A.C. McLoon

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Albert Chase McLoon (December 7, 1874 – December 20, 1965) was an American businessman and public official from Rockland, Maine. He founded the A.C. McLoon Lobster Company, a seafood business that operated along the Maine coast in the 20th century. McLoon also served as mayor of Rockland from 1909 to 1911.

Albert Chase McLoon was born in Rockland, Knox County, Maine, to Silas W. McLoon and Adell Medora Peaslee.^[1]

In the early 20th century, McLoon established A.C. McLoon & Co., a seafood and lobstering enterprise based in Rockland. The company operated a wharf and processing facilities on the city’s waterfront and was known for purchasing lobsters from local fishermen^[2] and supplying bait and marine fuel.^[3]

A.C. McLoon & Co. expanded its operations to include a buying station at Spruce Head and managed two lobster pounds on Hewett Island (also known as Hewitt Island) in the Muscle Ridge Channel. The company did not operate a retail outlet, instead selling its entire catch to Bay State Lobster Company in Boston for regional and national distribution.^[4]

Over time, A.C. McLoon & Co. absorbed other local seafood businesses, including the Thorndike & Hix Lobster Company and the Penobscot Fish Company. In 1971, the company was sold to Bay State Lobster Company.^[5] As part of that transaction, the company’s island property—Hewett Island—was excluded from the sale. The island remained in the possession of McLoon’s descendants, and continues to be co-owned by multiple families, including direct descendants of McLoon.^[6][7]

The company commissioned the building of the lobster smack A.C. McLoon in 1947 in Friendship, Maine. A photograph dated April 25, 1948, shows the vessel underway in Rockland Harbor.^[8] The vessel was operational until the late 20th century and was last recorded in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 2007.

McLoon married Mabel Ella Haines on June 16, 1897, also in Rockland. Together they had three children: Marion, Pauline, and John Haines McLoon.^[9] He died in Rockland in 1965 at the age of 91.^[10]