THE MENHADEN FISHERY. 365. 
Desert, Me., while boiling some fish for her chickens, noticed a thin scum of oil upon the surface of 
the water. Some of this she bottled, and when on a visit to Boston soon after carried samples to 
Mr. E. B. Phillips, one of the leading oil merchants of that city, who encouraged her to bring more. 
The following year the Bartlett family industriously plied their gill-nets and sent to market 13 
barrels of oil, for which they were paid at the rate of $11 per barrel, in all $143.* 
Mr. Phillips gave them further encouragement, furnishing nets and large kettles, which they 
set up out of doors, in brick frames, for trying out the fish. It was thought that much oil was 
thrown away with the refuse fish or scrap, and the idea of pressing this scrap was suggested. 
This was at first accomplished by pressing it in a common iron kettle with a heavy cover and a 
long beam for a lever; afterward by placing it under the weight of heavy rocks, in barrels and 
tubs perforated with auger holes. Mr. Phillips subsequently fitted out some fifty parties on the 
coast of Maine with presses of the model known as the “screw and lever press.” 
ERECTION OF FACTORIES IN MAINE.—The first factory in Maine was built by a company 
from Rhode Island, in 1864, at Blue Hill, and the next by another company from Rhode Island, at 
Bristol, on John’s Bay, the same season. Operations being successful, home parties in Booth Bay, 
Bristol, Bremen, and Southport went into the business. In the spring of 1866 eleven factories 
were built, all using steam. This may be regarded as the beginning of the industry in Maine on 
a scale at all in ratio with its capabilities. 
The following table, taken from Mr. Maddock’s pamphlet, gives the dates at which the factories 
of the several firms named were built, and the cost of the same. The titles of some haye since 
been changed by incorporation with others, change of ownership, &c. Of the eleven factories 
specified before as built in 1866, one has been burned, and two absorbed by now exisiting corpo- 
rations; they have all been idle since 1879. 
Date of building of factories in Maine. 
s Wh putting 
Names. built Where. and'o mabe 
ment. 
Gallup & Holmes............... 1866 | Booth Bay .....-......-.--...005 $15, 000 
Gallup, Morgan & Co ........-. 1866 | av anex WO cacsenesenesasascevanwwas 15, 000 
Suffolk Oil Works .............. 1866 |...... DG seb iacibetinanins toucwasectea 380, 000 
Kenniston, Cobb & Co -......-.] 1867 |...... OO 2 css ueswecedeeveneeeeesss 15, 000 
White Wine Brook Company...} 1867 |...... GO -cniswsnsan ce civeadeis gels cee 12, 000 
Maddocks' Factory ......-...--. 1866 | Southport (now Booth Bay)....: 25, 000 - ry 
Bristol Oil Works ..........--.. 1866 | Bremen......-.-....----..--.--- 10, 000 
e Albert Gray & Co .®............ 1870 |...... dO: Sess edges enced 12, 000 
Round Pond Company........-. 1866 | Bristol..............--.--.-.-00- 15, 000 
L. Brightman & Sons.......... 1866 |...... GOs eaeeeneteetgasscoes cane a: | 15,000 
Pemaquid Works ..........-..-. 1869 |...... 00 sess siiceweeesmecuecisnces 15, 000 
Jos. Church & Co. Works.....-. 1871 |...... OO acnseweseeiwccéesnwass. 40, 000 
Loud’s Island Works ........... 1873 |.....- GO sass seeertnnceieecseene 6, 000 
Brown's Cove Works........... 1874 }...... OG wocssssiemeatcocsdsa seesce 10, 000 
Tuthill, French & Co........... 1868 |...-.. Os Sacaeaivie clei cet tigcbancinis » 10,000 
W ells C0 se cewdesiss ete seeasl 1864 |...... GO i235 iv se eaadcareucied a 12, 000 
Fowler, Foote & OO exnenneeenes 1874 |...... GO ieece se seaeaereteeesiencce 2, 000 
South Saint George Factory ..../ 1876 | South Saint George............. 1, 500 
otal: Sissineaeoincmsenee | sexptons eeckaesewece sola ncencee Gecauneaees 260, 500 
* As this account is somewhat different from those hitherto published, we give the story in the words of Mr. E. B. 
Phillips himself: ‘‘In about 1850 I was in the fish-oil business in Boston. An elderly lady by the name of Bartlett, 
from Blue Hill, Me., came into my store with a sample of oil, which she had skimmed from the kettle in boiling men- 
haden for her hens. She told me that the fish were abundant all summer near the shore, and I promised $11 per 
barrel for all she could produce. Her husband and sons made 13 barrels the first year, and the following year 100 
barrels.” : 
