God Bless the Brick House
by Meg Gardner
God bless the brick house that was; God bless the brick house that is to be!” Rebecca Rowena Randall whispers these phrases to herself and passes from childhood to adulthood at the conclusion of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Kate Douglas Wiggin was born in 1856 and died in 1923. At the time she published Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in 1903, she was a member of the most progressive group of intellectuals of the time. Her friends included dynamic thinkers in every field, including Mr. Emerson and the “Concord Transcendentalists.” She was famous for her essays, books, and promotion of early childhood education.
Although she led distinguished intellectual and social lives in California, New York, and Europe, Ms. Wiggin retreated to her summer home “Quillcote” in Hollis to write. An article in Antiques Digest published in 1901 describes Quillcote as “an ideal spot…for delicate creations of the imagination.” It was here that she created a young girl, Rebecca Randall, and a story that represented a complex amalgam of Ms. Wiggin’s own personality, childhood influences, and philosophical concepts. At the center of the story is the Brick House.
The house itself is beautiful. Located on Usher Mill Road in the Bar Mills section of Hollis, it is large, solid, and comfortably settled in its milieu. It was built by Ellis B. Usher, who was born in Medford, Massachusetts, to a Revolutionary War soldier named Abijah Usher and his first wife Mary Weld Usher.
Mrs. Wiggin probably found the Usher family even more interesting than the house, however. Their personal stories reflect their independence, integrity, respect for education, love of family, appreciation for nature, and responsibility for others.
Abijah Usher Senior was a prominent man in Medford and Massachusetts politics. Unfortunately, his wife Mary died in 1791, leaving him with three small children. Abijah remarried in 1795. As the family expanded with more children, resources were strained.
In 1799, Abijah Senior gave the two older sons, Ellis and Abijah Junior, a horse. The boys, who were about fourteen and eleven years old, left Medford and “…went on horseback to seek their fortunes in Hollis, Maine,” according to the Usher family genealogy.
Fortunately the boys were not entirely adrift. Their uncle Zachariah had already established himself in Buxton as a tavern keeper. He was licensed to be a retailer of liquors, a sign of “good standing” and confidence in the community.
Young Ellis Usher worked for the Reverend Paul Coffin and for Colonel Isaac Lane. By the time he was nineteen years old he had saved enough money to buy a farm, even though he was also sending money to his family in Massachusetts.
Stories about Usher illustrate his independence and self-confidence. Some of Colonel Lane’s men, seeing him one Sunday wearing his shabby clothes, asked him derisively whether he was on his way to church. Young Ellis is said to have replied quietly, “I shall see the day when I can afford to give clothes to all of you.”
Ellis Usher worked diligently towards his goal. He added a saw mill and a store to his assets. He was beginning to prosper when a “freshet” wiped out $5,000 worth of logs for which he still owed money. Although he was bankrupt and heavily in debt, Usher kept a positive attitude. He considered the disaster a blessing. The flooding made an island of his mill site, creating a protected place to store his logs; such was the measure of his spirit.
Others were willing to give Usher the credit he needed to rebuild his fortune because of his fine reputation and impeccable integrity. Financial disaster struck a second time during the crash of 1837. Usher had invested heavily in his timber holdings in northern Maine. He lost more than $80,000. In spite of the devastating loss he was able to repay all his creditors. Eventually, he became the largest mill owner and lumberman on the Saco River.
Ellis Usher died in 1855, leaving a vast estate. He lacked formal education, but he had a taste for reading and knowledge. The Brick House was always full of family, friends, and business associates. Mr. Usher was active in local and state politics. During the early days of Maine statehood he served in the Senate. He helped develop the Maine State Constitution and was a signer of that document.
Usher’s first wife was Rebecca Randall, Colonel Isaac Lane’s step-daughter, who died within a few years, leaving him with two small children. He then married Hannah Lane, Colonel Lane’s daughter.
Their first child, Rebecca Randall Usher, was born in 1821. Her father supported education for women at a time when most of society thought it was a waste of time and money. Consequently, at the age of sixteen she attended the Ursuline Convent in Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers), Canada, where she studied and taught French. She returned to Maine when she was twenty.
Rebecca Usher is known to us because of her role as a military nurse during the Civil War. She was considered an ideal candidate for that position not because of her knowledge and skill in the profession, but because she was a spinster, from the middle class, and middle-aged. These qualifications were ideal for a military nurse; it was felt that she would be less likely than younger counterparts to be influenced by immoral soldiers.
When Usher returned to Maine after the war, she managed her mother’s household. The prohibition against women controlling their own financial affairs lingered. In spite of this prejudice, Usher was successful in her legal battle to gain control of her inheritance and to manage her mother’s estate.
Rebecca’s sisters Jane, Ellen, and Martha, although they lived more conventional lives, also shared many interests and philosophical values with Kate Douglas Wiggin. Jane had a lovely voice and was instrumental in developing and promoting music in Portland. Her husband, Nathan Webb, was a respected and well-known judge of the United States District Court of Maine.
The author Sarah Orne Jewett was a close friend of Martha Usher Osgood. In a tribute published in the Portland paper when Mrs. Osgood died, Jewett wrote that Martha Osgood was “…warm and devoted in her friendships, coming as she did from so generous and truly hospitable a lineage…As I look back I see that a great deal of the value of her life and character was ministered to by her love of reading, and because she believed in reading the best books.”
It is no wonder that Kate Douglas Wiggin built her novel around this family whose founder represented her own ideas of a strong work ethic, independent behavior, self-reliance, integrity, community service, and pursuit of knowledge and the arts, and whose daughters’ lives embodied all of these ideals.
God bless the brick house that was; God bless the brick house that is to be!” Rebecca Rowena Randall whispers these phrases to herself and passes from childhood to adulthood at the conclusion of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Kate Douglas Wiggin was born in 1856 and died in 1923. At the time she published Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in 1903, she was a member of the most progressive group of intellectuals of the time. Her friends included dynamic thinkers in every field, including Mr. Emerson and the “Concord Transcendentalists.” She was famous for her essays, books, and promotion of early childhood education.
Although she led distinguished intellectual and social lives in California, New York, and Europe, Ms. Wiggin retreated to her summer home “Quillcote” in Hollis to write. An article in Antiques Digest published in 1901 describes Quillcote as “an ideal spot…for delicate creations of the imagination.” It was here that she created a young girl, Rebecca Randall, and a story that represented a complex amalgam of Ms. Wiggin’s own personality, childhood influences, and philosophical concepts. At the center of the story is the Brick House.
The house itself is beautiful. Located on Usher Mill Road in the Bar Mills section of Hollis, it is large, solid, and comfortably settled in its milieu. It was built by Ellis B. Usher, who was born in Medford, Massachusetts, to a Revolutionary War soldier named Abijah Usher and his first wife Mary Weld Usher.
Mrs. Wiggin probably found the Usher family even more interesting than the house, however. Their personal stories reflect their independence, integrity, respect for education, love of family, appreciation for nature, and responsibility for others.
Abijah Usher Senior was a prominent man in Medford and Massachusetts politics. Unfortunately, his wife Mary died in 1791, leaving him with three small children. Abijah remarried in 1795. As the family expanded with more children, resources were strained.
In 1799, Abijah Senior gave the two older sons, Ellis and Abijah Junior, a horse. The boys, who were about fourteen and eleven years old, left Medford and “…went on horseback to seek their fortunes in Hollis, Maine,” according to the Usher family genealogy.
Fortunately the boys were not entirely adrift. Their uncle Zachariah had already established himself in Buxton as a tavern keeper. He was licensed to be a retailer of liquors, a sign of “good standing” and confidence in the community.
Young Ellis Usher worked for the Reverend Paul Coffin and for Colonel Isaac Lane. By the time he was nineteen years old he had saved enough money to buy a farm, even though he was also sending money to his family in Massachusetts.
Stories about Usher illustrate his independence and self-confidence. Some of Colonel Lane’s men, seeing him one Sunday wearing his shabby clothes, asked him derisively whether he was on his way to church. Young Ellis is said to have replied quietly, “I shall see the day when I can afford to give clothes to all of you.”
Ellis Usher worked diligently towards his goal. He added a saw mill and a store to his assets. He was beginning to prosper when a “freshet” wiped out $5,000 worth of logs for which he still owed money. Although he was bankrupt and heavily in debt, Usher kept a positive attitude. He considered the disaster a blessing. The flooding made an island of his mill site, creating a protected place to store his logs; such was the measure of his spirit.
Others were willing to give Usher the credit he needed to rebuild his fortune because of his fine reputation and impeccable integrity. Financial disaster struck a second time during the crash of 1837. Usher had invested heavily in his timber holdings in northern Maine. He lost more than $80,000. In spite of the devastating loss he was able to repay all his creditors. Eventually, he became the largest mill owner and lumberman on the Saco River.
Ellis Usher died in 1855, leaving a vast estate. He lacked formal education, but he had a taste for reading and knowledge. The Brick House was always full of family, friends, and business associates. Mr. Usher was active in local and state politics. During the early days of Maine statehood he served in the Senate. He helped develop the Maine State Constitution and was a signer of that document.
Usher’s first wife was Rebecca Randall, Colonel Isaac Lane’s step-daughter, who died within a few years, leaving him with two small children. He then married Hannah Lane, Colonel Lane’s daughter.
Their first child, Rebecca Randall Usher, was born in 1821. Her father supported education for women at a time when most of society thought it was a waste of time and money. Consequently, at the age of sixteen she attended the Ursuline Convent in Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers), Canada, where she studied and taught French. She returned to Maine when she was twenty.
Rebecca Usher is known to us because of her role as a military nurse during the Civil War. She was considered an ideal candidate for that position not because of her knowledge and skill in the profession, but because she was a spinster, from the middle class, and middle-aged. These qualifications were ideal for a military nurse; it was felt that she would be less likely than younger counterparts to be influenced by immoral soldiers.
When Usher returned to Maine after the war, she managed her mother’s household. The prohibition against women controlling their own financial affairs lingered. In spite of this prejudice, Usher was successful in her legal battle to gain control of her inheritance and to manage her mother’s estate.
Rebecca’s sisters Jane, Ellen, and Martha, although they lived more conventional lives, also shared many interests and philosophical values with Kate Douglas Wiggin. Jane had a lovely voice and was instrumental in developing and promoting music in Portland. Her husband, Nathan Webb, was a respected and well-known judge of the United States District Court of Maine.
The author Sarah Orne Jewett was a close friend of Martha Usher Osgood. In a tribute published in the Portland paper when Mrs. Osgood died, Jewett wrote that Martha Osgood was “…warm and devoted in her friendships, coming as she did from so generous and truly hospitable a lineage…As I look back I see that a great deal of the value of her life and character was ministered to by her love of reading, and because she believed in reading the best books.”
It is no wonder that Kate Douglas Wiggin built her novel around this family whose founder represented her own ideas of a strong work ethic, independent behavior, self-reliance, integrity, community service, and pursuit of knowledge and the arts, and whose daughters’ lives embodied all of these ideals.