History and Descendants of Robert Douglass

We are indebted to P.M. Douglass for this information.

Robert (born 1801 on Deer Isle) and his sons built a house on Deer Isle and then took it apart and numbered each piece. The pieces were then bundled together and Robert took the house along with wife Susan (born 1799) and 8 children aboard a ship that sailed around the Horn to San Francisco, arriving in 1850. They sailed up the Sacramento River to Antioch, Ca. Finding that this area did not suit them,they sailed back to Petaluma,Ca. where they remained and erected their home. Their son Robert, Jr., married Hannah Hathaway 12/31/1851. This was the first marriage of a white couple in Petaluma.  

[Note:  A review of Hosmer's Sketch of Deer Isle and Vital Statistics of D.I. prior to 1867 indicates that the Douglass family may actually resided on Isle au Haut, which at that time was part of the town of Deer Isle.]  The Douglass family was part of a group that sailed to California in a vessel owned by George Kimball  of Kimball's Island off Isle au haut. He had the 600-ton vessel built in Cutler, Maine. Apparently most,if not all, of these people were originally intending to go to Salt Lake City to become Mormons.