Nickels-Sortwell House (1807)

The land, rivers and other waterways have always been integral parts of the Wabanaki identity and culture. They connected, fed and sustained the people’s communities. The natural world and its creation are part of Wabanaki celebrations, their rituals, their art and their music, and are at the core of their belief systems. The Sheepscot River, called Pashipscot by the Wabanaki meaning “channels split by rocks,” was a transportation corridor. The shores of today’s Sagadahoc, Lincoln, and Knox counties are named Wawenock, meaning”inlet places,” and were places of seasonal fishing, hunting and trading.

The Wabanaki, “the People of the First Light,” are the Indigenous Peoples of Wabanakiak, “The Dawnland,” which consists of the places we call Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, Anticosti, Newfoundland, and the southern region of Quebec south of Saint Lawrence River. By archeologists’ accounts, the Wabanaki have been in this region for 13,000 years; oral history tells us that the Wabanaki have been of these lands since creation. Due to disease, war, dispossession, and the genocidal policies enacted by the United States government, the Wabanaki suffered a population decrease of 96% since Europeans’ first contact with Turtle Island (North America.) The many diverse tribes and bands across Wabanakiak have amalgamated into five principal Nations: the Mi’kmaq (derived from the word “Ni’kmaq” meaning “my kin friends,”) Abenaki (derived from “Wabanaki,”) Wolastoqiyik “People of the Beautiful River” (Maliseet), Panawáhpskek “Where the Rocks Widen” (Penobscot,) and Peskotomuhkati “Pollock-Searing People” (Passamaquoddy.) The Walina’kiak, or “People of the Bay,” were the tribe most associated with Wiscasset.

Alexander was an active participant and leader of the militia in the wars against the Wabanaki. The violence came home when Nickels’ young son Thomas was killed near their home. Alexander was a defender of Fort Frederick in Pemaquid during the last Wabanaki assault in 1747. That same year, the Nickels’ son James returned from Canada where he had been taken after capture by the Wabanaki, who had turned him over to the French.

On December 2, 1749, a brutal murder occurred which became known as “the Wiscasset Incident”. Sailors from Massachusetts attacked a group of peaceful Wabanaki as they returned from peace negotiations. They killed Saccary Harry and wounded Job and Andrew. Two women traveling with them, including Harry’s wife, reported the unprovoked murder to the local justice of the peace but the attackers fled. Because the victims were from different tribes and related to prominent leaders of the tribes, the Massachusetts government feared widespread reprisals, so they sanctioned prosecution of the attackers. Two were arrested in York, Maine where a mob freed them from jail. The ringleader fled to Massachusetts, was re-arrested, returned for trial but ultimately released. The event triggered the final series of violent attacks that continued until about 1760.

The Wabanaki survived and overcame centuries of repression and disenfranchisement. Today, four Maine tribes comprise the Wabanaki– the Maliseet, Micmac, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy. The people live on tribal lands and in towns and cities across the State. Each community has its own tribal government, community schools and cultural center. Each manages its respective lands and natural resources. The Wabanaki culture is alive and well. The People of the First Light will always be an integral part of Maine.

William probably first went to sea before 1780, working his way up on ships traveling from Pownalborough to and from the Caribbean and Europe. By 1786, he was part owner (with his father and another partner) of the brig Dolphin, built in Wiscasset. In 1796, the year that he married Jane McCobb, William and his cousin and partner Samuel Miller built their own wharf in Wiscasset, complete with stores and buildings. By 1806 when he bought the house that formerly stood where Nickels-Sortwell House now stands and had that house moved to build his new mansion, William Nickels owned or had owned all or part of twenty-one ships built in Wiscasset, Newcastle, Bristol and Pownalborough. Nickels ships sailed to St. Croix, St. Barts, Martinique, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Liverpool, Limerick, Greenock, Newfoundland, Amsterdam, Savannah, Charleston, New York and Boston. He and his wife Jane had five children, one of whom, Mary, only lived 15 months.

The New England maritime economy was inextricably linked to the global slave trade either by directly profiting from transporting people in bondage or by the trade and consumption of goods grown and produced by the hands of slave labor. Wiscasset ship owners and captains were part of this global trade. Nickels’ partner captained ships that travelled to Europe and the West Indies, bringing back fine imported goods for wealthy Wiscasset households, many of which included enslaved people. The one Black occupant we know who lived in the Nickels’ house was called Sam. We do not know if he was a paid servant or if he was enslaved.

Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo of 1807 ruined Captain Nickels financially, along with most of Wiscasset. In 1812 both Jane and their eldest daughter Hannah died. In 1814, in an attempt to recoup some of his losses, Nickels deeded the house to his business partner, Samuel Miller, who allowed the family to remain there. In 1815 Nickels himself died of consumption. The estate was consumed by debt. After the estate was settled, there was nothing left for the children to inherit.

Renamed the Belle Haven, the hotel catered to a new wave of guests from home and abroad. The tourism trade began in earnest by the end of the Civil War with the rusticators, followed by people escaping from the heat and dirt of industrial cities. The Belle Haven catered to legal visitors drawn by the courthouse and served as a comfortable convenient place to stay for Mainers and their families, including women traveling on their own. Its prime location on Main Street made it a perfect place for townspeople and visitors to watch holiday and the annual circus parades that passed through town delighting all who saw them.

In 1897, the hotel was sold to William Hubbard, owner of the Hilton House Hotel next door. Hubbard sold the house to Alvin Sortwell in 1899.

The elegant and genteel lifestyle of late nineteenth and early twentieth century industrialist wealth required a large staffs of servants. The Sortwell staff included Maine native Ross Elwell, who met the family while working as a seaman on a yacht. Ross was hired to be butler to the Sortwell’s eldest son, then transferred his services to Frances Sortwell. He became an invaluable part of the family’s life in Wiscasset. Ross owned his own home and also invested in local real estate.

Irish immigrants Margaret O’Hanlon and Josephine Dodge served as cook and waitress to Gertrude Sortwell and the family. Well-remembered by the Sortwell granddaughters, Margaret emigrated from Kildorrerry, Cork at the age of 26 and was working for the Sortwells by the time she was 30. Josephine, emigrated from Killenavarra, Galway at age 14 to join her sister who was already a domestic living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She started working for Gertrude Sortwell almost immediately. Both women travelled with Gertrude between the Sortwell main home in Cambridge to their summer and holiday home in Wiscasset. Josephine met and married a Wiscasset man, Walter Dodge, the Sortwell’s gardener and the couple settled in Maine.

Family and staff saw each other through the wars, the Great Depression, family tragediesand  and drama. Ross, Margaret and Josephine stayed with the family until Gertrude’s death in 1956 and Frances’ death in 1957.