Photo: Fogg Farm, located in the Emery District of Bar Harbor, displays its farming and dairy delivery vehicles in front of the farmhouse and barn. Most dairies and farms were located on the north and northwestern side of MDI, where the rich soils were more productive for farming than the rocky soils in the eastern and southwestern areas. Image undated, ca. 1890s. Courtesy of the John Clark Collection, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
outbreak of typhoid led to several deaths that were investigated by Dr. Wm. J. Morton and reported on in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. In his report, Dr. Morton cites the growth of Bar Harbor from “no more than half a dozen houses” to a dozen hotels and a large collection of smaller houses that during the summer season could accommodate between two and three thousand people. “We have, in this instance, repeated at Bar Harbor, an experience common to many growing villages where sanitary precautions have failed to keep pace with increased population.” Mistrust of the intelligence and capacity of the local population to apply new science guiding improved health and safety standards is clearly expressed in this report, and is a characterization also found in later milk regulation by summer residents. “The proprietorship of both hotels and cottages is almost exclusively confined to the native population, whose limited means and contracted ideas have precluded any further realization of the requirements of a civilized township than those primary ones of food and shelter. As a consequence, the primitive means of disposal of the excreta and kitchen washings of a half- dozen cottages are still applied to the crowded summer village….The evidence of lax sanitary measures was seen on every hand.” An outbreak of disease or a poor reputation for cleanliness could quickly ruin a summer resort, with people choosing to vacation elsewhere. This concern demanded immediate improvements to sanitary standards on MDI. Preventing infection was a primary concern, so efforts were taken to create sanitary standards and ensure they were followed. This was one of the main efforts of the Village Improvement Associations (VIA) or Village Improvement Societies (VIS) that were
established in Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, Somesville, and other villages in the late 1800s.
Primarily run by summer residents and prominent year-round businessmen, doctors, and judges, the VIAs tasked themselves with a number of community responsibilities, including roads and paths, recreation, and sanitation, which included a milk committee. Each VIA had a slightly different committee structure and focus, but all of them had a milk committee which oversaw dairy inspections for cleanliness and gave recommendations for improvements, ensured milk was being tested for various diseases, and reported their findings to the community. A concerted effort was made to educate the public and farmers about the cleanliness of milk supplies and which farms were the cleanest and therefore produced the safest milk. Often, a condescending tone can be detected in these reports, and farmers had to subject their homes, work, and employees to oversight from outsiders. Diseases, Testing, and Monitoring Raw milk, which was the standard product before pasteurization ensured milk was disease-free, does not contain enough antimicrobial compounds to kill pathogens, and over a dozen serious illnesses can result from contaminated milk, including food poisoning from E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria, to more serious infections like tuberculosis and typhoid. “While no major outbreak of disease during the summer season was ever traced to the island's milk supply, the threat of infection was ever-present in the urban visitor’s mind. Milk reform was a major issue in large cities.” The reform movement increasingly impacted MDI dairies, starting with inspections and
10 | KNOWLESLETTER SUMMER 2026
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