J. Dennis Robinson

I’d like to move this torch to anyone majoring in Women’s Heritage. Make sure you dig deeper into the story of Sarah Campbell. We know she and her partner Charles were being a driving drive guiding the creation of the Wentworth Hotel in 1874. Their modest boxy hotel on a bluff overlooking the sea at Tiny Harbor was ordered 5 a long time afterwards by Frank Jones, Portsmouth’s millionaire brewer. Jones turned their undercapitalized strategy into the historic Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle. But what of its originators?
Tracking Charles Campbell is difficult sufficient. Only a few images of him exist. By 1884, when John Albee posted his heritage of New Castle, the Campbells had been presently a footnote to the new enhanced lodge with its jutting towers and mansard roof. Albee did not even identify the Campbells in his e book. He referred to the primary proprietor basically as “a gentleman who fell in love with the scenario, but did not sit down to rely the value.”
Whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry for Wentworth by the Sea credits my e book on the subject, but did not read through it diligently. Wiki names Daniel Chase, a rum distiller from Somerville, Massachusetts, as the unique builder. Chase had a Somerville relationship with John R. Bad of Stickney and Inadequate, who designed the Oceanic Lodge at Star Island the calendar year ahead of. And when it was Chase who put up the money, it was the Campbells who have been New Castle natives and resort supervisors. They experienced been leasing summer season rooms due to the fact the 1840s in their residence on Campbell’s Island, just underneath the resort. Charles Campbell and Daniel Chase ended up both equally Masons. Charles and Sarah had worked for the Laighton family members at their resort on Appledore Island. The items are all there, but the puzzle is not really complete.
The good results of the Appledore Resort at the Isles of Shoals and other resorts alongside the New England shoreline inevitably drew buyers hoping to money in on the publish Civil War tourist boom. Trains and ferries ended up generating journey reasonably priced for a climbing center class. It was only a make a difference of time in advance of New Castle would facial area its individual army of site visitors wishing to escape polluted cities for this region’s fresh salt air.
It all really began in 1803 when Allen Porter, a tailor doing work at Fort Constitution in New Castle, married Margaret Gibbs Appleton Maloon. The few settled into a home around the fort on the west facet of Wentworth Highway in which they ran a tiny retail outlet. They also had some prime land on a bluff struggling with the sea. It was their daughter Sarah and her partner Charles Ellsworth Campbell, a community guy, who first managed the Wentworth Lodge.
But the Porters’ land and the Campbells’ hotel running knowledge wasn’t sufficient to extend their cottage business. They desired dollars, at minimum $50,000, to create the unique Wentworth. Specifics are even now fuzzy, but it is protected to speculate that Sarah and Charles fulfilled their trader, Daniel E. Chase, when he stayed at their summer cottage. The name “Ned Chase” seems in a surviving leather-bound guest e book from Campbell Cottage. The Chases, just one community historian suggests, were being associated to Sarah’s aspect of the household. But mixing blood and revenue was a dangerous cocktail.
Were Charles and Daniel the driving force powering the Wentworth Lodge prepare? Or was Sarah Campbell a key drive? The couple managed to kick-get started the high priced new enterprise, but like so a lot of commence-ups, extra revenue went out than in. The 82-place hotel was a accomplishment, but Daniel Chase was more than-extended in a rough economic downturn period. A personal bankruptcy report dated June 8,1877 reveals Chase was in credit card debt to 95 collectors for a whopping $369,376.90. Chase owed Wentworth Hotel builder Erastus Mansfield $2,200. He also owed Sarah Campbell of New Castle $4,500, valued at about $112,000 currently.
Charles and Sarah Campbell went again to working their close by cottage. In an odd twist, Charles grew to become the winter caretaker and evening watchman of the lodge on the hill. He survived until finally 1908 and the job passed to his adopted son. I’d really like to know far more about the position Sarah played in the founding of Wentworth by the Sea, wouldn’t you? To make Sarah a tiny a lot more lively, I “colorized” this extremely uncommon portrait that was identified by B J Plantero and Alice Wentworth. By the way, Sarah Campbell was among the witnesses who spotted Louis Wagner, the Smuttynose Island killer, as he returned to the mainland on March 6, 1873. She was a witness at his murder demo the 12 months prior to her lodge opened.
“Historic Portsmouth” is presented each Thursday. Copyright 2021 by J. Dennis Robinson, who is the author of illustrated hardcover books about Strawbery Banke Museum, Wentworth by the Sea Hotel, Privateer Lynx, and the 1873 Smuttynose ax murders. His most recent award-successful guide, “Tunes Hall” is available on-line or at your local bookstore. This is weekly picture amount 871. You can get hold of him at [email protected] or check out www.jdennisrobinson.com online.