THE NEW SORRENTO - PART 1

 THE NEW SORRENTO - PART 1

By the end of 1885, all of the elements were in place to develop the new resort on Waukeag Neck in Sullivan.

The Long Pond Water Company was established that year to provide clean water to area residents.  This company was founded by several local businessmen, Charles P. Simpson, his brother-in-law Stan Wilson, and John Shoenbar who had been the superintendent at the Milton Mine in Sullivan.

John Shoenbar was also a partner in a new land company, The Frenchman's Bay and Mount Desert Land and Water Company, incorporated in October of 1885.  This land company also included brothers William and Charles Lewis. All three were formerly involved in mining companies in the area.

 

Finally, a new Maine Central RR link to Mount Desert Ferry on Hancock Point now connected the area with the larger Boston & Maine RR network at Bangor.  This new rail connection made trips to the region far easier and had more frequent service than the steamer lines from Boston.

The Frenchman's Bay and Mount Desert Land and Water Company was poised to take advantage of the new boom in tourist travel.  The land company initially partnered with Shoenbar who individually owned the Waukeag House, and next, they moved into the more profitable enterprises of land and stock speculation.

Numerous land companies competed for business, not only on Mount Desert Island but in the surrounding counties along the coast.  Waukeag Neck, with its large tracts of established farms and breathtaking views back across the bay to the mountains, was a perfect place to establish a resort and sell land to Summer visitors.  Getting the local Sullivan residents to part with their holdings, which a handful of local families had homesteaded on since before the American Revolution, would be a more challenging proposition.

Charles H. Lewis was the central figure in the land company and its efforts to purchase the land and market the new resort of Sorrento.  He was also most likely the person who gave it its name.  Lewis, a native of Alton, Maine, was a Civil War veteran who was not only involved in the Sullivan mining companies but had also spent time on Wall St. working for the notorious investor Jay Gould. Like his earlier mining businesses, promoting the sale of stock would become an essential element of the new land company's plan.

1885 had been a seminal year for Lewis who turned 47 in July.  On January 28th his wife Oriana died at the age of 42 in Brooklyn, NY.  At the time he was widowed, Lewis had offices in both Manhattan and Boston and was left with five children ages 20, 16, 11, 5, and 3.  

After the death of his wife, Lewis's business dealings also succumbed.  Although he may have been one of the fortunate few to have made money in the stocks of the Sullivan mining companies, evidently his fortunes quickly took a turn for the worse that year.  A report in the NY Times that appeared weeks after his wife died indicates that he was "insolvent," with debts totaling $68,000.00, or nearly $2 million in today's money.

Lewis had another real estate interest in Maine, the Cape Jellison Land Office in Stockton Springs.  Whether it was this enterprise or another of his investments that led to his financial difficulties is not known.

 

But Lewis made a quick rebound, and later that Summer it was reported he was staying in Sullivan at John Shoenbar's St. John hotel with his children.

In October of 1885, the Lewis brothers together with Schoenbar would establish the Frenchman's Bay and Mount Desert Land and Water Company, and Charles H. Lewis moved to acquire new assets for the company.  He was evidently a persuasive salesman because in February 1886 he purchased the first land holding for the company on Waukeag Neck, 86 acres on what is now called Doane's Point in Sorrento.