Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in her Federal Street home in Brunswick. Courtesy of National Women’s History Museum

While living in Brunswick, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book that helped spark a civil war, bring an end to slavery, and forever change the United States of America. But, her time in Brunswick was also quite memorable.

In mid May of 1850 a “shabby and disconsolate” appearing Harriet Beecher Stowe, and three of her children, arrived at Brunswick on a steamship from Boston. Harriet was just one month shy of her 39th birthday, and seven months pregnant with her seventh child.

Harriet and Calvin Stowe in about 1852. Courtesy of Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

Prof. Calvin Stowe, Harriet’s husband, remained in Ohio with two of their children to finish out his teaching term at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. Calvin had accepted the Collins Professorship of Natural and Revealed Religion at Bowdoin College, where he had graduated in the Class of 1824.

Harriet was happy to leave Cincinnati behind. In 1849, an epidemic of cholera spread through Cincinnati claiming thousands of lives. Among the dead were Harriet and Calvin’s family dog Daisy, and their 6-month-old son, Samuel Charles.

By late May, Harriet was busy unpacking in the “Old Benjamin Titcomb house” on Federal Street, which she rented for $100 a year. This house was once occupied by Calvin while he was a young student at Bowdoin.

Not financially well-off, Harriet worried that Calvin’s $1,000 annual salary at Bowdoin would not be enough to make ends meet. Yet, life in Brunswick was a fresh and happy start for the Stowe family, and Harriet labored to pinch pennies and make ends meet.

The “Old Titcomb House” at 63 Federal St. in Brunswick where Harriet Beecher Stowe and her family lived from 1850-1852. Lori-Suzanne Dell photo

The Titcomb House was more than four decades old and in need of many repairs, and Harriet had a great deal to do. Cleaning, decorating, placing furniture, laundry, cooking and shopping filled Harriet’s days. Harriet spent a good deal of time in “negotiations” about the work needed on the house with the landlord, John Titcomb, whom she called “her right hand man.”

By July of 1850, Calvin, daughter Eliza, and son Henry, had finally arrived in Brunswick, and not a moment too soon. Within just a few days, on July 8, Harriet gave birth in the house to her youngest son, Charles Edward. And, the Stowes also welcomed another new family member, a Newfoundland puppy they called Rover.

The Stowes’ first year in Brunswick was wonderful. “It was a jolly, rollicking-household,” Charles would later write. One day Prof. Stowe brought home a dozen eggs, which he had purchased for hatching in order to produce a yard-full of chickens. He carefully and quietly placed the eggs under a brood hen in the henhouse outback, and told no one of his plans.

Soon after, one of the children discovered the eggs and gathered them for Harriet to cook. Calvin later returned to find the eggs missing and, after some dramatic venting, he stomped-off to his afternoon lecture at the college.

Returning home for dinner, some hours later, he found the dinner table well set but completely unattended. Hearing strange noises from the back yard, the professor investigated. There, much to his amusement, Calvin found Rover chasing Harriet and the children, who were all clucking, scratching and cackling like a gaggle of chickens.

By winter, making use of the freshly fallen snows, Harriet and the children often bundled up and gathered in front of the house for snowball fights and sled races down Federal Street.

Unfortunately, the cold winter nights were not as enjoyable, as this “windswept house of a castle” was breezy and frigid. “We have terrible weather here,” Harriet wrote. “The cold has been so intense our airtight stoves warm all but the floor, [it] heats your head, but keeps your feet freezing.”

In summer, Harriet was often seen in her front yard, hanging laundry or watching with great anticipation as the inbound Rockland and Bangor trains raced each other — alongside the property — to the main track of the Brunswick depot.

The Stowes also enjoyed Harpswell, where Calvin and the boys would fish, and the girls collected seashells while Harriet found inspiration to later write her 1862 novel “Pearl of Orr’s Island.” Harriet so loved the Midcoast that she also wrote a New Year’s story about holidays in Brunswick.

By June of 1852, while Harriet’s novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” brought her worldwide acclaim, Calvin had accepted a new position at the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Once again, Harriet moved the family and set up another home.

Today, the house at 63 Federal St. is owned and preserved by Bowdoin College, and is a National historic Landmark open to the public.

Although the Stowe family’s brief period in Brunswick had come to an end, the memories and legacy of Harriet’s time in Brunswick lives on in the annals of American history and in our memorable Stories From Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.