Built by Aaron K. Hobart, son of Aaron and Mary (Kilby) Hobart, this house on the River Road was purchased by Civil War veteran John Parris Sheahan for himself and wife, Maria West, whom he met in Maryland. He became a medical doctor and dentist, opened an office in Machias, and pursued many interests that included photography, revisiting the battlefields where he had fought during the war and capturing images of his local community. The letters he wrote home to his family in Dennysville during the War are a descriptive and poignant narrative of the experiences of a young soldier. He died in 1895. Of Dr. Sheahan, Rebecca Hobart wrote, "He served in Company K, 1st Maine Regiment Cavalry, from 1862 until 1864, when he was discharged for promotion to Lieutenant in Company E, 31st Regiment Maine Infantry, in which company his two younger brothers, Edmund and Henry, were members. His other brother, William, Company F, 6th Maine Regiment, was killed at the battle of Rappahannock Station on November 7, 1863. John P. Sheahan was captured at the Battle of Petersburg and spent several months in a South Carolina prison, until he and a fellow officer successfully escaped. After the war he resumed his studies until he fulfilled his ambition to become a physician and dentist. Having been married during the war, he and his wife lived for a short time in Blissville, New Brunswick, and then returned to her hometown of Westminster, Maryland, where he received an appointment as Professor of Geology in an educational institution. A few years later he returned to Maine and settled in Edmunds. In addition to his practice as a physician and dentist, he collected birds and animals, and maintained a museum of ancient and curious relics, acquired an extensive library of valuable books, and after becoming an expert photographer, made extended visits to the battlefields, especially Gettysburg, taking pictures to be shown with his stereopticon as he gave illustrated lectures. It may have been his other interests and a lack of set appointments for patients that led the following comment in Charles C. Hobart's diary concerning his daughter-in-law's experience: "February 21, 1885, Ada went over to Dr. Sheahan's to get her teeth seen to. The doctor was not at home. He seldom is when anyone wants him." Dr. Sheahan's health, which had begun to fail before his wife's death in 1892, became increasingly impaired until February 17, 1894, when he departed on a trip to Barbados, hoping the tropical climate would be beneficial. However, since his condition worsened drastically, physicians there advised an immediate return home. He died suddenly on March 18 as he stepped from the railway car in Boston. He and his wife were buried in Westminster, Maryland. His house, which is featured in his views of Edmunds and Dennysville, burned in the 1990's and is now the location of an automobile garage.

John P. Sheahan CollectionPhotos for Map

John P. Sheahan on Maine Memory Network website.