Then and Now – 1937 & 2024 – 1035 34th Ave N
Not all houses have to be grand mansions to have a great story. For instance, this 1925 bungalow was home to Dr. John Wood Hatch and his wife Nellie for 21 years. John and Nellie Hatch lived in the house from 1938 until John passed away in 1959. Here is John’s life story in his own words from a 1939 interview.
“I was born on March 2, 1864, in a log cabin on a wilderness farm in Maysville Maine, which is now included in the town of Presque Isle. I was the youngest of nine children, and the only survivor of the family. My father, Lemuel Hatch, was a farmer. My mother Eunice Wood, said to have been the first white child born in Enfield.”
“My father migrated Presque Isle from Bowdoinham, taking over a 160-acre tract in a section known as the “Reach”. All nine children had to help on the farm. We lived in a log house with three rooms downstairs and a loft overhead where we children slept. I remember at the age of five helping to clear the land by piling up rocks and roots and pieces of wood. Soon after taking over the tract, father cleared five acres, and planted potatoes, beans and oats around the stumps. The soil was exceedingly rich. Planting was a very simple matter then, one person opened the rich soil with a hoe while another followed and dropped in the seed. No fertilizer was needed. Both potatoes and oats grew to unusual size.”
“Our log cabin was located six miles down the Aroostock river, and the only road out to Presque Isle was a rough cart path. The woods were full of game, with a great abundance of partridges, and an occasional bear. A brook that ran across our farm was alive with trout, and there was excellent fishing in the Aroostock river. The nearest schoolhouse was 1.5 miles away, and we children trudged to it through winter’s snow and summer’s heat.”
“Supplies were brought in from Bangor by stage and by tote team, and many times as a boy I saw the old Bangor-Aroostock stage come into Presque Isle with passengers and mail. Money was so scarce then that all business was transacted by a system of barter. Farmers took their crops into Presque Isle to the stores and exchanged them for groceries, hardware, clothing, boots and other supplies.”
“My mother was a pioneer woman of great resourcefulness, and I look back upon her with much love and tenderness. She made us children shoes from the tops of old leather boots, and we wore homespun garments made by her hands. She would card the wool by hand, and then spin the rolls for yarn. When the yarn was ready, she would dye it with liquid made from bark and herbs, and then would weave the cloth, and make clothing for every member of the family. Mother raised herbs for medicinal purposes, and when there was sickness in the neighborhood, folks always called on her to nurse the patients. She was a woman with a big heart and a discerning mind. Always a great reader, she possessed an astonishing knowledge of history, science, and many other things.”
“Father died when I was 12 years old, and soon after his death I went to work for a neighbor threshing wheat at the magnificent wage of ten cents a day with my dinner thrown in. A few weeks later I was hired to dig potatoes at 25 cents a day, and with the money I earned I bought my first pair of store boots.”
“I worked around farms until I was 18 years old and earned about $13 a month. In the fall of my 18th year, I taught school at Mapleton for $20 a month. I entered the University of Maine, then called Maine State College, at the age of 20, graduating in 1888. Following my graduation, I took a special course at Harvard, and after that I served as principal of the high schools in Easton, St. Albans, Clinton, and Madison. Later I became head of the science department of the Hampton Institute at Hampton Va. and left there to enter Boston University School of Theology.”
“My first pastorate as a Methodist minister was at Kingman from 1894 to 1898, and while there I brought about the building of the present Methodist church. After leaving Kingman I occupied pastorates at Easton in 1899, Winterport 1900 to 1904, and Belfast from 1904 until 1913. For six years I was presiding elder of the Bangor district. I retired from active work after serving 18 years as principal of the Montpelier Seminary in Vermont.”
This interview gives a wonderful look at life on a farm in the post-civil war era. But it does leave out some life points of interest for John Wood Hatch.
Not mentioned in the interview was that John’s father served as an itinerant minister, preaching at the schoolhouse, as there were no preachers in the area, traveling or otherwise. Undoubtedly this is how John became interested in theology.
John didn’t mention in the interview that he graduated from what is now the University of Maine with a BA Degree and a Masters Degree. He earned his doctorate of divinity at Boston University in 1890. He worked his way through college by teaching school.
John married Ms. Isabelle G. Flye during his pastorate in Kingman, Maine. The wedding was held at Isabelle’s parent’s home in Kingman on October 28, 1896. They had three children, Helen in 1898, Paul in 1901 and Dorothy in 1906.
John was by now well established in the Methodist- Episcopal church and had become quite well known through New England. He and Isabelle were very comfortable financially and the couple purchased a cottage at Owl’s Head, Maine where they spent their summers for over 30 years.
In 1913, John left the pastorate and took a job as principal of the Montpelier Seminary, which grew substantially under his 18 year leadership. In 1914, Isabelle was at the Deaconess Hospital in Boston where she had a “slight surgical operation” and was back home within a week. A year later, On October 10, 1915, Isabelle died suddenly and unexpectedly, she was 37. This is what the Bangor Daily News printed upon her death:
“The manner of her going was in harmony with her living. As was her custom she was attending the Sunday evening devotional service of the Seminary and presiding at the piano. Her last spoken word was a testimony of her faith in Christ, and her last act was an expression of praise to him. While seated at the piano, engaged in playing the last measure of a hymn, death took her by surprise and granting her a painless release bore her soul into the presence of the Savior.”
John was left to raise his children, ages 17, 14 and 9. He remained single for four years until October 5, 1919, when he married Ms. Nellie May Worth a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine and a high school teacher.
John shocked everyone at Montpelier Seminary when he announced his retirement in 1931 after 18 years as principal. The announcement came just two months after Nellie’s father died at age 81. It is likely that she wanted to have time to enjoy retirement with John who was at that time 67.
The following winter John and Nellie traveled south for their first winter in Florida, but it wasn’t in St. Pete, it was in Dunedin. However, while in Dunedin they visited St. Pete, and liked it so much that they next winter they chose the Sunshine City as their destination.
They came to St. Pete every winter and in 1938 decided that it would be easier to purchase a home here rather than rent one each winter. They chose this featured home which wasn’t extravagant but met their needs. They were very pleased with the orange, grapefruit and lemon trees on the property. Their home in Maine was a 2-story colonial style house which they closed each winter before heading to Florida in November. Every May they would close this featured bungalow and return north. This they did until John passed away on January 26, 1959, at age 95. John is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Orono, Maine.
Nellie sold the house soon after John’s passing. She ultimately moved to Texas, where she died on March 24, 1974, at age 85.
Did you like this article? Please use the convenient links below to share on your favorite social channels! It helps us grow and keep writing.