In 1940 and 1941 Mrs. Sterling B. Jordan and Mrs. Frank W. Seth walked the 18 cemeteries in Poundridge, New York compiling the names and dates for all gravestones. Added to some of those gravestone listings were familial relationships if known. In addition, they referenced an even earlier listing of a few of the cemeteries by William Eardley taken in 1901.
The Ray-Stevens-Norton Place, originally owned by Nathaniel Hartford, was constructed by Hartford and Enoch Bidges and sold to Matthew Ray in 1812. A blacksmith and edge-tool manufacturer, Ray relocated to Bangor before 1840. He and his first wife, Roxana Nickerson, had six children, including Louisa and George, with Roxana passing in 1828. Ray later married Harriet Hinckley, with whom he had one daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Harriet died in 1847, leaving behind a legacy in Blue Hill’s history.
Alexander Bisset Munro was born 25 Dec. 1793 at Inverness, Scotland to Donald and Janet (Bisset) Munro. Alexander left Scotland at the age of 14, and lived in Dimecrana in the West Indies for 18 years. He owned a plantation, raising cotton, coffee and other produce. He brought produce to Boston Massachusetts on the ship of Solomon Dockendorff. To be sure he got his money, Solomon asked his to come home with him, where he met Solomon’s sister, Jane Dockendorff. Alexander went back to the West Indies, sold out, and moved to Round Pond, Maine, and married Jane. They had 14 children: Janet, Alexander, Margaret, Nancy, Jane, Mary, Solomon, Donald, John, William, Bettie, Edmund, Joseph and Lydia.
The story of Oak Hill as an Industrial Academy begins with the work of Miss Eliza Hartford of Steubenville, Ohio, the first white teacher in the “Old Log house”.
Early Reminiscences