2023 Western Maine

3 It Makes No Never Mind

James Nalley

4 Westbrook’s Unusual Occurrences

A giant snake and spinning ice disc

Jeffrey Bradley

10 Masonic Lodge In Cornish Honored A Heroic Brother

Adapted from “Maine at War”

Brian Swartz

14 Waterville’s Penobscot & Kennebec Railroad

“The iron horse will be snorting”

Brian Swartz

18 Lewiston’s Alonzo Garcelon Governor by default Charles Francis

22 Auburn’s Trial Of The Century Murder on the high seas

Charles Francis

26 Oliver Otis Howard Of Leeds Humanitarian and General

Charles Francis

32 Sarah Katherine Taylor

Her Bridgton connection

James Nalley

34 Bethel’s Edward Morse

The “father of Japanese archaeology”

James Nalley

38 “Colby” Jack Coombs

The pitcher’s pitcher

Charles Francis

41 Farmington’s Julia Harris May

A polished poet

James Nalley

44 Andover’s John Alfred Poor

Maine’s railway visionary

James Nalley

49 Rum Runner Gap

The bootlegger trail at the border

Charles Francis

54 One Very Tall Yarn

A brief history of Skowhegan’s Maine Spinning Company

Jeffrey Bradley

60 Lucius Hubbard’s Maps

Guiding canoeists through the north woods

Charles Francis

63 Canaan’s Abner Coburn

Maine’s most philanthropic governor

Charles Francis

Publisher

Jim Burch

Editor Dennis Burch

Design & Layout

Liana Merdan

Distributors

Lendall & Sue Scott

Contributing Writers

Jeffrey Bradley

Charles Francis

James Nalley

Brian Swartz

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SUBSCRIPTION FORM ON PAGE 66

Front Cover Photo: Post Office in South Bridgton. Item # LB2007.1.102490 from Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

All photos in Discover Maine’s Western Maine issue show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine.

Photos are also provided from our collaboration with the Maine Historical Society and the Penobscot Marine Museum

It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

By the time of this publication, Mainers will have survived yet another winter with its ups and downs, after which they are promptly rewarded with the so-called “fifth season,” i.e., the mud season. At this point, one has two choices: 1) continue to hunker down, even though, mentally, it might not be a good idea (considering the winter); or 2) accept it and head out into the fray! For those that choose the latter, the following are some ideas in Western Maine, considering that you dust off your preferred L.L. Bean, Bogs, or Muck boots.

First, with the winter ending, the ski season at Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley refuses to go out with a final bang. In this case, it offers the Reggae Festival in early mid-April. Billed as “the largest spring skiing festival in the East, it features two nights of music in the King Pine Room, two days of outside entertainment on The Beach, three nights of music in The Widowmaker, and reggae DJs at Bullwinkle’s. All outdoor music on the Beach is free, while tickets can be purchased for one night or the entire weekend. In their words, “When the lifts stop spinning, the party is just getting started.”

Second, for a more sedate experience, there is the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray. Re-opening in mid-April, this unique park is not a typical zoo. Instead, it is where injured, orphaned, or human-dependent animals find sanctuary. In fact, the park is home to more than 30 species of Maine wildlife that cannot be returned to their natural habitats. There is also a fish hatchery, gardens, and two educational walking trails. There are also guided tours offered throughout the week.

Third, there are the five breweries on the Western Maine Beer Trail, including: Oxbow Beer Garden in Oxford, a renovated 200-year-old barn with a restaurant (and wood-fired oven) and tap room; Norway Brewing in Norway, a country farmhouse with an outdoor patio, where you can play card games and Trivial Pursuit while waiting for your craft brew and food; Side by Each Brewing Company, a small brewery with a large tasting room, and delicious food from Pinky D’s food truck; Gritty’s Brew Pub in downtown Auburn, which offers handcrafted ales and traditional pub fare, and is the “brew pub of choice for Mainers and folks ‘from away’”; and Baxter Brewing Company

in Lewiston, a renovated 150-year-old mill that features 20 taps and delicious food, with their beer served in cans, which they swear makes the beer taste better.

At this point, let me first ask, “Is that mud on your boots?” Then, let me close with the following jest: A little boy is patiently fishing in a mud puddle with a stick and a piece of string. A man walks by and with a slight chuckle says, “What are you doing there, son? Fishing?” “Yes sir!” replies the boy. “I’m going to catch some really big fish and sell them to buy my mama some flowers for her birthday!” The man says, “Oh, you’re such a good boy. I’ll tell you what. Here’s $10. I’ll be over there talking with my friends outside of that house. Make sure to give me mine the minute you catch it!” The boy smiles and says, “Thanks a lot sir! I definitely will!” As the man walks away, he stops, turns around, and asks, “By the way, I see you are sitting on a cooler. How many fish have you caught?” The boy says, “Oh…you’re the first.”

Discover Maine

Westbrook’s Unusual

A giant snake and spinning ice disc

by Jeffrey Bradley

Picturesque Westbrook is known for its quaint and interesting history. There are those remnants of the old Oxford & Cumberland Canal, the aged SD Warren (“Sappi”) Paper Mill, and the outdoor drive-in movie theatre at Prides Corner that’s one of the last in the state. In more recent history, Westbrook has become famous for an elusive 10-foot snake — at least! — and the even bigger but perfectly round spinning circle of ice.

It’s got the folks from near and far asking, What’s going on with Westbrook?

Somehow the place seems bent on adding a bizarre chapter to the already long and storied lore of strange happen-

ings and odd acts of nature that occur so frequently in Maine. Now add to those wandering ghosts, haunted forests, and whirling holes in the ocean some inexplicable incidents occurring near a bend in the Presumpscot River along Riverbank Park, mainly, “Wessie”, the oft seen but elusive python, and a gigantic navy blue and white perpetually spinning disk made of ice.

All of it amazing; but — how can such things be?

The snake, described as being the length of a truck, with a head the size of a football, was seen by many people, including two policemen who observed it in the river while devouring an unfortunate beaver. A shed snakeskin next

found in the park sent the hype into overdrive, especially when it turned out to be a green anaconda’s, one of the world’s largest serpents. (Unless, of course, everything was just a hoax.) Yet, this creature lives only in the tropics and nowhere near Maine. So, with no more sightings forthcoming, experts claimed it had fallen a victim to the chill of autumn. Still, Wessiemania had already taken root; social media pages blossomed across the Internet, and even the nation’s media descended on Westbrook. Although Wessie was heard from no more, this deterred not at all diehard believers from searching for further clues, or the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland

from mounting a giant snake exhibit, or Westbrook from cashing in on the hoopla.

A “Wessie Fest”, which included a marketing video starring the snake and special snake-related flyers announcing the shindig plastered all over town, which featured Wessie T-shirts, a “PieThon” baking contest, photo-ops with a mock-up of Wessie, and lots of cold Wessie beer was held and, according to all accounts, proved a smashing success.

Now, whether the snake was real or not doesn’t seem to matter; what does matter is that the town accepted what might be a giant exotic snake slithering around in their midst. Who knows? It’s never been found, but the legend lives on. More important is the fact that it never showed up for the party!

Giant roving snakes may or may not belong buried deep in the X-files. Enormous spinning ice disks, not so much.

J.T. REID’S GUN SHOP

These freaks of nature are found mostly in cold places like Scandinavia where they’re not at all common. Although most form in the twenty- to thirty-foot range, the Westbrook phenomenon has an impressive 300-foot diameter that turns at the speed of a brisk walk.

This monster may just be the biggest one ever. Residents of Aroostook County, a few years back, did chop a circle from pond ice that measured some 400-feet across and took four outboard motors to get moving. But that didn’t count, because it was man-made.

Something called the Coriolis effect (it concerns the earth’s rotation) makes the ice disk move in a counterclockwise direction, like all storms do north of the Equator. Intriguingly, south of that line all ice disks — and storms — move in an opposite clockwise way.

These spectacles are rare because they form under special conditions.

Temperature, water speed, the shape of the river, all play a role. But given the right freezing temperatures, a bend in the river where an eddy can form, some ice to solidify, and — presto! — you might have an ice disk that spins. Westbrook’s version is so huge that it’s been compared to a slushy crop circle, an icy carousel, or even a frozen Moon. Otherworldly, translucent, and altogether improbable, this wonderous beauty revolves in the river like a fine work of art.

Some debate exists over how they are formed. Do different water temperatures create a vortex that sets the ice spinning? (A circular chunk of ice plunked down in a warm tub of water will begin to whirl.) And how does the ice get so perfectly round? Eroded that way by a whirlpool? Or simply by scraping against the sides of the riverbank? Again, who knows? (And there’s no truth to the rumor at all that Wessie’s (cont. on page 6)

(cont. from page 5)

under the ice and twirling it.)

So smoothly does it turn, in fact, that it is almost alien engineered.

Weather formed that disk; weather will take it away. Because it’s so ephemeral scientists have been scrambling to study it by webcam and drone before its inevitable demise. Until then, people continue to come and marvel at one of nature’s more fantastical quirks.

It makes you kind wonder what, exactly, is going on with Westbrook that keeps producing these oddball manifestations, doesn’t it?

Masonic Lodge In Cornish Honored A Heroic Brother

Adapted from “Maine at War”

by Brian Swartz

John C. Wadsworth arrived in Cornish on Wednesday, November 18, 1863 to be greeted by his Masonic brothers from Greenleaf Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Born in Hiram circa 1838, he was the son of John and Mary Wadsworth. The elder John died about 1845, leaving Mary a widow with six children, according to the 1850 census. Hiram borders Cornish to the south. Sometime during the late 1850s or early 1860s, John C. Wadsworth joined Greenleaf Lodge. He was still a member before joining the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment as a private on Au-

gust 5, 1862.

A 24-year-old clerk, Wadsworth was single and working in Portland as a clerk when he enlisted. He stood 5-6 and had blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. He mustered into the 5th Maine in August. He came home a hero, killed while fighting at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Mourners gathered at the Riverside Cemetery on Maple Street (modern Route 25) on November 19 to listen to Reverend Albert Cole perform Wadsworth’s funeral.

Assisted by their brothers from three other lodges (including Carroll Lodge

in Freedom, New Hampshire), the Greenleaf Lodge brothers performed Mason ceremonies at Wadsworth’s graveside. His stone still stands in Riverside Cemetery. Meeting at their lodge on Friday night, November 20, the Greenleaf brothers resolved that concerning Wadsworth, “Falling where heroes fell [at Gettysburg], his memory shall be cherished where heroes still live [the United States] — one among the many noble martyrs to liberty — he holds a hallowed place in every heart which patriotism urges to quickened pulsation.

“We who knew him in social and fraternal life, bear cheerful testimony to his worthwhile living,” Greenleaf brothers agreed.

Ironically, Wadsworth had vanished from the 5th Maine Infantry almost as soon as he joined it. That he died at Gettysburg was certain; a Portland newspaper and a Riverside Cemetery record concur he was killed there on July 2. But, in arriving at Gettysburg late that Thursday, the 5th Maine engaged in no fighting and suffered no soldiers killed during the battle. The next 5th Mainer to die in combat would be Pvt. Franklin Bean of Rumford, killed near Hagerstown, Maryland later in July.

While the 5th Maine Infantry needed every warm-bodied man it could recruit, Wadsworth transferred to the 17th U.S. Infantry Regiment at Augusta on November 24, 1862. Why he transferred will never be known, but 17th Infantry recruiters were working the Pine Tree State that fall.

Wadsworth signed up for the balance of his three-year enlistment with the 5th Maine. Assigned to Company B in the 17th U.S., he probably shipped promptly for the war zone.

Company B belonged to the regiment’s 2nd Battalion, and at Gettysburg Lt. Col. James D. Greene commanded the 17th U.S. Infantry. A Massachusetts native, he graduated from Harvard and later invented the Greene rifle, a bolt-action rifle used by some troops during the Civil War.

Like Wadsworth, Greene had joined a state regiment (the 5th Massachusetts Infantry), then soon transferred to the 17th U.S. At Gettysburg his regiment served in the 2nd Brigade (Col. Sidney Burbank) of the 2nd Division (Brig. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres), V Corps.

Ironically, the 17th U.S. Infantry crossed paths, at least indirectly with the 17th Maine Infantry, at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Late that afternoon the Mainers had defended the Wheatfield

against Confederate infantry and had lost many men there.

Greene, Wadsworth, and the 17th U.S. Infantry piled into the Wheatfield fighting at 6 p.m. Engaged in combat for some two hours, “the regiment suffered severely from the fire of the enemy,” Greene later reported.

Among his men killed at the Wheatfield was Corporal John C. Wadsworth, whose body lay beneath the hot Pennsylvania sun for a day or two until Confederate troops withdrew from the area. Someone (perhaps his 17th U.S. comrades) buried Wadsworth near where he fell and adequately marked his grave so he could be identified.

As the Gettysburg National Cemetery coalesced on Cemetery Hill that fall, Pennsylvanian Samuel Weaver oversaw the freed blacks hired to exhume soldiers’ bodies scattered across the battlefield. Weaver’s employees reached Wadsworth in late October or early November. By practice, Weaver (cont. on page 12)

(cont. from page 11)

was present, watching his men remove Wadsworth from his grave. Weaver would have confirmed the body as being that of a Union soldier, and he found sufficient on-site evidence to identify Wadsworth.

Why the Maine hero was not buried in the national cemetery is not known. Friends and relatives back home in Cornish and Hiram learned he had been found; someone lobbied to have Wadsworth sent home for burial, and his coffin traveled by train to Maine.

Waterville’s Penobscot & Kennebec Railroad

iron horse will be snorting”

by

Bangor residents raided Waterville so quickly in late July 1855 that a local newspaper editor was not really sure what happened — until reminded by a Bangor paper.

Waterville was the focal point for railroad construction that year. The big project involved building the new Penobscot & Kennebec Railroad from Waterville to Bangor. Construction had started at both ends in 1854.

From Bangor came reports in late September 1854 that a steam shovel was digging away at High Head, a landmark since Portuguese explorer

Estevan Gomez (sailing for Spain) sailed up the Penobscot River and anchored off the future Bangor in 1525. The steam shovel’s operator was excavating the headland to make room for “depots and other buildings.”

“The ship-loads of railroad iron had reached Bangor,” and “workmen” had gained sufficient experience to start lay “about a half mile [of track] each day.” Railroad backers hoped the P&K could be finished “in the shortest space of time,” the Bangor Whig reported.

By mid-October 1854, “the dry weather has been very favorable” for

railroad construction, and workers completed 15 miles “from Kendall’s Mills [in Fairfield] eastward,” a new bridge carrying the railroad over the Kennebec River, the Whig stated. Having chewed through High Head, the steam shovel was “now dismantled and housed up for the winter,” the paper indicated.

Even as P&K track crews worked toward Bangor, other crews constructed the Somerset & Kennebec Railroad, intended to connect Augusta, Waterville, and Skowhegan. The railroad bed “from Augusta to Winslow Point” and

“The

Brian Swartz

“from Waterville to Kendall’s Mills” was completed by mid-November, and “the deep cut between Ticonic and Sebasticook Bridges will be finished … this month,” reported The Eastern Mail, published in Waterville.

Workers were “laying the iron from Kendall’s Mills to Waterville,” the paper noted. If the bridges could be completed, too, “the iron horse will be snorting at Kendall’s Mills” by New Year’s Day.

By late December south-bound P&K construction reached Pittsfield, and the section between that town and Bangor was “opened immediately” around Christmas 1854, according to The Eastern Mail. Construction ended for the winter.

Construction resumed in mid-May 1855, with track being laid “as fast as it can be driven,” the Whig reported. The P&K’s owners wanted their railroad to “be the best, as a new road, of any yet constructed in Maine.”

Even as iron rails extended from Waterville toward Augusta, Bangor, and Skowhegan, railroad owners exerted political pressure in Augusta. The 1854 legislature had passed a law banning people from “standing or walking on the track of any railroad in this State,” The Eastern Mail reminded readers.

Waterville-area residents accustomed to walking where they pleased, especially along the mud-free railroad tracks, chafed at the fines “of not less than five or more than twenty dollars” that trespassers incurred per incident.

Multiple no-trespassing signs appeared along the tracks below and above Waterville, and the Mail expressed no sympathy for scofflaws. “Those who have been once run over by a locomotive will be thankful for any security against a recurrence of the accident,” the paper’s editors opined.

But critters could not read the no-trespass statute or signs. On Wednesday, May 27, several horses owned by

Fairfield resident Nathaniel Woodman wandered onto the P&K track “a short distance this side of Kendall’s Mills” and started grazing there, according to the Mail. There was no “suitable fence … [to] restrain them.”

An approaching train hit and killed the horses. The Mail blamed the railroad’s stockholders for not investing in trackside fence, but that pesky no-trespass law enacted a year earlier theoretically protected the P&K against liability for the animals’ deaths.

Huffing and puffing locomotives became so common in Waterville by midsummer 1855 that even The Eastern Mail reported minimally about the P&K. “We knew a few cars had gone over to their city [Bangor]” on Monday, July 30, “but our citizens were really caught napping by the Bangoreans” that day. “Crammed with passengers,” those same cars suddenly came “whizzing back again before dinner could be got ready,” the paper noted. Adventur(cont. on page 16)

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(cont. from page 15)

ous Bangor residents were testing their brand new railroad to see if they could travel round trip the same day to Waterville!

And “but for the best jumps of the telegraph, the surprise would have been complete!”

“The trip was emphatically a flying one,” the Mail admitted. Bangoreans came, saw, and vamoosed; “briefly, as a sunbeam slips down between the clouds, we saw a galaxy of gentlemen and ladies to whom Waterville seemed to be a greater curiosity than to us — and ‘that’s all we know about it,’” the paper’s editors wrote.

Had not the Bangor Journal’s editor accompanied the excursion to Waterville, “we should [not] dare to report it as a fact,” the Waterville editors said. The Bangor editor complimented Waterville “on the beauty of our village, the excellency of Elmwood Hotel,” whose owners “received only a telegraphic

despatch [sic], a short time before the regular dinner hour.” Hungry Bangoreans “repaired to Elmwood, where … Seavey and his prompt assistants put upon the table a dinner that needed no apology’ for quality and taste.

After dinner, many Bangoreans strolled “about the town, admiring the beautiful streets and visiting the college grounds and inspecting the literary curiosities,” the Journal noted. “We were on the plains of one of the most beautiful interior towns in Maine.”

Boarding their P&K passengers cars at 5 p.m., Bangoreans waved out the windows at the “Watervillonians” gathered at the depot. “At the instance of Mr. Barrett,” the hometown crowd “gave us hearty cheers in parting,” the Journal’s editor noted.

by Charles Francis

Maine, like the country as a whole, has seen its share of contested elections for its highest office. Two of the most controversial elections for the office of governor of Maine involved Alonzo Garcelon of Lewiston. Like the controversy involving Bush and Gore in Florida, the controversies involved charges of voter intimidation, ballot tampering, and questions of voter intent. At various times the Maine legislature was forced to take charge, as Republican and Democrat political bosses tried to broker winners. Thrown into the mix was the newly-established Greenback Party, which garnered more support in Maine than anyone thought possible. At various times such respected Maine figures as James G. Blaine and Joshua

Chamberlain had their lives threatened, and Governor Garcelon had to call out the militia to keep order in the capital.

Alonzo Garcelon was one of the most complex figures ever to grace the stage of Maine state politics. He was a wealthy man who had made a small fortune in the cotton industry of Lewiston. He was also a Democrat who favored the workingman. In addition, he was a doctor who was one of the driving forces behind the modernization of the medical profession in Maine. Moreover, he was the first figure from the burgeoning mill towns of central Maine to become a governor as well as the first of French extraction to rise to statewide prominence.

Alonzo Garcelon established himself in the Lewiston cotton industry at

the time of Lewiston’s greatest industrial growth spurt during the 1840s. Garcelon, along with another Lewiston businessman by the name of John Frye, founded the Lewiston Falls Cotton Mill. Neither Garcelon nor Frye were interested in devoting themselves to the life of mill owner, however. Nor were they suited to the life. Both had political aspirations, though they were of opposing viewpoints. Frye was a staunch Republican. In fact, his brother John, also a Republican, would be the first Lewiston native to serve in Congress.

Garcelon and Frye sold the Lewiston Falls Cotton Mill to the Lewiston Water Power Company. The mill set the tone and style for Lewiston’s textile industry. The Lewiston Water Power Company went on to purchase several other area industries, including the Androscoggin Falls dam, and was involved in the establishment of the Bates Mill. By the time this happened, however, Alonzo Garcelon was deeply

involved in state politics as a doctor and as a Democrat.

One of Alonzo Garcelon’s major concerns as a physician was the lack of standards for the medical profession in Maine. While there had been several attempts to establish self-governing medical societies in Maine in the past, they had died out due to lack of participation. In the 1840s there were still a number of individuals who called themselves doctors but had little or no formal training. Barbers were still looked to for pulling teeth, lancing boils, and even bloodletting, which, for some, was still the cure-all for anything. While the legislature had licensed the Maine Medical School (the name was later changed to Bowdoin Medical School) in 1820, it had done nothing towards establishing a state medical board. Therefore, when Garcelon was invited by Dr. Isaac Lincoln of the Bowdoin Medical School to attend a meeting of physicians who wished to establish a medical society,

he jumped at the chance.

The meeting was held in Brunswick early in 1853. The attending physicians drafted a petition to the legislature asking it to charter a new medical association. The legislature granted the petition and the Maine Medical Association was duly founded.

The first official meeting of the Maine Medical Association, attended by eighty-five physicians, was held in Augusta on June 1, 1853. The association elected Isaac Lincoln as president and Alonzo Garcelon as vice president. The state association took over the administration of the already existing county medical societies and proceeded to establish societies in those counties where none existed. The county societies functioned as the focal point for determining medical standards. The association also began lobbying the legislature, and this is where Alonzo Garcelon had his first extended expo(cont. on page 20)

(cont. from page 19)

sure to politics in the capital.

The first statute Garcelon lobbied to have passed was the so-called Anatomy Law, which made it legal for medical students to dissect cadavers. Prior to this there had been a thriving business in body snatching, and several medical students had gotten themselves in serious trouble. Another accomplishment was the establishment of the first hospital for the insane in Maine. It was in Augusta and was the forerunner of the Augusta Mental Health Institute. It was followed by the School for the Feeble Minded in Portland. In addition, it was through the efforts of Garcelon and other members of the Maine Medical Association that the initial funding for the Maine General Hospital, Central Maine General Hospital, and Eastern Maine General Hospital was raised.

While Alonzo Garcelon was much involved with the initial work of the Maine Medical Association, he was not

immune to the rising tide of political controversy in the state, a controversy which reached a peak in the mid-1870s with the Greenback Party.

Since 1854, with the election of Anson P. Morrill as governor, the Republicans had been in control of Augusta. The Maine Democratic Party, which was essentially the party of the millworker and laborer, had seemingly been powerless to make a dent in the state’s political landscape. That is, until the Greenback Party came along.

The Greenback Party started in Ohio in 1874. It was primarily the party of farmers stricken by the panic of 1873 which had thrown them into debt. The Greenbackers wanted an inflated currency rather than “hard” money so that they could pay off their debts. Greenbacks got their name because they were printed on greenbacked bills which had less value than currency that was totally backed by gold. The Greenback move-

ment took hold among Maine farmers with a vengeance.

The Greenback movement first tried to gain a foothold at the National Democratic Convention of 1874, where they hoped to secure the presidential nomination for their candidate, Peter Cooper. The nomination of Samuel Tilden ended their hopes, and they established the Greenback Party with Cooper as its candidate.

In 1875 Maine Greenbackers made an appearance at the State Democratic Convention. Finding themselves rebuffed, they then formed a state Greenback Party and nominated Almon Gage to run for governor. Republican Seldon Connor was elected to a second term by a comfortable majority. The next year Connor was elected again. Then came the election of 1878, when Alonzo Garcelon ran for governor as a Democrat.

The election results for 1878 showed

neither of the three candidates having a majority of the votes. Because of this, the election of the governor was put into the hands of the legislature, where the House was controlled by Democrats and Greenbackers and the Senate by Republicans. The House submitted two names to the Senate, Garcelon and Smith. The Senate chose Garcelon, a known quantity.

The election of 1879 was almost a repeat of that of 1878. Garcelon ran again as a Democrat and again came in third. Again, no candidate had a majority and the election was thrown to the legislature. This time there was a problem involving House seats. Republicans claimed they had been defrauded of some thirty seats through ballot tampering. James G. Blaine showed up from Washington at the head of a delegation of Republicans, demanding satisfaction from Governor Garcelon. A Greenbacker threatened to kill Blaine.

When Republicans succeeded in establishing control of the House, Greenbackers and some Democrats rioted in Augusta. Governor Garcelon asked Joshua Chamberlain to take charge of the militia and restore order. Maine’s greatest military hero was actually threatened on the steps of the capitol. But the furor died down and Republican Daniel Davis was chosen governor by the legislature.

Alonzo Garcelon, the only candidate to become governor placing third in an election, never ran for statewide public office again. He did continue to work for standards for Maine physicians and was instrumental in the establishment of state and local health boards.

Auburn’s Trial Of The Century Murder on the high seas

by Charles Francis

On August 27, 1858 two men were executed in Auburn for murder and mutiny on the high seas. The two men were Peter Williams and Abraham Cox. Williams and Cox had been crewmen on the brig Albion Cooper. On January 20, 1858 they were found guilty in a federal court session of murdering the Albion Cooper’s officers as well as another crewman.

The trial of Williams and Cox stirred interest throughout Maine and the northeast. The court was filled to capacity by relatives and friends of the murdered men, as well as a myriad of curious onlookers. Williams’ and Cox’s execution was public. In fact, it was one of the few public hangings in the state in the nineteenth century, and one

of the last executions in Maine, where sentiment had been growing in opposition to the death penalty for some time. For this reason, among others, it drew spectators from as far away as Portland. The story of what happened or may have happened aboard the Albion Cooper is one of the most bizarre tales from any court trial held in Maine at any time. Part of the reason for this is that the conviction of Williams and Cox was based on hearsay. In fact, the chief witness died or was killed before the trial even began.

The conviction and execution of Peter Williams and Abraham Cox were based on two separate pieces of evidence. Thomas Lahey, a sixteenyear-old boy, had given his version of

events aboard the Albion Cooper to a succession of second parties, including the American Consul in Havana. He had also scribbled his impressions of what had taken place in the ship’s log, which he smuggled off the vessel. Lahey, however, died under suspicious circumstances before he and Williams and Cox were returned to Maine. Those who viewed the trial drew the seemingly logical conclusion that Williams and Cox had killed the boy to prevent him from testifying. While Peter Williams confessed that he and Cox killed the officers and the crewman on the Albion Cooper, he did not confess to Lahey’s murder.

One of the more interesting sidelights to the trial of Williams and Cox

is that it engendered two murder ballads, the work of an erstwhile poet by the name of O.K. Yates. Reading the ballads leaves one with the impression that Yates actually interviewed the two. Whether or not this is true will never be known, but the ballads were published before Williams and Cox were executed. The ballads were titled Last Words of Peter Williams and Last Words of Abraham Cox, respectively. In them, Williams and Cox commended themselves to Christ. Williams placed the blame for his actions on the cruelty and inhumane treatment by the officers of the Albion Cooper. Cox’s reasoning behind his actions was somewhat more obscure, as he blamed his wife for what happened. Regardless, the two ballads were, in part, the reason that the grounds across from the Auburn jail were filled with curious onlookers during the hanging.

The federal judge who presided over the district court trial was Ashur Ware. The prosecuting attorney was United

States District Attorney George Shepley. Shepley was the son of U.S. Senator Ether Shepley. Shepley went on to become a general in the Union Army and the Military Governor of Louisiana. The defense attorney in the case was George Evans.

According to court records, the Albion Cooper set sail from Portland on July 27, 1857. Except for Williams and Cox, the officers and men on board never returned to Maine. They were Captain Daniel Humphrey, First Mate Collingwood Smith, Second Mate Quinton Smith (who had married in May of that year), Seaman David Burns and Thomas Lahey. Humphrey, the two Smiths, and Burns died from a succession of blows and cuts dealt by a hatchet, a razor, and a knife. Their bodies were dumped into the sea. Lahey was not killed because the pair thought that he could navigate the Albion Cooper But Lahey died under mysterious circumstances on the vessel carrying Williams and Cox back to Maine.

Depending on one’s interpretation of court records, it would seem that much of the blame for what happened on the Albion Cooper could be placed on the head of Collingwood Smith. The First Mate appeared to have been an exceptionally brutal officer whose actions were, at the very least, overlooked by the Captain, perhaps even countenanced by him. Smith routinely harassed the elderly Cox, the cook, for serving slop for meals, and, at times, even struck him. He badgered and struck Williams in the same way. In addition, Smith stabbed Williams for being insubordinate, and left him to dangle from handcuffs, his feet not touching the floor, on at least two long occasions. These facts come from the statements and written impressions of Thomas Lahey. At some point, Williams and Cox seem to have decided enough was enough of the brutal treatment, and killed the officers and Burns, who would have been a witness. Cap(cont. on page 24)

(cont. from page 23)

tain Humphrey and Second Mate Quinton Smith were killed in their bunks. The other two were killed when they went to investigate what was happening. Lahey was kept alive to navigate — something he proved unable to do.

The Albion Cooper spent several days aimlessly drifting in the Caribbean until it encountered the Black Squall, bound for Havana. Lahey had sewn the log of the Albion Cooper into his coat after writing his version of events in it. He gave it to the master of the Black Squall, who, in turn, gave it to the American Consul in Cuba. It was the log that was the primary piece of evidence against Williams and Cox in court.

It is doubtful that Williams and Cox would have been hung had they been convicted in a Maine state court. While capital punishment was still in force in state statutes at the time, sentiment against it in Maine was so strong that

hanging was almost a thing of the distant past. Williams and Cox, however, were tried in a federal court. From the beginning, it was a foregone con-

clusion that, if convicted, they would hang. This reasoning set the stage for Maine’s trial of the century for Auburn’s citizens.

Early map of Lewiston, Auburn and Minot, ca. 1820. Item # 102070 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

Oliver Otis Howard Of Leeds

Humanitarian and General

by Charles Francis

That was a “great mistake,” wrote General Oliver Otis Howard from his military post in the Southwest to a friend in Washington. What the general was referring to was the decision of the United States gov-

The Sedgley Place

The Sedgley Place is housed in a Stately Federal home built in 1786. Offering multiple dining rooms for all occasions.

ernment to open the Oregon valley of the Nez Perces Indians to white settlement in 1875. Howard knew and understood the Indians of the West. As a matter of fact, he was responsible for persuading Cochise, the great Apache war leader, to stop fighting. “Possibly Congress can be induced to let these really peaceable Indians have this poor valley for their own,” Howard had continued. However, Congress was not to change its mind. Two years later Oliver Otis Howard would experience firsthand just how great a mistake the government had made when he would be ordered to direct the war against some of the finest guerrilla fighters the world has ever seen.

That Leeds native Oliver Otis How-

ard, who had once considered entering the ministry for his life’s work and was known as a champion of the rights of minorities and the poor and dispossessed, was the commanding General of United States forces in what General William Tecumseh Sherman called “one of the most extraordinary Indian wars of which there is any record” is truly ironic. By the time the four-month war with the Nez Perces, which covered more than seventeen hundred miles, was over, the kind general, who had participated in the horrors of bloody fighting from Antietam to Gettysburg because he was opposed to slavery, would be responsible for overseeing the deaths of over half of one of the most unique and cultured of Native

American tribes.

Oliver Otis Howard was born in Leeds on November 8, 1830. He grew up on the family farm helping his older brother Charles, who would also become a general in the Civil War, caring for the family’s chickens and livestock. One of Howard’s first playmates was a free, destitute black youth named William Johnson. Oliver’s father had befriended this young African-American on a trip to New York and brought him to Leeds in hopes of providing him with a better life. It was his friendship with William Johnson that would in part make Howard a champion of the disadvantaged later in life. After finishing grade school in Leeds, Howard attended North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth. North Yarmouth Academy was a boarding school that prepared students for Bowdoin College. Howard graduated from Bowdoin in 1850 and then enrolled at West Point which was then under the superintendency

of Robert E. Lee. Graduating fourth in the class of 1854, Howard returned to Maine on leave and married Elizabeth Waite, his childhood sweetheart. Lieutenant and Mrs. Howard then moved

to Florida where Howard began active duty on his first military post. Here he witnessed the horrible conditions the few survivors of the Seminole War were subjected to. It was an experience that further added to his sympathies for the oppressed. Because of his academic talents, Howard was soon posted at West Point as a mathematics instructor. It was during this period that he began to develop the deep religious sense that would serve as his guide throughout his life. Whenever Howard returned to the family farm in Leeds he took the opportunity to be a lay preacher in the local church and, in fact, was considering resigning from the army to become a minister when the Civil War broke out.

Lieutenant Howard had expected to be posted with a company fighting at the front in the Civil War, but West Point wanted him to continue teaching. Feeling that he would be more valuable in what he saw as a fight to end slavery, (cont. on page 28

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— Oliver Otis Howard —

(cont. from page 27)

Howard left the army and returned to Maine where he was appointed Colonel of the Third Maine Infantry, Maine Volunteers. On September 3, 1861 he was promoted to Brigadier-General and given command of a battalion. On November 29, 1862 he was promoted to brigade command as a Volunteer Major-General. By 1864 he was back in the regular army as a Major-General.

Oliver Otis Howard took part in some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. Besides Antietam, he was at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where he found himself fighting his former West Point commander Robert E. Lee. At Gettysburg he was shot twice in his right arm but fought on, refusing to leave the field. If he had had the arm treated immediately it might have been saved, but by the time he got to a doctor it was in a hopeless condition and had to be amputated. After three months of rest back in Leeds, where he again took

up lay preaching, General Howard was back on active duty. In 1893 General Howard was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery under fire when he was wounded.

Perhaps Howard’s greatest work was as head of the Freedman’s Bureau which was set up in 1865 to aid former slaves and poor whites and to be responsible for abandoned lands in the South. Under General Howard’s direction, the Freedman’s Bureau, which was run by the U.S. Army, distributed some twenty-one million meals to African-Americans and dispossessed whites. About five hundred thousand people received direct medical aid. The greatest contribution of the Bureau, however, was in the field of education. By 1870 over four thousand free schools had been established for African-Americans and over two hundred and fifty thousand pupils had received some degree of education. In addition,

several well-known colleges such as Fisk, Morehouse, and Howard University were established. The latter, which General Howard served as president, was named in his honor. Howard even took a personal interest in helping dispossessed African-Americans. In 1865 he saw to the uniting of former slave Washington Kemp with his wife and children, then saw to it that the family was settled on a farm in Leeds. This was the man who was called upon by his government to wreak havoc upon one of the most advanced and civilized of America’s Indian tribes.

From 1805 when they met their first whites in the persons of the Lewis and Clark Expedition until 1877, the Nez Perces maintained peaceful relations with the ever-increasing numbers of white settlers in their Wallowa Valley. They were famed for the horses they bred in their lush meadows and mountain-protected canyons — horses with

large white spots which were the forebears of today’s Appaloosas. They were also a people known for valuing bravery and honor, and above all, for seeing their land as a sacred charge granted them by the Great Spirit. These were the people who in 1877 General Oliver Otis Howard was ordered to move from their homes in Oregon to a reservation in Idaho so that whites would have unrestricted access to their lands. When the saddened Howard told the Nez Perces they had to leave in thirty days, he warned them, “If you let the time run over one day, the soldiers will be there to drive you on the reservation.” The Nez Perces were not to heed the warning, however. Instead of going to the reservation, seven hundred and fifty of them, two thirds of whom were women and children, led by the great Nez Perces statesman and spiritual leader Chief Joseph, and two thousand horses, began the incredible running fight that

would lead from Oregon through Idaho and Wyoming before ending in snow and bitter cold in northern Montana.

At the beginning of the flight, General Howard, with his experience in the Civil War, commented that “we will make short work” of the Nez Perces. He was to be proven very wrong.

The first battle between the army and the Nez Perces occurred just across the Snake River in Idaho. On June 17, 1877 Chief Joseph, still hoping to avoid bloodshed, sent a treaty party bearing a white flag to the army. However, perhaps due to the recent defeat of Custer at the Little Big Horn, an army patrol fired on them. The Nez Perces responded by killing thirty soldiers. There were no Nez Perces casualties.

On July 11 Howard struck the Nez Perces at their camp on the Clearwater River with five hundred artillery-supported cavalry troops. Moving with extreme order the Indians retreated,

suffering only four casualties, and fled with all their possessions and horses. From this time on the Nez Perces called Howard “General Day After Tomorrow” because he always seemed that far behind them. This was not a reflection on Howard but rather a tribute to the Nez Perces’ mountain-bred horses which were far superior to United States Cavalry mounts.

The next day after the surprise attack at the Clearwater, the Nez Perces used a surprise of their own. They dug in — a tactic seldom used by Indians. Then they proceeded to encircle the army troops. However, they were not able to maintain the siege against the better-equipped United States Army forces and were forced to withdraw.

On August 8th the army again caught up with the Nez Perces. This time in Wyoming. In a surprise dawn attack, eighty Indians were killed. However, the Nez Perces were able (cont. on page 30)

Holistic Care Close to Home

(cont. from page 29)

to repel the much larger force of better-armed soldiers, and fighting continued on into the next day as the expert marksmanship of the Indians pinned down Howard’s veteran troops. Of the eighty Indians killed, fifty were women and children. General Howard was appalled at this and was later to write and lecture on the government’s “great mistake,” using his personal observations from these days.

The next encounter was on August 20th just outside of Yellowstone National Park where twenty-seven Nez Perces doubled back and stampeded Howard’s horses and mules. Then on September 13th a small band of Nez Perces sharpshooters held four hundred soldiers at a narrow canyon so that the women and children were able to escape what the Indians were now sure was their intended annihilation by the United States Army. Chief Joseph, realizing the relentless nature of his foe,

had now decided to flee to Canada and join Sitting Bull, who had fled there after Little Big Horn. For most of these, however, this was not to be.

On September 23rd, just a few miles from the Canadian border, the Nez Perces, believing themselves finally safe as General Howard was far behind, were attacked by a force of four hundred soldiers under the command of Colonel Nelson Miles. The fighting lasted through five bitter cold, snowy days until General Howard arrived. With this, Chief Joseph gave up, uttering his famous words, “I shall fight no more forever.” Joseph surrendered eighty-seven men, three hundred and thirty-one women and children, and fifteen hundred horses. A small group of Nez Perces was able to escape across the border into Canada.

Part of the surrender terms negotiated by General Howard promised that the Nez Perces would return to the res-

ervation in Idaho. However, officials in Washington countermanded them and the Indians were sent to Oklahoma. Howard apologized, but the damage was done. In Oklahoma, many of the mountain-bred Nez Perces died of malaria and from pining for their beautiful lost Wallowa Valley.

On his next visit to Leeds, General Howard attended the local fall agricultural fair. It was a much different scene from that of Montana on the bitter cold September day when the Nez Perces finally met defeat. It was warm with the trees just beginning to change. Children ran everywhere with their anxious mothers in close attendance. At one tent there was a long line of people waiting to see a minstrel show. The sign at the tent door read “The Kemp Family From the Old Sunny South.” Washington Kemp and his family, who General Howard had united and settled in Leeds, had found their place in the

community.

Oliver Otis Howard retired from the army in 1894. He divided his time between the family homestead in Leeds and a home in Burlington, Vermont. He spent much of his final years writing and lecturing on his experiences. The general and humanitarian died in Burlington on October 26, 1909, a man of duty and honor.

Sarah Katherine Taylor Her Bridgton connection

by James Nalley

In 1860, Reuben Paine died in Danielsonville, Connecticut, leaving seven children and their mother to make ends meet. At that time, 13-yearold Sarah was forced to leave home to do housework for two years, after which she worked in a shoe shop. However, according to her biographical article in the book Women of the Century (1893) by Charles Wells Moulton, “Not satisfied with that work, she studied evenings and fitted herself to be a teacher.” Over time, she felt called to gospel work and became an evangelist, a temperance activist, and advocate for children. She eventually settled in Bridgton, where her husband, Rev. Taylor, served as a pastor of a church, while she engaged in preaching, lecturing, writing,

and holding children’s meetings for the congregation.

Sarah Katherine Paine was born in Danielsonville, Connecticut, on November 19, 1847. As stated earlier, she left home early to find work to support her family, and eventually became a teacher. At the age of 18, she began to hold children’s meetings and write for religious papers. In 1868, Paine worked in the office of The Christian, based in Boston, Massachusetts.

As stated in the Women of the Century, Paine “In January 1869, went to Seabrook, New Hampshire, and gave herself wholly to gospel work, holding meetings during evenings and going house to house to read the Bible and pray with families.” In April

— Sarah Katherine Taylor —

of that year, Paine went to Belmont, New Hampshire, and held meetings in which more than 150 individuals were converted. In September 1869, Rev. Austin Wheeler Taylor and Paine were married.

For several years, the newly married couple held meetings throughout New England, after which they settled in Kennebunk. There, she assisted Rev. Taylor, preaching Sundays and overseeing the Sunday school. From 1877 to 1887, Taylor and her husband made their home in Harrison, where she preached half the time as an associate pastor. Meanwhile, she spent 1881 and 1882 in Boston, as the editor of The Little Christian, a children’s publication.

In her time in Boston, Taylor became extremely interested in homeless children and meeting their needs. In fact, when she returned to Maine in 1883, she brought six young children with her, and found good homes for each one. According to the Women of

the Century, “For many years, more than 40 children were placed with families, one of whom she adopted herself. Such work was performed almost entirely at her own expense.”

Despite her fragile health and continuing focus on her religious aspirations, Taylor still found time to study each day, particularly on the sciences, Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and German. In 1889, Rev. Taylor became the pastor of a church in Bridgton, where the couple remained for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, she continued preaching, lecturing, holding children’s meetings, organizing Sunday school, and performing missionary work. Moreover, she served as a pastor in Kennebunkport (1894–1898) and as an associate pastor in Rockland.

In 1897, Taylor became president and business manager of the Women’s Home and Foreign Mission Society of the Advent Christian Church. She was apparently successful, since, in only

one year, the church grew from four to more than 300 members. Taylor was also the editor of its publication, All Nations Monthly, as well as the editor of Bible Faith Mission Standard, both published in Bridgton.

She spent her remaining years in Bridgton, aside from a world tour in 1908–1909 visiting various missions and preaching the Gospel. On May 28, 1920, Taylor died in Bridgton. She was 72 years of age. As for her legacy, perhaps the objective of the Advent Christian Church exemplifies Taylor the best: “To engage and unite the efforts of Christian women of the Advent Christian denomination in sending the Gospel throughout the world, to deepen the spiritual life among believers in Christ, and by organization, to render more efficient the work of the women of the Advent Christian Church.”

Discover Maine

Bethel’s Edward Morse

The “father of Japanese archaeology”

by James Nalley

Around 1850, a Portland-born young man, due to his constant restlessness and curiosity, had difficulty being confined to school classrooms. In fact, by the time he was 16 years of age, he had been expelled from every school that he attended. In one instance, his expulsion from Bridgton Academy was due to his obsession with drawing/carving on desks. However, after he attended Gould Academy in Bethel, he came under the influence of Nathaniel True, who saw his talent for drawing and nurtured his love for nature. Eventually, despite his lack of formal education, this young man became a renowned zoologist, archaeologist, and the “father of Japanese archaeology.”

Edward Sylvester Morse was born in Portland on June 18, 1838. Although he was the son of a Congregationalist deacon with strict Calvinist doctrines, his mother did not share such beliefs and encouraged Morse to pursue his studies in the sciences. However, as stated earlier, Morse was easily distracted in school. Surprisingly, by the age of 13, he had become fascinated with collecting and making detailed drawings of shells and snails. According to the article Edward Sylvester Morse: Dr. True’s Star Pupil (2002) by Stanley Russell Howe, “At the age of 16, Morse’s elder brother obtained employment for him as a draftsman for the Portland Company, which made steam engines for trains and ships, a subject

— Edward Morse —

far removed from what would become his obsession — zoology — but nonetheless, it developed Morse’s talent for making detailed drawings.” Through this position, Morse became “so adept at drawing that he could make different sketches with each hand or write Greek and Latin simultaneously.”

Despite his relatively well-paying job, Morse’s life changed after he arrived in Bethel at Gould Academy and met Nathaniel True, who immediately recognized his talent. As stated by Howe, “Dr. True and Morse soon formed a strong academic bond, the doctor giving this sometimes-wayward youth much latitude in roaming about the Bethel area hills and Androscoggin River valley in search of specimens for his natural history collection.” In September 1856, Morse discovered a minute snail on one of these trips. “This discovery launched him on the road to a career as a naturalist. In 1859, the Boston Society of Natural History pro-

claimed Morse’s snail Tympanis morsei. For a precocious 20-year-old, this designation must have been a tremendous boost to his self-esteem.”

In the same year, Morse met renowned biologist Louis Agassiz at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, after which he studied marine biology and focused on conchology (i.e., the study of mollusk shells). Upon completing his studies, Morse served as Agassiz’s assistant in charge of conservation, documentation, and drawing collections of mollusks and brachiopods until 1862. As a side note, Morse attempted to enlist in Company A of the 25th Maine Infantry Regiment during the U.S. Civil War but was rejected due to a chronic tonsil infection. However, in 1863, Morse married Ellen Owen in Portland. They had two children, Edith Owen Morse and John Gould Morse (named after Morse’s Bridgton Academy classmate and lifelong friend John Mead Gould).

By the end of the U.S. Civil War, Morse had become successful in the field of zoology. He was even elected to the position of curator at the Portland Natural History Society. However, according to the article “Maine’s Remarkable Edward Sylvester Morse: Quintessential Naturalist” (1995) by Martin Scott, “In 1866, the Great Fire destroyed the buildings of the Society, along with much of Portland, and also the chance of a salaried position. Yet, an alternative opportunity arose with the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem, Massachusetts.” Morse then moved to Salem, which became his home for the remainder of his life.

In 1867, Morse, along with several of Agassiz’s former students, founded the scientific journal, The American Naturalist. This journal quickly became known for its high-quality illustrations, many of which were created by Morse himself. As stated in the biographical article Edward Sylvester Morse (1926) (cont. on page 36)

(cont. from page 35)

by J.S. Kingsley,

“Morse’s desire to bring natural history to a wider audience also led him to give lectures to a wide variety of audiences. His combination of broad knowledge, speaking skills, and ability to draw quickly on the blackboard with both hands made him a popular presenter.” Meanwhile, he continued his work on brachiopods and published a series of important papers between 1869 and 1873.

In 1872, Morse observed that mammals and reptiles with reduced fingers tend to lose them beginning from the sides, i.e., first the thumb and then the little finger. Eventually, researchers found that this was a general pattern in tetrapods, in which their digits were reduced in the same order to that proposed by Morse. This trend is currently known as Morse’s Law. In his quest for new specimens, Morse departed for Japan in 1877, after which he was offered a post as the first Professor of Zoology

at Tokyo Imperial University. There, he recommended several fellow Americans (as foreign advisors) to support the modernization of Japan in the Meiji Era. At the same time, he established a marine biological laboratory at Enoshima, and discovered the Omori shell mound. The latter not only opened the study of archaeology and anthropology in Japan, but it also highlighted the cul-

ture of prehistoric Japan.

Meanwhile, Morse gained interest in Japanese ceramics, eventually collecting more than 5,000 pieces. He returned to Japan numerous times over the next six years. According to Howe, “Morse’s association with Japan would be long remembered on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. For his work, Morse was decorated with the Order of the

Illustration by Morse for John Mead Gould’s How To Camp Out

Rising Sun, Third Class, by the Japanese Emperor, making him the first American to be so honored.”

After leaving Japan and traveling to Southeast Asia, Morse became President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1886 and continued to serve as the Director of the Peabody Academy of Science (currently the Peabody Essex Museum) in Salem until 1914. As stated by Howe, “In this position, Morse became a major national figure, which was recognized by his election to the presidency of the American Association of Museums.” Interestingly, in 1914, when a fire consumed the majority of Salem, Morse’s house was luckily spared. Howe wrote, “Two of his scientific associates rushed to assist him in saving his significant scientific collection but were surprised to find him sitting in his study learning to play a South Sea Island flute.”

On December 20, 1925, Morse died

of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home and was buried at the Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem. He was 87 years of age. As for his legacy, in addition to the respective collections under his name at the Peabody Essex Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Whyte Museum in Banff, Canada, he donated more than 10,000 books from his personal collection to Tokyo Imperial University. In fact, on learning that its library was destroyed by the 1923

Great Kanto Earthquake, Morse, in his will, ordered that his entire remaining collection of books be donated to the university.

However, as stated by Howe, the most interesting act was the following: “Ever the scientist, Morse had bequeathed his brain to the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, with the expectation that some anatomical factor of his ambidexterity might be discerned during an autopsy. Morse wrote his old comrade John Mead Gould reporting that the Institute had commissioned a special jar with his name upon it for storage of his brain when the time came.”

Discover Maine

Morse’s illustration of a clam shell in 1870.

“Colby” Jack Coombs The pitcher’s pitcher

by Charles Francis

That Duke University has one of the finest college baseball diamonds in the country comes as no surprise. Duke is one of the preeminent colleges in the country and is known for its academic programs as well as for its athletic teams. Even given Duke’s prestige, the baseball diamond is something special, however. It is not just a field dedicated to the pursuit of the national pastime, it is also a memorial. The field bears the name of one of Duke’s greatest coaches, Jack Coombs.

With all due respect to Duke University, it would be more fitting if Jack Coombs Field were “Colby” Jack Coombs Field. Jack Coombs was known as “Colby” Jack almost from the

day he was signed out of Colby College to pitch for the man that many consider the greatest manager in the history of baseball, Connie Mack. Ironically, for all of Jack Coombs’ association with Maine, he wasn’t born

here. Nevertheless, as one sportswriter put it, when Coombs went “to pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics... he was a typical downeaster, twang and all.” The fact that he had the Maine twang when he went to the Athletics came from his spending all but the first four years of his life here. Therefore, regardless of where he was born and where he lived after graduating from Colby, Coombs’ name will always be associated with the Waterville College where he began his march to athletic fame, and with the State of Maine.

Many baseball historians regard Jack Coombs as one of the greatest major league pitchers of all time. One reason for this is a 31-9 season followed

“Colby” Jack Coombs in 1911

by a 28-13 season. Another reason is that he still holds the American League Record of thirteen shutouts in one season. Then, too, there is the fact that he is the only pitcher the immortal Christy Matheson never beat. “Colby” Jack beat Matheson three times.

“Colby” Jack Coombs was born in LeGrand, Iowa on November 18, 1883. His full name was John Wesley Coombs. When he was four his parents moved to Kennebunk. Coombs attended local Kennebunk schools, where he excelled at any sport he tried. At Colby, where he studied chemistry, he was a back on the football team, and in the spring, when he wasn’t playing baseball, he was a sprinter on the track team. The six-foot-half-inch, one hundred and eighty-five-pounder was fleet of foot and had an even better arm.

It was the sportswriters who cemented Jack Coombs’ connection to Colby. His first game in the majors was a victory. The story of that victo-

ry made the wires with a lead that read “the A’s rookie right-hander from Colby College, makes his Major League debut, blanking Washington 3-0…” Shortly after that he was “Colby” Jack. Then in September of that same year Coombs set a league record, pitching twenty-four straight innings against the Red Sox. Today that game is considered the third greatest baseball game ever. “Colby” Jack won it in Boston and did it by allowing just one run. The 4-1 victory took four hours and forty-seven minutes to play. Just how polished a pitcher Coombs was is shown by the fact that standing-room fans were allowed on the field in those days. They stood behind ropes in the outfield. The pressure they put on Coombs was intense. With that victory, “Colby” Jack became something more than just a college phenom.

There is no question that Jack Coombs was an intelligent individual. His degree in chemistry from Colby

showed that. Late in life he showed his financial acumen by investing in downtown real estate in Palestine, Texas where he moved after retiring from coaching at Duke University. He died a wealthy man. Coombs also applied his mind to pitching. He studied the greatest pitchers of his era. They included Wild Bill Donovan and Cy Young. He would later say that he learned something from each of them.

“Colby” Jack’s best year was 1910 when he won thirty-one games. The wins included nineteen straight as well as three World Series victories. Altogether he won five World Series games. He also pitched fifty-three straight scoreless innings in one stretch.

“Colby” Jack’s life wasn’t all baseball victories as a pitcher and a coach. In 1912 he was stricken by typhoid fever. The illness somehow affected his spine, and it was believed that his career was over. Coombs, however, had (cont. on page 40)

(cont. from page 39)

other ideas. He designed a contraption of his own making, and succeeded in stretching his spine. In 1913 he returned to baseball, this time with the Dodgers. It took him two years to regain some of his old form, however, and he never got his fastball back. Fortunately, “Colby” Jack had a remarkable curve. That and mental acuity allowed him to put down many a batter. In 1915 Coombs beat the Dodgers’ greatest rival, the Giants, three times. He also recorded a World Series victory over the Giants and Christy Matheson.

“Colby” Jack retired from the major leagues in 1920, but not from baseball. He went on to coach at Rice, Princeton, and Williams. Then, in 1929 he went to Duke. He remained there until retiring in 1951. At Duke his exemplary personal habits and character, as well as an overall record of 382-171, made him one of the most successful and honored coaches in the college’s history. That is why Duke named Jack Coombs Field after him.

John Wesley Coombs died at seventy-four of a heart attack on April 15, 1967 in Palestine, Texas. One of his interests in his last years was holding baseball clinics for local area youngsters.

Today “Colby” Jack Coombs stands as a role model for all that is good in sports. It is a legacy that stretches back to Maine and Colby College — the college that gave John Wesley Coombs his nickname.

by James Nalley

Farmington’s Julia Harris May A polished poet

In 1856, Julia May graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts) and moved South, where she established a private school. During the U.S. Civil War, her mother (Delia) and older sister (Sarah) arrived, after which they thrived there in Southern society. However, due to the climate, it adversely affected her health, forcing the family to return to Maine. Upon their arrival, the sisters immediately opened a private school in Farmington, which became an instant success. Meanwhile, Julia was the poet of the household, who eventually had many poems published in leading religious and literary journals. In fact, many critics wrote that she had created some of the most polished and touching poems ever written.

Julia Harris May was born in Strong on April 27, 1833. She was one of five children of Rev. William and Delia Marie May. However, when she was four years old, her father died, and soon after, her two siblings also passed away. This left her mother to care for Julia and her sister Sarah. When she was 14 years of age, Julia started teaching school, as she continued her education in the public schools of Farmington. She eventually entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and graduated with distinction.

After the passing of her father and two siblings, she remained extremely close to her mother and sister. As stated earlier, after moving South, they returned to Maine due to Julia’s health issues. According to her biographical (cont. on page 42)

Julia Harris May in 1894

(cont. from page 41)

article (1894) by Charles

Wells

Moulton, “Although the Southern climate began to affect her unfavorably, like all true daughters of Maine, she missed the strong air of the wintry coast and the balsam of the pines…After a brief rest and recuperation, the two sisters opened the May School in Farmington in 1882.” The school thrived, after which the community urged them to move the school to Strong. There, the community members built a new schoolhouse on their own family property.”

Meanwhile, Julia dabbled in poetry and produced works such as the following:

I heard a voice at evening softly say: Bear not thy yesterday into to-morrow, Nor load this week with last week’s load of sorrow;

Lift all thy burdens as they come, nor tryTo weight the present with the by and by One step, and then another, take thy way — Live day by day.

Live day by day.

After her poems were noticed and published in some literary journals, Julia was praised by both critics and readers. Meanwhile, the two sisters continued to work closely together at the school, teaching by day and writing by night. However, Sarah sudden-

ly died on December 30, 1888, which greatly affected Julia. As stated by Moulton, “The loss of her sister Sarah left Julia almost heart broken. The bond between them had been of rare strength and tenderness.”

Following her sister’s death, Julia attempted to continue teaching at the school, but it proved to be too emotional for her. She subsequently moved to Auburn, where she remained active in the community. For several years, she taught art and literature, and was involved in the Women’s Literary Union, the Wednesday Morning Club, and the local Congregational Church. As time passed, she continued to write poetry. In fact, some of her most touching poems were written during this period, perhaps emotionally fueled by the loss of her mother and sister. For instance, she wrote the following:

If we could know

Which of us, darling, would be first to go,

— Julia Harris May in 1892 —

Which would be first to breast the swelling tide,

And step alone upon the other side, — If we could know!

If it were you,

Should I walk softly, keeping death in view?

Should I my love to you most oft express?Or, should I grieve you, darling, any less — If it were you?

In her remaining years, she remained active, but kept to herself. She published several volumes of poems, including Songs from the Woods of Maine (1894), Looking for the Stars and Other Poems (1903), and Pictures

Framed in Song (1907). She also returned to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and received her Master of Arts degree in 1906.

On May 6, 1912, Julia died at her home in Auburn, following a brief illness. She was 89 years of age. Considering her life and her close relationship with her sister, the majority of her late

poems were highly emotional, including the following: If she were here She would not mind the changes; If a tear

Should fill my eye I know that she would see, And give sweet consolation unto me; Yet, in her heart, some things would little heed, Knowing how much their discipline I need.

And so, I think, though Heaven be not far,

And friends can see us even as we are, They may be glad, like loving motherhood, Because they know how all things work for good.

Andover’s John Alfred Poor

by James Nalley

Maine’s railway visionary

In 1834, the first locomotive in New England ran through Boston, Massachusetts. In attendance at this special event was a 26-year-old man from Andover, Maine, who wrote: “It gave me such a shock that my hair seemed to start from the roots rather than to stand on end; and as I reflected in after years, the locomotive engine grew into a greatness in mind that left all other created things far behind it as marvels and wonders.” With this enthusiasm, and the fact that his own state of Maine was undeveloped, and its major city of Portland had been bypassed in the region’s commercial expansion, railways had become his life’s challenge.

John Alfred Poor was born on January 8, 1808 in Andover. He was the younger brother of Henry Varnum Poor

of Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the American credit rating agency that publishes financial research and analyses of stocks, bond, and commodities. As a son of a local physician, Poor varied farm work with regular academic study with his brother-in-law, Rev. Thomas Stone in Andover. He then became a schoolteacher in Bethel before undertaking the study of law. At the age of 19, he entered the law office of his uncle, Jacob McGaw, in Bangor. At 24, he was admitted to the bar, and became his uncle’s partner. He then practiced law for 14 years in Bangor.

During his time in Bangor, Poor earned a reputation as a brilliant lawyer and devoted citizen. According to Brian Young from the University of Toronto, “Over six feet tall and weighing

Engraving of John Alfred Poor in 1860

250 pounds, Poor impressed his contemporaries with his prodigious energy, his rapid manner of speaking, and his violent temper. As a young Bangor lawyer, Poor served as counsel for the great New England politician, Daniel Webster.” He was also active in the city government and was “a founder of the local literary and debating society as well as the Bangor Social Library.”

After the first railway in Maine was built from Bangor to Old Town in 1836, railroads gradually became his life-long focus. As stated earlier, Portland had been bypassed in the region’s commercial expansion, which brought prosperity to cities such as Montreal, New York, and Boston. In 1844, Poor publicized a plan for two lines, one with a terminus at Halifax, and the other with a terminus at Montreal, with both converging on Portland. As stated by Young, this would “provide Montreal with an ice-free port on the Atlantic and link Montreal and Halifax

by a trunk line from Montreal to Maine, intersecting in Portland with another trunk line from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia.”

Subsequently, the Montreal Board of Trade weighed the advantages of a rail connection to either Portland or Boston. In this case, Portland was 100 miles closer to Montreal and it was a half-day closer to European ports. However, Portland’s population of only 16,000 could barely match the financial support for railroad construction pledged by a group of Boston businessmen. Accordingly, as the Boston representatives presented their case, Poor made a 300-mile trip through the White Mountains during a February 1845 blizzard to make his case. According to the book The Grand Trunk in New England (1985) by Jeff Holt, “Poor left Portland shortly after midnight, but the wind-driven snow made it difficult to follow the road. His sleigh only covered 7.5 miles in three hours.”

After reaching Falmouth, he “traveled 40 miles, and had frostbite on his nose and one ear by the time he reached South Paris. He then traveled to his hometown of Andover, after obtaining help from the residents of Rumford to break a path through snowdrifts higher than a horse’s back.” He continued and traveled another 40 miles to Colebrook, New Hampshire, where the residents helped carry his sleigh through 20-foot snowdrifts. Poor then “rested in Sherbrooke, Quebec, before venturing forth through unbroken snow 18 inches deep in minus 18 degrees weather and crossed the ice-covered Saint Lawrence River at dawn on February 9. After resting for three hours in his Montreal hotel room, Poor addressed the Montreal Board of Trade. He convinced them to delay support, and the subsequent debate resulted in approval of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad to Portland. Poor had frostbitten (cont. on page 46)

(cont. from page 45)

feet and developed pneumonia upon his return to Portland.”

Poor’s success only increased his interest in railways, as shown in the following examples. First, in 1846, he focused on building locomotives for Portland’s railway. Following discussions with Norris Locomotive Works, which he organized, he became the first president of the Portland Company, which built locomotive equipment. Second, he moved to New York in 1849, where he purchased the New York Railroad Journal. After returning to Portland, he became involved in several railways and to promote his projects, he edited a newspaper, the State of Maine from 1853 to 1859. He eventually merged it with the Portland Daily Advertiser

Despite all his efforts, Poor’s dream of a commercial empire focused on Maine never materialized. According to Young, “Political instability in the Maritimes, and the failure of Cana-

dian politician Joseph Howe to win guarantees from the British government for lines from Halifax to Quebec and Portland made progress difficult.” Meanwhile, the Intercolonial Railway emerged as another competitor for Poor’s international railway. As Young added, “Nor did Poor have great success in promoting the railway in his native state; as one scribe noted, the Poor plan, ‘though it might dazzle talkers, did not necessarily convert investors.’”

However, after receiving a loan of 800,000 acres and a $500,000 loan from Bangor, New Brunswick granted a charter to build from Saint John to the Maine boundary. Construction finally began in Maine in 1867 and the railway was completed in 1872. Although Poor witnessed the beginning of the construction of his European and North American Railway, he never saw its completion, since he died from heart failure at his home in Portland on September 6, 1871. He was 63 years of

age. His railway eventually became the eastern end of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway.

As for his legacy, perhaps The New York Times article, The Late John A. Poor of Maine (September 8, 1871) stated it the best:

Mr. Poor was the father of the railroad system of Maine, particularly in its relations to British North America. Long before the mass of his fellow citizens was awake to the fact, he announced that ‘Portland is the natural seaport of the Canadas.’ — A declaration repeated by him so often as to cause amusement among those who did not comprehend the true interest of their State. Mr. Poor, however, never faltered before ridicule nor succumbed to indifference. He urged his ideas, until he had the satisfaction of seeing them embodied in the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Road, the nucleus of what is now better known as the Grand Trunk Railway.

Rum Runner Gap

The bootlegger trail at the border

by Charles Francis

Two men trudged along the endlessly winding track that led under the dark cavern of enormous trees. A cold wind had followed them down from Quebec – a wind that skimmed pools with ice. At one point, the two passed over a corduroy road made of logs laid side by side – logs made slippery by mud and slush and even more slippery by the rotting vegetation in the swamp to either side of the road. They took extreme care here for there were places where a log had sunk into the swamp leaving a gap which could easily break a leg.

Their backs ached with the burden of the seventy-pound tanks they carried. Even though they wore padding as

a cushion, and the tanks were formed so as not to leave sore spots, the tanks were still a strain to carry. Soon, however, they would be out of the swamp and able to rest for the night at the station at rum runner gap.

It is the era of Prohibition and the men are following a well-established

route that runs from just over the Quebec border near Coburn Gore to the Rangeley region. This route was a major conduit for smuggling illegal alcohol into Maine during the 1920s. From the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 prohibiting the sale of alcohol until 1933 when the Twenty-first Amendment repealed Prohibition, huge quantities of almost-pure Canadian alcohol were carried on the backs of men into Maine along the track that passed through rum runner gap and paralleled a portion of the route Benedict Arnold followed in his unsuccessful attempt to capture the City of Quebec.

The roaring twenties was the era of the speakeasy, bootleg liquor, and (cont. on page 50)

(cont. from page 49)

bathtub gin. With the passage of Prohibition, the American drinking man was forced to use all his ingenuity to maintain his habit. In Maine, the poor made their own (generally) horrible-tasting homebrew by using spring water and varying amounts of malt and yeast. The wealthy bought expensive smuggled French wines, British scotch and gin, and Canadian whiskey at their private clubs and other respectable establishments with little fear of reprisal. For the middle-class working man on a limited budget, there was ‘Hand Brand’ that could be purchased from the local small-time bootlegger.

The expensive stuff entered Maine on speed boats so fast they could outrun the government revenue cutters or on fishing boats captained by men who knew the coast far better than the revenuers. The much cheaper Hand Brand was made from the Canadian alcohol carried through rum runner gap and along other trails leading into Maine

Hiking & camping gear, paddle gear, local history & lore, accessories, eld guides, outdoor adventure stories, children’s books, toys for the whole family, gifts and good Maine stu !

from Quebec and New Brunswick. Bootleggers generally mixed Hand Brand by adding three parts water to one part alcohol. They then sold it in cans ranging from quarts to three gallons in size. The greatest quantity of alcohol used in making Hand Brand came through rum runner gap.

The round-trip trek, which was always done on foot, took about eight days – four days up and four days back. The men who made the journey successfully earned seven or eight dollars a day for their labor, a substantial sum in that time period. Carloads of men in need of money came from as far away as the coast to make the trip into Quebec. The jump-off point was about fifteen miles northwest of the town of Rangeley. From here, the trail wound through forests, over mountains, and across streams and swamps until it reached Chain of Ponds and finally Coburn Gore on the Quebec border. Those who had any money would stop here at

one of the line houses for a drink.

Line houses were resorts primarily frequented by wealthy American sportsmen who came to the area to hunt and fish. They were also meeting places for bootleggers and smugglers. The houses were built right on the international boundary and served liquor in the Canadian half of the building. If a state liquor inspector found someone drinking in the American half, all that person had to do was step across the room to be legal.

From Coburn Gore, the smugglers passed into Quebec to rendezvous with their suppliers. On the return trip, the now-laden smugglers avoided Coburn Gore with its sub-station of the Jackman port of entry and its contingent of state liquor inspectors and crossed the border in the general area of Arnold Pond. It was here that the Arnold expedition crossed the height of land into Quebec. The smugglers could see (cont. on page 52)

(cont. from page 51)

mile upon mile of forested slopes lying ahead of them towards Rangeley.

There was always the danger of being apprehended by state liquor inspectors. However, as the roaring twenties became the Depression, more and more out-of-work men turned to smuggling alcohol. The Depression actually proved a benefit for those who carried the seventy-gallon backpacks. While they were not paid if their cargo was confiscated, they were seldom severely punished for their activities. Most smugglers were so destitute that they could not pay a fine, and judges were reluctant to impose sentences on ‘small fry’ smugglers because of the cost involved in keeping them incarcerated. One of the men was caught once. At his trial, the judge sentenced him to one day in custody and then dismissed him, saying this had been his day of punishment. If anything, Prohibition, especially during the early part of the Depression, provided out-of-work Maine

men with an opportunity to make money carrying Canadian alcohol through rum runner gap.

Prohibition and the roaring twenties are but footnotes in the history books today. Rum runner gap appears on no Maine maps. The name survives only in the memories of the few remaining smugglers who passed through it. The line houses at Coburn Gore no longer sell liquor to deprived Americans. Near Arnold’s Pond, where smugglers passed from Quebec into Maine carrying seventy-gallon tanks on their backs, the State of Maine has erected several interpretative panels to welcome Canadian visitors. The panels are not in memory of the smuggler’s treks but rather Benedict Arnold’s march to Quebec.

One Very Tall Yarn

A brief history of Skowhegan’s Maine Spinning Company

by Jeffrey Bradley

Where Skowhegan Island splits the mighty Kennebec River in two forms an excellent place for building a mill. And the mills came. The first spinning concern to appear on the site was Dickensian in nature. Wooden, drafty, ramshackle, it lacked any amenity, with even water, heat and restrooms nonexistent. And the workers alternately froze or sweltered, depending on the season. The ratchety machinery was cranky and dangerous, and waterpower inefficiently drove a noisy welter of chattering rocker arms, preposterously bobbing spindles, and the dizzying array of whirling leather belts that looped up and around the entire complex. In those dark days of

child labor, cramped working spaces, and 16-hour days spent toiling dimly by candlelight, worker safety was hardly a concept. That initial gloomy edifice either burnt or was carried off in a flood, the exact cause remaining unclear; but what arose in its place, in 1922, sought to redress those hazards and more. By mirroring the changes sweeping other industries in urban settings across

the nation, this new mill embarked on a course of using the latest energy technologies and approaches by management to materially improve output similarly to the Midwestern automobile industry.

And it came close to achieving those goals. Among the first local industries to replace waterpower with hydroelectricity to run machinery, the Maine Spinning Company also went far in overturning the old concepts that had dampened production. Besides taking worker needs and concerns into account, this new mill embodied a community-based, fully industrialized, near-automated complex employing a good deal of local labor that also

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proved a pioneer in the amazing changes overtaking textile manufacturing in rural Maine. For Skowhegan, all this was heady stuff.

New concepts cost money — construction, equipment, and the untold piles of yarn stock nearly totaled a cool $1,000,000 — but the investment paid off. During its heyday between the 1940s and 1970s over 300 people worked in double-shifts to produce 2 million pounds of yarn annually for the American market. Inside were three open floors of immense square footage reached by an elevator at either end that would glide below into the loading dock/basement or ascend to the 10,000 square foot addition later built on the roof. Revolutionary-for-the-times features such as an artesian well — bored through the basement bedrock, no mean feat in Maine’s hard granite — plus two bathrooms on every floor, double-glazed windows with screen-

ing, automatic steam heat with dehumidifiers, even cutting-edge fire protection, were all installed. Equipment was designed with worker safety in mind, and even the noise levels were reduced for comfort. Designed by Lockwood, Greene & Company of Boston, and constructed by local contractors, the building has joined others designed by that firm now listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. In time, Maine Spinning evolved into the Solon Manufacturing Company, which fell

a victim to overseas competition and closed for good in 2005. Still located on the same spot, the building has since stood mostly vacant and remains the only industrial structure left on Skowhegan Island.

It was a great source of pride, and over the course of more than a century, generations of families have labored there. For the town, the mill represented the height of modernity.

Its historic significance was not lost on them either; much fanfare and pomp accompanied the opening festivities. On a chill Saturday evening the second floor was converted into a ballroom replete with an orchestra directly from Boston, and each employee was allowed a companion. Caterers served a sumptuous banquet with the guests attended by a bevy of local beauties. Next day, the new factory was thrown open for viewing with the orchestra on hand to provide entertainment. In all,

(cont. on page 56)

(cont. from page 55)

1,500 attendees were reported — not bad for a mid-February weekend in snowy Skowhegan!

Initially, professional Syrian weavers were brought in to teach the employees the Bradford System for assessing the quality of wool in producing a medium worsted yarn. Worsted is a weight, not a fiber, and used mostly for knitting sweaters, scarves, blankets, and hats. The Syrians also instructed in the finer points of operating the new machinery to produce imported yarns in high volume, further instilling a sense of pride and loyalty in the workforce. Now yarns spun from fine imported materials like cashmere, mohair and alpaca could be sold throughout the country as high-end quality items. The process took nearly ten years, and the Syrians were gradually phased out as these new skills were mastered.

By the 1950s the Maine Spinning Company had reached the apex and came to be known as the most versatile

mill that produced worsted yarn in the industry.

Preserving this important downtown structure helps to tie Skowhegan’s past to the future. Adjacent lies the Historic District encompassing the main business section, with the old mill the most conspicuous of many other historically significant buildings dating from 1880 to 1910 that include the Municipal Building and Opera House. And there, for a hundred fifty years and more, this building has stood and served the needs of Skowhegan. Still, it is a practical building designed for a specific purpose — namely, the spinning of yarns into fabric. And although much thought was given over to aesthetic appeal, it is decidedly difficult to prettify a structure such as a squat and hulking mill. Even today that looming brick and concrete façade can appear to glower at passersby, especially on a dank overcast day during inclement weather.

Lucius Hubbard’s Maps

Guiding canoeists through the north woods

by Charles Francis

In the years 1887 through 1889 the Canadian Pacific Railroad extended across Maine in what was referred to as a “Short Line.” The Canadian Pacific, which had begun construction in 1870, completed its goal of stretching from sea-to-sea in 1890. The railroad then embarked on an extensive program of tourism. While much of this program was directed toward developing hotels in the Canadian West, the railroad also advertised hunting, fishing, and canoe trips in the northeast. Starting in 1901 newspapers in the Maritime Provinces and Quebec and Ontario carried advertisements of the glories of wilderness experiences in the upper St. John Valley

and in the Jackman, Maine and Sherbrooke, Quebec region.

Sherbrooke was the Canadian Pacific’s main junction in eastern Quebec. From there the line ran through the Lake Megantic area to Holeb, Jackman, and Greenville before continuing on to Brownville, Vanceboro, and the New Brunswick border.

Today the region from Greenville to Jackman, Holeb, and the border is viewed as one of the most remote in Maine. There are few convenience stores and paved roads. At the turn of the twentieth century, however, the situation was quite different. There were settlements up and down the Moose

River Valley and across the border in Quebec. Many of them had hotels that catered to tourists. The Canadian Pacific took advantage of this fact in its advertising of the region, especially in regard to canoeing. In fact, it had freight cars specially designed for carrying canoes.

Jackman, as it still does today, served as a major starting point for trips into the north woods. The railroad supplied teams that carried canoes and canoeists to the starting points of the Attean Lake trip and the Moose River or Bow trip.

On the Attean Lake trip, the canoeist could paddle to Holeb and be picked up at the Canadian Pacific station there.

On the Moose River-Bow trip, the pickup was at the Canadian Pacific’s Greenville station. The Canadian Pacific also supplied canoeists as well as hunters and fishermen with maps of the region. The maps were Lucius Hubbard maps.

Typical of the Lucius Hubbard maps of the north woods was one produced in 1900. It was advertised as “adapted to the uses of lumbermen and sportsmen.” It was a remarkable map in that it was practical and sturdy. It was a topographical map done on oiled onionskin for durability. It even folded into a wallet-sized envelope.

Lucius Hubbard was one of the early promoters of north woods wilderness experiences. In 1881 he published a book, Woods and Waters of Maine. Some editions even had a pocket in the back with a Hubbard map.

Hubbard’s maps were actually quite derivative, being based on earlier ones like those of Charles Way. Hubbard,

unlike his predecessors, was a salesman. One of the things he did to make his maps appeal to the sportsman was to use Native American place names of Penobscot and St. Francis Indian origin. Many of them were based on the work of Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, the most knowledgeable source on Maine Native Americans at the time.

Another way that Hubbard was different from his predecessors was that he promoted the entire north woods rather than just the Moosehead Lake region. In short, he got sportsmen to look beyond the area that could be accessed from Greenville to other jumping-off places like Jackman or Holeb, which was exactly what the Canadian Pacific wanted. Later, the Bangor & Aroostook followed the Canadian Pacific’s lead in trying to attract those interested in wilderness experiences to the upper St. John Valley.

Hubbard actually produced a whole

series of guide books to the north woods. While the later ones concentrated on what today is the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, the first dealt with trips in the Jackman and Moose River areas.

The Attean Lake trip began at Jackman, which was reached on the Canadian Pacific. From there it went to Wood Pond and Attean Pond. An alternative was to go to Boston Ranch on Holeb Pond and then to Moose Pond, Attean Pond, and Wood Pond.

The Moose River or Bow trip began at the Moose River Post Office, which the Canadian Pacific provided transportation to. This was by far the more challenging trip, and Hubbard recommended it for expert canoeists. The trip went from Long Pond to the Moose River to Brassua Lake and then to Moosehead at Rockwood. Hubbard was quite clear in identifying carries like the ones at Holeb Pond, Holeb Falls, and at Brassua.

(cont. on page 62)

(cont. from page 61)

The Canadian Pacific continued to advertise canoe trips starting in Jackman into the 1960s. However, due to such cross-border developments as tariffs, taxation, and a seeming reluctance on the part of the United States and Canada to undertake public improvements that would benefit another country, the railway eventually gave up the advertising. The decline of and actual abandonment of some settlements in the Moose River Valley also played a part in the Canadian Pacific’s decision. Today, however, there is a resurgence of interest among canoeists in the Attean Lake and Moose River trips, and Jackman is again serving as a center for canoeists.

As for Lucius Hubbard’s maps, they are now collectors’ items. Some of them — depending on condition — which originally sold for a dollar or a dollar and a half, are now bringing prices in the fifty dollar range and higher.

MUST READ!!!

Canaan’s Abner Coburn

Maine’s most philanthropic governor

by Charles Francis

In 1882 William Rogers of Bath launched one of the most famous Downeasters to slide down the ways of any Maine shipyard. She was the Abner Coburn. Rogers named her for former governor Abner Coburn. The Abner Coburn was employed in the China trade for some twenty years, and then in the West Coast lumber trade. She ended her days as a salmon fisher in the Bering Sea.

Today her memory is preserved in one of the more famous marine paintings of the late nineteenth century, The Famous Abner Coburn Being Led to the Sea by Dolphins by Charles Robert Patterson. Charles Robert Patterson’s painting is not the only nineteenth-century artifact to preserve Abner Coburn’s name. Certificates bearing his name from the Skowhegan Savings Bank, for which Coburn served as first president from 1869 to 1885, have been known to go for more than a hundred dollars at auction. Coburn’s name is also closely associated with Colby College, the University of Maine, and Virginia Union University. In fact, the latter two institutions have halls bearing his name. And, of course, Coburn’s hometown of Skowhegan has Coburn Park.

When Mainers think of governors who have been philanthropists, the name Percival Baxter is the one that almost always comes to mind. But long before Baxter was laying the foundations of Baxter State Park and the Baxter School for the Deaf, Abner Coburn was setting the standard for philanthropy in Maine. In fact, when one translates the dollar of Coburn’s days into today’s dollar, the extent of Coburn’s largesse is awe-inspiring.

Abner Coburn was first and fore-

most an extremely savvy and successful businessman. In fact, there is a story from his very early years that has attained an almost legendary status that illustrates his business acumen. When Coburn was fourteen, his father, Eleazer, charged him with the sole responsibility of driving a herd of cows from their Canaan farm to Boston for sale. The journey would have been an accomplishment for an adult, but for fourteen-year-old Abner, it must have been a major odyssey. Upon arriving in Boston, Coburn found the price for cattle at an all-time low. He made a decision to drive his herd out of the city. He held them on some good pastureland where they fattened until cattle prices rose again. When Coburn took his cattle back to Boston, he was able to sell them above the market price, thus justifying his father’s faith in his business sense.

Abner Coburn was born in a part of Canaan which is now included in Skowhegan. His date of birth is usually given as March 22, 1803. However, Coburn himself gave it as 1804 on several occasions. Coburn’s father, Eleazer, was a farmer and surveyor. In fact, he was Maine State Timber Surveyor. (cont. on page 64)

— Abner Coburn —

(cont. from page 63)

For this reason, the elder Coburn knew the value of state-owned timberlands better than anyone else in Maine. It was a knowledge that he passed on to his sons, Abner and Philander. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Maine began selling off its public lands for as little as fifteen cents an acre. Eleazer Coburn used his extensive knowledge gained as Maine State Timber Surveyor to invest heavily in the burgeoning timber industry by purchasing thousands of acres of public lands. These acres formed the base of Coburn Brothers Company, which at one point controlled some two hundred thousand acres in northwestern Maine.

Abner Coburn’s political career began in 1838, when he was elected to the first of two terms in the Maine Legislature. After supporting General Winfield Scott, the last Whig to launch a meaningful run for the presidency, Coburn joined with James O. Blaine and Hannibal Hamlin to become one of the founding fathers of the Maine Republican Party. He served on the Executive Council of Anson Morrill, Maine’s first Republican governor, in 1855. In 1860 he was a member of the Maine Electoral College for Abraham Lincoln. In 1863 he became the state’s last Civil War governor. As governor, Coburn was instrumental in guiding the state toward applying the proceeds from the sale of its Morrill Land Grant towards establishing a state land grant college,

rather than turning the money over to Bowdoin or Colby to administer. This, of course, led to the founding of what is now the University of Maine System.

Abner Coburn was involved in a wide variety of business ventures in Maine. Besides serving as chief administer for the Coburn Brothers Company’s vast timber operations, he was instrumental in establishing the Coburn Steamship Company on Moosehead Lake. In addition, he built the fabulous Forks Hotel at the confluence of the Dead and Kennebec Rivers.

Like everything else the Coburns did, the Forks Hotel was built on a grand scale and, of course, quickly became known as one of the most luxurious hotels of the period. The threeand-one-half-story hotel boasted a hundred rooms, and one of the largest stables in the northeast. Broad verandas commanded an expansive view of the Kennebec River. Each room had its own woodstove. One story, which may or may not be true, is about the Forks selling alcohol during the time when Maine law forbade the sale of spirits. As the story goes, the hotel was so popular in the region that local residents maintained a grapevine to alert hotel employees whenever the sheriff was about to make a raid. Supposedly, during the summertime all the hotel’s liquor would be loaded onto a boat that was rowed up the Dead River and hidden until the sheriff had finished his

inspection. In the winter, a hay-filled sleigh was used to transport the hotel’s bottles of sin.

It is as a philanthropist that Abner Coburn should be remembered, however. Altogether, he gave almost one million dollars to various causes. He gave some $200,000 to Colby College, on whose board of trustees he served as vice president. He gave $100,000 to the Maine College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, which is today’s University of Maine. Another $200,000 went to the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and $100,000 went to the American Baptist Missionary Union.

Abner Coburn, along with his brother Philander, gave Skowhegan the land overlooking Big Eddy to build Coburn Park. Somewhat ironically, however, in 1998 the Abner Coburn House in Skowhegan was listed as one of Maine’s most endangered historic properties. The privately owned home was simply in need of preventive maintenance.

Abner Coburn’s legacy is a notable one. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Coburn never married, and for that reason had no children. Yet, for much of his life his major concern was the betterment of future generations.

Discover Maine

Discover Maine Magazine is published eight times each year in regional issues that span the entire State of Maine. Each issue is distributed for pick up, free of charge, only in the region for which it is published.

It is possible to enjoy Discover Maine year ‘round by having all eight issues mailed directly to your home or office. Mailings are done four times each year.

Name Address Phone

DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS

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ADA Fence Company, Inc. ........................................................................18

Advantage Insurance...............................................................................47

Affordable Well Drilling Excavation & Forestry.........................................22

Alan's Automotive Incorporated..............................................................30

Andrew Ames Logging...............................................................................3

Archie's Inc. Rubbish Removal................................................................58

Azul Tequila Mexican Restaurant & Bar....................................................27

Back Office Solutions Maine....................................................................39 Bay Haven Lobster Pound & Restaurant...................................................30

Beaulieu Garage Doors............................................................................14 Bessey Insurance.....................................................................................47

Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.........................................................13 Betty's Laundry........................................................................................33

Bingham Motor Inn & Sports Complex....................................................52

Blais Flowers Gift Shop & Greenhouse....................................................20 Blanchette Moving & Storage Co. .............................................................3

Bob's Cash Fuel........................................................................................62

Boos Heating Company...........................................................................34

Box Drop Clearance Mattress & Furniture Center......................................38 Boynton's Greenhouse.............................................................................55

Buen Apetito Mexican Grill......................................................................38

C. Haines & Son Trucking...........................................................................46 Castonguay Meats....................................................................................36

Cece's Diner & Bar LLC.............................................................................28 Central Maine Community College...........................................................25 Chuck Wagon Restaurant.........................................................................37 Clark Auto Parts.......................................................................................62

Cobb's Pierce Pond Camps.......................................................................60 Cole Harrison Insurance...........................................................................48

Highland Farms Logging, LLC...................................................................10

Hodgdon Well Drilling, Inc. .......................................................................5

Hog Heaven Bar & Grill...........................................................................59

Home Auto Group....................................................................................42

Homestead Realty....................................................................................25

In the Zone Sports Center..........................................................................33

J.P. Carroll Fuel Co. ..................................................................................10

J.P. Clarke Plumbing Services...................................................................47

J.R. Nunes & Sons Excavation...................................................................48

J.T. Reid's Gun Shop...................................................................................5

Jackman Auto Parts..................................................................................61

Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls Chamber of Commerce............................13

Jimmy's Shop 'N Save...............................................................................61

Joel Torrey Painting..................................................................................60

Jordan Lumber Co. ..................................................................................47

JT's Finest Kind Saw................................................................................54

Judd Goodwin Well Company..................................................................51

Kay House Museum.................................................................................12

Kersey Real Estate....................................................................................44

Kim's Garage & 24 Hour Towing Service.................................................56

Kramers Inc. ...........................................................................................40

Kyes Insurance.........................................................................................44

Lakes Region Power Systems...................................................................50

Laney's Pit Stop.......................................................................................54

Langlois' Auto Body & Auto Sales............................................................21

Profenno's Restaurant & Pub..................................................................28

Quinn Hardware.......................................................................................55

R&B's Home Source.................................................................................52

R.E. Lowell Lumber Inc. .........................................................................35

R.W. Day Logging.....................................................................................11

Range Pond Campground..........................................................................7

Rangeley Adventure Co. .........................................................................50

Rangeley Electric............................................ ........................................49

Rangeley Lakes Trails Center....................................................................61

Rangeley Region Sports Shop..................................................................61

Rangeley Saddleback Inn........................................................................49

Rangeley Vacation Rentals......................................................................50

Ranger Pest Services................................................................................30

Rare Woods USA.......................................................................................46

RDA Automotive.........................................................................................7

Record Building Supply, Inc. ..................................................................12

Redington-Fairview General Hospital......................................................53

Richard Wing & Son Logging Inc. ...........................................................29

Ricker Hill Orchards..................................................................................36

River Valley Chamber of Commerce.........................................................58

River's Edge Sports..................................................................................51

Rob Elliott Excavation & Trucking.............................................................47

Robert W. Libby & Sons, Inc. .....................................................................6

Ron's Market............................................................................................56

Ron's Transmissions...................................................................................6

Roopers Beverage & Redemption............................................................19

Rottari Electric...........................................................................................6

Route 26 Antiques & Flea Market.............................................................33

Roy's All Steak Hamburgers & Golf Center..............................................25

Russell & Sons Towing & Recovery...........................................................33

S.A. McLean, Inc. ....................................................................................30

Sackett and Brake Survey Inc. ................................................................54

Saint Dominic Academy...........................................................................23

Sanders Auto Service...............................................................................59

Sarge's Sports Pub & Grub......................................................................50

Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce...........................................7

Shenn Corp. Landscape & Hardscape.......................................................36

Sky High Tree Service...............................................................................29

Smile Again Dentures, Inc. ......................................................................21

Smokin' Good Times ME...........................................................................64

Solon Corner Market................................................................................54

Sounier Flooring......................................................................................25

Spencer Group Paving, LLC......................................................................35

Springvale Hardware.................................................................................9

Stanley Museum......................................................................................60

Sterling Electric........................................................................................41

Davis Paving LLC......................................................................................39

Dayton Country Store................................................................................9

Den's Automotive Services, Inc. .............................................................11

Design Architectural Heating...................................................................21

Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers.......................................................56

Dirigo Federal Credit Union.....................................................................21

Dirigo Waste Oil.......................................................................................39

Don's No Preference Towing....................................................................24

Dyer Septic Service & Excavation.............................................................34

Ecopelagicon........................................................................................50

Ed Hodsdon Masonry, Inc. ........................................................................6

Edmunds Market......................................................................................59

Ed's Grove Discount Warehouse...............................................................29

Emerald Janitorial....................................................................................24

Engine 5 Bakehouse.................................................................................14

Evergreens Campground & Restaurant.....................................................4

Farmington Farmers Union & Union Rental............................................57

Fine Line Paving & Grading......................................................................53

Firefly Boutique.......................................................................................32

Franklin County Chamber of Commerce...................................................57

Franklin Savings Bank..............................................................................41

Franklin-Somerset Federal Credit Union..................................................63

Freeport Antiques and Heirlooms Showcase............................................16

Freightliner & Western Star of Maine.........................................................4

G&G Cash Fuels........................................................................................25

George's Banana Stand............................................................................54

Giberson Funeral Home...........................................................................52

Gray Family Vision Center.........................................................................27

Greater Bridgton Chamber of Commerce.................................................31

Greg's Auto Repair...................................................................................65

Gridiron Restaurant..................................................................................20

Grimaldi Concrete Floors & Countertops.................................................35

Griswold's Country Store & Diner............................................................52

Guild Mortgage - Debbie Bodwell...........................................................23

Hall Implement Co. .................................................................................29

Hammond Lumber Company...................................................................40

Hardys Motorsports.................................................................................64

Harris Drug Store.....................................................................................51

Harvest Gold Gallery................................................................................34

Hathaway Mill Antiques..........................................................................38

Heart & Hand Inc. ...................................................................................31

Heritage House........................................................................................65

Raspberry Patch..............................................................................30 Merrifield Farm........................................................................................28

Mike Wainer Plumbing & Heating............................................................54 Mills Market.............................................................................................58

Ming Lee Chinese Restaurant...................................................................37 Montello Heights Retirement Community...............................................22

Moosehead Motorsports..........................................................................51

Moulton Lumber......................................................................................11

Mount Blue Motel....................................................................................43

N.C. Wyeth Foundation............................................................................16

Naples Packing Co., Inc. ..........................................................................58

NewGen Powerline Construction..............................................................55

Niedner's Floor Finishing.........................................................................13

North Camps............................................................................................50

Stevens Electric & Pump Service Inc. .......................................................5

Strong Hardware & Building Supply........................................................59

Sturdy Hardware......................................................................................22

Styling Dog Grooming Boutique................................................................6

Sun Auto & Salvage..................................................................................63

T&L Enterprises........................................................................................60

The Black Horse Tavern............................................................................31

The Chapman House................................................................................23

The Cote Corporation...............................................................................24

The Farmhouse Beer Garden...................................................................57

The Good Life Market..............................................................................28

The Meadows.............................................................................................6

The Mercantile Gifts - Antiques - Décor....................................................41

The Milk Room Store..................................................................................9

The Raven Collections..............................................................................33

The Sedgley Place....................................................................................26

The Sterling Inn Bed & Breakfast............................................................52

The SugarBowl Family Entertainment.....................................................48

The Tribune Books & Gifts........................................................................12

The Village Donut Shop & Bakery............................................................7

The Wood Mill of Maine.........................................................................56

Three Lakes Storage Units.......................................................................56

Todd's Discount & Gift Shop....................................................................46

Town of Mexico........................................................................................44

Trail's End Steakhouse & Tavern..............................................................60

Trash Guyz................................................................................................27

Vintage Maine Images...............................................................................4

W.L. Sturgeon, Inc. .................................................................................11

Wadsworth Woodlands, Inc. ..................................................................31

Weber Insurance Group...........................................................................47

Webster Tree Service................................................................................24

Western Maine Glass................................................................................11

White Wolf Inn & Restaurant...................................................................61

Whittemore & Sons Outdoor Power Equipment.......................................53

Wilson Excavating, Inc. ...........................................................................13

Wilsons on Moosehead Lake....................................................................51

Winslow Supply, Inc. ...............................................................................14

Woodland Valley Disc Golf.......................................................................10

Woodlawn Rehab & Nursing Center........................................................55

Wood-Mizer of Maine..............................................................................57

Woodsome's Feeds & Needs......................................................................7