Downeast Maine towns like Pembroke, populated by settlers of English
and Scottish background, converted forest oaks and pines into sailing
vessels. Intensely task-oriented and entrepreneurial, the Pembroke
residents built an iron foundry and, in their seaside yards, more than
150 vessels that sailed the oceans. The character of these people and the
success of their economy in the time of wooden ships ultimately produced
Ross Cottage, now a reminder of days gone by.
The story of Ross Cottage begins in tragedy, when Emelia (Willard) Ross,
the young wife of entrepreneur Henry Butler Ross (1845-1911), died in
childbirth in 1875 in Skowhegan. Heartbroken, yet in need of a mother
for his young daughter Mary Ella, Henry came to St. Stephen, N.B. on the
invitation of his brother Franklin to join him in the jewelry business
there. A mutual acquaintance apprised Henry of a feisty, independent-minded
young lady from Pembroke by the name of Lelia Bridges (1859-1943). They
married at the Bridges home in West Pembroke on May 1, 1879. Twenty years
later they acquired Ross Cottage.
Beyond her high spirits, Lelia Miranda Bridges represented two solid
families in a prosperous town. Her father, Henry Styles Bridges (1827-1904),
owned a general store. His great-grandfather Joseph, a Revolutionary soldier,
had settled in Pembroke in the 1780s. Henry served as a selectman and
justice of the peace. Lelia’s mother, Keziah (Wilbur) Bridges (1829-1923),
was the daughter of Benjamin Wilbur, a farmer and itinerant Methodist
preacher who also served as a selectman. The Bridgeses and Wilburs
typified the people who raised Pembroke to its height in the 1870s.
Lelia’s social standing appealed to Henry, who aspired to prominence in
the St. Stephen-Calais border community. A descendant of Scottish immigrant
David Ross who arrived in Penobscot Bay in 1820, he wanted to make his mark
in business. His brother Franklin had moved in 1869 from Skowhegan to
St. Stephen where he established the jewelry store. When Henry joined
his brother they named the business Ross Bros. People freely crossed
the border in those days, and the brothers opened a branch of the store
in Calais in 1882. Henry and Lelia relocated to Calais from St. Stephen
in 1889 or 1890. After Henry’s death in 1911, Lelia bought out brother
Frank’s share of the Calais store.
Ross Bros. did well, thanks in part to Henry’s managerial skills and expertise
as an engraver. More importantly, the store – and the border cities – owed
their success to the white pines being stripped out of the woods, driven
down the St. Croix River to sawmills in Baring, Upper Mills, and the two
Milltowns, and loaded on schooners at Calais to be sailed down the coast
to build homes in cities along the Atlantic Seaboard. A goodly share of
the profit found its way into Ross Bros., the largest jewelry outlet east
of Bangor. That won Henry Butler Ross the wealth and status he sought
and enabled him to send his children to college. His obituary described
him as “an upright, honorable man in all the relations of life.”
Lelia bore Henry five children: Carl (1883-1950), Florence (1885-1964),
Jessie (1889-1980), Ruth (1893-1993), and Arthur (1898-1971). Arthur,
said the doctor who delivered him, appeared to be sickly. The doctor
advised, in the British tradition, that a seaside cottage would help
restore the boy’s vigor. Lelia’s family ties made Pembroke the logical
choice. A search located a southeast-facing cove on Hersey Neck along
East Bay that featured a wide red beach and a splendid spring. The land
belonged to the heirs of Frederick C. King, a farmer who had worked as a
cook on an oceangoing vessel. The farm took in most of the end of
Hersey Neck. Coincidentally, it included land that Joseph Bridges,
Lelia’s great-great-grandfather, had farmed in addition to his settlement
across the bay on Birch Point.
Birch Point could be seen from the cottage. All the land across the bay
and, for that matter, all of what is now Perry, Pembroke, and Dennysville
once belonged to General Benjamin Lincoln. A Revolutionary War officer
from Hingham, Mass., he allocated 100-acre parcels to Joseph Bridges and
other veterans of his regiment on the condition that they settle and
improve the land. He hoped to build a population to sustain his lumber
business.
Henry bought the cottage property, a one-acre site, for $25. Ever the
frugal Scotsman despite his ample means, he preferred not to have his
cottage built from scratch. Instead he found a shoe shop going out of
business in St. Stephen and purchased the building. According to family
lore, in 1900 Henry had it loaded on a boat in two or three sections,
taken to Pembroke, landed on his beach, and hauled up onto a perch twenty
feet above the high tide line. Workmen added two second-story bedrooms
projecting over the porch facing the bay and, later, a kitchen and storage
shed on the lee side. .
