The Memorials of Acadia National Park

The Return of a Restored Beloved Memorial

Missing memorial plaque

In November 2012 a bronze memorial plaque was discovered missing by hikers on Acadia National Park's Gorge Path.

 



Acadia NP photo

King and Stellpflug restoring plaque

Upon being told about it, the Park responded the memorial had been removed for restoration by Gary Stellpflug, trail foreman, and Robyn King, museum technician. They completed the restoration and returned the plaque last month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original condition

Restored condition

The plaque's inscription reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

LILIAN ENDICOTT FRANCKLYN
1891 - 1928
THIS TRAIL IS ENDOWED BY HER FRIENDS

Lilian Endicott Francklyn (1891-1928), born in Geneva, New York, was a daughter of Robert and Caroline Rees Seward. She was a descendant of William H. Seward, Abraham Lincoln‘s Secretary of State. She married international banker Reginald Gebhart Francklyn in London, England in 1923.

Trinity Church, Geneva,NY

Lilian Endicott Francklyn

In 1928, while visiting her mother in Geneva, Lilian died of a cerebral embolism in her eighth month of pregnancy, leaving behind her husband and four year-old daughter, Caroline Agnes, and three year-old son, Reginald Endicott. She is buried with her mother in the Seward plot at Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, New York.

Lilian’s memorial, installed about 1929, is on the Gorge Path between Cadillac and Dorr Mountains. One of the friends mentioned on the plaque was Louise Munroe. She and Lilian were debutantes at the same time in New York City. In 1929 Louise gave the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association $1,000 to endow the Gorge Path and install a bronze plaque in Lilian’s honor.

This is the second bronze plaque to be restored. The first restoration was the Jesup memorial in July 2011. It is located on the Jesup Path near its junction with the Kurt Diederich Climb at The Tarn's outflow.

Restoration of the memorials falls under an official mandate for Acadia NP to preserve its cultural history. There are 24 bronze and 2 slate memorial plaques in the park. In 2011 volunteers cleaned its 11 granite memorials and other historic stones to highlight and enhance their engravings.

GPS coordinates:

Francklyn memorial - N44° 21.904'  W068° 13.254'
Jesup memorial - N44° 21.512'  W068° 12.425'