J. J. O'Brien and His Jesuit Settlement Memorial

In 1952 a summer resident of Seal Harbor, ME named John Joseph O'Brien (1882-1971) mounted a bronze plaque on a granite cliff in his "Sea Bench" estate garden and invited garden tours to visit and enjoy it.*1  The memorial commemorated the first settlement of Europeans on Mount Desert Island, ME and the introduction of Christianity to the island in 1613. The memorial inscription reads:

FIRST RECORDED LANDING OF WHITE PERSONS ON MT. DESERT ISLAND, MAINE
1613
FRENCH EXPEDITION, UNDER SIEUR DE LA SAUSSAYE, INCLUDING THREE JESUIT PRIESTS, FATHERS PIERRE BIARD, ENNAMOND MASSA, JACQUES QUENTIN AND JESUIT BROTHER GILBERT DU THET, LANDED ON WEST SIDE OF SOMES SOUND AT WHAT IS NOW KNOWN AS FERNALD’S POINT. THEY NAMED THEIR SETTLEMENT SAINT SAUVEUR. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER, A BRITISH FORCE ATTACKED THE COLONY, KILLED BROTHER DU THET AND DISPERSED THE COLONY. BROTHER DU THET’S BODY IS BURIED SOMEWHERE ON THE SHORE OF WHAT IS NOW KNOWN AS THE JESUIT MEADOW.



Jesuit Settlement outside St. Ignatius

O'Brien commissioned the bas relief memorial, a work done by acclaimed Detroit-based, German-born sculptor Walter Midener. It was cast at the Modern Art Foundry in Queens, NY, the same company that made the bronze statue of University of Maine benefactor Harold Alfond. When O'Brien sold Sea Bench, he removed the memorial and attached it to a 4-ton granite slab which was installed outside of Saint Ignatius Church in Northeast Harbor.*2  This was fitting, as St. Ignatius founded the Jesuit Order.



Marian O'Brien
Courtesy: Clewiston Museum

O'Brien, a Philadelphian and a University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate (1908), was a journalist, industrialist, entrepreneur and politician from Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. Upon graduation he entered newspaper work, but he resigned as city editor of the Philadelphia Ledger in 1914 to go to Florida and develop agricultural land. In 1917 in Hillsborough County (Tampa), FL he married Philadelphian Marian Newhall Horwitz (1882-1932), the widow of Philadelphia attorney George Horwitz, and daughter of Daniel Newhall, vice president of  the Pennsylvania Railroad.*3  He and Marian lived in Moore Haven on the southwest side of Lake Okeechobee. There they formed the Southern Sugar Corp., later reorganized as the U.S. Sugar Corp., the country's largest producer of cane sugar, and established the town of Clewiston, "America's Sweetest Town."*4  Marian was elected mayor of Moore Haven, a.k.a. “Little Chicago” from its location on Lake Okeechobee, and became the first woman mayor in the South. She also was president of the Moore Haven bank. By 1924 he and Marian had sold their land holdings and left the area. In 1925, while a Palm Beach resident, O'Brien purchased "Guy's Cliff," a 6-acre waterfront estate in Bar Harbor that today is the site of the College of the Atlantic's Kaelber Hall. Marian died in their Grosse Pointe Farms home and is buried with her son and sister in St. David’s Episcopal Church cemetery, Wayne, PA.

In 1934, two years after Marian's death, O'Brien married Louise Webber Jackson (1883-1960), niece of the founder of Detroit's Joseph L. Hudson department store and widow of Hudson Motor Car pioneer Roscoe B. Jackson. Bar Harbor's Jackson Laboratory, a cancer research facility funded earlier by Jackson, the Webber family and Edsel Ford, is named for him.*5  O'Brien was a Michigan neighbor of Edsel Ford and living close by was Richard Webber, Louise's brother and a family financier of the Jackson Memorial Laboratory. In 1935 O'Brien was appointed the director of the Wayne County (Detroit) Works Progress Administration. The WPA (1935-1943) had a mission similar to that of the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-1942) -- to provide jobs and income for unemployed, unskilled workers to do public works projects.

John J. O'Brien
Courtesy: Kebo Valley Golf Club

Among O'Brien's accomplishments on MDI, he was instrumental in setting up the Crobb Box Company in Northeast Harbor in 1942 to make shipping crates for Ford Motor Company’s war-related production effort.*6  He was president of Bar Harbor's Kebo Valley Club (1943-1946) and president of Seal Harbor's Harbor Club (1953-1958). Also, he served on the board of trustees of the Jackson Memorial Laboratory and on the Seal Harbor Village Improvement Society. Upon his death in 1971, which occurred at his Grosse Pointe Farms home, O'Brien requested memorial tributes be sent to the Jackson Memorial Laboratory. He and Louise, who died in Bar Harbor 11 years earlier, are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, MI.

J. J. O'Brien's Jesuit Settlement Memorial stands today as a silent witness to a seminal event in Mount Desert Island's history. Its 400th anniversary will occur next summer.

*Footnotes:
1  Bar Harbor Times, 7/24/1952; p. 1.
2  Memorial GPS coordinates: N44° 17.643'  W068° 17.619'
3  George's father, Dr. Phineas Horwitz, a surgeon general of the United States Navy, summered in Bar Harbor from 1879 until his death there in 1904.
4  The O'Briens named the town of Clewiston in honor of their Tampa friend and financier Alonzo C. Clewis.
5  Established in 1929, its original name was the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory. Today its name is simply The Jackson Laboratory.
6  The name Crobb comes from the initials letters of the founders' surnames -- Irving Clement, Gerald Richardson, John O’Brien and Horace Bucklin. Crobb Box continued to produce its lumber products until purchased last year by Pleasant River Lumber.

Northeast Harbor's Schoolhouse Ledge - a Place for a Peaceful Hike


Northeast Harbor is a picturesque village on Maine's Mount Desert Island. Besides its beautiful homes and harbor, it has an interesting and pleasant network of undulating woods trails. They are located in a hilly section named Schoolhouse Ledge, bounded by Lower Hadlock Pond on the north, the Asticou Inn on the east, Northeast Harbor's downtown on the south and the Northeast Harbor Golf Course on the west. It used to be a confusing place to hike, but that changed this summer. The Northeast Harbor Village Improvement Society (NEHVIS) has produced a free map that will safely guide hikers throughout this area. It identifies the locations of the 7-mile network of 14 marked trails. As more new trail signs are made and posted, the trail network will become even clearer.

The NEHVIS was incorporated in 1898 to care for the village's commonweal. Committees were formed to ensure the heath of its food, water and milk, improve the road conditions, plant trees and flora, and in general make the village a healthy, comfortable and appealing place in which to live and work. Among the committees was the Path Committee. It comprised people who built and maintained the village's paths. One of them was Gordon Falt, a 20-year Path Committee chairman. His memorial, which is alongside the wooden steps descending east from Main Street via Old Firehouse Lane to the harbor's parking lot, states: Gordon H. Falt, Devoted Designer of the Beauty of this Village and Staunch Sustainer of its Trails. 1900-1981.*1  Among the trails he built was the Asticou Brook Trail. Located at the north end of the harbor, it descends from Route 3/Peabody Drive along the brook on the west side of the 1883 Asticou Inn until it reaches the head of the harbor and then turns southwest to end at Route 198/Harborside Road.

Gordon H. Falt Memorial

Trail names, such as Bridle Path, Cliff Trail, Quarry Trail, Steep Trail and the above-mentioned Asticou Brook Trail, give the hiker an idea of what to expect. The quizzically named Skidoo Trail is a head scratcher. A 1915 path guide states: "Built in 1914, it is called the 'Skidoo Trail' on account of the twenty-three steps at its commencement from the high road [Harborside Road]."*2  Wikipedia tells us further that "23 skidoo (sometimes 23 skiddoo) is an American slang phrase popularized during the early twentieth century, first attested before World War I and becoming popular during the 1920s. It generally refers to leaving quickly, being forced to leave quickly by someone else, or taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is, 'getting [out] while the getting's good.' The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain."*3  Equally uncertain is the location of the 23 steps, as they are not in evidence at the trail's Harborside Road entrance.

The "Northeast Harbor Trail Map" is in the form of an attractive brochure available at a number of village venues, including the Northeast Harbor Library and the Chamber of Commerce. Pick up a copy and give Schoolhouse Ledge a try. If you find it enjoyable and satisfying, which I'm sure you will, then let the NEHVIS know. They'll appreciate hearing from you.

Footnotes:
1  Falt memorial GPS coordinates: N44° 17.622'  W068° 17.246'
2  A Path Guide of Mount Desert Island, Maine, p. 28. Published by The Village Improvement Societies of Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, Northeast [sic], and Southwest Harbor. 1915.
3  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_skidoo_(phrase)