LB2007.1.72039

LB2007.1.72039

Park Row, Northport, Maine, Bayside, Ruggles Park RUGGLES PARK Ruggles Park was named for Hiram Ruggles, a prominent figure in the community at the time. With the growing fashion for spending summer vacations at the seaside, the attention of people in this section of the State was turned towards Northport, as a desirable place for summer residences. The "Pioneer Cottage" was built in 1869 by I. Cunningham of Union. L.A Knowlton of Belfast was the next to build, followed by Capt. Nickerson and Hon. Hiram Ruggles. Hiram Ruggles was born in Carmel in 1813, one of ten children. His parents were pioneer settlers of Carmel, his father a farmer and Baptist minister. Hiram attended the local school and worked on the family farm and became the head of the household after his mother was widowed. He married at 25 and continued to farm in Carmel until 1853. He served as selectman of Carmel at age 23; at 26 he was appointed Justice of the Peace by the governor and made a Trial Justice in 1860. He was a Penobscot County Commissioned and served both as a Representative and Senator in the State Legislature and a member of the Executive Council under Governors Coburn, Coney and Chamberlain. In the 1850s he ran as an anti-slavery candidate and helped organize the Republican Party. He left no issue His daughter died at age 27 and his son was killed in battle before Fredericksburg in 1864. He was a member and an elder of the Methodist-Episcopal church from 1838 onward. He was first mentioned in the Campground News in 1875 and was a leader of the Wesleyan Grove Camp meeting until his death in 1888.