Jacksonport’s Photographer

Fred Erskine photographed people and scenes in Jacksonport from 1910 through the 1980s, and those images have been compiled into a 112-page coffee table book, Fred Erskine, Jacksonport’s Photographer by the Jacksonport Historical Society.

The photo collection features Jacksonport’s early industries of lumbering, commercial fishing, and farming, and businesses that came and went over the decades. Central to the collection is the Eureka House and Post Office, where Fred’s parents, Lincoln and Caroline Erskine, worked, lived, and raised their family – and where later Fred, serving as postmaster for 43 years, and his wife, Gertie, also worked, lived, and raised their own children.

There are many scenes of historical interest including the building of the highway through Jacksonport in 1910, the fire in 1935 that destroyed the Lake View Tavern, and the dedication of Lakeside Park in 1939. The collection also captures what life was like, highlighting Fred’s family and Jacksonport’s families Reynolds, Grovogel, Cote, and many others.

Marie (Erskine) Hein, the eldest child of Fred and Gertie, contributed insights and recollections about her father’s photos. Marie is now 92 years old.

Fred Erskine, Jacksonport’s Photographer, written by Becky Halstead, is available through the Jacksonport Historical Society, jacksonporthistoricalsociety.org.