Nathaniel Staples House. 2 Littlebrook airpark, Eliot, Maine
Nathaniel Staples purchased 350 acres of land with this house upon it from his first cousin Noah Fernald. The house is believed to have been built in the 1730s by a member of the Fernald Family.
Nathaniel was a private and a sailor in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted on May 12, 1775, serving as a private in Captain T. Fernald’s company of the 13th Foot Regiment. He marched to Boston and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1776. In November he enlisted on the privateer brig “Dalton” which was captured by the British warship “Reasonable” in December.
The officers and crew were taken to England and confined in the notorious Old Mill Prison at Plymouth in June of 1777. He was exchanged in March of 1779 sailing with John Paul Jones on board the “Alliance” and arrived back in Eliot in August 1780.
Nathaniel married Elisabeth Leighton, daughter of Deacon William and Mary (Bane Leighton. Nathaniel Staples was instrumental in getting the town to make a road from William W. Fernald’s in Kittery to Moses Paul’s in Eliot about 1812 – this being today part of “Goodwin Road”.
After 100 years of Staples control the farm was sold to the Nashua Lumber Company to settle the estate of Nathaniel Staples (grandson of the original Nathaniel). Later sold by them to Nelson and son John S. Barnard who began their own market gardening operation and planted apple and peach trees.
By the late 1920s and early 1930s they were trucking the fruit into the Portland, Maine market. Most of the crop land associated with this property remains in Barnard descendants’ hands to this day in 2010.
The rest of the farm on top of the hill was eventually purchased by Jack Hardy who founded Littlebrook Airport in 1971.
The journey to rebuilding an old house
In 1981 Jack and Jean moved into the house and thus began years of remodeling the house which meant basics like bathrooms and a kitchen sink had to be installed. The house was a mess.