Edward7 Mansfield is first found on Peaks Island where he owned a lot and a wharf, prior to his marriage in 1817. He belonged to a Salem, MA family as mentioned in a Spencer Rogers obituary. In Nathan Gould's book, "History of Peaks and House Is.", published in 1897, he wrote that a poem was chanted on Peaks Island after the arrival of the first steamship there in 1822. It went as follows:
A fig for all your clumsy craft
Your pleasure boats and packets,
The steamship lands you safe and soon
At Mansfield's, Trott's, and Brackett's.
It is, no doubt, from this vantage point the Edward7 met and married Ann Walden, whose father, John Green Walden, owned half of House Island, situated next to Peaks Island. Records show that in 1822, Edward7 and wife Ann purchased, for $50.00, a 1/6 part of House Island, with buildings. After the death of John Green Walden, circa 1822, the heirs sold their portions of the inherited property. In 1828, Edward7 and his wife Ann (Walden) Mansfield also sold off their holdings on Peaks Is. and moved to the Munjoy Hill area of Portland. Here they built a colonial style house, complete with portico and cupola, at the corner of Congress and Lafayette Streets. At that time, Congress Street was no more than a cow path and the entire hill was one large pasture for all the animals owned by the various residents of what was then called "Falmouth". Edward7 and Ann were one of the first families to build on Munjoy Hill, (but apparently not the first).On old deeds and census records, Edward7 was once called a "mariner" but after his removal to Munjoy Hill he became a "soap boiler" and was later styled a "trader". As the family and enterprises grew so did his house and there are pictures of the various additions. It appears that Edward7 became the first grocer on the hill, while his son, Ellis8, operated a livery from the same set of buildings. These buildings were burned in 1941 by children playing with jack-o-lanterns in an nearby alleyway.
Through the years, the huge set of buildings had been turned into several apartments and several of Edward7 's, as well as Ellis8's families lived in them. Mrs. Ada11 (Woodward) Darling (a granddaughter to Ellis8's daughter, Justina9) was raised in one of these apartments by her grandmother. She has told us that many old pictures and no doubt letters, accounts, etc., were destroyed when the building burned. Had that not happened, perhaps we would have a lot more information about the Mansfield family and their early lives around Casco Bay.
The Mansfield's apparently became quite prosperous as seen in the many deeds and mortgage instruments recorded at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds. From them, we have found that Henry and Edward7 (hard to distinguish between Henry6, Henry7, and Henry8) were heavily engaged in buying and selling land on all Casco Bay islands and at one time or other it seems they owned most of Munjoy Hill, Portland. Once, Edward7 even ordered the sheriff to arrest a woman who apparently reneged on a loan he gave her, using a piece of land as collateral. He wanted her evicted but it was later settled in an amicable manner.
Edward7 and Ann seem to have done very well in life, even though the death of so many small children must have been a staggering blow to them both. Edward7 lived to the age of 96 and Ann of 80.
Ann Walden, Edward7 's wife, also has a history of her own. Her father, John Green Walden, came from Lynn, MA He bought House Island about 1800 and raised several children there. About 1806 he sold half the island to the U. S. Government, who around the time of the War of 1812, built Fort Scammel on the southern end of the island. The fort never saw conflict and much of the ruins are still visible. John Green Walden died in 1822 and is buried on the island.
©Copyright Robert E. Anderson 1996