HASKELL Family Reunion

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From Our Kitchen
Benjamin Stacy Haskell
by Jean Loesch Krauklin

Ben There is the little island off the coast of Maine, where our branch of the Haskell family settled around the late 1700s, after they left England and then the Newburyport/Beverly area of Massachusetts. They fished and farmed, but mostly they plied the sea in their sturdy Maine-built schooners and barks, transporting lumber ice, coal, granite, salt-fish and other supplies up and down the east coast, to the West Indies, or up the Penobscot River to Bangor.
On December 6, 1890 Stacy Benjamin Haskell was born; I believe he reversed the order of his first and middle names later. His parents were William and Elizabeth Richardson Haskell, owners of the large home in Deer Isle Village known as "The Ark" and run as a summer boarding house. Is is presently called Pilgrim's Inn.
Stacy was the second of two sons; his brother Philip was 11 years older. Their father was a sea captain who was away on voyages that could be very long. While he was away "Lizzie Cush," their mother, supervised the help, ran the business, and cooked all the meals for the boarders for many years. Sadly, William's ship was caught in a storm off Cape Hatteras in 1915, and he and his entire crew were lost.
Philip left home at 16 or so and became a seaman, later a master mariner, and distinguished himself along with other Deer Islers as a member of the crew of the "Columbia," Vanderbilt's yacht that won the America's Cup in 1909 (1911?). Captain Phil spent many years at sea, retiring to his large home across from the Church on the Hill, where his two children, Kenneth and Dorothea, were raised. After "Lizzie Cush" passed away, Phil sold his half of The Ark to Stacy.
Stacy seems not to have been quite the usual country boy. As early as ten or so he saw opportunities to make some money for himself by taking the boarders at the Ark out on his small boat for rides around the harbor, or fishing for flounder and mackerel. I'm sure there were other ways he found to extract some tourist dollars from his mother's customers.
At school Stacy was at the head of his class, and when he graduated as Valedictorian of the 8th grade his mother decided he would have more education, preferably in a religious school. So he was sent to Mt. Hermon, a private school for boys in the hills of western Massachusetts. There is a photograph of him taken there when he was a member of a husky looking basketball team. Stacy was handsome, with dark wavy hair, fine Roman nose, very broad shoulders--and he had deep blue eyes.
Mt. Hermon must have been too confining for Stacy, and he ran away from school. Between the ages of 16 and 19 he tried several things. He went to sea for a while as an assistant cook. He played semi-pro baseball for the town of Everett, Massachusetts, along with his friend Malcolm Carman of Deer Isle. Then he realized he needed some more schooling if he wanted to pursue some trade, so he enrolled at Gray's Business School in Portland, Maine, and learned bookkeeping. His penmanship was very clear and firm, and his ability with math suited this occupation.
Right after finishing, he got a job in Newmarket, New Hampshire, as a bookkeeper, or accountant as it would be called today. Then he got another, better job at the E.M. Cross Machine Company in Berlin. This area had much appeal, for it was a wonderful place for hunting in the vast north woods, and fishing in the many lakes and rivers.
Ben, as he was now called, met Lydia Anna Gilbert in Berlin when he was an ambitious and successful accountant in Mr. Cross's busy machine shop/foundry business. He was 31, she 26, a private-duty trained nurse who was on a case in Berlin. Five weeks later they were married, on April 25, 1921. They drove the car, his pride and joy, down to Portland for the honeymoon, but both of them had only a few days off. On that trip Lydia was allowed to drive the car a little, but it could not have been very successful, for she never did learn to drive. They set up housekeeping at a house at 517 Third Avenue. They had five children, four of whom survived: Jean Elizabeth (1923), Ruth Anne (1924-2000), David Philip (1926), and Robert Elliott (1934).
Mr. Cross found Ben so helpful that he taught him a good deal about the business that catered to the paper mills in the area. The Crosses had no children, and when Ben was named Executor in Mr. Cross's will, Ben decided to acquire the business. With a partner, Bill Metze, Ben took out a huge (for the time) loan of $33,000 and proceeded to buy the company, retaining most of the 25 or so employees. (I recall that the telephone number was just plain "One"!) He had a worrisome time during the Depression with the company, his young family, and new house, but somehow he was able to keep things going.
The shop made money. It must have -- Ben and Lydia's new house on a hilltop at 437 Second Avenue had five bedrooms, and was quite fine for Berlin. It was located on a large piece of land that extended over many acres; Ben hoped that after he built his house, others would buy lots and help develop the area at the end of Second Avenue. Son David still holds this land, selling timber from time to time.
At the shop there was a small office, a little more comfortable than the rest of the place, where things looked to me like something out of Charles Dickens. I occasionally helped in the office with filing and other chores on Saturdays. I watched the men sometimes as they poured the molten iron into molds, working on the dirt floor in the foundry, or taking a drink from the barrel of lemonade with one dipper for everybody. Times have changed! And if you drove up Glen Avenue in Berlin today, you would see no trace of the E. M. Cross Machine Co.
Every summer Ben took the family to Deer Isle, never anywhere else, on vacation. In the early years we all stayed with Grammy at The Ark, for just a couple of weeks; we joined the regular boarders for the wonderful meals. Then Ben bought a large property covering some of Pressey's Point and hired Ralph Torrey and Bert Dow to build a small camp on the shore in 1938. He planned to use it for a fishing camp. Although it didn't seem large enough for our family, we insisted on staying there for the whole summer, and we did that for several years. Ben would join us now and then when he could get away from the shop; he was always so happy to see the ocean and his home island. He really loved Deer Isle. I recall that during World War II when everyone was urged to buy war bonds and every town had its quota, Ben would buy up Deer Isle's entire quota by himself. He seemed to feel a responsibility for "his" island, and he was surely one of its most successful sons.
(Continued on page 2)

Any comments or questions? Contact
louise@loesch.net
S i t e d e s i g n b y W e b f a i r

Home Family History Family Tree Photo Album Reminiscing Reunion Info Family News Address Book From Our Kitchen		Benjamin Stacy Haskell by Jean Loesch Krauklin There is the little island off the coast of Maine, where our branch of the Haskell family settled around the late 1700s, after they left England and then the Newburyport/Beverly area of Massachusetts. They fished and farmed, but mostly they plied the sea in their sturdy Maine-built schooners and barks, transporting lumber ice, coal, granite, salt-fish and other supplies up and down the east coast, to the West Indies, or up the Penobscot River to Bangor. On December 6, 1890 Stacy Benjamin Haskell was born; I believe he reversed the order of his first and middle names later. His parents were William and Elizabeth Richardson Haskell, owners of the large home in Deer Isle Village known as "The Ark" and run as a summer boarding house. Is is presently called Pilgrim's Inn. Stacy was the second of two sons; his brother Philip was 11 years older. Their father was a sea captain who was away on voyages that could be very long. While he was away "Lizzie Cush," their mother, supervised the help, ran the business, and cooked all the meals for the boarders for many years. Sadly, William's ship was caught in a storm off Cape Hatteras in 1915, and he and his entire crew were lost. Philip left home at 16 or so and became a seaman, later a master mariner, and distinguished himself along with other Deer Islers as a member of the crew of the "Columbia," Vanderbilt's yacht that won the America's Cup in 1909 (1911?). Captain Phil spent many years at sea, retiring to his large home across from the Church on the Hill, where his two children, Kenneth and Dorothea, were raised. After "Lizzie Cush" passed away, Phil sold his half of The Ark to Stacy. Stacy seems not to have been quite the usual country boy. As early as ten or so he saw opportunities to make some money for himself by taking the boarders at the Ark out on his small boat for rides around the harbor, or fishing for flounder and mackerel. I'm sure there were other ways he found to extract some tourist dollars from his mother's customers. At school Stacy was at the head of his class, and when he graduated as Valedictorian of the 8th grade his mother decided he would have more education, preferably in a religious school. So he was sent to Mt. Hermon, a private school for boys in the hills of western Massachusetts. There is a photograph of him taken there when he was a member of a husky looking basketball team. Stacy was handsome, with dark wavy hair, fine Roman nose, very broad shoulders--and he had deep blue eyes. Mt. Hermon must have been too confining for Stacy, and he ran away from school. Between the ages of 16 and 19 he tried several things. He went to sea for a while as an assistant cook. He played semi-pro baseball for the town of Everett, Massachusetts, along with his friend Malcolm Carman of Deer Isle. Then he realized he needed some more schooling if he wanted to pursue some trade, so he enrolled at Gray's Business School in Portland, Maine, and learned bookkeeping. His penmanship was very clear and firm, and his ability with math suited this occupation. Right after finishing, he got a job in Newmarket, New Hampshire, as a bookkeeper, or accountant as it would be called today. Then he got another, better job at the E.M. Cross Machine Company in Berlin. This area had much appeal, for it was a wonderful place for hunting in the vast north woods, and fishing in the many lakes and rivers. Ben, as he was now called, met Lydia Anna Gilbert in Berlin when he was an ambitious and successful accountant in Mr. Cross's busy machine shop/foundry business. He was 31, she 26, a private-duty trained nurse who was on a case in Berlin. Five weeks later they were married, on April 25, 1921. They drove the car, his pride and joy, down to Portland for the honeymoon, but both of them had only a few days off. On that trip Lydia was allowed to drive the car a little, but it could not have been very successful, for she never did learn to drive. They set up housekeeping at a house at 517 Third Avenue. They had five children, four of whom survived: Jean Elizabeth (1923), Ruth Anne (1924-2000), David Philip (1926), and Robert Elliott (1934). Mr. Cross found Ben so helpful that he taught him a good deal about the business that catered to the paper mills in the area. The Crosses had no children, and when Ben was named Executor in Mr. Cross's will, Ben decided to acquire the business. With a partner, Bill Metze, Ben took out a huge (for the time) loan of $33,000 and proceeded to buy the company, retaining most of the 25 or so employees. (I recall that the telephone number was just plain "One"!) He had a worrisome time during the Depression with the company, his young family, and new house, but somehow he was able to keep things going. The shop made money. It must have -- Ben and Lydia's new house on a hilltop at 437 Second Avenue had five bedrooms, and was quite fine for Berlin. It was located on a large piece of land that extended over many acres; Ben hoped that after he built his house, others would buy lots and help develop the area at the end of Second Avenue. Son David still holds this land, selling timber from time to time. At the shop there was a small office, a little more comfortable than the rest of the place, where things looked to me like something out of Charles Dickens. I occasionally helped in the office with filing and other chores on Saturdays. I watched the men sometimes as they poured the molten iron into molds, working on the dirt floor in the foundry, or taking a drink from the barrel of lemonade with one dipper for everybody. Times have changed! And if you drove up Glen Avenue in Berlin today, you would see no trace of the E. M. Cross Machine Co. Every summer Ben took the family to Deer Isle, never anywhere else, on vacation. In the early years we all stayed with Grammy at The Ark, for just a couple of weeks; we joined the regular boarders for the wonderful meals. Then Ben bought a large property covering some of Pressey's Point and hired Ralph Torrey and Bert Dow to build a small camp on the shore in 1938. He planned to use it for a fishing camp. Although it didn't seem large enough for our family, we insisted on staying there for the whole summer, and we did that for several years. Ben would join us now and then when he could get away from the shop; he was always so happy to see the ocean and his home island. He really loved Deer Isle. I recall that during World War II when everyone was urged to buy war bonds and every town had its quota, Ben would buy up Deer Isle's entire quota by himself. He seemed to feel a responsibility for "his" island, and he was surely one of its most successful sons. (Continued on page 2)
		Any comments or questions? Contact louise@loesch.net S i t e d e s i g n b y W e b f a i r