“May kind protecting angels/Their watchful vigil keep/And guide thy bark in safety/Across the pathless deep.” Sarah Augusta Prescott wrote these words to her husband-to-be, Capt. Sam Goodwin, while she waited for him at the family home — the Old Court House as it was known — in January of 1852. Today, it is an historic site, Pownalborough Court House, built in 1761 and the home of the Goodwin family for generations.

Sarah was a great-granddaughter of Major Samuel Goodwin, the original caretaker of the impressive building designed specifically to provide a center for the administering of justice in the newly established Lincoln County. Sarah came to the Court House as a child with her widowed mother and two sisters, Caroline Louise and Rebecca. By the time of their arrival, this seat of government was no longer used, court proceedings having moved to Wiscasset in 1794; the building was officially recognized as the Goodwins’ home in 1816.

Sarah, known to her family and close friends as Sallie, was born in August of 1830. Her father’s death, caused by an accident in 1833, brought the young family to Dresden.

Rebecca Goodwin Johnson Prescott returned to the home of her youth, moving in with her brothers, Thomas and William Johnson. A valuable picture of Sallie and her world has been preserved in her letters and journal. The late Martha Vaughan of Dresden, transcribed Sallie’s diary and surviving letters, including some written by Capt. Sam to Sallie, and published “Sallie and Capt. Sam” in 1992.

Through these three collections of personal writing, a vivid picture of Sallie’s life, during a span of approx. 10 years, was revealed. Sallie married Capt. Sam, a second cousin to her, in September of 1852. During Capt. Sam’s working years, Sallie sometimes accompanied him on voyages. These trips would take her to England and Ireland, as well as a number of important East Coast ports. Despite romantic ideas of sailing the ocean with one’s love, some of the trips were less than enjoyable. Sallie wrote of the frightening experience of the ship being hemmed in by ice: “Diary, March 31, 1859. After a very rough passage we arrived today in the good city of Boston. … Besides having many heavy gales we were about twelve hours in the ice about the 15th of March. Were completely surrounded with field ice, which is very frightful and dangerous. We also saw many icebergs. (Vaughan, p. 145)”

In November of 1856 Sallie wrote to her sister Rebecca: “’Tis the worst part of going to sea, getting into port where you have no friends, and nobody to call upon you. (Vaughan, p.111)” From Sallie’s other letters, this was not always the case, writing from Liverpool, England in February of 1857, Sallie wrote: “A good many called, Mr. Sutton among the rest. … This evening Sam and I went to his (Mr. Sutton’s) house. The first time I have stepped foot on shore (since arriving). (Vaughan, p. 115)”

Sallie’s trips abroad, as well as Sam’s letters, brought home to Dresden a look at the world far from the lands along the Kennebec River. Sallie wrote in September of 1857: “One day we rode to Bath (England), a distance of 15 miles. … And then we have been to a grand flower show at the Geological Gardens where were displayed every kind of flower and fruit and vegetable that could be procured in England; and then the grand ladies and splendid dresses were quite as attractive to some, perhaps, as the productions of the soil. The flowers were arranged in the most beautiful manner, in long tents. A band of music was playing all the time. (Vaughan, p. 125)”

When at home in Dresden, Sallie helped her mother and sisters maintain the house and care for the various family members who came to visit throughout the year. The Old Court House was a consent center of activity, from Sallie’s great-grandmother supervising the tavern kept within its walls for many years starting in the 1760s to grandchildren and great-grandchildren running through its rooms throughout the 19th Century. Sallie and Capt. Sam did not have children of their own. Capt. Sam retired from in 1872. He died in 1900 and Sallie in 1914.

March is National Women’s Month and the Lincoln County Historical Association is celebrating by sharing the lives of women who lived in Lincoln County during the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the Pownalborough Court House in Dresden is one of three historic sites under the care of the Lincoln County Historical Association, a nonprofit that also provides stewardship for the 1754 Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta and the 1811 Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset.

For more information about the Lincoln County Historical Association, visit www.lincolncountyhistory.com and the Facebook page, Lincoln County Historical Association Maine.