I was happy to read that a group of our local youth “adopted” a team from Curacao during their success in winning the Senior Little League World Series title at Mansfield Field in Bangor recently. I couldn’t help but think that it was almost a Stephen King-like coincidence, since a bonding of another local native to that island and its people occurred 126 years ago.

His name was Leonard Billings Smith of Orrington. Born in 1839, he left home and went to sea at the age of 14; he had earned his captain’s license before he turned 20, and he bought his first coastal schooner when he was 22. Like many other local entrepreneurs during that glorious period in our history, he hauled freight from Bangor to Europe and the Caribbean, and with his earnings he bought shares of numerous other vessels.

In 1876, after taking on a load of salt at Bonaire, an island of Dutch possession off the coast of Venezuela, he stopped at the nearby sister island of Curacao, and was instantly taken with its beauty and climate, as well as the trading potential of its capital city, Willemstad. He delivered the salt to Bangor, loaded up with lumber and ice, and returned to Curacao to trade and to live.

He soon discovered that the market for ice was nonexistent, however, since the natives were unaccustomed to its use, and actually believed it to be unhealthy. But while his cargo was slowly turning to water, Captain Smith developed a plan:

He observed that the natives were especially fond of a locally brewed beer, and he started serving it to his new found friends – chilled. It wasn’t long before they had acquired a taste for the ice-cold brew instead of warm beer, and the captain’s new enterprise was on its way to success. He built an ice storage house, which he stocked with 700 tons of Penobscot River ice every three months. This immediately led to another enterprise – importing and selling iceboxes.

His reputation grew along with his pocketbook, and in 1884, he was appointed by President Chester Arthur as the American consul to Curacao. His government career did not dampen his entrepreneurial spirit, and between trips to Bangor, he accomplished the following:

. He designed and built a 688-foot- long pontoon bridge across Saint Anne Bay, connecting Willemstad to the rest of the island, hinged at one end so that it could be opened to admit sailing vessels (the pontoons were made in Camden). It was, of course, a toll bridge – and the good captain was allowed to keep most of the receipts. The bridge is still in use today.

. Seeing the decline of sailing ships, he developed a coal depot to serve the growing steamship trade.

. In 1895, he developed and operated the first water distribution system on the island, followed in 1897 by an electric lighting system.

All of these enterprises helped to make him one of Curacao’s wealthiest citizens. He never gave away his U.S. citizenship, however, and whenever he returned to his second home in Brewer, he was always known to drop a $100 bill in the collection box of the Congregational Church.

He died in December 1898 at the relatively young age of 59, and it is a further measure of the esteem to which he was held that, in 1936, a square in downtown Willemstad was dedicated to his memory.

And perhaps it was his spirit that turned the attention of our kids to their kids, and perhaps he had a very special box seat behind home plate to see it all happen.

John T. Frawley is a retired Bangor city engineer who lives in Hampden. He learned about Capt. Smith during a visit to Curacao 20 years ago. Research done at the Bangor Public Library allowed him to fill in the rest of the story.