be constructed as the men needed to constantly sharpen rock drills since they were using granite from ledges on the Otisfield side of the river to build a dam and sluice. The dam was necessary to create a mill pond where logs could be stored prior to milling.

The original 25’ x 60’ sawmill was raised in 1847 with hemlock hewn on site.

In 1849, Worthy had the homestead constructed to house his sawyer, Elijah Scribner, Elijah’s wife Dorothy, and their seven children. Thanks to diaries Worthy’s brother, Horace kept of his daily transactions, Marilyn learned that by 1850 Worthy wasn’t too happy about this new mill. Said Marilyn recently, “I think he expected to have a big business here. Lumber was needed and they thought they could sail it right down Crooked River to Westbrook, but there were lots of other mills in the Westbrook area producing wood products so it wasn’t as profitable as he’d hoped.”

Elijah and his oldest son Cyrus, age 26, were happy to purchase the house and mill in 1851. While Elijah paid for one quarter of the mill, plus $150 for the homestead, Cyrus bought the other three quarters, making a down payment with money he’d earned while working for a railroad company in Massachusetts.

According to the 1860 census, Elijah Scribner and Son operated one up-anddown sash saw, and one shingle machine with two circular saws. They made almost everything that could be used to build a house including dimension lumber, roof shingles, clapboards and lath. Shingles were the staple of the mill, and they would be cut and bundled, then hauled to the long shed to dry before being sold.

It was in 1882 that Cyrus developed an infection that laid him low for a time. In November of 1884, while at work in the mill and with no one else nearby, Cyrus got caught in machinery and yelled and screamed as he dangled upside down inches from the water. With machinery whirring, no one at the homestead heard him. Fortunately, someone came along the road and spotted Cyrus hanging under the mill. The passerby ran to the homestead to alert Cyrus’s sons, and the three of them were able to extricate him, bruised but with no serious injuries.

That was a turning point for the mill. Cyrus decided that he could no longer do the job and so at age 60 in 1884, he turned the mill operations over to his sons, Bourdon, age 16, and Jesse, age 14. The boys had been brought up at the mill so they knew and understood the process from log to finished product. Cyrus kept the business ledger and did barn chores until about 1895. He died in 1902 at age 77, having deeded the mill to his sons two days earlier.

Upon taking over the mill responsibilities, the younger Scribners wanted to update it since technology had changed. They immediately purchased a Chase Turbine and a circular saw manufactured in Harrison to replace the up-and-down sash saw. With these changes, Marilyn said, “Their ability to produce lumber was ten-fold. They were entrepreneurs and bought a portable saw that they could take all over the area. They also were buying up lots and buying up mills. They weren’t afraid to take a risk.”

One of the mill sites the brothers purchased was in Hiram, which Bourdon managed while Jesse remained in Harrison. The Scribner Bros, as their business was known in both locations, transported lumber and products to markets in other states via steamboats and later the railroad.

The mills also supplied local people with building materials and other wooden necessities. One such product was barrel production.The apple industry had taken off in the Harrison/Otisfield area because farmers discovered they could grow Baldwins and sell them to foreign markets, such as London, England. By the time the apples arrived at their destination, they had ripened to just the right taste.

At the mill, they created barrel staves, while hoops were formed at two cooperage shops up on the hill. This was a lucrative business for a time, and Jesse’s ledger indicates that one year he had 170 orders to fill, which equalled 10,124 barrels that sold for $.35 each and he made a profit of $305. That all ended in 1938, when record low temperatures in the winter weakened the trees and a fall Nor’easter toppled them.

In 1941, while posting a letter, Bourdon was accidentally struck by a vehicle driven by his wife’s nephew and died instantly. A couple of years later, Jesse received a quit claim from Bourdon’s widow and he sold the Hiram mill, thus making him the sole owner of Scribner’s Mill. At its height, the mill employed nine or ten men.

With the advent of World War II, Jesse had the flume, sluices, and shaft with its

impact wheel replaced so he could produce shook (box parts) for the war effort. Canned goods, ammunition, and equipment were shipped overseas in these.

In 1950, Jesse’s grandson, Bourdon P., purchased a Diesel engine to run the saws, thus allowing for more board feet to be cut than by water power. While this increased profit margins, Jesse apparently wasn’t thrilled because it also created high fuel costs. To counter this, he would switch back to water power whenever it was feasible.

Weather events took a toll on the business, especially when the ice broke up in the spring. Sometimes logs floated downriver during spring floods and had to be retrieved from the area known as Intervale. Other times, it was the dam that was breached or a section of the bridge or mill that collapsed due to high water. Any time thunder was heard, Jesse purportedly said, “Sounds like a little storm up in Waterford.” He wanted to keep his men working.

Eventually, Jesse got out of the retail business and began to do custom jobs. After working for 78 years, he retired in 1962. Jesse was 99 years and 8 months old when he died in 1970.

All of this and more is on display at the mill and homestead. Some of the equipment at the mill is original to the site, including a trimmer for the barrels that Jesse’s grandson Daniel told John Hatch he could find in the woods behind the barn.

The family needed to sell the homestead in 1983 when Ed entered a nursing home, after four generations had owned it. Marilyn and John Hatch stepped in to purchase the house and have worked since to restore it to its 1924 appearance.

The original house was a three bay, two story structure with a central entrance. A barn, woodshed, hen house, and ice house were eventually added, plus an ell. Water for the house was lugged from a spring near the blacksmith shop until 1916, when Ed convinced his father to install a generator. Secretly, Ed wanted the generator to power the butter churn because it was his job to do this manually and it took hours.

Upon entering recently, I knew I was stepping back into a different era as represented by the wallpaper in the foyer, and raccoon coat on display. Apparently, Jesse donned a raccoon coat and he hung his hat and coat on a hook in the hallway when he returned home. In the sitting room, you can also see a chair of the same style he used to sit in to read Life and National Geographic. It’s beside the wood stove, where the chrome was worn off in one corner because he rested his feet there.

There have been some alterations since the Hatches acquired the property, but they’ve worked hard to recapture its essence with furniture, some original to the house. A china cabinet still stands against a dining room wall that was built for Jesse’s wife Birdena (Birdie). The cabinet housed her Blue Willow china. It also features shelves below where she stored milk tins as she waited for the fat to rise that would be skimmed off and churned into butter.

A 1915 DC motor made by the Akron Electrical Company of Akron, Ohio, used to churn the butter when electrical power was generated at the mill sits in a back room. Central Maine Power didn’t install electricity to the site until 1953, providing an AC system to the area. Marilyn chuckled as she read a note she’d posted by the motor: “The DC motor is not compatible with AC so DO NOT try to operate it.” John Hatch’s tool collection is also on display because as Marilyn said, “He was so much a part of this restoration.”

There are more stories about the family and business than I can share here, so I strongly encourage you to visit Scribner’s Mill and Homestead. Marilyn had the distinct honor of learning not just from diaries and ledgers and newspaper articles about the Scribner family history, but also from memories shared by Ed’s children, which she’s recorded in a comprehensive book entitled Scribner’s Mill: early beginnings, the families, the homestead, and those who worked in the mill.

Tours are offered on the first and third weekend of the month from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Or . . . if you see the door of the mill open, stop in. You might be greeted by Marilyn, who is a walking encyclopedia of this living history museum. R