Malaga island
Encyclopedia
Malaga Island is a 42 acre, heavily wooded island at the mouth of the New Meadows River across from the shores of Sebasco in Phippsburg, Maine. The island is pristine and beautiful, covered in giant red spruce with a two acre field of grass and wildflowers on the north end where there is also a small landing beach. It is abundant with wildlife including the occasional white-tailed deer, moose, red squirrel, osprey, eagle, cormorant, herring gulls, whoop-er-wills, sandpipers, wild berries, and tidal pools filled with treasures from the ocean.
The history of Malaga Island is rich and interesting. An island of descendants of a freed black slave, Benjamin Darling, the former residents (squatters) were driven from their homes by force in the early 1900s in hopes of increasing tourism in the region.
Malago (as the locals call the island) was once inhabited by the descendants of freed black slave Benjamin Darling, Legend has it that Benjamin Darling was given his freedom and Harbor Island (just ½ mile southeast of Malaga) in 1794 as a reward for saving his master, Captain Darling in a shipwreck. Though he is believed to have been a slave from the West Indies, DNA of his ancestors has been traced to a tribe in Guianea, Africa.
Benjamin Darling never lived on Malaga Island but his descendants were the first to settle there and on many of the surrounding islands of northeastern Casco Bay. He was married to a white woman, Sara Proverbs, and their children were of mixed race.
The earliest known owner of Malaga Island may have been Eli Perry who supposedly bought the island for $150 in 1818. He never paid taxes on it, and his descendants were later unable to provide a deed for the island. Perry never lived on the island.
The Darlings and Griffins were some of the first to settle on Malaga. By 1880 there were 27 people living on the island in a settlement on the north end. By 1900 there were 40.
By the winter of 1892, the State of Maine began helping the poor of Malaga from the Maine Pauper Relief Fund. Those living on the island were often talked of and portrayed as immoral, and living in unfit conditions. They were of mixed race and quite poor, though, not much more so than many on the mainland.
What was considered the pauper community on Malaga Island was thought to be a deterrent to potential tourism in the region as evidenced by newspaper articles of the time. Those on the mainland related to those on the island dared not speak out for fear they would also be judged immoral or unfit by others within the close-knit fishing communities in Phippsburg.
For five years the towns of Harpswell and Phippsburg fought over who owned the island. Neither one wanted the responsibility of it or the poor living there.
In 1903 the state granted the island to Phippsburg but this was repealed in 1905. The islanders became wards of the state and their fate fell to the jurisdiction of the Governor's Executive Council.
In 1906 the Charles Lane family came to Harbor Island and began to help the poor of Malaga Island. Lucy, Charles Lane's daughter, took an active interest in the children on the island and arranged for the teaching of the island children beginning in 1906 in James McKenney's home on Malaga. By 1909 the first schoolhouse was built on the island and within two years there were drastic improvements in literacy of those who attended.
In the summer of 1911, then Governor Frederick Plaisted and a group of officials visited the homes and families living on Malaga. These officials decided that eight of the islanders were feeble minded. They were placed in the Pineland Center for the Feeble Minded in Pownal, Maine. It is unlikely they were feeble minded, but may have been sick as one of them died of Bright's Disease (kidney failure) within a year of leaving the island. It has also been written, though unconfirmed, that James McKenney may have told the state workers to take the Marks family as they had something that was wasn't catching but that no one wanted to be around. Seven of those deemed feeble minded were from the Marks family.
Three weeks later the descendents of Eli Perry notified those remaining on Malaga that they had just under one year to completely remove themselves from Malaga. The state then bought the island for $471 and paid a small stipend to some of the islanders to assist in their relocation. Remaining structures on the island not removed by July of 1912 were burned and the schoolhouse was removed. The remains of those buried on the island were dug up and reburied at Pineland.
In 1913 the island was bought from the state by a man named Everard Wilson. Mr. Wilson was a friend of a Dr. Gustavs Kilgore who was the chairman of Governor Plaisted's three member panel on the executive council committee. These were the same men who investigated the island just after Governor Plaisted took office in 1911.
In 2001 the Maine State Heritage Trust bought the island from a private owner for a nominal fee. Their intent with the island is to protect it from development, to foster low impact recreation,and to sustain the long standing tradition of local fishermen storing their traps on the island in the wintertime.
The trust has led archaeological digs where a wealth of information was found about the island community, has cut and maintained a loop trail on the island, has been a valuable asset in the outreach to those descendants of the original settlers who still live in the area, and has become a proud and deserving steward of the island for generations to come.
No fires.
No camping.
Pets allowed if under control.
ALL trash must be carried out.
Andrea Brand, November 21, 2011
The history of Malaga Island is rich and interesting. An island of descendants of a freed black slave, Benjamin Darling, the former residents (squatters) were driven from their homes by force in the early 1900s in hopes of increasing tourism in the region.
Malago (as the locals call the island) was once inhabited by the descendants of freed black slave Benjamin Darling, Legend has it that Benjamin Darling was given his freedom and Harbor Island (just ½ mile southeast of Malaga) in 1794 as a reward for saving his master, Captain Darling in a shipwreck. Though he is believed to have been a slave from the West Indies, DNA of his ancestors has been traced to a tribe in Guianea, Africa.
Benjamin Darling never lived on Malaga Island but his descendants were the first to settle there and on many of the surrounding islands of northeastern Casco Bay. He was married to a white woman, Sara Proverbs, and their children were of mixed race.
The earliest known owner of Malaga Island may have been Eli Perry who supposedly bought the island for $150 in 1818. He never paid taxes on it, and his descendants were later unable to provide a deed for the island. Perry never lived on the island.
The Darlings and Griffins were some of the first to settle on Malaga. By 1880 there were 27 people living on the island in a settlement on the north end. By 1900 there were 40.
By the winter of 1892, the State of Maine began helping the poor of Malaga from the Maine Pauper Relief Fund. Those living on the island were often talked of and portrayed as immoral, and living in unfit conditions. They were of mixed race and quite poor, though, not much more so than many on the mainland.
What was considered the pauper community on Malaga Island was thought to be a deterrent to potential tourism in the region as evidenced by newspaper articles of the time. Those on the mainland related to those on the island dared not speak out for fear they would also be judged immoral or unfit by others within the close-knit fishing communities in Phippsburg.
For five years the towns of Harpswell and Phippsburg fought over who owned the island. Neither one wanted the responsibility of it or the poor living there.
In 1903 the state granted the island to Phippsburg but this was repealed in 1905. The islanders became wards of the state and their fate fell to the jurisdiction of the Governor's Executive Council.
In 1906 the Charles Lane family came to Harbor Island and began to help the poor of Malaga Island. Lucy, Charles Lane's daughter, took an active interest in the children on the island and arranged for the teaching of the island children beginning in 1906 in James McKenney's home on Malaga. By 1909 the first schoolhouse was built on the island and within two years there were drastic improvements in literacy of those who attended.
In the summer of 1911, then Governor Frederick Plaisted and a group of officials visited the homes and families living on Malaga. These officials decided that eight of the islanders were feeble minded. They were placed in the Pineland Center for the Feeble Minded in Pownal, Maine. It is unlikely they were feeble minded, but may have been sick as one of them died of Bright's Disease (kidney failure) within a year of leaving the island. It has also been written, though unconfirmed, that James McKenney may have told the state workers to take the Marks family as they had something that was wasn't catching but that no one wanted to be around. Seven of those deemed feeble minded were from the Marks family.
Three weeks later the descendents of Eli Perry notified those remaining on Malaga that they had just under one year to completely remove themselves from Malaga. The state then bought the island for $471 and paid a small stipend to some of the islanders to assist in their relocation. Remaining structures on the island not removed by July of 1912 were burned and the schoolhouse was removed. The remains of those buried on the island were dug up and reburied at Pineland.
In 1913 the island was bought from the state by a man named Everard Wilson. Mr. Wilson was a friend of a Dr. Gustavs Kilgore who was the chairman of Governor Plaisted's three member panel on the executive council committee. These were the same men who investigated the island just after Governor Plaisted took office in 1911.
In 2001 the Maine State Heritage Trust bought the island from a private owner for a nominal fee. Their intent with the island is to protect it from development, to foster low impact recreation,and to sustain the long standing tradition of local fishermen storing their traps on the island in the wintertime.
The trust has led archaeological digs where a wealth of information was found about the island community, has cut and maintained a loop trail on the island, has been a valuable asset in the outreach to those descendants of the original settlers who still live in the area, and has become a proud and deserving steward of the island for generations to come.
No fires.
No camping.
Pets allowed if under control.
ALL trash must be carried out.
Andrea Brand, November 21, 2011
Source
- Maine Coast Heritage Trust - Malaga Island an Overview of its Natural and Cultural History - http://mcht.org/preserves/docs/Malaga%20overview%203-9-09%20final.pdf
- Andrea Brand, Artist, Historian, Direct Descendant of Benjamin Darling - http://www.andreabrand.com
links
- Maine Coast Heritage Trust Malaga Island http://mcht.org/preserves/docs/Malaga%20overview%203-9-09%20final.pdf
- Andrea Brand, Artist, Historian, Direct Descendant of Benjamin Darling http://www.andreabrand.com