For some years around the turn of the century, there was a barber shop in the hotel.
The hotel was torn down in 1922. Its ice house was moved to the Perley Lawrence place, where it is still [1978] standing. Over many of the tavern’s years, the proprietors were not its owners and did not operate the stables associated with it. The property was owned by James T. Hancock, and later his heirs from around 1900 until shortly before the building was demolished. From 1905 to 1918, the stable was run by Sturgis V. Colley and was known as Colley’s Stable.
There is an interesting reference to the tavern in Walter Emerson’s description ofthe great mail race to Canada in the 1840s which reads, “There were half a dozen changes (of horses) between Portland and Ricker Hill, Poland, one of which was at Brown’s Tavern at Gray Corner, famous among the early stage-road inns of Maine, kept – and tradition says “well kept” – by the father of the late J.B. Brown, who might himself be called the father of Portland.”
Proprietors included:
- George O. Stevens [1904]
- Carl M. Stewart [1905-1906]
- Sturgis V. Colley [1907-1908]
- Fred W. Barton [1909]
- Ernest F. Chipman [1910-1912]
- Carl M. Stewart [1913-1914]
- Roy Thistle [1915-1916]
- Mrs. Fred E. Walker [1917-1918]
History, Records, and Recollections of Gray Maine
Volume I
George T. Hill
Boyhood Home of Hon. John B. Brown
Elm House, Gray, where successful merchant and financier of Portland years ago lived before he came to this city to embark upon his remarkable mercantile career.
Last Wednesday night the writer was a guest at the house in Gray where the boyhood days of Hon. John B. Brown were passed. The future business magnate and financier of Portland was a lad of 6 years when his father, Titus O. Brown, in 1811, moved his family from Lancaster N. H., to Gray, and there he kept a public house, or tavern, for many years. As this house had been built several years before Mr. Brown took possession of it, the current belief that the building is about 108 years old is probably well based. Cyrus Goff, whose uncle was a schoolmaster of John B. Brown, told the writer that he had heard his uncle say that young Brown’s first trip to Portland was when he was 14, and on that occasion he drove to the seaport town a yoke of oxen attached to a load of hard wood. Five years later young Brown obtained a position as a clerk for Alpheus Shaw who did a large West India business in a store located on Middle street. This was the beginning of John B. Brown’s notable business career. His father finally moved to Portland and was proprietor of the Elm House that stood on the corner of Temple and Federal streets the site now occupied by Kendall & Whitney. The old tavern at Gray has been enlarged in the passing years and a piazza added to the street side, but it has continued to be a public house, under different proprietors and under different names. For the last 10 years it has been called the Elm House, and its present proprietor is George D. Thomas, formerly of the Preble House, this City. On each corner of the front side of the house stands a great elm tree, said to be nearly as old as the house itself.
Strange as it may seem, there is living on what is called the West Gray road a woman who has passed her 103d birthday anniversary. This is Mrs. Eliza Wentworth Merrill, who was born Dec. 31, 1810. Her great grandfather run the bullets as he hastened to go to Cambridge on foot to take part in the battle of Bunker Hill. The moulds in which those bullets were run are still in her possession. Though considerably bent with the weight of years, Mrs. Merrill still likes to see company, and can bear her part of the conversation as well as most women 30 years younger. She writes a good legible hand, and keeps informed on current events through newspapers and magazines. No wonder she is called the Grand Old Lady of Gray.
The writer found Major John D. Anderson sitting with his daughter and her children in the yard of his house of colonial style of architecture, not more than a stone’s throw from the motel.
“So this is where you live, Major,” said the writer after the usual greetings had been exchanged. “Yes,” replied the major, “here is where I live and here is where I was born 77 years ago and here is where I expect to die. Gray has always been my home except when I was serving Uncle Sam in the Civil War and later at the Soldiers Home at Togus.” The conversation turned on different topics and later the major remarked “You don’t want to go back to Portland without taking a look at our cemetery which is close by. There are some stones and monuments in it well worth noting and I shall be glad to act as your guide.”
The cemetery which covers about 15 acres had its origin in a gift of a few acres from Daniel Libby who came to New Boston, as Gray was first named, in 1764. A fine monument erected by his descendants in 1810 now marks his grave.
The oldest stone in the cemetery on which the lettering can be read is that to the which informs the gazer that Mrs. Mary, wife of James Humphrey, died July 7, 1778, at the age of 36. The stone is of slate as are all the others in the oldest part of the cemetery. Mr. Humphrey was then the richest man in the town, and the stone was cut in Boston at a cost of $75 a very large sum for a gravestone in those days.
A slab of slate about four feet high and three wide is a memorial raised to Companion Russell Bucknam, who, according to the inscription died Aug. 13, A. L. 5806, that is Aug. 13, 1806. The remains of the original emblems and ornamental work on this stone, show that taste and skill had once been lavished upon it.
The monument to Abraham Anderson, the grandfather of Major Anderson, was made from granite cut from a great boulder that rested on the Anderson land in Gray. Only the granite for this monument has ever been taken from this boulder. The monument is large and imposing, bearing on its shaft simply the name, Abraham Anderson. Many other stones and monuments worthy of notice are to be seen in this cemetery which is so well cared for by the people of the town.
“Perhaps you know,” remarked Major Anderson, “that. the G. A. R. Post of Gray was named after General George F. Shepley of Portland. To illustrate that the grim messenger has been busy among us, I need only tell you that of the 205 members that made our highest list only 25 are living. The graves of the others we decorate with flowers on each Memorial Day.”
Passing over Hunts Hill there pointed out to the writer the old Hunt mansion of brick, the girlhood home of Mrs. Florence Hunt Libby, who has in preparation a history of the town Gray. “This house,” remarked writer’s companion, “has a deserted look that it didn’t use to have.” And then the real beauty of the place doesn’t show from the street. But back in the fields and pastures, Mount Washington, Saddleback, Mt. Pleasant, and the Conway and Fryeburg hills rise in all their beauty on a clear day.
The hay crop in Gray was unusually large this year, and the apple yield will be great. But the sweet corn, of which there are many acres, is backward and a poor crop is feared. But improved weather conditions may help it out considerably.
Naturally the townspeople are pleased with their increased railroad facilities. The talk there was that the Interurban Trolley line is to be double-tracked and freight cars put on. Also there was talk that the Interurban line is to be bought by the Maine Central.
The village has a handsome soldiers’ monument, erected three years ago at a cost of about $2,500; a central fire station with chemical fire apparatus; an Odd Fellows hall, and a number of smaller halls; several churches and the Pennell Institute which has graduated quite a number of distinguished men.
Among the leading men of the town whom the writer had the good fortune to meet besides Major Anderson, were W. B. Sweetsir, of the firm of Sweetsir & Cole Company, Cyrus Goff, Melen Goff, Carl M. Stuart, M. C. Smart, principal of Pennell Institute, Charles H. Doughty, Harry Merrill, Edward Merrill, M. C. Morrill, Leigh Hunt. They are all proud of their town and have i good reason to be so.
Portland Sunday Telegram
Sun, Aug 23, 1914 ·Page 15
Corner of Brown & Main Streets
Approximately 43.886076, -70.3297981
