The old home place is gone. As my mother fondly called it, “Going over home.” My mother and her five sisters were born in Lincolnville, on what was then called “The Lermond farm”, which later became known as “The Morton farm”.

Lincolnville was settled, way back before 1800. The 1907 Town Register recorded, “The Mariners, Naler, Jonathan and Philip took up adjoining land in the upper part of the town.”

Naler was the progenitor of the Marriners in Waldo County. He came to upper Lincolnville where he built a log cabin behind where the frame house was later built. There, on the old farm in upper Lincolnville were born five generations of Naler’s descendants. [When I was a child an ice house sat where Naler’s log cabin was probably located.]

Each generation lived on and gleaned a good living from the land. Each generation shared the joys of births, marriages and the sound of happy, wholesome family living. Each generation gave of their lives to make Lincolnville what it is today. Each generation probably crossed over to the Heavenly shores in the old farm buildings.

The children of Naler and his wife, Ruth Higgins, were born in Bath, Maine. The children of their son, Joseph and his wife, Abigail Heal, were born on the old farm. They were William, Joel, Catherine, Moses, Rev. Jason and Joseph Mariner, Jr. William and his wife, Sarah Maria (Jackson) Mariner continued on the farm. Their only child, Austin and his wife, Caroline (Clark) Marriner raised their only daughter, Annie Maria Marriner, on the farm on the hill in Lincolnville.

Annie, the great-granddaughter of Naler and Ruth Mariner, married Richard Lermond. It was her generation that changed the name from Mariner. Austin Marriner and his son-in-law Rich Lermond harvested apples from their orchards which were shipped by boat from the Eastern Steamship Wharf in Belfast to the Boston markets. They built barrels in their cooper shop, which were used for the fruit and vegetable shipping, and also for the lime industry in Rockland and beyond.

In Dec. 1927, the farm buildings burned. A news clipping reported, “The set of farm buildings was one of Lincolnville’s oldest landmarks. For almost one hundred fifty years it has been the home of six generations of the family, having been built by Mrs. Lermond’s great-grandfather [William]. It was passed on through the Marriners to the present generation. Many old relics and invaluable antiques which can never be replaced to to swell the total of their great loss, which is estimated at about $10,000.”

With the help of family, neighbors, and Grange members, the buildings of the old farm were rebuilt in 1928. A barn from Springbrook Hill in Camden was dismantled and hauled to the old farm site where it was rebuilt after the fire.

My mother grew up on the old farm. She and her sisters recalled many happy days on the farm, and of going to school in the one-room Miller School.

Annie’s daughter, Mildred, with husband and son, Allen and Bill, were the last of the Marriners to farm the land. They utilized some of the latest agricultural methods of farming. They built a large modern barn and silos. In later years, rumors of changes to the old farm were discussed among the many cousins.

About 1969, the farm left the Marriner family, being farmed for a few more years. Time does not treat old buildings well. The cousins share many memories of visiting Gram Lermond at the old home place, but as the old saying goes, “You can never go back!”

Early this Spring, my niece Becca, and I visited the old cemetery where the generations of Marriners are buried, and then drove up to see the old farm.

It was gone, totally gone, never to be returned! One of the strange events related to the destruction of the old farm buildings was that Becca had stopped at a Flea Market in Searsport last Spring, where she purchased a large painting of an old set of farm buildings, just “because she liked the picture”, only to find out that it was a painting of the old Marriner farm buildings.