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Schoodic's John Godfrey Moore
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| Picnic party on Schoodic Head, July 1923 |
Had John Godfrey Moore not died pre-maturely
at age fifty-one, the wildly
beautiful Schoodic Point might be a
very different place today. As it happened, after
Moore's death his heirs began spending their
time away from their summer places in Winter
Harbor and it was not until 1922, some twenty
years after his death, that George Dorr was
able to make arrangements to acquire
Schoodic for the park. By then Moore's some-what
younger second wife, Louise, had remarried
and Moore's daughters were living in
England, one married to Viscount Lee and the
other, a spinster, living near her sister. The
contact between Dorr and Louise Leeds was
a casual one, made while both were having
supper at the Jordan Pond House, but the
result was that Dorr was able to set the wheels
in motion for the eventual land acquisition.
At the time of his death, however, Moore
had vastly different plans for Schoodic Point.
John Godfrey Moore came from modest
beginnings. He was born in Steuben, Maine,
the son of Captain Henry D. and Maria
(Godfrey) Moore. The young Moore took
whatever schooling he had at the local common schools, and spent one year at nearby
Cherryfield Academy. When he was 18, he
went to New York and entered into employment
as a clerk in the lumber dealership of
Thomas Mahew and Wilson Godfrey, his
uncle. At age 21, Moore started his own lumber
business and prospered almost immediately.
In company with a partner named John
Evans, he executed several important contracts
with the War Department, including
piers and breakwaters at Buffalo, New York,
and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as dredging
projects along the Delaware River.
In 1880, he and Evans went into the fast-developing
telegraph business, founding
the Mutual Union Telegraph Company and
constructing lines to rival Western Union.
Their intentions were to lease their lines to
businesses by day and to newspapers by
night. Before all their plans could be realized
Evans died and Moore, as the new president,
led the company into one of the biggest
competitive wars in the history of telegraphy.
The outcome was that Western Union was
forced to lease Mutual Union lines. Moore
and his associates realized vast profits from
the deal. Moore was subsequently elected to
the Western Union board of directors.
After living some years abroad, Moore
returned to New York as the head of the brokerage
firm Moore and Schley, also acquiring
large interests in Chase Manhattan Bank and
several railroads. After the panic of 1893, he
invested $25,000 of his own money in a case
to defeat a new federal income tax law. The
Supreme Court ruled in his favor and the
law was defeated, at least for the time being.
All during his career, he maintained his
interest in and loyalty to the rural section of
Maine from which he sprang. He became
involved in the plan to develop Grindstone
Neck in Winter Harbor and built himself one
of the largest cottages there, which he called
"Far From the Wolf." He purchased hundreds
of acres of forest and islands in the vicinity,
including Schoodic Point. He built Schoodic
Drive, the first carriage road on the point,
which wound from his newly-built bridge at
Frazer Creek, along the bold, rocky shores to
the salt ponds and Devil's Anvil. His road also
climbed to the summit of Schoodic Head, a
favorite spot, reputedly, because from there
he could see all the way to his native Steuben
and beyond. He had plans to build a grand
hotel at the summit, and supposedly
had ideas for the further development of
the rest of Schoodic. He died, however, before
these plans could be brought to fruition.
Apparently his heirs were not as enamored
of the area as he was, although his daughter
Faith did maintain a summer home on
Grindstone for several years afterward.
The day after Moore's death, an article
appeared in the Bar Harbor Record quoting
a previous interview with him concerning his
acquisition of Schoodic Point and the islands
and of the pleasure he realized from building
the first substantial road on the point. He stated
that he had acquired the land because of
its beauty, noting that there was nothing he
admired more than a mountain, "especially
when an ocean goes with it." Also, he
explained, he had enjoyed the experience of
Yankee trading with the previous land owners,
and he thought that it would be a good
investment considering what was being
developed in Bar Harbor at the time. The
road, he said, was built for his own pleasure
and convenience, but also as an object lesson
in economy for the local authorities. He felt
that they could repeat his successes in the
public roads all over the area. Moore said,
"[The road] is nine miles long and I enjoyed
every foot of itŠ. It did me and my family
as much good as a trip to Europe and didn't
cost any more. Besides, it gave employment
to a large number of people who need the
money." While it may have seemed arrogant
of him to assume that he could teach the
locals how to build roads, any hard feelings
the statement may have provoked was probably
defused with his sincere efforts to create
jobs and to aid the local economy.
After Moore died on June 27, 1899, concurrent
services were held in New York City
and at St. Christopher's-by-the-Sea in Winter
Harbor. Bedford Tracy, a young Winter Harbor
attorney who was a local associate of Moore's,
elaborately eulogized him at the Grindstone
service and concluded with the words, "The
fragrance of his acts of kindness perfumes
his sepulcher, and he must live on, embalmed
by our love and garlanded with our affection.
The cold marble bears in mockery many
a name forgotten but for the letters chiseled
on its icy slab. It cannot be so with the name
of John G. Moore, which is chiseled on the
tablets of too many hearts to need the aid of
marble or bronze to perpetuate it."
Nevertheless, Acadia National Park has
placed a bronze tablet in his memory at the
overlook on Big Moose Island. Also in his
honor, in 1937 the name of the road which
runs from the village south to the bridge at
Frazer's Creek was officially, albeit belatedly,
changed by the people of Winter Harbor from
Schoodic Street to the Moore Road.
Allan Smallidge is a native of Winter
Harbor and a graduate of the University of
Maine. After a career teaching high school
English both in Maine and in Massachusetts
public schools, he returned to Winter Harbor
to serve as Town Manager for fourteen years,
until retiring in 1998.
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