FROM THE SCRAPBOOK
June 1995
Marston Scott born 1871 spent much of his early life as a lumberjack. The Scott family were sawmill owners and operators. When they had a sawmill at the southern end of Magaguadavic Lake the location was called Scott’s Cove – the same place now is known as Magaguadavic Siding. While working in that area, Marston Scott became fascinated with the beauty of one of the lake’s largest islands, not far from the shore we now know as Farm Point. He purchased the island and built a house on it. Vernon Finnie’s father was working for the Scotts then and with his team he hauled the lumber from the mill to the island prior to 1911.
At a later time Marston, who had never married, chose to enlarge his adventures by moving west to take up ranching. Ranching proved to be unsatisfying, so Marston came back to his island home. Subsequently he sold the island to Elwood McLean, as you will see when you read a Scrapbook Clipping:
HARVEY COUPLE FIND OPERATION OF RESORT
ON LAKESIDE PLEASANT, SATISFYING VENTURE
by Joan Capreol
An engaging New Brunswick couple is demonstrating that a drastic change in profession during middle age can be highly entertaining stuff.
For years Mr. and Mrs. J. Elwood McLean went quietly about their business in Harvey. Mr. McLean went to his creamery-which, incidentally, burned to the ground a few weeks ago-and Mrs. McLean brought their two children up at home.
A few years ago Mr. McLean’s illness forced him to sell his creamery and at about the same time, as some emotional compensation, Mr. McLean fell in love with a nine-acre Wildwood Island in the beautiful Magaguadavic Lake. Seven years ago he bought the island and the lodge which bears its name-in fact the whole caboodle-furniture and boats-from Marsten Scott of Dumfries. Scott built the lodge 50 years ago and Mr. McLean has preserved his artistic touches down to the moose heads on the walls.
Mr. McLean’s love affair with the island nearly came to a sad end last year since the lodge, which he never ran himself, seemed always to run in the read. Diffidently, Mr. McLean set out to look for a potential buyer.
However, this is where Mrs. McLean entered the picture.
“All through the winter I kept harping on the idea-why not run it ourselves?” she told us. “Well, you know what happens when a woman gets and keeps an idea. Last July the first, Elwood, in a slightly dazed condition, found himself taxiing guests from the mainland to the island, carrying baggage, checking in guests. At the end of the first day he found he had enjoyed himself thoroughly.”
Now Mr. and Mrs. McLean are amused to find themselves full-fledged proprietors of what they hope will be a going summer hotel. The lodge is in the ginger-bread style of a past era with a veranda almost as wide as the St. John river and complete with old-fashioned rocking chairs. They are doing more than their bit in making New Brunswick a pleasant and unforgettable place for tourists.
They have become not only our favorite hotel operators but those of their numerous American guests. One young American couple, Pat and Wanda Kiernan, of New York City, spent one week there and got 200 miles into Maine on their way home when they decided to return and spend another week.
And Professor Giffen of the University of Toronto and his wife took the trouble of dropping by at the Travel Bureau in Fredericton to report that they had spent an idyllic week-end at the lodge.
Mr. McLean is a long slim gent with a dry sense of humor. For his new job he has affected a vintage straw hat of the Chevalier type which proves to be a startling object on first acquaintance but somehow becomes Mr. McLean and his surroundings.
Mrs. McLean is a tall, stately, greying woman with remarkably blue eyes.
Perhaps the piece de resistance of the place where privacy is respected, fun unorganized and fishing good, is Mrs. McLean’s cooking. She has never catered for strangers before and remarks modestly: “I hope they like my meals. I am a babe-in-the-woods as far as this business is concerned and perhaps we are lucky because we have had such very nice people.”
Mrs. McLean’s daughter, Pat, who starts work at the Victoria Public Hospital as a dietitian this fall, have given her mother a lot of help with the menus.
And Mr. McLean sums up the family feelings. “There is no pressure here. We do things at our own time at our own pace. There is something about any island, and particularly about an island surrounded by deep forests and unmolested by speed boats chasing each other round all day.”
There are many of us who remember fondly our visits to Wildwood and the McLeans. The McLeans sold Wildwood to Dr. Jewett of Fredericton and it has since changed ownership again.
The McLean’s obituaries are seen here:
JOHN ELWOOD MCLEAN – Harvey Station – Funeral services were held for John Elwood McLean at St. James United Church, Harvey Station. W.L. Randall officiated. Interment was in Harvey Cemetery. Pallbearers were past masters of Cherry Mountain Lodge No. 50; Omer Jellison, Arthur Smith, Alton Corey, Robert Wilson, Maurice Lister and Murray Lister. Mr. McLean was born in Scotsburg, N.S.; the son of the late William and Margaret McLean. He moved to Harvey in 1954 and established the Harvey Creamery, which he operated for several years. He was interested in community affairs and had served on the school board, the hospital board, and had been secretary of Harvey Local Improvement District for several years, until poor health forced him to resign. He was past master of Cherry Mt. Lodge No. 50, a member of St. Stephen Preceptory 15A and a noble of Luxor Shrine. He is survived by his wife Alice; a son, William, Nashwaaksis; a daughter, Mrs. Patricia Reid, Middleton, N.S.; a brother, Edgar C., St. Stephen, five grandchildren; two nephews and a niece.
MCLEAN: At the Saint John Regional Hospital on March 28, 1986 Alice A. McLean, widow of T. Elwood McLean. Born in Oxford, Nova Scotia, the daughter of the late Gay and Emma (Wood) Gordon. Survived by one son, William of Fredericton, one brother, five sisters, seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. A daughter, Patricia Reid, predeceased her in 1983.
Mr. Scott died suddenly in 1952 and rests with family members in the family plot at The Barony Cemetery, New Brunswick.
Source: Rev. Bill Randall’s “From The Scrapbook Vol. One.”
