Were it not for the inventive brain of one of East Winthrop's early inhabitants, says a contemporary, the village would hardly be known across the lake, but early in the present century one of the numerous family of Maine Baileys evolved a scheme to fill his purse faster than the slow process of nature was likely to do it in growing crops. Oilcloth carpetings were not known in the long ago, when Ezekiel Bailey pictured in his mind how they might be made, and it was in the little hamlet of East Winthrop that the conceit of their manufacture was hatched and executed. Ezekiel Bailey was, in the days prior to the war of 1812, looked upon as a very likely boy. He was studious and industrious, and while other boys of the village were out in the white oak groves setting box traps for gray squirrels, and spearing pickerel by torch light in the waters of Cobosseecontee, Ezekiel was busy in his little workshop fashioning useful things to be used about the house. Just how and when and where he was prompted to attempt the making of oilcloth carpet nobody now living at East Winthrop seems to know. Many of the burghers thought he was "a-wastin' uv his time," but they thought different some years later when great factories for the manufacture of oilcloth floor carpeting were erected in East Winthrop, Hallowell, New Jersey, and other places. And Ezekiel? He amassed a considerable fortune and left the path of life much easier for his kin to pursue. Having met a peddler one day, he bought a table cover made of a combination of burlap and paint. Such things were a luxury in the country at that time, and Ezekiel Bailey was shrewd enough to foresee a big demand for them if the cost could be moderated a bit. While thinking, an idea came to him, and following the idea a small voice which whispered: "Make 'em yourself." He decided to try, and there is a legend to the effect that half the farmers of the village quit work to see the first table cover. Procuring a square of burlap, or rather enough burlap from which to fashion a square of the desired size, Ezekiel Bailey framed up the fabric as the good old grandmas used to hitch up quilts at a quilting bee, the only difference being that the burlap was framed or stretched over a table made of planed boards large enough for the full spread of the burlap. With paint and brush he began his work. The first coat was a tiller; the next, a thicker one, gave body to the cloth, and when this was rubbed down to a smooth surface the last coat was prepared. This was of a different color and was spread on thick. Then, with a straight edge, a piece of board with a true, thin edge, reaching across the whole surface of painted cloth, the finishing touches were put on. Commencing at one end of the fabric, the straight edge was moved back and forth, and straight along over the fresh paint once or twice, and the whole thing left to dry.