Jayna Smith
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Kelly Bartlett grew up believing her grandparents Herbert and Olive (McLean) Bacon of the Calais area had been shot and killed on October 31, 1947.  The alleged incident occurred in Kellyland, near Baileyville.  Bartlett’s mother Jean, daughter of Herbert and Olive, was only six years old at the time of their unfortunate deaths.

According to Bartlett, her mother Jean had a “pretty vivid memory” of the events around the time of the deaths.  “On Halloween night [my mother] was to stay with her uncle and his three daughters who lived on High Street.  [Herbert and Olive] took their dog and they were in their canoe and they were going to an island where they have a camp near Baileyville.  That night, on Halloween night, they were both shot.  The dog was fine, not them.”  The dog had found its way back home.  

Bartlett has believed the story told by her mother.  “As time went by, [my mother] found out or heard it that [her parents] were shot and murdered on the river in the canoe...they never made it to the island.”  She added, “There’s no boating accident, not when two people are shot.”

She said,  “I’ve always wanted to know what happened.  I could never find any answers.”
Bartlett arrived in Calais last week from her home in Florida.  She brought with her historical documents referencing her family’s ancestry.  She even went to the local library to see what she could find for information on the deaths of her grandparents.  Bartlett received no answers.

“[The death of my grandparents] decimated my family,” she said, explaining that her mother was orphaned at only six years old and undoubtedly was affected mentally and emotionally by the loss of her parents.   “It destroyed us without a doubt.”
Jean was adopted by her uncle Ralph McLean, who lived at 11 High Street.  Bartlett explained that as a young adult, Jean had difficulty financially raising Bartlett and her siblings as a single mother and life was not an easy one for the family.  

Al Churchill of St. Croix Historical Society was quick to assist this publication in finding more information on the deaths of Herbert and Olive Bacon.  According to Churchill, Bangor Daily News reported after the 1947 incident that Olive’s body had been retrieved from the river.  There was no mention of gunshot wounds, “so it does seem they drowned,” he said.

Before the bodies were discovered, an initial article from November 3, 1947 read, “The search for the couple began when their dog, who had accompanied them on the trip, appeared at home...dripping wet, after the couple left Kellyland...for their camp three miles away on Grand Falls Flowage lake.”

The overturned canoe had been discovered, along with a life preserver, the article noted.  Volunteers had been searching the area, in addition to two airplanes searching from above.  

It was not until November 7, 1947, according to a BDN article, when Olive’s body was discovered by two Grand Lake Stream guides at the mouth of the Tomah stream.  The Bangor Daily News article indicated that the then-deputy sheriff called for “a fresh crew of 25 to 30 men to resume search” for Herbert.

Another article found by Churchill, dated November 10, 1947, told that searchers combed the waters each day following the October 31, 1947 incident, but were handicapped by muddy waters, and ultimately, after Jean’s body was discovered, “heavy winds hampered efforts” to locate the presumed-drowned Herbert.  

A final article Churchill was able to locate was dated August 20, 1949, nearly two years after the incident involving the Bacon couple.  An extremity had been discovered ”about a mile above the power station at Grand Falls,” the article informed.  Two men from Kellyland were able to identify the boot still attached as belonging to Herbert.  It is unclear if, when, and where any remaining body parts of Herbert were ever discovered.

Churchill’s discovery of articles, however, has not brought closure to Bartlett, who states she does not believe them to be true.  “Why would a couple have a camp on an island if they weren't very good swimmers?  It would be one thing if one of them drowned, but both of them? And her husband not trying to save his wife...this is too bizarre to be true and I know that it's not and it's very disturbing,” she wrote in an email to this publication.  

She went on further, “What man would put his wife in peril in a canoe on Halloween night unless they were lured there by someone? Possibly wanting to buy the property or something else just doesn't ring true to me in any sense of the word.”

There is one more unexplained incident involving Herbert and Olive of concern to Bartlett.  Bartlett said she has visited their graves at Calais Cemetery, as recent as ten years ago.  Both Herbert and Olive had their own gravestone at that time, she said.  “They were black granite.  They were big and had etched pictures...they were gorgeous,” she said of the gravestones.

At her visit last week, however, Bartlett saw there was only one shared gravestone for the couple.  This gravestone, she said, appeared much newer.  She firmly believes it replaced the two that were originally set in place.  She could not find information on why the two stones had been replaced or by whom.