Joseph Tinkham Wood, a ship owner, built the Moses Carleton house in 1804. It is one of the most beautiful homes in Wiscasset, Maine. He traded the house to Major Moses Carleton, Jr. for 100 puncheons of rum, which he sold for $12,000. According to one old Wiscasset native, and we quote: "The Carletons were the happiest of couples, and in their house the poor and the defenseless never failed to find refuge." The Carletons lived there for fifty-three years.
There are two trees in the front of the house. One is the ginko
tree and the other is the cucumber magnolia. The ginkgo has
fan-shaped leaves and fleshy yellowish seeds with a disagreeable
odor. We think that these are the only trees of this kind in the
state of Maine.
The Moses Carleton House is a Federal style house. A Federal style
house has a door in the middle, two windows on each side of the door,
and five windows above. There is a beautiful front hall and a
wonderful winding staircase that people love to look at. We think it
is one of the prettiest homes in Wiscasset.
Moses Carleton died in December, 1859 and Mrs. Carleton died in January, 1860.
They adopted every child in Wiscasset that didn't have a home. They had around ten or twelve children all under one roof.
Mr. Luke, the owner, gave us this picture of the Moses Carleton house taken in 1985. We scanned it in.
Wiscasset was a wealthy town till the embargo act took place. The embargo act was when the president would not let the eastern states trade with the Russians so all the ship owners lost most of their money. So Moses Carleton went poor . One day he was flipping a ring and it flopped into the river so he said, " I have as good a chance of finding that ring then dying a poor man." That night he was having fish for supper. He was cutting up his fish and there inside was the ring!"
Mr. Luke gave us this older picture of the Moses Carleton House.