Entry - Dennys River Historical Society

Peter E. Vose Homestead, Dennysville, Maine

Photograph

DescriptionThis house was built by Peter E. Vose, an early settler in Dennysville. In the first years of the the 20th century the home was the residence of Roberta (Bert) Mahar. By the1960's her adult children, Marie Gough, Philip and Lloyd Mahar lived here.

Context

Peter E. Vose, son of Peter T. of Robbinston, came to Dennysville in the mid 1840's at the age of 25, at the request of John Kilby, to teach school. After initially boarding with the Kilby family, he first lived in the house at the end of The Lane. About 1848, he bought the house of George W. Wilder across from John Kilby on Harrison Avenue, to which, in 1859, he added the large, two-story, main house at a cost of $3,000. He married John Kilby's daughter Lydia, with whom he raised four children, Mary, John, Ida and Lydia C. Peter E. Vose became the proprietor of his father-in-law's store on Store Hill, was a Deacon of the Congregational Church, and kept a diary of daily events in and around the village from 1850 until a few week before his death in 1899. The final words written on the last page, by his son John, were also inscribed on his stone at the top of the hill in the town cemetery: "An honored life, a quiet end, and heaven to crown it all."

Collection

Dennys River Historic PhotographsPhotos for Map

Peter E. Vose Homestead, Dennysville, Maine

Phil Mahar with two Salmon; Phil Mahar with two freshly caught salmon in front of the Vose House, then owned by the Mahar family, in Dennysville, Maine.

Peter E. Vose House, Dennysville, Maine; Rear view of the Peter E. Vose House on Harrison Avenue, Dennysville, Maine. After serving as the home of the Vose and Mahar families, the house was later occupied by the Corey family in the late 20th century.