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Born in Owls Head, Maine on March 29, 1874, Merton Everett Tolman never got to know his mother who died when he was less than a year old. But had she lived, she would likely have been proud of his accomplishments and the grandson who she never saw.
When Merton Tolman’s mother Cora died, his father, Charles, was unable to take care of him, and Merton went to live with his mother’s uncle and aunt, Frederick A. and Laurette Abbott Norton, who he always called Pa and Ma Norton. He attended grade school and high school on Matinicus Island, Maine and later attended a business college in Rockland, Maine where he completed comprehensive courses in commerce and trade.
Marriage and the Lighthouse Service
At some point, Merton Tolman met Nellie May Lewis, the daughter of veteran Maine lighthouse keeper George A. Lewis, who at that time was the keeper at Seguin Island Lighthouse. The couple was married on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1899 in Freeport, Maine at the home of her older sister Carrie Lewis Grant.
It was probably his wife’s and in-laws’ stories of lighthouse keeping that convinced him to join the Lighthouse Service where, in 1900, he started as an assistant keeper at Boon Island Lighthouse off the coast of York, Maine. However, his stay at Boon Island Light only lasted a few months. When the position of 3rd assistant keeper opened up at Matinicus Rock Lighthouse, he immediately applied for the job, perhaps because his wife’s parents were familiar with the lighthouse, having lived there from 1892 to 1898.
Even though Matinicus Rock Lighthouse was an isolated and remote station, it was considered a family light station, and when Merton Tolman accepted the job as 3rd assistant keeper, he was allowed to take his wife with him. But by that time, Nellie was already a few months pregnant. As Nellie’s pregnancy progressed, she left the lighthouse to go to the mainland to stay with her sister in Freeport, Maine where their son Kenneth Hayden Tolman was born on November 4, 1900. Before long, Nellie returned to the lighthouse with the new baby boy.
Son Kenneth’s Memories
Most of Kenneth Tolman’s early childhood years living on Matinicus Rock Lighthouse were spent playing alone on the rock island. Often times he said that the puffins and terns were his only playmates, and the birds never seemed to mind. However, in 1905, he got his first friends: Pearl and Alma Dyer, daughters of Charles G. Dyer who became a 3rd assistant keeper there in 1905. Pearl was closer to Kenneth’s age, and they generally played all day, only taking breaks for a wedge of gingerbread or a molasses cookie.
When Kenneth reached school age, he had to go to the mainland during the school season to live with Ma and Pa Norton, known to him as Grammy and Grampy Norton. Although he liked boarding with them, he missed being on the Rock. When the weather was good, he would watch from the window of the one room schoolhouse for the boat coming from the lighthouse with his parents to pick him up on the weekends. Naturally, he was elated when the weather was too bad for his father to take him back to the mainland for school, and he especially loved his summers on the Rock.
Kenneth was taught by his father to fish and catch lobster. He was also taught the importance of his father’s lighthouse-keeping job, and he was required to help with certain chores. In later years, Kenneth recalled that his father Merton Tolman was the dominate father figure; stern and hardworking with a strong work ethic, which he passed on to Kenneth. Merton Tolman obviously did his job well, because he worked his way up from 3rd assistant keeper, to 2nd assistant keeper, to 1st assistant keeper, and in 1908 to the position of head keeper of Matinicus Rock Lighthouse Station.
Gunning for Sea Birds
Many years later, Kenneth recalled his father’s shooting and hunting ability in the fall months off the Rock. “Very early on a crisp fall morning Dad would fill a jug of water, tuck in a chaw of Black Buffalo, grab his double barreled 12-gauge and a box of brass shells, which he had reloaded himself, and toss them into the bow of his double-ended pea pod on the slip. A good hard shove, a hop aboard, a fast slide down the greased slip and he was afloat with a splash.” And then his father was off for “gunning” at Malcombs Ledges.
“An hour before noon if mother was aiming the old brass monocular spyglass close to the horizon in a northwesterly direction; she would see some splashes of bow spray. The birdman was headed homeward and loaded (the boat I mean.)
“There might be a hundred edible sea birds which had been fooled by his string of home-made tollers. Was this the wanton destruction of wildlife? No sir! Not at all. They would all be eaten, every last one. He would pick out a half dozen coots and tell the other three families at the light station to help themselves.
After dinner he would tuck me aboard and we would go to the “Island” – Matinicus, five miles north. There would be a good “mess” for Grammy Norton and some for Father Charles. Everyone down around the wharf and the store would carry some birds home. Everyone was my father’s friend.” At this particular time, Kenneth would stay on the mainland while his father went back to the lighthouse so that Kenneth would learn what happened to the birds. He watched how Grammy Norton skinned and cleaned the birds and then soaked the meat overnight in generous amounts of baking soda and the following day made it into Coot Stew with potatoes, an onion, carrots, and turnips. He recalled, “Coot Stew was GIE (Good Island Eating).”
Career Changes
In 1911, Merton E. Tolman made a major life move when he decided to quit the Lighthouse Service and go into the insurance business with his brother-in-law Freeman Grant. That lasted until 1914 when he nearly died from Typhoid Fever, at which time he purchased an interest in the notable ships chandlery business of Sargent Lord and Company on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine.
In 1926, Merton Tolman was involved in a serious automobile accident that broke his back. Although he survived a spinal operation, he remained bedridden at home until his death in May of 1927. One obituary said of him “Mr. Tolman was widely known among seafaring men, especially among the fishermen.” Another wrote, “Honorable member of an honored line, his death brought a deep sense of loss to the community. But his memory lives and will persist until those after him are gone, undimmed by years.”
In 1929, Nellie Tolman sold her interest in Sargent Lord and Company to her son Kenneth who, in 1936 sold his interest to Ralph MacLean.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2019 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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