From 1884 to 1900, Edward Fletcher and Eleazer Crowell were partners in the G.M. Stanwood and Co. shipsmith business in Portland, then changed the name of the company to Fletcher and Crowell. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

We were recently visited by society member (and former curator) Nancy Crowell who brought in a World War I helmet to donate. The helmet belonged to one of her ancestors, Fletcher Crowell, who had lived at 590 Ocean St. in South Portland. His name sounded very familiar to us – his full legal name was actually Edward Fletcher Crowell (he went by his middle name), and it turns out we had written about Fletcher’s father, Eleazer Crowell, last year.

Our prior mention of Eleazer Crowell was in a column about George M. Stanwood, for whom Stanwood Park was named. Stanwood was a shipsmith (a blacksmith specializing in metalwork needed on ships and in shipbuilding) and a well-known horse breeder in South Portland (then known as Cape Elizabeth) in the 1800s. From roughly 1873 to 1884, Stanwood partnered with Edward Fletcher, calling their shipsmith business G.M. Stanwood and Co. The business operated from a large block at 261-265 Commercial St.

When Stanwood retired in 1884, he sold his partnership interest in the firm to Eleazer Crowell. Edward Fletcher and Eleazer Crowell continued to run the shipsmith business as a partnership under the name G.M. Stanwood and Co. until 1900, when they incorporated the business under the name Fletcher and Crowell Co.

Edward Fletcher and Eleazer Crowell were both South Portland residents; Crowell lived at 590 Ocean St. and Fletcher lived in a home (which no longer exists) in the vicinity of 350 Cottage Road on Meeting House Hill, later living at 113 Broadway. Fletcher and Crowell were very close friends, so much so that Eleazer named a son after his business partner.

An advertisement in the Portland Daily Press, March 21, 1890, announces pigs for sale at Fletcher and Crowell’s piggery in South Portland (then known as Cape Elizabeth). Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

Fletcher and Crowell were entrepreneurs, always looking for a way to expand their business interests. In 1887, while running the shipsmithing business together, they also ventured into the business of garbage disposal. In August 1887, a news report in the Portland Daily Press announced that the two men had been awarded the contract for picking up the house and fish offal (food waste) in Portland. The contract was fulfilled by hiring men to go around collecting the food waste and transferring it to a piggery where it would be an economical source of food.

What we have been trying to determine is the exact location of Fletcher and Crowell’s piggery in South Portland. We found the accompanying advertisement from the spring of 1890, and similar ads ran in 1893 that confirm they had a piggery here in South Portland. While one would think of a piggery as a place where pigs were being fattened up for the slaughterhouse, in this instance, Fletcher and Crowell were advertising that they were also offering pigs for sale to the public. We wish it provided more detail about the exact location; neither Fletcher, Crowell, nor the company itself owned a piece of land here that would be likely for a piggery, so it appears they were using leased land. A separate article in July of 1890 stated that 70 hogs had been butchered in the vicinity of Cash Corner. In April 1897, Fletcher and Crowell failed to get the contract for offal pickup in Portland when the bids were opened and everyone else had underbid them; two months later, it was reported in Cash Corner neighborhood news that “Cash Bros. have opened an extensive piggery a short distance from the corner and are doing quite a business.” It is unclear if this was the same piggery that had been operated by Fletcher and Crowell. If anyone has information about the location of Fletcher and Crowell’s piggery, please reach out to us at the South Portland Historical Society – by phone at 207-767-7299 or by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com.

In 1900, Fletcher and Crowell created the metal crest over the main entrance to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in South Portland. Contributed / South Portland Historical Society

Fletcher and Crowell’s main focus continued to be on their smithing business in Portland. While they still operated from the building on Commercial Street, as time went on the need for specialized shipsmithing decreased and they moved into both ship chandlery and a more generalized iron and steel manufacturing operation. In 1902, they expanded their business with the construction of a brick building on Fore Street that they used as a machine shop. In 1903, Edward Fletcher announced the company’s plans to build another manufacturing location in the Ligonia area of South Portland where bridge and structural work would take place. Of course, Ligonia was the location of the Portland Rolling Mills, so there was already a competitor in that line of business at that location. We could not find any evidence of them following through with that plan.

Edward Fletcher remained active in the company until his accidental death in 1913. Eleazer Crowell continued the business without him for a few years, but retired in 1915 and the business ceased operation.

Sunday Chat series: Nov. 24 and Dec. 1

The Sunday Chat series at the museum at Bug Light Park continues for the next two weeks. On Nov. 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., author Paul Ledman will be available to talk with visitors and sign copies of his book. On Dec. 1, also from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we will be joined by military historian and author Ken Thompson. Books are available for purchase and signing at these two events.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.