2024 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

Volume 33 | Issue 1 | 2024

Maine’s History Magazine

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

Boom Times In The St. John Valley The railroad’s impact on Northern Aroostook County

Millinocket’s First Settlers

The former town paper mill was a historic site

Caribou’s Historic Riverfront Bringing the Aroostook River shore back to life

www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

2

Inside This Edition

Maine’s History Magazine 3 I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley 4 Remembering Phyllis Bailey Longtime Postmistress and mail carrier in Bancroft Ruth M. Knowles 8 Boom Times In The St. John Valley The railroad’s impact on Northern Aroostook County Derek Brou 15 The Genealogy Corner In search of New England heritage Charles Francis 19 Enduring British Mistreatment Aroostook farmers stood firm Brian Swartz 26 Caribou’s Historic Riverfront Bringing the Aroostook River shore back to life Brian Swartz 30 Millinocket’s First Settlers The former town paper mill was a historic site Brian Swartz 34 Gerald Evan Williams Aroostook County’s famed aviator James Nalley

AROOSTOOK & NORTHERN PENOBSCOT COUNTIES

Publisher Jim Burch Editor Dennis Burch Design & Layout Liana Merdan Field Representative Don Plante Contributing Writers Derek Brou Charles Francis Ruth M. Knowles James Nalley Brian Swartz

Published by CreMark, Inc.

10 Exchange Street, Suite 208 Portland, Maine 04101 Ph (207) 874-7720 info@discovermainemagazine.com www.discovermainemagazine.com Discover Maine Magazine is distributed to town offices, chambers of commerce, financial institutions, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, hospitals and medical offices, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, lumber companies, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine.

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SUBSCRIPTION FORM ON PAGE 42

Front Cover Photo:

Looking east from Sweden Street in Caribou.

Item # LB2008.14.115394 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties edition 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.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

A

lthough it officially closed on September 30, 1994, it is wellknown that Loring Air Force Base (LAFB), near Limestone and Caribou, was one of the largest bases of the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command. This was mainly due to its location, which was the closest point in the continental U.S. to Europe. To put it into perspective, the base was designed to hold more than 100 B-36 Peacemaker strategic bombers. However, the following has not been frequently discussed.

On the night of October 27, 1975, an unidentified flying object (UFO) was spotted hovering near the secure weapons area (former Caribou Air Force Station). Specifically, at 19:45, a member of the 42nd Security Police Squadron spotted an aircraft over the northern perimeter of LAFB at a low altitude. According to the teletype message sent to the National Military Command Center in Washington, D.C., “The [aircraft] penetrated the LAFB northern perimeter and on one occasion, it was within 300 yards of the munitions storage area.” Meanwhile, in the control tower, a member of the 2192nd Communications Squadron was on duty when he picked up the craft on radar. After attempting to warn it that it was approaching a restricted area,

the craft entered the airspace over the nuclear weapons storage area and hovered at an altitude of 150 to 300 feet.

Colonel Robert Chapman, Commander of the 42nd Bombardment Wing, arrived 15 minutes later and ordered police units into the area.

At 20:45, the control tower received a call to track the mysterious craft on radar. After 40 minutes of circling the weapons storage area, it suddenly vanished. Witnesses later observed it flying away towards New Brunswick. Afterwards, messages were sent to the National Military Command Center, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and Strategic Air Command headquarters. As stated in the book Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience (1984) by Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, “The base continued to remain on a high alert until the following morning, as efforts to identify the unidentified aircraft through the Maine State Police, local police departments, and the Houlton Federal Aviation Administration office remained elusive.”

The next night, at 19:45, a similar craft approached the base. As it was being tracked, it hovered over the area for 30 minutes. Then, another object was spotted over the flightline. This cigar-shaped object was described as hovering in mid-air and jerking around,

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with flashing lights. Then, it rapidly traveled from the flightline to the northern end of the runway. According to one service member, the object was four car lengths long and hovering five feet off the ground. Then, it vanished towards New Brunswick. To date, it has only been described as “three verified sightings” by the Operations Officer of the 42nd Security Police Squadron.

Arguably, some reports stated that it was simply a helicopter conducting operations.

On this note, let me close with the following jest: Aliens come to Earth and there is a huge, televised event with all the world leaders present. The Pope asks them, “Do you know Jesus Christ?’ The aliens say, “Amazing person! He stops by our planet every couple of years and heals our sick, turns water into wine, and we throw a great party!” The Pope exclaims, “What?!

Every couple of years??? We’re still waiting for the second coming!” The alien replies, “Maybe he didn’t like your chocolate?” The Pope is confused, “What does chocolate have to do with anything?” The alien replies, “Well, when he came the first time, we gave him a box of chocolates! Why? What did you guys give him?”

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

4

Remembering Phyllis Bailey Longtime Postmistress and mail carrier in Bancroft

by Ruth M. Knowles

T

he town of Bancroft was located in the southern part of Aroostook County. It was first organized as a plantation in 1840, shortly after the creation of Aroostook County in 1839.

It became incorporated as a town in 1889.

There is something sad where industry has died. In July 2015, the town of Bancroft voted to de-organize and become part of the Unorganized Territory of Southern Aroostook.

The town of Bancroft was named in honor of George Bancroft, a U.S. historian and diplomat. He was best known for his history volumes, History of the United States 1834-1874. He also pub-

lished two volumes of The History of the Formation of the Federal Constitution. His brother was the Proprietor of the town of Bancroft.

The first settler in the township was Charles Gellerson, in 1830, who came from Brighton. He settled in the extreme northeastern portion of the town, near the Weston line, and a

short distance south of where the ferry crossed the Mattawamkeag River. He purchased three hundred acres of good land along the river. He was largely engaged in lumbering and farming, like the early settlers who followed him.

Bancroft, like many small towns in Aroostook County, was considered a timber town. The first settlers were attracted by the huge opportunities to enter the lumber business. Bancroft’s neighbor, Wytopitlock, probably sawed more board feet of lumber per day than any other sawmill east of Bangor. It is difficult to separate these two towns.

The exports from Bancroft in those early days were hemlock bark, poles,

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ship timber and hardwood logs. The town was associated with Penobscot County, as its early settlers — most of whom were engaged in lumber operations — were well aquainted with Bangor.

The United States Post Office at Bancroft Station closed in 1975. Mrs. Phyllis Bailey had been their Post Mistress for 47 years and a mail carrier for 51 years, perhaps the longest to have worked for the U.S. Post Office in Maine. The closing of the Post Office was heartbreaking for four generations of families: The Haningtons, Irishes, McCormicks, and Richardsons. The Potters, Grays, Brewers and Lanskys were away at the time of the closing. Like many small Post Offices throughout the state, the Bancroft Post Office was the place where the town’s residents gathered around what was called the hottest stove in town, to greet their friends and neighbors. Mrs. Bailey was forced to resign due to ill health. At the time of

the closing, it was Marjorie Legacy, a longtime friend and neighbor of Phyllis, who became the officer in charge of the Post Office. It was Marjorie who placed the final cancellation stamp on hundreds of letters from postal buffs all over the United States.

There used to be three trains a day through Bancroft. The Central Maine, Bangor and Aroostook and Canadian Pacific Railways. During a blizzard one night the Bangor Flyer was very late.

Mrs. Bailey waited up with her stacks of mail to be put on board. She finally fell asleep but woke up startled when she heard the train whistle at the pit two miles away. Throwing a coat on over her nightgown at 1:45am, she jumped in her car and arrived at the crossing.

They gallantly opened the doors as she threw the mail aboard. Suddenly, she realized her car lights were on and she was standing in her nightgown under the glare of the car lights. For years she was teased by the train crew.

Mrs. Bailey was just nineteen when

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(cont. on page 6)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

6 (cont. from page 5)

she started carrying the mail from Bancroft to where the Central Maine Railroad delivered the sacks of mail to the Post Office for $25 a month, paid by the railroad.

Years ago, it was not uncommon for a Postmaster or Postmistress to place a stamp on someone’s letter, or to call them when a package arrived. During World War II, parents were often called to be notified that a letter had arrived from their son or daughter serving in the military.

Mrs. Bailey also played the organ on Sunday for the local church service held at the schoolhouse. She went above and beyond for her friends and neighbors. I am glad to say she was a good friend of mine.

She passed away in Florida in 1987.

J.E. Tarbell’s Store in Smyrna Mills. Item # LB2007.1.102471 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

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Boom Times In The St. John Valley The railroad’s impact on Northern Aroostook County

by Derek Brou

B

efore the turn of the century, northern Aroostook County was viewed throughout the rest of Maine as isolated wilderness. The most anyone from downeast knew of the area was the story of the Ashburton Treaty, Indian wars, French migrants, and from the legends told by hunters of the bounteous game and the vast tracts of untamed lands north of Penobscot County.

The areas from Ashland to Fort Kent and along the St. John River known as the Valley had few residents and fewer visitors. For one thing, travel was hard.

Either by boat or stage, or traveling on their own, visitors to the region could expect tiresome, several-day journeys

from as close as Houlton or Bangor, and they would have most likely been clergy, hunters, fishermen, or travelers bound for New Brunswick or Quebec.

Growth was slow in the towns of the St. John Valley in the nineteenth century, yet the residents were looking to the future.

As early as 1895 Fort Kent had formed its own telephone company, and was united with Ashland in plans to open a new railroad line up the Fish River. The line called, appropriately enough, “The Fish River Railroad,” was opened in 1902, and would be known as 51 miles of the most scenic stretch of rail in all of Maine. The Bangor and

Aroostook Railroad, meanwhile, had reached Van Buren on November 23, 1899 and had already set that town into a whirlwind of economic development.

Longtime residents of Van Buren built new stores and shops to meet the growing demands of their customers.

A general store, full of dry goods, fancies, boots, tools, cloth, clothes, groceries, and feed opened on Military Square in Fort Kent. There was also a new drug store built by the Robbins brothers in 1908. It was said that the Robbins’ sold sometimes 100 horses each year which were carried south and east by rail. Allan Hammond opened his famous Hotel Hammond in Van Bu-

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ren in June of 1907, hoping to attract the ever-growing number of passengers from the nearby train station. At the hotel a guest could get a suite of rooms, or a single room with or without a bath, with hot and cold running water, acetylene gas lights, steam heat, room service, and a telephone in every room.

The Fort Kent area had its luxury hotel in the Hotel Dickey.

The Valley’s potato production was to increase over twenty times. Fort Kent’s production went from a total of approximately 5000 barrels of potatoes per year before the railroad, to over 100,000 barrels shipped out. 600 train car loads of potatoes were said to have been shipped in 1906. The lumber industry boomed as well, as trains took more and more lumber, pulp, and shingles south to Ashland and beyond.

Allagash became the area’s lumber center, and hunters and general sportsmen began to crowd the trains to the

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north. The Bangor and Aroostook had acquired the Fish River line as early as June 1903 and had immediately made plans to lay tracks along the St. John from its line at Van Buren through Fort Kent to St. Francis. Known as the St. John extension, this line was opened in 1910. Even more commerce began upon the opening of this line. Though Ashland, Van Buren and Fort Kent had less than 100 miles between each of them in any direction, trade was limited by the amount of produce that could be hauled overland by wagon or floated up or down the treacherous river.

Also, the kinds and amounts of products was generally the same for each town’s area, so there was little reason for trade between the close neighbors.

With the introduction of the railroad, families and businesses could afford to specialize, knowing that the products or services not produced in town could be easily obtained by train. Folks like

the Robbins in Fort Kent, for example, could spend less time making harnesses, devoting more time and capital on their stable, making a name for themselves in the carriage and sleigh trade.

Business at the post office in Fort Kent had doubled in the six short years since the opening of the Fish River Line, and the population of Van Buren by that time had reached 3300 from a population of 1878 registered eight years before in the census of 1900. The Allagash Region became known as the “sporting district,” as camps were strung along Tongue Ledge, Umsaskis Lake, Long Lake, Round Pond, and Ramsey Brook. More and more game was reportedly shipped out of the area via train — moose and deer taken from the dozens of camps up there.

Visitors steadily came to the St. John Valley. Salesmen, businessmen, sportsmen, politicians, and even vacationers now frequented the area as the journey

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(cont. on page 10)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

10 (cont. from page 9)

was not so inhospitable anymore. For the 59 years that the Bangor and Aroostook carried passengers to the Valley, it was a crucial part of the economy of the area. The railway did more than simply give access to a remote area, it unified the region. It allowed the St. John Valley to function in the way larger metropolitan areas did economically while keeping the feel of the wilderness. The bonds shared by the towns of the Valley because of the railroad helped the area to compete nationally, allowing it to retain its heritage at the same time. In this way, it could be said that the trains helped to carry northern Aroostook into the 20th Century, but it was its people who were the real agents of change.

Catholic Church in St. David. Item # LB2010.8.122289 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

N MAINE SURVE R E H YO RT

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NO

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

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Post Office in Linneus. Item # LB2007.1.101233 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

14

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Golfers playing from No. 2 Tee at the Houlton Country Club at Crescent Lake in Houlton. Item # LB2007.1.10153 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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The Genealogy Corner In search of New England heritage

by Charles Francis

T

hat Aroostook County was settled by pioneers is a truism of the first order, and so obvious that it is not worth belaboring. The fact that the origins of those pioneers who built the County are worth investigating is an entirely different matter, however.

The origins of the early settlers of Aroostook County can be said to fall into three broad categories. Some, like the pioneers who built Stockholm and New Sweden, came directly from Europe. Many more came from neighboring Canada. Then there are those who moved into the region with roots in older settled portions of New England.

A good many of the early settlers who came from Canada can also be said to be in this latter group for purposes of genealogical research, as their ancestors moved to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from some of the first towns to be settled in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England.

Because so many Aroostook County families can trace their roots back to older settled regions of colonial New England, it is a necessity for those interested in researching the genealogy of those families to have a familiarity with the resources available for use in that search — and there are a good many

easily accessible resources.

New Englanders have always been a proud people. Perhaps this pride stems from the fact that New England is the birthplace of American independence.

Regardless, and for whatever reason, many New Englanders can be said to be pedigree proud. At the personal level, familiarity with the family pedigree can be said to reflect self-pride — a selfpride that is reflected in such concrete manifestations as the tombstone, the portrait, and the family Bible — a selfpride that is manifested in maintaining family records.

Many beginning family history re(cont. on page 16)

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searchers with New England roots waste a good deal of time meticulously searching out a family tree when the research is, in fact, already in extent. The reason for this singular circumstance is the lineage of virtually every old New England family has been researched and preserved. The repository for this information is the New England Historic Genealogical Society. In fact, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has an entire building almost exclusively devoted to genealogy. Its address is 101 Newbury Street, Boston.

The significance of the New England Historic Genealogical Society for the genealogist lies in the fact that it is possible to use this repository of data in researching one’s New England heritage.

In fact, a good many Aroostook County families can find information on their antecedents there. Take for example the antecedents of Herbert W. Coffin of

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Herbert W. Coffin was a prominent Fort Kent businessman in the first decades of the 1900s. He was involved in the retail merchandise trade and in the timber and lumber trade. Coffin and a partner, George Page, made the concern of Page and Coffin a prominent name in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Fort Kent.

Even though Herbert Coffin was born in Newton, Massachusetts his immediate ancestry is found in the Aroostook region and eastern Maine. His earliest progenitors in North America are to be found in Massachusetts, however.

In fact, they are easily accessible in the records of the New England Genealogical Society. Herbert Coffin’s ancestry can be traced back to Tristram Coffin, one of the first and most prominent settlers of Nantucket Island.

Herbert Coffin was the son of Whit-

man and Jemima (Willey) Coffin of Crystal. (Crystal lies between Island Falls and Patten.) Whitman Coffin was the son of David Newell Brown-Coffin, also of Crystal. David Newell Brown Coffin was the son of Zebulon Coffin, who moved to Crystal from Wiscasset.

Zebulon Coffin was born on Nantucket in 1764. Zebulon was four generations removed from Tristram Coffin, who died on Nantucket in 1681. Tristram Coffin was born in Plymouth, England.

Almost all the above information on Herbert Coffin can be found in publications of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. Information on other descendants of Tristram Coffin who came to Maine can be found there, as well. The Nantucket-born Love Coffin, famous as the greatest beauty of her age, settled in Farmington. George Coffin, who was commissioned to produce the first map of the Aroostook region

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

for the Maine Legislature in 1835, can be found there as well.

The following books, which are currently in print, are useful in researching early New England family heritage.

They should be available through interlibrary loan.

A Genealogical Dictionary of the first Settlers of New England by John Farmer. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire by Sybil Noyes. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England by James Savage. The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire, 1623 to 1660 by Charles Henry Pope.

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Enduring British Mistreatment Aroostook farmers stood firm

by Brian Swartz

G

eorge Morehouse knew he was a hated man in the land called Aroostook — and he did not

care.

While negotiating the Treaty of Ghent to end the War of 1812, American and British peace commissioners differed on the northern boundary of Maine. By right of occupation, Britain claimed the territory east and north of the Penobscot river; the United States disagreed. History, as determined by the Revolution, finally forced the British to acquiesce on the eastern Maine border.

To the north, the United States claimed land almost to the St. Lawrence

River. Britain counterclaimed that its possessions extended south of the St. John River, well below the proclaimed American boundary. Meanwhile, as the negotiations dragged on inconclusively until April 1822, Maine had split from

Massachusetts to become a state — a state that recognized its northern border as located deep in British-held New Brunswick and Quebec.

Land-hungry individuals pushed American settlements north into the disputed territory ... disputed by royal officials in New Brunswick, at least.

Like other Americans then venturing into Mexican-held Texas, the farmers and loggers settling along the Aroostook River knew they were colonizing American soil, the King and his bureaucracy be damned.

Other settlers moved farther north.

John Baker granted a deed to “a plantation called ... Madawaska, in the Coun(cont. on page 20)

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ty of Penobscot and State of Maine” in October 1825, and brought his entrepreneurial spirit to the south bank of the St. John River. He developed a thriving settlement encompassing a store, a sawmill, and a gristmill, and thoroughly irritated George Morehouse, a British magistrate living in Tobique, New Brunswick.

Displaying the imperial arrogance that would cause Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere to embroil Britain in the bloody 1879 Zulu War in South Africa, Morehouse epitomized royal snippery.

Ignoring the peace commissioners’ temerity, he unilaterally declared that northern Maine belonged to the Crown.

Therefore, the people living in the region were subjects of the Crown, and any attempt by Americans to declare the land “American” must be regarded as illegal — and possibly an act of war.

Morehouse intended to enforce En-

glish law in Aroostook, by force if necessary. He supported the effort by New Brunswick officials in 1827 to exact an alien tax on resident Americans. The tax did not play well with men whose fathers (if not themselves) had successfully won independence 40 years earlier after battling against “taxation without representation.” Customs officers sent to collect the alien tax encountered peaceful, yet firm opposition; shocked at this flagrant snubbing of imperial law, as well as the lost tax revenue, Morehouse and his deputies traveled through eastern Aroostook County and marked cut timber for seizure by other royal agents.

George Fields, 50, had settled near Houlton in 1823, moving from New Brunswick “to the Territory of the United States.” He farmed, logged, and did whatever he could to survive in the harsh Aroostook climate. His neighbors

to the east did not ease his efforts.

In 1823 or 1824 (Fields describes the time as “the first year”), a deputy surveyor general from New Brunswick came to see Fields and “seized all my timber on the Aroostook and made me pay a duty of two shillings a ton,” Fields later testified in court. Until the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad arrived in Aroostook County more than 60 years later, Aroostook loggers drove their logs downriver on the St. John to mills and ports in New Brunswick. To raise revenue, British officials frequently assessed a tax, usually so many shillings per thousand board feet. Hard cash was difficult to find in Aroostook in the late 1820s, however, and the American logger who could not pay the duty could not float his logs into New Brunswick.

Fields unfortunately learned this economic reality in 1825, when Daniel Craig, a New Brunswick deputy sheriff,

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com arrested him for a 65-pound debt owed to William Hallet, who had sued Fields.

Craig marched his prisoner “down the river almost to the St. Johns [River], a mile and a half below the lines [the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick], where I met one of my sons who gave bail for me,” Fields said.

Hallet assured Fields he was a reasonable man; if the American lacked the cash, the Briton would take land. So, he did; Fields testified that he “afterwards settled the debt by letting Hallet have a farm belonging to me on the St. Johns, a few miles below the Aroostook [River] of which I had a grant from the government of New Brunswick.”

“The next year (1825 or 1826) James Sisson of Tobique Settlement got a license to cut timber, and I with a number of others cut under him and other people who had obtained licenses, and from whom we obtained our sup-

plies,” Fields recalled. He described a convenient business arrangement, like that later practiced by American mine owners whose workers became indebted to “the company store.” Only British subjects received licenses to log along the St. John and Aroostook Rivers, and their employees bought food and clothing from them.

The feudal system was briefly alive and well in Aroostook County. Sometime in 1826, Fields incurred a debt for three days’ promised work for Patrick Connelly, another New Brunswick farmer. The practice was not unusual; in the mid-18th century, many landless young men in New England would literally work off their debts with the sweat of their brows.

Constable Stephen McNeal served Fields a writ for the lawsuit, which had been issued by Justice George Morehouse. McNeal also informed

Fields that his son owed another New Brunswick resident three pounds. The boy had failed to pay, so the constable seized a yoke of oxen. “I agreed to settle both demands and give my note for the amount,” Fields said, “and promised to pay the costs to the justice [Morehouse]. I went down the next day to pay the costs, which I did and complained [to Morehouse] of being sued and came home again.”

Fields committed a mistake by complaining to the intractable Morehouse.

Upon leaving the New Brunswick court, the American farmer “thought the note was written payable in three months, which Connelly and I agreed upon.”

Not quite. A week later, Constable McNeal returned to Fields’ farm with a “writ from Esq. Morehouse on the same note and took my body, about sunrise as I was going to the mills, and as I (cont. on page 22)

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could not get bail, carried me before the justice [Morehouse, naturally],” Fields remembered. After warning Fields to appear before him “the next Friday” in Tobique, Morehouse released the angry American.

Fields likely did not know John Baker, who would raise a ruckus in Madawaska later that summer, but by now he had decided he had endured enough mistreatment by Morehouse.

That same March, with the snows still deep on the ground and the rivers still ice-locked, “George Morehouse Esq. came to the settlement with John Davidson to mark timber to be seized and forbid the people from working or occupying any further,” Fields recalled. “I was then prepared to come away.”

A few weeks, perhaps a month or so later, he had changed his mind. “On the Friday appointed” for him to stand trial for not paying Connelly, Fields stood

proudly before Morehouse and told him, “I considered it was in the States and they had no right to sue me there.

[Fields] ... talked hard to him about it.”

Morehouse did not care if Fields thought he lived in the United States or not. “He said it was a cage of unclean birds, and he did not pity me,” Fields recalled. “He said that I spoke disrespectfully of the government, and that if he had not known me from as a boy, he would have sent me to Fredericton.

“You cannot send me there,” Fields protested.

“I can tie you neck and heels and send you there,” Morehouse replied.

On Saturday, a constable (probably McNeal) seized Fields’ oxen, five hogs, two young bulls, and “my cow” (by the description, his only cow) and started the menagerie on the road to Tobique.

Fields was still en route from Tobique when this seizure occurred; “I met him

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[the constable] three miles below [the Fields farm] driving them down,” the American recalled.

Morehouse ordered the livestock auctioned off in Tobique to pay Connelly’s debt and the one owed by Fields’ son. The money raised by the auction did not pay all the debt, and a young Fields purchased his father’s cow and returned it to him.

The seizure had thoroughly frightened the elder Fields; “I was afraid they would take me next,” he testified. He, his wife, and five children “under ten years of age” fled with the cow in tow.

They did not get far. “Nearly opposite Mr. Morehouse’s, I met the constable [McNeal] with a fresh execution for the balance of the costs, upon which he took the cow again,” Fields said. “My wife cried and advised me to give the money we had, which was twenty shillings, to redeem the cow. Mr. McNeal

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com said he would take it and pay the rest himself. Mr. McNeal was very civil to us and let me go.”

The Fields skedaddled from their home near the St. John River and fled south to Houlton. His older sons remained behind; “they are used to the river and do not like to leave it,” he explained in an affidavit filed in a Maine court. “I left the Aroostook because they would not let me live there in peace. They took everything away as fast as I got it. I have a large family and not good health, and if I got a little timber or anything to procure supplies, they would seize it.”

If Morehouse cowed Fields, he did not John Baker. On July 4, 1827, Morehouse and his deputies swept into Madawaska, where Baker had an American independence celebration in full swing.

Baker was flying a white flag emblazoned with an American eagle and red

stars. When ordered by Morehouse to lower the flag, Baker refused.

The angry Morehouse departed, then sent armed deputies to arrest Baker early on September 25, 1827. Jailed in Fredericton on conspiracy charges, Baker was not bailed until January 1828. He stood trial on May 8, by which time most Mainers were clamoring for vengeance.

The crown prosecutor gained a conviction against Baker, who represented himself. He was fined 25 pounds and sentenced to two months in jail, time which he did not serve.

That same year, U.S. Army regulars built the Hancock Barracks in Houlton and sealed the southern Aroostook border against incursions by Morehouse and other royal officials. Alarmed by this and other bellicose American demonstrations along the New Brunswick frontier, Britain negotiated the

border. On August 20, 1842, the United States Senate ratified the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which delineated the borders of Aroostook County.

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Caribou’s Historic Riverfront

Bringing the Aroostook River shore back to life

by Brian Swartz

C

aribou residents are rediscovering their city’s historic Aroostook River shore. Within this decade the improvements envisioned for the city’s neglected riverfront will bring people to explore the natural features that made Caribou possible.

The 19th century’s equivalent to Route 1 (perhaps even Interstate 95), the Aroostook River transported settlers to the future Caribou. Caribou Stream’s potential hydropower gave them a reason to stop there.

Alexander and Polly Cochran traveled up the Aroostook River from New Brunswick in 1829 while seeking a place to settle. Landing in Letter

H Township, near where the Caribou Stream reached the river, the Cochrans built a log cabin on the stream’s north bank, back from the river. Alexander Cochran dammed the stream and built a grist mill on the north bank. Paddling bateaux or canoes, settlers up and down the river brought their grain to be ground at Cochran’s mill.

After the Webster-Ashburton Treaty set Maine’s international border, more settlers moved to northern Maine.

Rough roads hindered travel, so (according to Aroostook County historian Stella King White) “the Aroostook River was the route for all travel and transportation, by dugout, canoe or raft

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in summer, and on the ice in winter.”

Ivory Hardison, the first Mainer to settle in Letter H, acquired land there and, assisted by his teenage son and a few companions, moved tools and other items by rough road from Mattawamkeag to Masardis, then by homemade raft down the Aroostook River to the township in 1840. Three years later, Hardison moved his family overland from China to Presque Isle in midwinter, then down the frozen Aroostook to Letter H, the ice making work easier for the oxen hauling the family’s belongings on a sledge.

In 1844 Samuel Collins and Washington Vaughan built a grist mill and a

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com sawmill on Caribou Stream, a half mile inland from the Aroostook River. Lumbering became economically important in the region. Attracted by the timber, inexpensive land, and rich soil, more settlers traveled via the river to Letter H. The township became a plantation and then a town — Lyndon — incorporated in 1859. Alexander Cochran died in 1864; his second wife, Jane, soon moved the grist mill to New Brunswick. Albe Holmes bought the abandoned mill site in 1872, built Maine’s first starch mill there, and contracted with local farmers to grow potatoes to supply his mill. This project made commercial potato farming financially feasible for area farmers.

Transportation shifted away from the river as roads gradually improved and, its construction partially funded

by Lyndon residents, the Aroostook River Railroad reached town in De-

Fish Hatching Station on the Aroostook River in Caribou.

Item # LB2007.1.104754 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

(cont. on page 28)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

28 (cont. from page 27)

cember 1876. Less than two months later the legislature renamed Lyndon as Caribou.

Electricity arrived in 1887, a municipal water supply after a dam spanned the Aroostook River in 1889. Running its tracks near the river, the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad officially reached Caribou on January 1, 1895, and later built a train station near the riverfront.

Industrial development occurred along the Aroostook River, which is no longer a transportation artery. The R. L. Pitcher Co. operated a starch plant at Caribou Stream’s outlet. Wood potato houses stretched north along the riverbank from that plant, replaced in the mid-1930s by a Maine Potato Products Inc. starch plant. The Colby Cooperative Starch Co. built a large starch plant on lower Water Street in 1950, then closed it after opening a new starch plant elsewhere in Caribou in the early 1980s.

By then economic blight affected the city’s riverfront. A diesel power plant had been built near the river in 1949 and a nearby steam plant built later ran until the 1990s. Unpaid taxes resulted in Caribou acquiring both properties a few years ago.

Caribou’s riverfront district unofficially extends from Dow Siding Road five miles north to Limestone Street.

The city plans to restore the blighted areas around the power plants on Lower Lyndon Street and the abandoned starch plant and B & A train station north of Caribou Stream.

The city formed the Caribou Riverfront Renaissance Committee in autumn 2021 to oversee restoration efforts. “We have lots of ideas,” said Special Projects Coordinator Karen Gorman. “The community is totally up for this. They are so ready for the riverfront to be” redeveloped.

“With all of these projects, we’re re-

ally passionate and dedicated to involving the community,” said Caribou City Manager Penny Thompson. A recently circulated survey found the respondents interested in creating a park, pedestrian trails, and a boat-launch ramp to access the river and establishing small businesses like cafes or restaurants on its shore. The committee is raising funds to hire a consultant to create a Riverfront Master Plan. By September 2023 the committee had raised $20,000, including $10,000 from the city and $10,000 from three private businesses.

In May 2023 the city received a $900,000 Brownfields Clean-Up Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove asbestos, petroleum waste, and other hazardous materials from the diesel power plant and its outbuildings; demolition will follow. Caribou will apply in 2024 for a Brownfields grant to cover the steam plant.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com In autumn 2022 an EPA team inspected that plant “to determine the extent of the cleanup needed,” said Gorman. The inspection resulted in the EPA deciding to utilize CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) funds to remove all hazardous materials from the steam plant. This will happen prior to cleaning up the diesel plant and will reduce costs related to removing the steam plant altogether.

The Northern Border Regional Commission has awarded Caribou a $472,550 grant to acquire the abandoned starch plant and train station.

The city will demolish the starch plant.

The railroad station is “a beautiful brick building” with “some really unique features,” Gorman said.

“The railroad station we envision as a restoration project,” Thompson said.

“Caribou is on the move,” Gorman said.

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A view of Caribou Water, Light & Power Company on the Aroostook River, established in 1889. Item # LB2020.1.123246 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

30

Millinocket’s First Settlers The former town paper mill was a historic site

by Brian Swartz

T

he former paper mill in Millinocket occupies a historic site associated with the town’s first settlers.

Born on April 1, 1792, Thomas Fowler lived in Pittsfield and in 1816 married a local resident, Betsy Martin, who was nine years younger than him.

Their first seven children were born in Pittsfield.

Fowler worked as a farmer and lumberman, and the latter work drew him to Indian Township No. 3, covering heavily forested and unsettled land on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. He and Betsy decided to move with their surviving children (James, Mary

Ann, Thomas Jr., George, and Elizabeth) to the township and start a new life there.

The Fowlers left Pittsfield in March 1829. According to a Millinocket history, Fowler’s “outfit consisted of two teams of oxen, a cow for milk, household goods, grindstones, axes, farming tools, bedding, seeds for spring planting, [and] everything necessary to be self-sustaining in the wilderness.” Moving north in winter made sense. Snow still covered the ground and thick ice covered the lakes, ponds, and streams. The Fowlers’ rude convoy traveled overland on rough roads to Brownville and then on “a tote road”

that went as far as “Knight’s Landing on Schoodic Lake,” the Millinocket history indicates.

Beyond Knight’s Landing the family traveled as much as possible across frozen lakes and streams, which were natural roadways in that era when modern Route 11 was inconceivable. Reaching the West Branch at Shad Pond (which lay downriver from Grand Falls), the Fowlers became the first white people to settle in a region well known to Indians for thousands of years.

The axes came in handy as the Fowlers cut trees, cleared land for a house lot, a garden, and fields for planting hay and grain. The family built a

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com log cabin, and the next three children were born there. The first, Rachel, was born on December 30, 1829, but she died young. She was followed by sisters Adeline (born May 1834) and Helen Cordelia (born November 1837).

The Fowlers arrived in Indian Township No. 3 as other settlers pushed up the Penobscot River above Old Town and Milford. Lumber barons were purchasing entire townships along the river’s upper reaches and much farther into northern Maine, and able-bodied farmers found wintertime employment cutting trees for such landowners as General Sam Veazie and running the logs downriver to the sawmills lining the Penobscot’s shores in Old Town, Orono, Bangor, and Brewer.

Just as logs floated downriver in spring, so did supplies come upriver by wagon or boat in summer and fall. Located at the confluence of the Penobscot’s East and West branches, Medway had a sawmill and a tannery; supplies could move beyond that point

on a tote road that “Thomas Fowler and his sons undoubtedly had much to do with developing,” the Millinocket history noted.

The Fowlers lived near Grand Falls until 1837 and in 1838 Thomas moved his family to a site on Millinocket Stream, “about two miles” from the West Branch. Once again, the Fowlers cleared away the trees, built a house, and established a farm. Then Thomas Fowler opened a tote road bypassing the mandatory carry around Grand Falls. Ending at Rines Pitch on Quakish Lake, the tote road allowed the Fowlers to transport freight moving up the Penobscot River to logging operations deeper in the Maine woods.

The family soon took a hiatus and moved to Bangor upon learning from Penobscot Indians traveling through the area that Mohawks living in upstate New York “had declared war and would come down the West Branch from the north,” according to the Millinocket history. The Mohawks were long-time

enemies of the Wabanaki tribes living in Maine and the Maritimes.

The war, of course, never happened, but Betsy Fowler gave birth to a son, John Fairchild, in Bangor in mid-August 1840. The family returned to their Indian Township No. 3 farm.

By now other families had moved to the township. The last Fowler child, Francis, was born on the Millinocket Stream farm in November 1844. Shortly afterward Thomas Fowler Jr. moved (cont. on page 32)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

32 (cont. from page 31)

back near the original farm site on Shad Pond.

Henry David Thoreau came visiting one day in 1846 while en route for Mount Katahdin. “We reached Shad Pond,” where Thomas Jr. “was just completing a new log-hut, and was sawing out a window through the logs, nearly two feet thick, when we arrived,” Thoreau reported.

He hired Thomas Jr. to guide him through the country sparkling with upriver lakes. “We took a poor and leaky batteau and began to pole up the Millinocket [Stream] two miles, to the elder Fowler’s, in order to avoid the Grand Falls of the Penobscot,” Thoreau noted. He met Thomas Sr., “the oldest inhabitant of these woods.” He agreed to sign on as a guide, too, and he transported “our new batteau” on the tote road to Quakish Lake, according to Thoreau.

“The country is an archipelago of

lakes — the lake country of New England,” he reported.

Thomas Fowler Sr. died in July 1874, Betsy Fowler in January 1890.

Their Millinocket Stream farm passed into the hands of Francis Fowler, who sold it in 1882 to Charles Powers, a nephew. He and his wife, Eugenia, lived on the farm until they sold the property to the Great Northern Paper Company in 1899.

Great Northern erased the farm and started building a pulp-and-paper mill on the site. Indian Township No. 3’s population exploded as construction workers arrived to construct the mill and its affiliated facilities, including dams to harness the Penobscot’s hydropower.

The Maine Legislature incorporated the township as the town of Millinocket on March 16, 1901.

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Aerial photo showing the sprawling nature of Gordon Fox Farm in Lincoln, ca. 1925. Item # 111679 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society / MaineToday Media and www.VintageImages.com

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

34

Gerald Evan Williams Aroostook County’s famed aviator

by James Nalley

I

n World War II, a Maine-born man became the commander of the B-26 Marauder twin-engine medium bomber wing of the Ninth Bomb Group of the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF).

From 1943 to 1945, he personally led more than 75 missions, often placing himself as lead pilot in his B-26 Lady Belle on low-level bombing runs against heavily defended Axis targets in occupied France. This group was also known as the “Black Death” group, which had successfully destroyed 167 German targets over a period of eight months. In total, the group flew more than 200 missions into enemy territory, earning its commander Distinguished

Flying Crosses from both the USAAF (with two Oak Leaf Clusters) and the Royal Air Force, as well as the Croix de Guerre from France.

Gerald Evan Williams was born in Bridgewater on December 17, 1907.

His father’s family had previously lived in Bradford but moved to the rural potato-growing area of Bridgewater for work in the potato business. In 1917, the family moved to Presque Isle, where they established a laundry business in the older section of town. Meanwhile, Williams excelled in school and graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1925. He then studied for a year at Hebron Academy (a college preparato-

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35

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ry school), where he helped the school win the state championship in football.

At the end of the year, Williams was nominated by Congressman Ira Hersey to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, making him one of the first in Aroostook County to receive such an appointment.

Williams was extremely active at West Point. According to The Howitzer, Annual of the Corps of Cadets (1931), by the time he graduated with the class of 1931, he played football for four years, lacrosse for two years, and wrestling for two years. He was described as “a cynic, and bon vivant (a sociable person with refined taste), who would rather be wrong than gregarious, rather be right than acquiescent (willing to accept something without protest).”

Upon graduation, Williams was commissioned a 2nd Lt., after which he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

In September 1931, he began flight

training in San Antonio, Texas, where he received basic training in attack, bombardment, and pursuit. In 1932, he completed Air Corps Primary Flying School, Air Corps Advanced Flying School, and the Bombardment Course. With top scores in all areas, Williams soon demonstrated his skill with multi-engine aircraft (i.e., medium and heavy bombers). As stated by the Headquarters of the Ninth Air Force (April 1945), “By April 1933, Williams was officially rated as a command pilot, combat observer, navigator (celestial and dead reckoning), bombardier, and unlimited pilot.”

After an initial assignment in Hawaii, Williams was assigned to Langley Field in Virginia with the 20th Bombardment Squadron. In February 1937, he served as the navigator for a flight from Virginia to Panama, the then-longest non-stop army flight. In 1938, Williams (as a 1st Lt.) was chosen to be

one of the pilots of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Hemispheric Defense Initiative, in which six four-engine YB17A Flying Fortresses traveled 6,000 miles from Virginia to Lima, Peru, and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Roberto Ortiz was being inaugurated as president.

This goodwill mission was widely publicized. According to the Air Corps Newsletter (March 1938), “As the planes flew toward the appointed rendezvous point just north of Lima, thousands of Peruvian officials and aviation fans were eagerly awaiting the visitors from the Big neighbor of the North…Where frightened civilians in other countries during the past century scanned the skies with dread, these friendly people were eagerly awaiting these Ambassadors of Good Will, who were not bringing bombs, but messages of Friendship.” Subsequently, Williams quickly moved up the ranks. For exam(cont. on page 36)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

36 (cont. from page 35)

ple, by 1940, he was a captain serving in Panama, and by 1941, he was promoted to major, based in Dutch Guiana.

With the outbreak of World War II, his skills and numerous accomplishments made him a natural fit for a command position in the European campaign.

In his new position as commander of the B-26 Marauder medium-bomber group, Williams excelled. In his B-26 Lady Belle (named after his mother, Belle Williams), he personally led more than 75 low-level bombing missions in occupied France. According to the Modesto Bee and News Herald (October 1944), “The viaduct was wiped out, but the Marauders were jumped by 50 to 100 Luftwaffe fighters for the bitterest battle of its combat history.

Their guns accounted for at least 11 German fighters. The group, however, suffered its heaviest losses since being in operation.” Additionally, “Under Col. Williams’ superior leadership and

The B-26 Lady Belle that was flown by Williams. power of organization, the group went back the same day to Germany for a second mission to successfully blast a heavily defended town. Then, for three succeeding days, Williams’ Marauders

dealt four smashing blows at German targets without losses.”

One common aspect in all of Williams’ combat reports is that despite his aircraft being severely damaged, he (cont. on page 38)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

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always continued the bombing run and successfully destroyed the target, especially when some others would have relinquished the lead position and turned around. According to his record, he did this numerous times over Germany and France.

Finally, in 1945, Williams was awarded a Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry in action. As his citation stated, “Although his formation was subjected to intense anti-aircraft fire, Colonel Williams gallantly led his formation to attack the assigned target with superior bombing results. The bombs were released on three road intersections and 27 large buildings were left blazing after the devastating attack.” It continued, “Williams’ fortitude and determination in the face of overwhelming odds contributed materially to the success of joint air-ground operations in the Ardennes Salient and his courageous leadership and coolness under

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Williams with members of the 391st B-26 Group. fire reflect high credit upon himself and the Army Air Force.”

After the war, Williams returned to the United States and was appointed commander of the Rapid City Army Air Base in South Dakota. On August

30, 1946, he became commander of the 47th Light Bombardment Group, consisting of the 84th, 85th, and 86th Bomb Squadrons. Approximately two years later, Williams was appointed as Assistant Air Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in

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39

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Buenos Aires, Argentina. This type of post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. The attaché and his/her assistants all have the privileges of a foreign diplomat. In this case, Williams worked under Brigadier General B. H. Hovey.

On February 17, 1949, Williams, his wife, and six other Air Force officers and enlisted men were killed when the Air Force C-47 transport, piloted by Williams himself, crashed on an Andean mountain in northwestern Argentina. They were en route from Panama to Buenos Aires. It is ironic that despite surviving all the hostile low-level bombing missions during the war, the majority of which were under heavy enemy fire, Williams died from a relatively routine flight during a time of peace. Williams and his wife were buried at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. He was only 41 years of age.

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

40

V.R. Nason and Son Mill in Howland. Item # LB2007.1.101056 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

DANFORTH YANKEE GROCER

Elwood Downs Incorporated

• Quality Meats • Produce • Deli • Bakery • Weekly Sales Flyer

207-794-2914

State Agency Liquor Store 207-448-2461 │Central Street • Danforth, ME

Ware’s Power Equipment

Daniel E. Downs President

Robert P. Thornton Sales Manager

207-794-8600 • rob@thorntonbros.com 800-244-8666 • cell: 207-290-2560 125 Main Street, Lincoln, ME 04457

www.thorntonbros.com

INK R D

WATER S

CASH FUEL

Available by phone anytime

207-403-1446

794-2809

410 Main Street • Lincoln Hours: Monday - Friday 8-5 • Sat. 8-12 Leigh Ware, Proprietor

We Now Have CRUSHED ROCK

Home Heating Fuel • Kerosene Mike & Kate Landry — Monday-Friday: 8am-4pm —

100 W. Broadway • Lincoln, ME

618 Main Street Lincoln, ME 04457 ehdowns@ne.twcbc.com Cell: 290-0338 Dakota: 290-0620

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Street view in Fort Kent, ca. 1915, taken by the Eastern Illustrating Co. of Belfast, which produced “real photo” postcards starting in 1905. Item # 25812 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

In Memory of

Charles Francis

October 1, 1942 - June 10, 2023 Charles "Charlie" Laurance Humphrey Francis, age 80, of Lower Wolfville passed away June 10, 2023, in the Valley Hospice, Kentville. Born October 1, 1942, in Portland, Maine, USA; he was the son of the late Henry Russell Francis and Marguerita (Woods) Francis.

Charlie was first and always a teacher. He grew up in the Unitarian Church. He was also a voracious reader in the fields of science, theology, literary critique, and popular history. Genealogy was a strong interest. He became a regular contributing writer for Discover Maine Magazine, sharing articles on the popular history of Maine for over 20-years until his death.

Charlie earned degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, where he obtained a degree in Canadian Studies; and University of Maine at Orono, where he earned a Master of Science Degree in Education. After his studies, Charles taught first in Mars Hill, Maine, USA. He then continued teaching at NYA in Yarmouth, Maine, USA, and at Searsport District High School where he taught history and English, was involved in curriculum development and coached cross-country.

Following retirement in 1990, Charlie moved to Monroe, Maine, USA, where he served as Chair of the Selection Board. In the early to mid-1990s, he served aboard the light ship “Nantucket”. His interest in the history of his community was shown in his leadership in restoring the Civil War statue in Monroe. His fascination with Canadian history led him to Halifax and his Howe family connection.

Charlie fell in love with his wife’s country and became a proud and fervent citizen of Canada in 2002. Together they were the owners of his “Shangri-la” near Annapolis Royal. He delighted in living in the heart of Canada's birthplace. Nature and the environment were his sources of spiritual connection. Gardening, daily runs, which in later years became daily walks, fed his joy.

Charlie is lovingly remembered by his wife, Mary Lou Rockwell of Wolfville; daughter, Sarah Francis of Gray, Maine, USA; grandchildren, Curtis Austin and Margaret (Maggie) Austin of Gray, Maine, USA; special first cousin, Jack Woods, Peapack, New Jersey, USA; and Jetta the Cat of Wolfville.

Cremation has taken place and in accordance with Charlie’s wishes, there will be no service. Memorial donations may be made to the Valley Hospice in Kentville or The Lodge That Gives in Halifax (1-888-939-3333). Arrangements have been entrusted to Serenity Funeral Home, 34 Coldbrook Village Park Dr., Coldbrook, NS, B4R 1B9 (902679-2822).

Courtesy of Serenity Funeral Home

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties

A hunter surrounded by moose antlers, seated on the porch of the Ashland House Hotel, ca. 1890.

Item # 1442 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS BUSINESS

PAGE

47 North Bistro.......................................................................8 A&L Construction Inc. ...........................................................34 A.N. Deringer, Inc. .................................................................5 Acadia Federal Credit Union..................................................16 Acadian Village.....................................................................10 Aroostook Foam Insulation...................................................24 Ashland Food Mart...............................................................24 B&C Pit Stop Inc. ..................................................................38 Babin Construction, Inc. .........................................................7 Barresi Benefits Group..........................................................23 Bechard's Grille.....................................................................38 Bolstridge Building, LLC..........................................................6 Bouchard Country Store........................................................18 Bouchard Family Farm..........................................................18 Bowers Funeral Home............................................................5 Briarwood Motor Inn............................................................33 Buck Construction, Inc. ........................................................35 C&J Service Center...............................................................38 Caribou Climate Storage.......................................................26 Carvings by Cote...................................................................37 Cary Brown Trucking & Excavating.......................................31 Cary Medical Center..............................................................25 Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce............................21 Central Building Supplies, Inc. ............................................11 City Jewelry & Loan..............................................................37 City of Caribou......................................................................26 Coffin's General Store...........................................................36 Colin Bartlett & Sons, Inc. ....................................................3 County Abatement Inc. .........................................................3 County Electric......................................................................29 County Home Inspections.......................................................8 County Qwik Print.................................................................27 County Stove Shop................................................................29 Cove Corner Kennels..............................................................15 Crandall's Hardware..............................................................39 Crosswinds Residential Care.................................................19 Cummings Health Care Facility, Inc. .....................................33 CW Plumbing LLC.................................................................32 Danforth Yankee Grocer........................................................40 Desjardins Logging...............................................................30 Dirigo Waste Oil....................................................................14 Dodo's Market.......................................................................26 Dolly's Restaurant...................................................................7 Dr. Durwin Libby, DMD.........................................................32 Drinkwaters Cash Fuel..........................................................40 Dubois' Garage.......................................................................8 Duncan Graves & Lancaster Morgan Funeral Homes.............4 Elwood Downs Incorporated.................................................40 Fellowship Farm....................................................................28 First Choice Market & Deli....................................................29 Forget Me Not Diner................................................................9 Fort Kent Powersports..........................................................16 Freeport Antiques and Heirlooms Showcase........................12 Freightliner & Western Star of Maine.....................................3 Full Bloom Cannabis.............................................................17 Gateway Inn..........................................................................31 Gervais Fence........................................................................37 Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home............................................36 GJ Auto Body........................................................................38 GP Carpentry.........................................................................15 Graves' Supermarkets...........................................................22

BUSINESS

PAGE

Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce..................................5 Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce...............................8 Ground Tek Inc. ....................................................................16 H.C. Haynes, Inc. ..................................................................39 Hannaford - C aribou..............................................................37 Hayes Wrecker Service............................................................5 Hebert Rexall Pharmacy.......................................................19 Hometown Fuels, Inc. ..........................................................24 Hopkins Sawmill LLC..............................................................5 Houlton / Canadian Border KOA..............................................5 House in the Woods..............................................................32 Huber Engineered Wood, LLC................................................24 Inn of Acadia.........................................................................20 Irving Woodlands, LLC..........................................................17 J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC..........................................14 J.R.S. Firewood........................................................................9 Jerry's Shurfine.......................................................................6 John's Food Store...................................................................9 Katahdin Trust.......................................................................14 Ken L. Electric, Inc. ................................................................7 Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices........................................37 Langille Construction, Inc. ....................................................29 Lennie's Superette................................................................39 Levesque Business Solutions................................................20 Limestone Chamber of Commerce........................................36 Linda Bean's Maine Kitchen & Topside Tavern......................12 Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster...................................................12 Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Vacation Rental.........................12 Lonewolf Autobody.................................................................6 Long Lake Construction.........................................................10 Long Lake Excavation............................................................10 Louisiana Pacific Corp. .........................................................14 Lou's Auto Service.................................................................37 M. Rafford Construction and Trucking...................................23 M.L. Pelletier Trucking Inc. ...................................................19 Macannamac Camps.............................................................29 Machias Savings Bank...........................................................28 Madtown Clothing................................................................19 Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.........................32 Maine Historical Society.........................................................4 Maine School of Science and Mathematics..............back cover Maineway Mechanical..........................................................14 Manpower Maine..................................................................22 Mars Hill Pharmacy.................................................................7 Martin's General Store..........................................................15 Martin's Point Health Care - Lori Theriault............................27 McCain Foods........................................................................22 McCluskey's RV Center...........................................................23 McGillan Inc - Earthwork Contractor......................................36 Mike's Quik Stop & Deli.........................................................29 MMG Insurance.....................................................................21 Monica's Scandinavian Imports............................................28 N.C. Wyeth Research Foundation and Reading Libraries......12 Nickerson Construction Inc. ....................................................4 NorState Federal Credit Union..............................................20 North Country Auto...............................................................23 North Lighting Concepts, LLC................................................35 North Woods Real Estate......................................................30 Northeast Packaging Company.............................................11 Northeast Pellets...................................................................24 Northern Dispatch Energy.....................................................15

BUSINESS

PAGE

Northern Door Inn................................................................16 Northern Maine Surveyors....................................................11 Northern Star Real Estate Services.......................................18 Ogunquit Beach Lobster House............................................12 One of a Kind Flowers and Antiques......................................36 One Stop...............................................................................34 Overlook Motel & Lakeside Cottages.....................................30 Paradis Shop 'N Save Supermarkets.....................................18 Penobscot County Federal Credit Union................................33 Penobscot Marine Museum..................................................13 Percy's Auto Sales.................................................................21 PNM Construction, Inc. .......................................................22 Randy Brooker General Contractor.......................................24 RE/MAX North Realty - Mia Babin Pangburn.....................26 Ridgewood Estates...............................................................19 Riverside Inn Restaurant.......................................................34 RLC Electric............................................................................25 Robbie Morin Paving...............................................................8 Roger Ayotte Electric, Inc. ....................................................10 Rozco......................................................................17 Russell-Clowes Insurance Agency, Inc. ................................27 S.W. Collins Co. .....................................................................26 Savage Paint & Body.............................................................15 Scovil Apartments..................................................................6 Scovil Building Supply, Inc. .................................................6 Sleepy Hollow Storage.........................................................35 Sonny's Gun Shop.................................................................37 St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce.................................11 St. John Valley Pharmacy......................................................17 St. John Valley Realty Co. .......................................................9 St. Joseph's Memory Care, Inc. .............................................19 Sweet Seniors Assisted Living..............................................31 Sylvio Paradis & Son Auto Parts...........................................15 Tardif Machining and Welding...............................................7 Tate Brook Timber Company.................................................32 The Braden Theater..............................................................34 The Bunker Inn.....................................................................25 The County Federal Credit Union..........................................21 The Flower Shoppe...............................................................11 The Mill Yard.........................................................................31 The Pioneer Place, U.S.A. Country General Store....................6 The Salvation Army - Houlton..............................................14 Thornton Brothers Inc. .........................................................40 Town of East Millinocket.......................................................31 Town of Easton.....................................................................34 Town of Fort Kent...................................................................9 Town of Frenchville.................................................................7 Town of Lincoln.....................................................................32 Town of Linneus....................................................................14 Town of Madawaska.............................................................20 Town of Mars Hill....................................................................4 Towns of Mapleton, Castle Hill and Chapman......................23 Tri Community Veterans Memorial.......................................30 Trombley Industries..............................................................25 Tulsa, Inc. ...............................................................................9 Underwood Electric, Inc. .....................................................35 Ware's Power Equipment......................................................40 Washburn Trailside...............................................................29 Wayne's Body Shop & Service Center....................................10 Whited Truck & Auto Center..................................................22 York’s of Houlton.....................................................................5

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— 2024 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties Aroostook & Northern Penobscot— Counties Maine School of Science and Mathematics

&

A Public Residential Magnet High School serving all of Maine's 9-12 students. www.MSSM.org Find Your Place. Go Beyond

MSSM STEM Summer Camp Keeping Kids Academically Stimulated during the Summer. www.MSSM.org/summer

4 STEM Classes + Summer Camp Fun

A postcard image showing Main Street in Limestone, ca. 1910.

Item # 10612 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com