Downeast Milk Bottles

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Lakeview Farm pint bottle

Lakeview Farm

Bar Harbor

This is probably the bottle of Washburn McFarland's farm, he is Pearl McFarland's father. Lakeview Farm (overlooking Eagle Lake) was probably the farm across from Acadia National Park Headquarters on McFarlands Hill. This is the only bottle I have seen from that farm. At the bottom of the fields is a grave of George Newman who was also a farmer either on that same land or an adjacent parcel. See the photo of the George Newman bottle on the Newman Farm page, graciously traded to me by Frank Shaw.

My father, Jack Clark, volunteered to fight the Bar Harbor Fire of 1947. In his own words he tells of the night he witnessed the burning of the Pearl McFarland Farm on or about the night of October 21. “During the Bar Harbor fire of 1947, I was at McFarlands Hill, near the top, when the fire came roaring out of the woods along Norway Drive, swept up the West side of McFarland's Hill to the ridge. You can’t imagine the number of fire trucks from all over lined up on that hill. The idea was to try to keep the fire from crossing Eagle Lake Road to protect the Town of Bar Harbor. I was in front of a small house along the road with the Pearl McFarland house and farm buildings behind it, near the edge of the woods, I think. It was about 10 o’clock at night the flames reached us. The trucks hosed the small house and saved it, but the farmhouse and buildings went up in flames quickly. It was windy, the air was full of embers that started new fires on the lake side of the road, too many for us to put out. The fire kept going, burned a large part of Bar Harbor and did not stop until it reached the ocean at Otter Creek.” 

Other Names Associated With This Dairy: Washburn McFarland, Pearl McFarland

Additional Photos

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Lakeview Farm quart bottle

Lakeview Farm quart bottle

Map: Bar Harbor Fire of 1947 Fire Progression

Map: Bar Harbor Fire of 1947 Fire Progression

Documents

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Census record for Washburn McFarland

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