Go back

    Stores and Shops Along the Dennys River

    Photograph
    Photo of the Dennys River and the shops and stores on the Dennysville bank. The image taken by Dr. John Sheahan around 1890 from the Edmunds side of the river. The nearest structure was the blacksmith shop originally built by William Kilby in the late 1700's, when he first came to Dennysville. His business ledgers record the daily tasks he performed for his customers from the late 1790's until he died in 1828. The business was eventually taken over by A.L.R. Gardner and sons who bought the five shops in this picture in the late nineteenth century. G.W. Kilby's drugstore, formerly D.K. Hobart's, can be seen father upstream on the riverbank.

    William Kilby, a member of the Lincoln family, began building his house in Dennysville in 1788, having lived briefly in Township No. 1. He was a blacksmith by trade, setting up his shop beside the Dennys River in 1795. His account books record the everyday needs of the people who settled this community until his death in 1829. In 1900, an article in the Eastport Sentinel recalled: "The Blacksmith Shop--the first one was built on the riverbank by Dea. William Kilby. He had quite a business in the way of shoeing oxen. In the icy season he shod the hoofs of cows when driven to the eddy for water. Old Dugald C. McLauchlin, the village shoemaker, was always on the lookout to perform a humane act. He kept a rope in readiness with a slip noose appliance to drag out the unfortunate cattle from the river when on the point of slipping under the ice."

    Photographer

    circa 1880 - circa 1890

    Willima Kilby's Blacksmith Ledger

    Historical Note

    Ships brought goods from around the world to the stores along the Dennys River.

    Shops and Stores Along the Dennys River, c. 1890
    Shops and Stores along the Dennys River in 1861; This detail from the 1861 map of Dennysville shows the five store buildings located on Water Street beside the Dennys River, with D.K. Hobart's drugstore a little farther upstream. The blacksmith shop marked B.S.S. was first built by William Kilby in the 1790's. Shops and Stores along the Dennys River in 1881; By 1881 A.L.R. Garnder had acquired the former Union Store, next to the McLauchlin's shoe shop, as well as Kilby's old blacksmith shop. By the late 1890s he had incorporated the remaining structures into his business as well. Kilby's drugstore, formerly D.K. Hobart's drugstore, was to be removed by the turn of the century. A.L.R. Gardner Blacksmith shop, Dennysville, c. 1880; Blacksmith A.L.R. Gardner at his anvil in the shop originally built by William Kilby on the Dennys River in the 1790's.