Samuel Carter Homestead, Blue Hill, 1891
Jonathan Fisher Memorial, Inc.
Long Island is 4 and 1/2 miles long and 2 miles wide. In 1768 the island had a sawmill, and settlement began by 1779. Most of the settlement occurred on the lower or southern end. James Carter complained to Colonel Jonathan Buck in 1779 that dogs owned by the indians were "running his sheep into the ocean." He said he lived alone on the island, but evidently there was no house in 1785 because he was not allotted the usual 100 acres settlers lot for improvements, receiving instead 30 acres.
Giles Webber's store, Blue Hill, 1889
Jonathan Fisher Memorial, Inc.
By 1830 there were 71 individuals living on the island and many included the children and grand-children of James Carter. Other early surnames on the island were Chatto, Fogg, Cain, Day, Friend and Marks to name a few. Historian Captain R.G.F. Candage said that these island people "raised their own corn and grain, cattle, sheep, and swine, for the use of their families, spun, wove, and knit their clothing from the wool of their own sheep, and lived within their own resources."
By 1850 there were 123 people on the island. Some of the occupations included lumbering; farming, which included tending sheep as there were as many as 6000 sheep on Long Island a the time of the Civil War; and fishing as there were dozens of weirs (pronounced locally as 'wares') around the shore.