Marcia Nason Home in Acton

Mrs. Marcia Fogg has told me what she knows of the very old house, located in Acton, on the former Marcia Nason property.  Mrs. Marcia Fogg is the third Marcia in the Nason family, named for her great aunt, who lived in this house.

I can go back four generations to a Jacob Nason who came here from Kittery.  He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and his reason for coming here, in all probability, was that the government had granted him this land because of his service.  We know that he lived in a log cabin down at the foot of the knoll and that he and his wife are buried in the cemetery just beyond.

I cannot find whether he built the Clark house.  From it’s structure, Mr. Haley, the present owner, judges it to have been built in the latter part of 1700.

The next generation was a Benjamin Nason about whom I can find nothing, other than that he and his wife are buried in the same cemetery with Jacob Nason.

The next generation was Calvin Nason, George Nason’s grandfather.  He bult the Nason house across the road from the Clark house.  He married Mary Grant of Acton, whose home was on the  H Road, which is the back road to Great East Lake.  Their children were Sarah, Mary, Elmer and Marcia.  Marcia married a Clark from North Shapleigh, so now the Nason home became known as the “Clark House.”  Calvin Nason is buried in the Acton Corner cemetery.

Sarah married George Bragdon.  She was one of the first graduates of Gorham State Normal School, now University of Maine at Gorham.

Mary married Andrew Sholes of Waterboro.  After the sewing machine was in general use, she did sales work for many years.  Large bundles of cloth, which had been cut into men’s suits, especially vests, would be brought into rural areas and distributed to the housewives.  When they were made up, they would be returned to urban shops.

Elmer married Abbie Luella Abbott of Shapleigh.  Their children were Grace, Edna, Marcia and George.

Following the death of the latter George Nason, the “Clark House” now vacant for many years, was sold to Robert and Constance Haley of Acton, MA.  At the present time they are restoring the whole property, house, barn and grounds.  The best of the very old has been retained and modern requirements for gracious living have been added.  An unbelievable amount of painstaking labor has gone into this home.  Mr. & Mrs. Haley are most welcome new members of our community.

This house had the very old Indian blinds and some of them were found by Mr. Haley.  There is an old corn cob doll, still in existence, stored in an old keeping trunk, which belonged to the first Marcia Nason.  She died when she was six years old.  She is buried in the same cemetery where Calvin Nason lies, the Acton Corner Cemetery.

~Della M. Welch, 1970~