The spooky start: Famous author's roots in Scarborough (Printed Nov. 2, 2007)
By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
Halloween has come and gone and chances are not a single trick-or-treater who rang the bell at Elliot Robinson’s 235 Black Point Road residence knew they were at the childhood home of Stephen King.
Still, says Rodney Laughton, author of two books on the town in the Images of America series and a contributor to “Scarborough at 350,” “it’s fairly well known in this area that Stephen King spent the earliest part of his childhood here.”
Learning that Maine’s most famous living author has roots in Scarborough stretching back more than a century, it’s easy to assume that two of the town’s most famous sons, Rufus and William King, are hanging from the horror-meister’s family tree. But Laughton says that’s not the case; the local connection is maternal.
According to George Beahm, who has written half-a-dozen books about the author, including “Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia Of His Life and Work,” King’s mother, Ruth Pillsbury, graduated from Scarborough High School in 1930, where she was nicknamed “Ruthie Pill” and “known for her talents in public speaking and drama.”
Ruth was the daughter of Guy and Nellie Fogg Pillsbury; the Pillsbury family has been in Scarborough since 1808, when King’s great-great-great grandfather, Jonathan Pillsbury, a native of Newbury, Mass., married a local girl, Shuah Milliken, daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Lord Milliken.
Ellen Sanford, who has lived in a cozy bungalow next door to the former Pillsbury residence for more than 65 years, raised two sons who played with King and his brother David as toddlers; she may be one of the few people left in town with first-hand memories of Ruthie Pill’s boy.
“I’ve thought of that so many times, how proud his mother would be,” she said.
So when did she realize that the little kid who lived next door had grown up to become a famous writer?
“I think it was the first time he had a book come out,” which would mean 1973, when “Carrie” was published. However Sanford, 86, says she’s “not much of a reader” and has never read any of his books.
“My daughter reads a lot but she doesn’t like his books, but I don’t know why or what it is about them.”
Elliot Robinson has never met the bestselling author, but the current resident of King’s childhood home has a second-hand memory of the author’s early years, which he learned more than a decade ago while listening to a National Public Radio interview with King.
“He was describing some sort of abscess or something and having to go to the doctor,” he said.
Like many young kids, King was frightened at the prospect of medical attention and told the interviewer how he went upstairs and hid from the doctor.
“Up in the bedroom,” Robinson explained, “there was a little cupboard and some drawers and stuff and you could get in around and behind the drawers.”
The description was vivid, Robinson said, “and I knew just where he was talking about.”
The connection however was not enough to turn him into a Stephen King fan. “I don’t think I’ve ever read a whole book. Might’ve seen a movie or two and I read a short story once, but I’m not really a big fan of that type of fiction,” Robinson said.
That’s not to say however that the former resident doesn’t come to mind now and again. Robinson relates how the house, which had been built by Guy Pillsbury, King’s grandfather, “was actually built on the foundation of a house that burned, going way back. There have been times,” Robinson said, “when I’m digging around and find remnants of the fire that are still buried in the ground and I always think about Stephen King.”
“I’m not sure,” Robinson said, “because it’s just stuff that I’ve heard,” but when the previous house burned, King’s grandfather “lost a child in the fire.”
Ellen Sanford knew that one of Guy and Nellie Pillsbury’s daughters died young of a burst appendix, but if a child perished in the fire that consumed the first house at 235 Black Point Road it occurred long before she moved in next door.
Guy and Nellie Pillsbury and the two daughters who died in childhood are buried just up the street in the Black Point Cemetery. If what Elliot Robinson heard is true, one can only imagine the stories Stephen King might have heard as a child and wonder how those few years spent living in Scarborough may have shaped the man and writer he was to become.
Staff Writer
Halloween has come and gone and chances are not a single trick-or-treater who rang the bell at Elliot Robinson’s 235 Black Point Road residence knew they were at the childhood home of Stephen King.
Still, says Rodney Laughton, author of two books on the town in the Images of America series and a contributor to “Scarborough at 350,” “it’s fairly well known in this area that Stephen King spent the earliest part of his childhood here.”
Learning that Maine’s most famous living author has roots in Scarborough stretching back more than a century, it’s easy to assume that two of the town’s most famous sons, Rufus and William King, are hanging from the horror-meister’s family tree. But Laughton says that’s not the case; the local connection is maternal.
According to George Beahm, who has written half-a-dozen books about the author, including “Stephen King from A to Z: An Encyclopedia Of His Life and Work,” King’s mother, Ruth Pillsbury, graduated from Scarborough High School in 1930, where she was nicknamed “Ruthie Pill” and “known for her talents in public speaking and drama.”
Ruth was the daughter of Guy and Nellie Fogg Pillsbury; the Pillsbury family has been in Scarborough since 1808, when King’s great-great-great grandfather, Jonathan Pillsbury, a native of Newbury, Mass., married a local girl, Shuah Milliken, daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Lord Milliken.
Ellen Sanford, who has lived in a cozy bungalow next door to the former Pillsbury residence for more than 65 years, raised two sons who played with King and his brother David as toddlers; she may be one of the few people left in town with first-hand memories of Ruthie Pill’s boy.
“I’ve thought of that so many times, how proud his mother would be,” she said.
So when did she realize that the little kid who lived next door had grown up to become a famous writer?
“I think it was the first time he had a book come out,” which would mean 1973, when “Carrie” was published. However Sanford, 86, says she’s “not much of a reader” and has never read any of his books.
“My daughter reads a lot but she doesn’t like his books, but I don’t know why or what it is about them.”
Elliot Robinson has never met the bestselling author, but the current resident of King’s childhood home has a second-hand memory of the author’s early years, which he learned more than a decade ago while listening to a National Public Radio interview with King.
“He was describing some sort of abscess or something and having to go to the doctor,” he said.
Like many young kids, King was frightened at the prospect of medical attention and told the interviewer how he went upstairs and hid from the doctor.
“Up in the bedroom,” Robinson explained, “there was a little cupboard and some drawers and stuff and you could get in around and behind the drawers.”
The description was vivid, Robinson said, “and I knew just where he was talking about.”
The connection however was not enough to turn him into a Stephen King fan. “I don’t think I’ve ever read a whole book. Might’ve seen a movie or two and I read a short story once, but I’m not really a big fan of that type of fiction,” Robinson said.
That’s not to say however that the former resident doesn’t come to mind now and again. Robinson relates how the house, which had been built by Guy Pillsbury, King’s grandfather, “was actually built on the foundation of a house that burned, going way back. There have been times,” Robinson said, “when I’m digging around and find remnants of the fire that are still buried in the ground and I always think about Stephen King.”
“I’m not sure,” Robinson said, “because it’s just stuff that I’ve heard,” but when the previous house burned, King’s grandfather “lost a child in the fire.”
Ellen Sanford knew that one of Guy and Nellie Pillsbury’s daughters died young of a burst appendix, but if a child perished in the fire that consumed the first house at 235 Black Point Road it occurred long before she moved in next door.
Guy and Nellie Pillsbury and the two daughters who died in childhood are buried just up the street in the Black Point Cemetery. If what Elliot Robinson heard is true, one can only imagine the stories Stephen King might have heard as a child and wonder how those few years spent living in Scarborough may have shaped the man and writer he was to become.
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