Malaga Island
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| Malaga Island | |
| Malago Island, Brant Island [1] | |
| Island | |
| Country |  United States |
|---|---|
| State | Maine |
| Municipality | Phippsburg[2] |
| Elevation | 11 m (36 ft) |
| Coordinates | 43°46′54″N 069°52′30″W / 43.78167°N 69.875°W |
| Area | 0.0641 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Owner | Maine Coast Heritage Trust [3] |
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 Benjamin Darling. Legend has it that Benjamin Darling was a slave who was given his freedom 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 the Senegal / Gambia region of Africa. Benjamin purchased Harbor Island (just ½ mile southeast of Malaga) in 1794 for 15 pounds.
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 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
Contents |
[edit] Source
- Maine Coast Heritage Trust - Malaga Island an Overview of its Natural and Cultural History - [1]
- Andrea Brand, Artist, Historian, Direct Descendant of Benjamin Darling - [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Malaga Island". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:570684. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "Malaga Island in Phippsburg". Christian Science Monitor. 1911-04-14. "Attorney General Pattangall reported yesterday that in his opinion Malaga island in the New Meadows river is owned by the heirs of Eli Perry and that the island is in the town of Phippsburg."
- ^ Dubrule, Deborah (August 2005). "Malaga, revisited: On a Casco Bay island, a shameful incident in Maine's history comes to light". Working Waterfront. http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Malaga-revisited-On-a-Casco-Bay-island-a-shameful-incident-in-Maines-history-comes-to-light/10893/.
- The Shame of Maine (Steve Mitchell, 1999)
- Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (Gary Schmidt, 2004)
- BLOG - AndreaBrand.com
1.Barry, William David, 1980. The Shameful Story of Malaga Island. Down East, November 1980, pp. 53–58, 83-84.
2. Bower, Beth Ann, undated. African American Family History Resources at New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) - The Lane scrapbooks. (http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_topics/african_american/african_american_nehgs.asp)
3. Breed, Allen G., 2001. Living in the North Gave Blacks No Guarantee Against Land Grabs (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/392.html)
4. Cover, Susan M., 2007. Plaisted’s term a painful legacy – Malaga Island evictions a dark legacy. Kennebec Journal, August 27, 2007
5. Debrule, Deborah, 2007. Digging for Truth – Malaga excavations reveals the lives of an island’s evicted residents. The Working Waterfront (Feb 26, 2007).
6. Debrule, Deborah, 2007a. Malaga, revisited: One a Casco Bay island, a shameful incident in Maine’s history comes to light. The Working Waterfront (Feb 26, 2007).
7. Debrule, Deborah. 1999. Evicted – How the state of Maine destroyed a “different” island community. Island Journal, Vol. 16
8. Debrule, Deborah (undated). Malaga Island (summary of island tour, June 25)
9. Goodale, W. 2008. Distribution of birds on 23 Maine Coast Heritage Islands. BRI report number 2008-04. Submitted to Maine Coast Heritage Trust. BioDiversity Research Institute, Gorham, Maine.
10. Hamilton, Nathan, and Robert Sanford. 2006. Malaga Island Archaeology Project (Malaga Island Area Count Summary, Unit Count Summary by Level and Catalog Numbers Assigned to Artifact Lots from Surface Collections and 2006 STP and TU Excavations). Prepared for Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Maine Historic Preservation Commission. August 2006.
11. Heflich, Adrienne, et al., Abstract: Malaga Island – A Brief History. Compiled by students of ES203 Service Learning Project.
12. Heflich, Adrienne, et al., 2003. A social history of Malaga Island. Service Learning Project, ES 203, May 12, 2003.
13. Malaga Island Project, (undated). Malaga Island Time Line, Discovering Malaga Island, African American History in Maine.
14. Malaga powerpoint – Cruise line vantage points relative to the north end of Malaga Island (author unknown)
15. Mitchell, Steve. 1999. The Shame of Maine – the forced eviction of Malaga Island residents.
16. Mitchell, Steve. 1999. The Shame of Maine, Malaga – The story behind the pictures.
17. Sanford, Robert, Ph.D., and Nathan D. Hamilton, Ph.D. (date). Historical Archaeology of the Malaga Island Fishing Community, New Meadows River, Casco Bay. Powerpoint presentation at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Maine Archaeology Society, Inc., Gorham, Maine.
18. Mosher, John P., 1991. No Greater Abomination: Ethnicity, Class and Power Relations on Malaga Island, Maine, 1880-1912. Master’s thesis, University of Southern Maine (New England Studies). Malaga Island - An Overview of its Natural and Cultural History Maine Coast Heritage Trust 9
19. Mosher, John P., 1992. Malaga Island Archaeology Project: Report of the 1992 Field Season. A final report submitted to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. University of Southern Maine, Department of Geography-Anthropology. October 30, 1992.
20. Price, H.H., and Gerald E. Talbot, 2006. ―No longer a Reproach: The Story of Malaga Island,‖ by Allen G. Breed; in Maine’s Visible Black History, edited by H.H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot, pp. 69–75, Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, Maine. 2006.
21. Schmidt, G.D., 2004. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. NY: Clarion Books (Note: Schmidt’s fictionalized account of life on Malaga Island and in the nearby town of Phippsburg does not accurately reflect many actual historical events.)
22. Staples, Joseph K., 2008. Natural Resource Inventory of Malaga Island, Phippsburg, Maine. For: Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
23. Thomas, Miriam Stover, 1973. Flotsam and Jetsam. Pockets of Poverty: Malaga Island.
24. University of Southern Maine, 2007. Synopsis: GYA 300 Malaga Island Field School, June 2007. University of Southern Maine.
