2019 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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Maine’s History Magazine Volume 28 | Issue 1 | 2019

15,000 Circulation

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Clair Goodblood From Fort Kent A son who answered the call

Germans In The Potato Patch POWs help Houlton’s “spuddering” economy

The Lunksoos Camps

On the road to Katahdin

www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Inside This Edition

2

3

I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley

5

Clair Goodblood From Fort Kent A son who answered the call James Nalley

8

Aroostook’s Bob Conners Logging king of the St. John River Kenneth Smith

14 World War II Marine Pvt. Alberic “Brick” Blanchette Finally laid to rest in Caribou

James Nalley 18 The Acadian Deportation Was that an apology?

Charles Francis 25 Madawaska’s Tintamarre Celebration Annual event spotlights Acadian tradition

Brian Swartz 28 The Great Sugar Beet Fiasco Sometimes sugar is not so sweet

Charles Francis 32 Outdoor Toyland Childhood memories of fun in Presque Isle

Dorothy Boone Kidney 36 Germans In The Potato Patch

POWs help Houlton’s “spuddering” economy

Jeffrey Bradley 40 Early Life Of A Logger Logging was a prime occupation in the early 1900s Eric Hendrickson 46 Mystery Cabin Builders Central Aroostook invaded by escaped convicts

Pat Hughes 50 T he Lunksoos Camps On the road to Katahdin

Eric Hendrickson 54 Danforth’s East Grand Health Center Maine’s oldest rural health center

Brian Swartz 56 The “Spirit Of The American Doughboy” Lincoln statue recognizes our soldiers’ sacrifice James Nalley

Maine’s History Magazine

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Publisher & Editor Jim Burch

Layout & Design Liana Merdan

Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield

Advertising & Sales Jennifer Bakst Dan Coyne Dennis Burch Tim Maxfield Zack Rouda Field Representatives Jim Caron

Office Manager

Liana Merdan

Contributing Writers

Jeffrey Bradley Charles Francis Eric Hendrickson Pat Hughes Dorothy Boone Kidney James Nalley Kenneth Smith Brian Swartz Published Annually 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, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, banks and credit unions, medical offices, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, lumber companies, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine.

NO PART of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from CreMark, Inc. | Copyright © 2019, CreMark, Inc.

SUBSCRIPTION FORMS ON PAGE 20 & 58

Front Cover Photo: Early view of Main St., Madawaska. Item #LB2007.1.101308 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

All photos in Discover Maine’s Aroostook & Northern Penobscot 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.

BEGIN 3

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

B

y the time this month’s issue is published, most Americans will be contemplating their Thanksgiving feast.

Naturally, turkey will be their main consideration. Regarding this strange-looking bird, a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation found that approximately 88% of Americans eat turkey every Thanksgiving, and the average weight of the turkeys is 15 pounds. In the United Kingdom, roughly 87% of Christmas dinners include a turkey on the table. These statistics are about commercially raised turkeys, which cannot fly and are fattened to end up on a holiday menu.

In contrast, wild turkeys are quite different. For example, they can fly for short distances (up to 55 mph) and they can run approximately 20 mph. They also spend the night in trees (particularly oaks), they have poor night vision, and they are highly social. It is interesting to note that the Aztecs domesticated wild turkeys in southern Mexico, after which the Spanish brought them to Europe. In a strange turn of events, the pilgrims brought the domesticated turkeys back to North America. As for the

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state of Maine, wild turkeys were once a native bird that was nearly wiped out from hunting and the clearing of forests in the 19th century. However, in 1978 they were reintroduced by local biologists to save the species. Since then, they have thrived.

In fact, according to the Portland Press Herald, the estimated population of wild turkeys is between 50,000 and 60,000.

Regarding their existence, residents are somewhat divided. Some refer to them as “annoying rats,” whereas others see them as “cute.” However, a survey conducted by the state of Maine found that one-third of Mainers believe that the population of wild turkeys should be reduced, with more than 85% in support of hunting them.

In general, the critics blame them for invading/destroying crops and eating the winter feed of livestock. On the other hand, Kelsey Sullivan, a wildlife biologist for the state of Maine, mentioned that the wild turkeys are sometimes unfairly blamed. For instance, “There are deer and crow that come during the night or early morning to dig for grubs, but after they leave, people only see the turkeys.” Biologists have since trapped several wild turkeys and transferred them throughout Maine, for redistributing

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them in regional populations. Meanwhile, as stated by Deirdre Fleming in the Portland Press Herald, “Roughly 18,000 hunters pursue wild turkey in Maine during the spring and fall, each hunting season lasting about a month.” Such examples of population control clearly highlight the “love them or hate them” attitude towards a bird that Ben Franklin once proposed to be the official bird of the United States.

On this note, let me close with the following jest: A man had always wanted a parrot since he was a boy. So, his family decided to surprise him with one on his birthday. However, this parrot previously belonged to an obnoxious man that lived across town. Naturally, it mocked, insulted, and cursed at the man. The day before Thanksgiving, the parrot got the man so angry that he put it in the freezer. After five minutes, he let the parrot out. Then, the shivering parrot said, “I take it by your attitude that I somehow offended you?” after which the man replied, “Yes you did!”

Then, the parrot asked, “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” said the man with a sigh. After some hesitation, the parrot asked, “Tell me, what did the turkey do?”

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BEGIN Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

4

Early view of Caribou Hospital. Item # LB2008.14.115302 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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BEGIN 5

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Clair Goodblood From Fort Kent A son who answered the call

by James Nalley

I

and roughly 7,000 taken as prisoners of war. Moreover, there were 131 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. servicemen, three of which were given to veterans from Maine: 1) U.S. Air Force Major Charles Loring of Portland; 2) U.S. Army Captain Lewis Millett of Mechanic Falls; and 3) U.S. Army Corporal Clair Goodblood of Fort Kent.

Clair Goodblood was born on September 18, 1929. In April 1947, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in Burnham, Maine, for a three-year stint that would end in March 1950.

However, on June 25, 1950 everything changed for Goodblood. According to Remembering the Forgotten War: Korea 1950-1953 by the Naval Histor-

n U.S. history, World War II received constant attention by the public and press, with significant emphasis on the sense of patriotism and the need to defeat “a necessary evil.” In contrast, the Korean War did not receive such attention. According to The New York Times, “the Korean War has been called ‘the Forgotten War’ in the U.S., where coverage of the 1950s conflict was censored” and any heroic actions of soldiers were overshadowed by the valiant efforts of their predecessors in World War II. However, considering that the war was relatively short (June 1950 to July 1953), it was exceptionally bloody.

Overall, 36,574 Americans died in action, with more than 100,000 wounded

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(cont. on page 6)

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SEC 2 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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(cont. from page 5) ical Center, 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korean (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

As for the American officials, this was a war against the forces of international communism itself. Upon hearing the news, Goodblood promptly re-enlisted and was subsequently assigned to Company D, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.

After the war began in June 1950, the 7th Infantry Regiment, which was at reduced strength, was sent to Korea to join the First Cavalry Division. It sailed from San Francisco on August 20, 1950 and reached Japan on Sep-

tember 16. Approximately two months later, Goodblood and the regiment landed on Korea’s eastern coast, where it joined with the 15th and 65th Infantry Regiments and moved northwest of the Hungnam region to provide defense for the evacuation of Hungnam as Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) arrived.

Eventually, the regiment moved into position north of Seoul, as part of the 8th U.S. Army’s defense against the CCF’s 1951 spring offensive.

On April 25, Goodblood, a machine gunner, was assigned to Company B in Popsu-dong, a town located approximately 29 miles north of Seoul. As the soldiers maintained defensive positions in the thick, wooded terrain, they came under attack by the CCF. Greatly out-

numbered, the enemy easily penetrated the defensive perimeter. According to his Medal of Honor citation, “Upon the order to move back, Corporal Goodblood voluntarily remained to cover the withdrawal and, constantly vulnerable to heavy fire, inflicted withering destruction on the assaulting forces.”

In the midst of the attack, a grenade landed at his position, after which he immediately shoved his assistant to the ground and flung himself on top of the soldier as a body shield. As the citation states, “Despite his valorous act, both men were wounded. Rejecting aid for himself, he ordered the ammunition bearer to evacuate the injured man for medical treatment. He then fearlessly maintained his defense, sweeping the

Congratulations to Fort Kent, Frenchville, Madawaska and Grand Isle on their 150th birthday!

Marquis Michaud Well Drilling Danny Marquis, Proprietor & Master Well Driller

Engine Machine Shop Auto Parts & Supplies Wrecker Service Transmission Repair Axalta Automotive Refinishes

“Henry Michaud & Sons”

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MER & BOY’S BODY SHOP

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2 St. Agatha Avenue Frenchville, ME

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Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC Contractors Licensed Solar & Solid Fuel Installers LP Gas Service, Pole Setter/Digger Truck, Aerial Work, Sales & Service ─ Certified Heat Pump Installers ─ Douglas L. Lerman, President

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Babin Construction, Inc. Landscaping • Septics • Excavation Shale • Gravel • Loam • Snow Removal

Fully Insured Josh Babin President

207-436-0178 179 Bouchard Rd. • St. Agatha, ME 04772

7

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com onrushing assailants with fire until an enemy banzai charge carried the hill and silenced his gun.”

Later, when U.S. forces regained the area and arrived on the scene, they found Goodblood’s body lying beside his machine gun. Strewn across his field of fire, there were approximately 100 dead enemy soldiers. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor on February 1, 1952. According to the citation, “Through his unflinching courage and willing self-sacrifice, the onslaught was retarded, enabling his unit to withdraw, regroup, and re-secure the strongpoint.

Corporal Goodblood’s inspirational conduct and devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and are in keeping with the noble traditions of the military service.”

The fighting eventually stopped when an armistice was reached between North Korea, China, and the U.S. in 1953. According to The New York Times, “Since 1953, there has been an

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~ 7th Infantry soldiers at combat in Korea ~ uneasy coexistence between North and South Korea, which hosts more than 20,000 American troops.” Over time, South Korea transformed into a strong economic leader, as North Korea created the fourth largest army in the world.

Meanwhile, in Maine, the sacrifices of soldiers, such as Goodblood, are never forgotten. For instance, the Corporal Clair Goodblood Chapter of the Korean

War Veterans Association (KWVA) in Augusta constructed a Medal of Honor Memorial in his name. The memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1998 and it is located on the Corporal Clair Goodblood Memorial Highway in Burnham. A fitting homage to where it all started for this devoted soldier from Fort Kent. * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

FORT KENT, MAINE “The little Town that could”

Town of Fort Kent Certified Business Friendly!

(207) 543-9369

358 Main Street • Saint Agatha, Maine

416 West Main Street • Fort Kent, ME 04743 │ 207-834-3090 • 207-834-3507 │ fortkent.org

OUELLETTE

CLEANING SERVICE MARC PELLETIER

Residential • Commercial Carpet Cleaning • Floor Care Spring Cleaning • Janitorial & Office Smoke Damage

Open 7 Days a Week ~ Lunch & Dinner ~

207-834-5408

(207) 834-3055

3 St. Antoine Road • Wallagrass, ME

250 West Main Street ▪ Fort Kent, ME 04743

Cell: 207-231-1018

Sec. 2 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

8

Aroostook’s Bob Conners Logging king of the St. John River

by Kenneth Smith

L

ogger Tim Boyle took an aggressive stance. “Well Captain, Cyr said you wanted to see me.” The ‘captain’, red-haired and bearded 24 year-old Robert Conners, stood a slender 6’ 2” tall. He appeared no physical match for this intoxicated “river hog,” who outweighed him twice. “See the clerk draw your pay, and head downriver, Boyle. You know the rules – no rum till we finish the drive at Grand Falls.” Boyle aimed a roundhouse right at Conners’ head. Bob side-stepped and knocked the logger cold with a single blow. Boss logger Boucher Cyr told the story after supper that night, and for the rest of the drive all the crews were models of sobriety.

Bob Conners was a study in contrasts. He had a fiery temper that matched his hair. French loggers called him “Conners le Rouge,” yet he was genial, mild-mannered, and good to his men. Bob loved flowers, yet no man on the St. John River could handle rowdy loggers with words, deeds, or fists better than Conners.

Born in Truro, Nova Scotia, at an early age he was taken by an uncle to Ireland to be educated. Returning in his late teens, he sought work cutting the huge pine and later spruce, in the St. John River region. The great islands of pine in central and southern Maine had all been cut when Aroostook’s tall pine harvest was just beginning. Con-

ners learned the business from stump to ship.

The port of St. John became to the St. John River what Bangor was to the Penobscot. Each spring, just after iceout, uncounted millions of feet of pine and spruce were driven to Grand Falls, where Fredericton crews took over herding the timber to St. John.

Most wood was shipped to England to build her navy. It was sold to the British not in board feet, but by the ton; hence it was known as “ton timber.” It was not delivered round, but as timbers hewed square at the cutting site.

The Brits paid up in English pounds.

These pounds were then converted to elegantly engraved private script is-

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PAVING The Greater Fort Kent Area in the Upper St. John River Valley!

A 4-Season Vacation Paradise Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce 291 West Main Street / PO Box 430 Fort Kent, ME 04743 (207) 834-5354 / 1-800-SEE-FKME (733-3563) seefkme@fairpoint.net WWW.FORTKENTCHAMBER.COM Serving the communities of Allagash, Cross Lake, Eagle Lake, Fort Kent, Frenchville, New Canada, Portage Lake, St. Agatha, St. Francis, St. John, Sinclair, Wallagrass, & Winterville

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CARON’S

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Hours: Monday-Friday 5AM to 2PM (Serving Breakfast & Lunch) Saturday 5AM to 12 Noon (Serving Breakfast Only) Closed Sunday

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834-6262 345 Market Street • Fort Kent Mills

Andrew & Jill Caron Owners 577 West Main St. Fort Kent, ME cell (207) 316-8162 home (207) 834-4007

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SEC 2 9

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com sued and backed by Jewett and Pitcher, a group of Maine-Massachusetts timber brokers. The first paper money issued in the County, it was printed in $1, $2 and $5 bills, by the Bank of British North America. Lumbermen accepted it as legal tender. Later it was issued by the National Bank of Commerce in Boston and redeemable in U.S. currency. All along the St. John River Valley it passed as the real McCoy. This was fine and dandy until Jewett and Pitcher failed. Many folks got stuffed, and could only use the now bogus script as decoration.

As the supply of tall pine dwindled, the price shot up from $4 per ton to $40. A 5-foot square 40 foot long timber weighed 25 tons and netted $1,000.

While lumber barons or timber wolves, as they were known, made fortunes, loggers stood on snowshoes and swung a broad axe from dawn til dusk, 6 days a week, for $1 per day.

Most of the timber went for ship’s

knees, but an 80-foot long timber, a foot square at the top, became a mast.

Timbers were hauled to rivers from cutting sites by a dozen yoke of oxen pulling “go-devils.” Developed by John Glazier, these unique Aroostook sleds had a set of rollers in front and runners behind. Two go-devils, or “jumpers,” were required for each timber.

Bob Conners worked these annual river drives. He must have been a stand-out, for while still in his twenties he was placed in charge of the spring drive from the headwaters of the St. John to Grand Falls. To improve efficiency and reduce confusion, the men who controlled the timber decided to make these drives a joint operation.

Each timber was marked on the butt end with the owner’s brand. Later when mills were built at Madawaska, these corporate drives to the port of St. John ended.

Conners was a keen businessman.

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robert daigle & sons LOGGING CONTRACTOR

207-834-3676 207-631-9053

Robert J. Plourde, Esq.

ATTORNEY AT LAW 11 West Main St., Suite 101 • P.O. Box 457 Fort Kent, ME 04743 • 207-834-3921

603 New Canada Road New Canada, ME 04743

834-4139 • 436-0841

Seasoned wood cut to any length or tree length Fort Kent, Maine

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J.R.S.

FIREWOOD

He first acquired John Glazier’s depot camp 7 miles above Fort Kent. Next he bought and operated 3 logging camps, and later a series of townships. Finally he acquired Seven Islands Farm, formerly owned by Houlton’s Shep Cary.

In 1882, Bob started his own village at the site of Glazier’s camp. He built a unique home. Outwardly it did not appear unusual, but the interior was truly Victorian elegance. The woodwork was hand-carved and inlaid by craftsmen imported for the task. Several of the floors were laid with matched maple, mahogany and oak. Walls were wainscoted with embossed wallpaper.

Elegant paintings were added. Fireplaces were made of black marble, and even the bathroom was marbled.

Conners created a town, building houses for his employees, a store, and a small elegant hotel. He also built a small Protestant church in the heart of this staunchly Catholic area. The eaves (cont. on page 10)

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St. John Valley Realty Co. 8 East Main Street Fort Kent, Maine

(207) 834-6725

Real Estate • Rents • Management Michael Albert, Broker/Owner stjohnvalleyrealty.com

SEC 2/3 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

10

(cont. from page 9) and windows of all the buildings were decorated with elaborate filigree and gingerbread. Bob hired several old loggers to tend his pride and joy flower beds.

Robert Conners died here in 1895.

While he may not have been wellknown across the state, he was to the residents of the St. John River Valley.

Respected, liked and admired, he was active all his life. In his middle years, he would strap on snowshoes and hike 75 miles to his Seven Islands operation. A handsome, dynamic man, he remained a bachelor. How’d he do that? * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

150 YEARS ♥

Salon De La Vie

View at Fish River, ca. 1920. Item # 6801 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

JOHN’S SHURFINE FOOD STORE Tom & Jess Audibert

Andrea - Owner

207-834-4155

78 East Main Street • Suite 101 Fort Kent, ME

Fresh Cut Meats, Produce, Groceries, Gas, Subs, Pizza, Chester Fried Chicken, Lottery, Agency Liquor Store

Mon-Sat: 6am-9pm • Sun: 7am-9pm 207-834-5181 │ 207-834-6566 182 Market Street • Fort Kent, ME www.johnsshurfine.com

Do You Love History?

ater Van Buren e r G

If so, give us a call.

Chamber of Commerce

Do You Enjoy Writing?

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We Are Always Looking for HISTORY WRITERS to contribute to our magazine!

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We are a 4-season vacation destination offering snowmobiling, snowshoeing, x-country skiing, hiking, ATVing and other outdoor activities.

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TULSA, INC.

Serving The County for over 45 years!

868-5702

34 Main Street • Van Buren

tulsainc.com

S

/3

SEC 3 11

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Early view of Main Street in Madawaska. Item # LB2007.1.101314 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Roger Ayotte Electric, Inc. 41 Main St. Madawaska, ME 04756

207-728-4253 Cell: 207-316-4622 Fax: 207-728-4583

Gil’s Lock ‘n Key

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Just call ME!

“The oldest Trustworthy store in the United States”

Gilman Bourgoin - Locksmith

207-728-7511 (Home) 207-436-0183 (Cell) gilbo@twc.com

74 Dionne Street • Madawaska, ME 04756

207-728-4750 620 Main Street • Madawaska, Maine

February 4, 5 & 6 Top O’Maine Trade Show April 27 & 28, 2019 ___________________ April 30 - May 1st Community Yard Sale Memorial Day Weekend August 11th - 15th ___________________ Poutine Palooza August 16, 2019

(207) 728-7000 356 Main St. • P.O. Box 144 Madawaska, ME 04756

StJohnValleyChamber.org

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

12

Surveying crew near Madawaska. Item # 5424 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

Martin Acadian Homestead “If this house could talk...” ~ Open Year Round ~

Oldest Active Acadian Home in Madawaska, circa 1823-1860

ROB’S AUTO REPAIRS & SALVAGE

Countryside ❧ Retreat, LLC

WE PICK UP ALL OLD CARS AND ALL METAL

~The Perfect Getaway ~

Total Auto & Body Repairs

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Monday-Friday: 8am-5pm Saturday: by appt. │ Closed Sunday

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ROBERT DIONNE

~ National Register of Historic Places ~ For Tours Call: 207-728-6412

House: 316-1081 • Cell: 436-9412

137 Saint Catherine St., Madawaska, ME

605 Main Street • Madawaska, ME 04756

martinacadianhomestead@yahoo.com

❧

OUELLETTE’S GARAGE Truck & Heavy Equipment Repair — Since 1996 —

Located at 705 Beaulieu Road • St. David, Maine 04773

ALBERT “AL” OUELLETTE, JR. Phone: (207) 728-4930 • Fax: (207) 728-6478

Access To ITS 81 17 Gendreau Road St. David, Maine 04773

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cell: 436-8432 Alan Morin Lake Shore Road • St. David

13

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

View of Main Street in Limestone, ca. 1945. Item # 1134 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

Happy Birthday Limestone...celebrating 150 years!

Mike’s Giberson-Dorsey

Funeral Home

144 Main St., Fort Fairfield, ME

472-4731

Family Market

Full Line of Groceries & Meats Megabucks & Powerball Beer & Wine • Full Service Deli Hardware Items, Tools & Accessories

Aaron M. Giberson, Director gibersondorseyfuneralhome.com

TOWN and COUNTRY SALON AD GOES HERE 207-325-4723 • Cell: 227-5676 Fax: 325-3482 51 Access Hwy • Limestone, ME

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World War II Marine Pvt. Alberic “Brick” Blanchette

by James Nalley

Finally laid to rest in Caribou age of 17 and said farewell to his parents, two sisters, and one brother to do his part in the war effort. After completing basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, he volunteered to join the elite 1st Marine Raider Battalion, which was one of the first units to see combat.

He would go on to fight in some of the Pacific’s bloodiest battles. For instance, according to Bill Nemitz in the Portland Press Herald, “He landed behind enemy lines on Tulagi in the British Solomon Islands, where some of the fiercest fighting in the war occurred.

He attacked enemy forces on Savo Is-

On September 18, 2017, U.S. and Maine flags were flown at half staff in honor of a former World War II U.S. Marine from Caribou, whose remains were finally given an appropriate burial.

Earlier that year, the Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) conducted a forensic analysis of the remains, which had successfully identified Pvt. Alberic “Brick” Blanchette, approximately 74 years after he had been killed in action at the Battle of Tarawa.

Born on May 31, 1924 in Caribou, Blanchette joined the Marines at the

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SEC 5 15

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com land and fought in a raid on a Japanese supply base at Guadalcanal.” In addition, Blanchette defended the airstrip on Guadalcanal “against repeated enemy assaults in what became known as the Battle of Bloody Ridge.”

After months of intense fighting, Blanchette’s unit was sent to New Caledonia in October 1942 for some R & R (rest and relaxation). Apparently, he enjoyed his respite a bit too much. According to his military records obtained by his nephew Clement McDonald, “Blanchette went AWOL twice – each time for a few hours in the evening – and was busted back to private and transferred out of the Raiders.” McDonald believes that “he met a girl… and was trying to see this girl before he left again because I’m sure he knew he was going back into the fight.”

Blanchette was subsequently assigned to the 3rd Battalion, Company “K,” 2nd

Marine Division, which landed with the first wave on Red Beach 1 in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands.

Awaiting them was stiff Japanese resistance. Eventually called the Battle of Tarawa, it was the first American offensive in the strategic central Pacific region. According to the book titled, A Special Valor: The U. S Marines and the Pacific War by Richard Wheeler, “It was the first time in the Pacific War that the United States had faced serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious landing.” More specifically, previous landings faced little to no opposition by the enemy forces, but on Tarawa, there were 4,500 well-supplied and well-prepared Japanese defenders ready to “fight to the last man.” Over several days of intense fighting, approximately 1,000 Marines were killed, with more than 2,000 wounded. To put this in better perspective, the U.S. divisions

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suffered similar casualties in other campaigns that lasted roughly six months.

However, the losses on Tawara occurred over a span of 76 hours.

At only 19 years of age, Blanchette was killed in action sometime on the first day of battle. After the U.S. forces had virtually annihilated the Japanese forces, the U.S. service members who were killed in action were buried in various battlefield cemeteries on the island.

However, in 1946, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company of the American Graves Registration Services recovered 532 sets of remains from the burial sites across the atoll and interred them into a single burial site called Lone Pine Cemetery. Any remains that were unable to be identified were simply designated as “unknowns,” which, at the time, included Blanchette. In November 1946, the U.S. Army disinterred the bodies and (cont. on page 16)

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(cont. from page 15) brought the remains to Oahu, Hawaii, for further identification. Again, the remains that could not be identified were marked as “unknowns” and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu.

In October 2016, approximately 71 years after the end of World War II, the DPAA used the latest forensic technology to identify the unknown remains of numerous U.S. soldiers. On July 12, 2017, based on dental, anthropological, and chest radiography comparisons with medical records, Blanchette was successfully identified. According to Nemitz in the Portland Press Herald, after a Marine officer contacted McDonald with the news, “Word then quickly spread throughout the extended family, many of whom still lived in and around Caribou.” It is important to note that, among the 16 million American

who served in World War II, approximately 400,000 died, of which roughly 73,000 are still unaccounted for. Although the DPAA has been diligently working on the remains of fallen soldiers from the war, only 170 have been identified and finally laid to rest back in their respective hometowns.

In September 2017, Blanchette’s flagdraped casket arrived under police escort for his funeral at Mockler Funeral Home, after which he was laid to rest at Old Holy Rosary Cemetery in Caribou.

According to McDonald, “It’s finally a chapter that we can close in the Blanchette family and I was so grateful that his one living sister was able to come up from Louisiana and we were able to get her up here.” As stated by Blanchette’s sister, “He came home and I’m happy.”

Meanwhile, a rosette was placed next to his name on the Wall of the Miss-

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The Acadian Deportation Was that an apology?

by Charles Francis

T

he story of “the Deportation” of the Acadians from their homeland in Nova Scotia in 1755 is a well- known one on both sides of the St. John River as well as in most of the English-speaking world thanks, in part to Longfellow’s epic poem Evangeline.

It is a tale of suffering and woe with the Acadians stripped of most of their possessions and hunted like animals for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the King of England. In fact, the only thing worse that the British could have done

to them would have been to completely wipe them from the face of the earth.

“The Deportation,” which historians also refer to as “the Expulsion,” is known as “le Grand Derangement” (“the Tragic Times”) by Acadians. It saw some eight to ten thousand Acadians taken from their homes and deported to the thirteen American colonies or else thrown in British prisons.

In addition, a smaller number were sent to France. An even smaller num-

ber — 200 to 400 — fled in stages up the St. John River to eventually settle in the Madawaska region, where they found a degree of peace. These were later joined by small groups of deportees who had been left up and down the entire east coast of the thirteen colonies from northern Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts, to the deep south.

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SEC 6 19

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com gree of responsibility for the refugees.

In Boston, which was expected to absorb 2000 Acadians, officials did little more than to send doctors on board the ships carrying them to ascertain their health and then request that the General Court provide coffins for the dead.

(This was when Governor Shirley had agreed that Massachusetts would serve as one of the embarkation points.) The only refugees for whom any degree of compassion was shown were children, and then it was only to take a few of those from their families to place with families who were willing to take responsibility for them at their own expense. The Acadians who managed to escape the British dragnet and flee up the St. John, then, were the lucky ones as their families were able to stay together.

The first Acadians to enter the St. John Valley formed the base for today’s Maine Franco-American community.

This community, which includes de-

scendants of immigrants from Quebec as well as a few from France, makes up over one third of the state’s population or 336,000 according to the 1990 census. That is even more than the Franco-Americans community of New Brunswick, which stands at 270,000, or Nova Scotia, which is about 80,000.

The only place where there are more Franco-American of Acadian descent to be found than Maine is Louisiana.

There are, of course, Acadians in every state as well as all across Canada. However, it is in Maine and Louisiana that the Acadians made the easiest transition into a new world and a new society.

The first election of Acadians to a legislative body occurred in Louisiana in 1805, when three were elected to the first Louisiana legislature. The first Acadian to be elected to the Maine legislature was Joseph Cyr in 1844. It was not until years later that that the first Acadian was elected to the Nova Scotia parliament. Of all things, he was ex-

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pected to take the old oath of allegiance to the King of England. (His response was that he would rather eat a dogfish tail first.)

Maine was also the first to open a school specifically designed to prepare bilingual teachers for the Acadian community. This was the Madawaska Training School, which opened its doors in 1878. One of its early graduates, Catherine Ouellette, became the first school superintendent in North America of Acadian heritage.

The above examples of the Acadian experience in Maine are not to imply that life was easy for the settlers on the Maine side of the St. John River and that they were readily accepted into Maine culture and society. In 1858 a reporter for the Portland Transcript, Edward Elwell, described the Acadians of the St. John Valley as living on a diet of pea soup and other vegetables. As far as Elwell could see they tended to fa(cont. on page 20)

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(cont. from page 19) vor the fiddle over the hoe and seemed content living two families to a house.

Their political activity he described as confined to selling their vote for nine pence. Elwell did preface his remarks with a brief description of the injustices suffered by the Acadians at the hands of the British. However, he in no way acknowledged that a wrong had been dealt them.

Ironically at no time in the past has there been a formal acknowledgment made of the injustice that was perpetrated on the ancestors of the Acadians in 1755. That is, there hasn’t been until recently, thanks in part to the efforts of Euclide Chaisson, head of the Societe Nationale des Acadiens.

The formal acknowledgment of the Acadian deportation comes indirectly from the Queen of England. However, because in her official statement Queen Elizabeth states she is deferring to her representatives in the Canadian gov-

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Madawaska’s Tintamarre Celebration Annual event spotlights Acadian traditions

by Brian Swartz

F

or the pure joy of making noise — and lots of it — Madawaska is the place to be each August 15 as the Tintamarre winds along Main Street.

What is a Tintamarre?

“In English it is called a ‘noise parade,’” said Patricia Cannan of Madawaska. The concept dates to Le Grand Dérangement, the 1755 British expulsion of Acadians from their homes in l’Acadie (Acadia), then encompassing the region around the Bay of Fundy.

When the dust settled, those Acadians who evaded capture and settled elsewhere in the Maritimes and Quebec “were allowed to build houses” often

located “far from each other … because the British were afraid they would get together” and oppose their new English masters, she said.

The Acadians “were kind of lonely” and “couldn’t visit each other” because of the distances, Cannan said. On Sundays, the people living in a house went outdoors and banged on pots and pans.

The noise carried to neighbors, who exited their homes and banged together whatever they had.

When the noise reached a parish church, “the priest would ring the church bells,” she said. “They made a noise parade, and they would pick up the houses as they went.

“There would be an evening of good times,” Cannan observed.

The Tintamarre tradition faded as the decades passed, and “it was lost” as the Anglo-dominated education systems on both sides of the American-Canadian border suppressed Acadian history, she noted. An American citizen, “I went to school in Canada” and “never heard of the Acadia deportation. It was kept a secret.”

Not until the latter half of the 20th century was Le Grand Dérangement “brought out of the closet” as educators and historians “started telling the world there was a genocide [in l’Acadie] (cont. on page 26)

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(cont. from page 25) caused by the British,” Cannan said.

During festivities held in Moncton in 1955 to remember the Acadian deportation bicentennial, the Diocese of Moncton archbishop, Monsignor Norbert Robichaud, issued an edict resulting in the first recorded Tintamarre held in Acadia at least in the 20th century, according to the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America.

Robichaud asked that at 7 p.m., Wednesday, August 7, “the bells of all the churches will ring for two minutes to announce the official opening of the Acadian bicentennial celebrations.” Families would kneel outside their homes during the bell ringing and would recite the “bicentenary” prayer.

“Once the prayer is finished, there will be a joyful tintamarre … featuring anything, everything and everyone that can make noise, shout and ring,” Robichaud indicated.

The next Tintamarre apparently did not take place until 1979. Held in Caraquet, New Brunswick to celebrate the 375th anniversary of French colonists settling in the Acadian region, this event was so popular that Acadians carried its concept elsewhere within their communities.

Cannan credits Father Jacques Lapointe, a Franciscan priest with dual American-Canadian citizenship, with introducing Tintamarre to Maine Acadians. He was born in Van Buren and grew up across the St. John River in St. Leonard, New Brunswick.

“We had never heard about Tintamarre before he came. He’s the one that brought the tradition to us,” Cannan said.

Held in the upper St. John Valley, the two-week 2014 World Acadia Congress marked the first time the popular two-week conference spread across the American-Canadian border. Tens of

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thousands of people converged on the region to celebrate Acadian heritage, learn about Acadian history, and focus on l’Acadie-specific issues.

Among the scheduled events was a Tintamarre, slated to be held in Madawaska on August 15, the Acadian National Day. There’s a reason for this particular date.

“The Acadians had a great devotion to Our Lady of the Assumption,” who is their patron saint, Cannan explained.

“That’s who they prayed for and asked for guidance. That’s why August 15th is a big celebration.

“The bells of every church are rung all over the world at 6 o’clock (p.m.), all over Canada and all over this area, all over Louisiana, wherever there are Acadians,” she said.

Some 10,000-12,000 people packed Madawaska’s Main Street to participate in the Tintamarre held on August

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com 15, 2014. Authorities closed the international bridge linking Madawaska and Edmundston to all but pedestrians.

“First we had a mass at 3 o’clock.

Then we had gatherings, free food and everything” at the popular Four Corners Park in Madawaska, Cannan said.

The Tintamarre began as local church bells started ringing at 6 p.m.

The bell ringing continued “for maybe 15 minutes,” Cannan said. “That’s the Angelus, the prayers you say at noontime. That’s an Acadian thing.”

“This was the time where … we put our big heads on, and we had our parade,” said Madawaska resident Jackie Soucy.

Big heads?

A “big head” is a “gross tete,” made from papier mache, she explained.

Thirty-six were made, no more, and they’re brought out of storage each Au-

gust 15 for Tintamarre.

The gross tetes are “beautiful” and are “all kinds,” Cannan said. Some Tintamarre participants wear their gross tetes, and the heavier ones travel on a trailer. She carries hers while walking the parade route.

As for the 2014 Tintamarre, “people had pots and pans and … washing boards with spoons, and drums, anything that can make noise,” she said.

“One guy took tomato cans, and he made like drums. You are free to do what you want” when it comes to making noise.

Madawaska has hosted a Tintamarre each August 15 since 2014, and the tradition will continue as Acadians celebrate their heritage and history.

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The Great Sugar Beet Fiasco Sometimes sugar is not so sweet

by Charles Francis

D

uring the 1960s the State of Maine helped bankroll financier Fred H. Vahlsing’s controversial plan to grow sugar beets in Aroostook County. Vahlsing’s much-ballyhooed plan, however, went belly up.

In fact, it went belly up to the tune of some thirty million dollars. And this was when it had support ranging from that of local farmers, to the Federal Reserve, to the United States Department of Agriculture to Congress. The 1960s attempt to make Aroostook County a sugar beet-producing region was not the first attempt to do so, however.

In the late 1870s there was a push to bring the sugar beet to Aroostook

County. However, the goal of this push was a good deal different than the one which came in the 1960s. In the 1960s Aroostook sugar beets were to be a source of sugar. In the 1870s, the sugar beet was a much-needed source of manure. The manure was, or course, to be used as fertilizer.

The 1960s effort to turn Aroostook County into a sugar beet-producing region was related to the fact that human beings are great consumers of sugar, specifically sucrose. In fact, individual Americans consume something to the tune of one hundred pounds of sugar each year. Worldwide, sucrose consumption in the late 1950s and early

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1960s was more than sixty million tons annually.

The primary sources of sucrose are sugar cane and sugar beets. While sugar cane can only be grown in tropical or semitropical climates, sugar beets can be grown much further north, in temperature climates like northern Maine.

For this reason, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began pushing farmers to go into sugar beet production. Then, when the United States placed an embargo on Cuba, which was a major sugar cane grower, the USDA stepped up its effort. It was then that Fred Vahlsing stepped into the picture with a plan for his Maine

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com to combine sugar beet pomace with one of Maine’s most underutilized resources, hay, to increase and improve the state’s cattle herds. According to Gennert, hay was Maine’s largest crop.

Ninety percent of the hay grown in the state, however, went to waste. Gennert wanted to combine it with sugar beet pomace for animal feed. The Maine Beet Sugar Company would crush the pomace, much as apples are crushed for cider. The result would then be combined with straw as feed. With the increased higher quality feed, cattle herds would increase in quantity and quality.

The increased herds would produce increased amounts of manure which would be used for fertilizer resulting in increased crop production.

Wherever Gennert went he cited examples of local farmers who were accomplishing wonders raising sugar beets on their farms. In the mid-coast area, he pointed to an Alexander Johnson who produced over twenty-four

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Sugar Industries to construct a sugar beet refinery in Easton. Long before Vahlsing had his idea for turning profits from sugar beet growing, however, another company had a somewhat similar vision for Aroostook County. This company was the Maine Beet Sugar Company of Portland. Unfortunately, the Maine Beet Sugar Company had about as much success as Maine Sugar Industries.

The driving force behind the Maine Beet Sugar Company was a man named Ernest Thomas Gennert. By all accounts, Gennert was as charismatic a figure as Fred Vahlsing. Among other activities, Gennert toured Maine, speaking before groups of farmers in Grange halls and elsewhere, extolling the benefits of raising sugar beets.

Gennert touted the sugar beet not for its sucrose content, but rather for its pomace. The pomace was to be used for animal food.

Specifically, Gennert’s scheme was

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tons of sugar beets per acre. In Aroostook County, Gennert pointed out the success of George Parsons of Presque Isle.

Parson did most of the work by hand, including weeding. The only equipment he used was a horse-drawn plow. He produced over forty-three tons of sugar beets on the three acres.

According to an article written by Gennert for the Annual Report of the Maine Board of Agriculture for 1878, everything Parsons did “was a trial, and new, hardly any machinery has been used; while it is but reasonable to expect as the cultivation of sugar beets is continued on a larger scale, machinery will be almost exclusively used.” Gennert went on to say that use of “the European principle” of planting would also increase sugar beet production. (The European principle avoided planting too early, but Gennert failed to say how it was determined.) (cont. on page 30)

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(cont. from page 29) To say the least, Gennert was a promoter. In fact, he even went so far as to say, “To the surprise of many farmers, a struggle ensued between the [beets] and the weeds and in many cases the former predominated.” In short, the sugar beet was a plant that choked out weeds.

What farmer could ask for more?

Aroostook County farmers tried sugar beets as a crop in the 1870s and 1880s. It did not prove to be the farming panacea that Ernest Gennert predicted or hoped for. In short, the entire episode foreshadowed the County’s second great sugar beet fiasco, that of the 1960s.

In the early 1960s some optimists referred to sugar beets as “Maine’s ‘Sweet’ Potato.” It was not to prove “Sweet,” however. The USDA allotted Maine thirty-three thousand acres for the growing of sugar beets in 1965.

Thanks to state and federal funding, Fred Vahlsing built a sugar beet re-

finery in Easton. After a slow start it seemed that sugar beet production just might prove profitable. However, by 1970 only about a thousand acres were under cultivation. Then Fred Vahlsing defaulted on his loans. Maine taxpayers ended up footing a bill of seventy-five thousand dollars a month. One can almost imagine George Parsons, the sugar beet farmer from Presque Isle, sitting up in his grave and saying, “I told you so!”

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Early view of Main Street in Presque Isle. Item # LB2007.1.102093 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Outdoor Toyland Childhood memories of fun in Presque Isle

by Dorothy Boone Kidney

O

utdoors was our toyland when my sister and I were children in Presque Isle, Maine. Those were Depression days and expensive dolls and toys were merely something to look over as we studied the pages of catalogues. From the trees behind the house and the trees along the street, we designed our own dolls. We had a few “store dolls,” of course, but we often made simple dolls by fastening together little bunches of pine needles and tying them together at the “waist.” We enjoyed standing them on a polished table, blowing against them so they would “dance” across the surface. Even burdocks could be put together to form sticky, lumpy dolls.

We didn’t need elaborate houses. A

box placed on its side served nicely. A large leaf was used as a bedspread on the bed (a small box). The cattails from willow trees provided the mattress, the broom was a bunch of pine needles stood in the corner, ground coffee was dock seed.

We were terribly curious in those days and wanted to know answers to countless, impossible questions so we had endless games which we did with flowers to explain the present and predict the future. We pulled petals off daisies to find out if he loves me or loves me not, we crumbled the yellow centers of the daisies, tossed them confidently into the air, and then counted the particles that landed on our hand to determined “how many children we’d

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have.” We were never even slightly astonished when the fictitious children numbered twenty or more. We held buttercups under our young chins to find out if we liked butter. We blew dandelion-seed balls into the air and if any of the wispy stuff drifted back onto our hand, we knew we were “wanted by our mother” – not in the sense of acceptance but in the matter of an errand to be run or returning home because it was supper time.

We amused ourselves hour after hour “making curls.” We did this by splitting a dandelion stem lengthwise into several sections then popping it into our mouth. Pulling the stem rapidly in and out of our mouth would form curls. I still remember the peculiarly

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com bitter taste of those dandelion stems!

Sometimes we fitted dandelion stems together, end within end, and fashioned chain necklaces for ourselves. We fastened short lengths of chains around our wrists for bracelets, shorter lengths around our fingers for rings.

We tossed winged seeds from the willow trees into the air, blew them, and then watched them spin like propellers toward the ground.

We traced autumn leaves on paper and colored them carefully. We pasted fat grey pussy willows onto a penciled fence and hung the picture over our beds.

The possibilities were endless.

The diversions were fascinating. We plucked clusters of petals from clover blossoms and sucked the honey; we pulled up tall grass as we strode through the field and chewed the white tender roots. We went hunting in the nearby woods for spruce gum and chewed the strong bitter stuff, not because we enjoyed the gum, but because we had

been successful in finding it.

As I remember it, we even managed to make a great deal of noise with the “outdoor equipment” we found. We stretched wide blades of grass between our thumbs and blew hard as we could – producing a splendid shrill whistle.

Skillful boys cut whistles out of willow twigs. We exploded large pods of various plants by striking them with our hands.

And we pursued quieter activities.

We floated leaves on the water that rushed down the gutter of the streets in the spring. We wove leaves together, using the stems for lacing, and placed them in dolls’ beds for blankets, used them on doll houses for “roofing,” on floors of doll houses for rugs.

And we constantly hunted for fourleaf clovers.

Sometimes we simply experimented. I recall rubbing wide blades of grass on paper in place of a crayon, painting a face on an acorn, sticking tall pine cones into a sandbox for trees, carrying a small evergreen branch in my

pocket “just to smell.”

Perhaps someday I can borrow a child for a day and spend an afternoon in a field. We will take some sandwiches and pink paper plates – for what is a picnic after all without paper plates?

We’ll take a thermos of lemonade and we’ll make dozens of pine needle dolls and crazy dandelion-stem necklaces, we’ll sip the sweet nectar from fat clover blossoms. And when we have exhausted all the tantalizing possibilities of our fragrant toyland, we’ll lie on our backs and look up at the white clouds and guess what each fleecy shape might be. I think any child would do. But somebody preferably eight or nine years old. Somebody who has a bright imagination, who likes fun. And I should do this soon. Forget the appointments. It is later than I think. I should arrange right now to spend with a borrowed child a sunny day in somebody’s meadow.

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Workers at a saw mill in Mapleton. Item # LB2007.1.101340 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Winter scene on Exchange Street in Ashland. Item # LB2007.1.100034 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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SEC 5 Color Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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Germans In The Potato Patch POWs help Houlton’s “spuddering” economy

by Jeffrey Bradley

T

he solution to the shortage of potato pickers for Maine’s bumper crop of 1944 when most young men had gone off to fight or work in the wartime industries lay, oddly enough, overseas in the fields of France. After the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June of that year Hitler’s regime was clearly crumbling as the Allies swept up the dispirited enemy combatants in droves. Soon European internment camps were full, with not much room left for more. Enter the Maine representatives in Congress with a plan to put some of them to work harvesting the state’s potatoes.

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They were meant as a labor force to be “farmed out” in Aroostook County and help bring in the potato crop that the government had deemed vital.

The Geneva Convention, however, stipulated not putting prisoners of war aboard ships liable to be targeted by the U-boats still prowling the North Atlantic without their permission. After much wrangling, 400,000 volunteer POWs or so were headed for the camps in America, with thousands destined for Houlton. Tightly guarded, these compounds were designed to allay local fears of escaped Nazis running around the countryside. Most were sur-

rounded by strands of barbed wire with high-powered searchlights and 50-calibre machine guns set atop the towers at every corner manned 24 hours a day.

But not Camp Houlton. Tucked away up near the border with Canada, there was really no place to run to. Anyone that did escape would no doubt anyway be back in a hurry rather than risk freezing to death.

Some that jumped at the chance to serve out the war’s duration in the United States were 15-year-old boys and older conscripts forcibly inducted into the dwindling ranks of the German army. As Geneva accords mandated (cont. on page 38)

e

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Early view of Highland Avenue in Houlton. Item # LB2007.1.106988 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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SEC 7 Color Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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(cont. from page 36) that prisoners also receive equal treatment and at the pay scale of an American GI — 80 cents a day — this earned them script redeemable at the camp commissary, making them, in essence, “paid volunteers.” Not a bad deal for a bunch of defeated soldiers on the wrong end of a losing conflict. Farmers responsible for providing their meals and paying the government a stipend for their services were guaranteed a minimum price for their potatoes.

Prisoners in Houlton were housed in barracks that until recently had been the Army Air Transport base, with officers billeted in the nearby farms. Remote Houlton became a nexus headquarters for the satellite camps in Presque Isle and Sherman.

As the war progressed, increasing numbers of prisoners meant scrambling to find them suitable housing. In some instances, horse barns were turned into living quarters with toilets and laundries; potato warehouses into prisoner

mess halls complete with a kitchen; carriage houses became rec halls; and one blacksmith shop was even reconfigured into an infirmary with the doctor’s quarters upstairs.

It took both sides some time to accommodate each other. Tales like that of POWs suffering extreme fright when ordered to dig a latrine under the mistaken assumption they were digging their own graves gave way to milder tales such as the prisoner credited with saving a young girl’s life that had fallen from a moving tractor, or the farmer’s wife who sat and ate with the prisoners in order to prove that her cooking was safe. Such glimpses reveal how fear and resentment felt by the townsfolk gradually morphed into a kindlier view of the POWs as “just young boys” like their own.

By all accounts this was a lenient camp, although picking potatoes in cold and lonely Houlton was consid-

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ered hard duty. Some die-hard Nazis sent from other camps felt honor-bound to be troublesome but found themselves as roundly despised by their fellow prisoners as by the farmers and Houltonites regarding the evils of Hitler.

Unlike war-torn Europe, prisoners in America were safe and had plenty to eat. The camp was awarded high marks following a Red Cross inspection in 1944.

In fact, these prisoner-farm hands had just about everything pretty good.

Often only a sleepy guard in a jeep with an unslung rifle over his knees watched the rows of Germans picking potatoes.

Lasting friendships began to spring up, with one lucky fellow even coming back to marry the farmer’s daughter. Others revisited after the war, and the goodwill became generational. No dummies, these Germans, concerning those that had taken them in and treated them practically as their adopted sons.

Still, the Army once did a dastard-

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ly thing. It severely slashed their diet.

Whether from spite or from fear of escaping, prisoners were put on a restricted diet whose result was lethargic workers nearly too feeble for the labor.

It also created some angry farmers. After a round of spleen-letting, the outrage was corrected, and their proper diet restored. With ruffled feathers on both sides smoothed over, potato production quickly resumed.

Letters attesting to their excellent treatment written by the prisoners themselves abound in local historical archives, proving that hardship, bad situations, even different languages and customs can be overcome through a shared common humanity. And while no doubt this personal interaction was surely helpful, it was really the fact that the potatoes needed picking that brought the people together.

And so, the crop came in.

Early view of Patten looking from Finch Hill. Item # LB2007.1.108977 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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Early Life Of A Logger Logging was a prime occupation in the early 1900s

by Eric Hendrickson

T

he Wassataquoik Stream watershed is one of the most unpopulated and free-flowing streams in eastern North America and cuts through the most wilderness portions of both Baxter State Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The Wassataquoik Stream has played an important role in the early northeast logging history due to the difficulty of timber removal. This area was incredibly active in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Men and equipment moved up river and the logs floated down river, requiring the building of roads, camps, dams and using dynamite to remove the rock left by the glacier in the streams and

brooks. The men entered the woods in the fall, cutting timber all winter, then driving the logs down river to market in the spring. The writer Edmund Ware Smith has called the Wassataquoik log drives “the most difficult and dramatic of Maine’s lumbering history.” Folklore and literature have romanticized the logger by glossing over the hardships, dangers and deprivations of the forest operations as they cut down the trees and moved them down river for sale.

What was it like to be a logger, live in the camps and work the forest for these men?

In 1820 Maine became a state by separating from Massachusetts and

both were badly in need of money.

With the need for money came the land buying boom where speculators would buy whole townships for pennies on the acre at auctions, and the logging boom followed. They even paid for the building of the State House in Augusta by selling ten full townships. But in 1837 disaster struck with the Great Depression lasting until 1843. The first exploration in early days was where the owner hired a surveyor or explorer who was later called a cruiser to find the good stands of timber, determine its value and find the locations for the forest roads. In coastal Maine and along the western border white pine was the

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For much of its history, logging was a winter activity. In winter logs could be easily transported by sleds pulled by either horses or oxen to river banks and then piled. In spring, when the ice melted, logs were floated down the stream to sawmills in the higher water.

All the logs heading downstream were scaled (measured) and stamped (the logging equivalent of “cattle brands”) to determine ownership value. Due to the seasonal nature of the business, logging camps tended to be temporary, and often moved from place to place once the logs were gone and a new location was selected. The work week was from Monday through Saturday, starting the day at 5:00 a.m., long before the sun would rise, and going to bed at 9:00 every night. At the end of the day the loggers would return to camp in the dark for supper, which was a quick meat and potatoes diet. Supper was over but

tree of choice but in the Wassataquoik Stream valley pine cutting began in 1841 with the first road then changed to the long log spruce era, which began in 1883 with the operation of Tracy and Love. The men that went into the woods had several different names. The boss was called the lumberman while the workers were called woodsmen or loggers. The men that worked the river were called river-drivers or if they were good they were called rivermen. In John McLeod’s book, The Northern – The Way I Remember does an excellent job of capturing the life of the loggers working for the Great Northern Paper Company. The woodsman’s wages ranged from $12.00 to $20.00 a month and by 1900 averaged $24.00 a month.

The riverman general made more, as much as $3.00 a day due to the danger of the work. While this was good money for the time, once the worker paid for room and board they often had little

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that did not mean time for bed as they had to feed the animals, sharpen their tools, repair the skid trails and dry their clothes. Then it was off to bed like this for six days a week. Sunday was kind of their day off, but by today’s standards we would never call it a day off.

It was the time to wash and disinfect their clothes in giant kettles of boiling water then repair any holes or tears in them by mending them around the wood stove. Life in the logging camps was never easy and each logger generally had one set of clothes for the season, so they had to take extra good care of the set.

In the early years logging camps where the loggers lived were just rough log buildings, usually a square building about 15 to 20 feet long on a side where the logs were cut on the spot and laid horizontally, being notched on the corners. The gaps were chinked with moss or mud to seal the cracks and keep out (cont. on page 42)

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(cont. from page 41) the cold. The building would have a door but no windows. Until the 1860s the men generally slept on the ground on a bed of hay or fir boughs. The roof was covered with large sheets of bark or rounded split cedar logs that generally dripped water most of the winter due to melting snow. The early beds were marked by a log and generally filled with hay, fir or hemlock boughs with the men sleeping side by side with their heads to the wall in very close quarters in the same damp clothes they wore cutting all day long. The hearth for the fire was a square of logs in the middle of the building where a fire burned day and night. Holes in the roof allowed the smoke to leave, at least some of it.

Can you imagine breathing in the air at night? The fire was used for cooking, heating and drying clothes. There was no cook as the men took turns at this chore. In the corner of the hearth was always a bean-hole where beans where

baked in a deep round iron pot buried in the ashes. The only furniture in the early camp were wooden stools or a deacon’s bench, a split log with four

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branches still attached used as a seat so they always looked for these types of logs when cutting. Men often ate out of the frying pan all together. There would have been a hovel with a floor of hewed logs to keep the oxen and horses off the ground. There would have been a third building for storage of food and hay.

By 1860s the hearth was moved to one end with a log chimney to let the smoke out of the building — a major improvement in camp living. The floors were no longer dirt but made of hewed logs and windows were added to bring light into the camp. The bed was moved up off the floor and was a longraised bunk with a log bottom covered with boughs or hay. Twelve to fourteen men would live in the camp together in very close quarters. They shared one big communal bed, and in most cases there were lice that were present in most camps. Imagine sleeping five people in a king-sized bed, and that will give you

SEC 10/11 Color 43

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com some idea what it would have been like to sleep in the camp. The bed often had only one blanket, the spread or quilt sometimes 20 feet long and filled with cotton batting for warmth. You wanted to make sure you were not the one at the end of the bed. It is hard to imagine the pungent odor created when the men would hang their wet clothes and socks by the fire to dry after a great meal of beans.

By the 1890s the camp stove would be used for heating and cooking with the old logging camp being divided into two buildings, the bunkhouse and the cook house. The cook house was the dining room and sleeping quarters for the cook and his helpers and a room called the dingle which was a food and supply storage room. The camp boss often had his own little cabin, not for his pleasure but to allow the men to talk freely. The larger camps even had a small building for the clerk and perhaps a small store where men could buy articles of new clothes, hats, mittens or tobacco.

By the 1920s the single bunk was replaced by individual double-tiered bunks while the single bunk remained in the company camps until 1929. The camp worker consisted of the boss, clerk, choppers, swampers who would clear the roads, teamsters and cooks.

While the boss ran the camp, it was the cook that controlled the camp and its workers. There are stories and tales, perhaps some even becoming legends, about the cooks and their assistants and

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some of the things they sometimes did to the loggers. As Robert E. Pike wrote in Tall Trees, Tough Men, woodsmen would not work unless they were fed, and fed well, facts that gave the cook considerable power. As camps grew larger the cooks became better because they realized that woodsmen would not work well unless they were well fed. The kitchen was the absolute domain of the cook and no one was in the kitchen without the cook’s permission.

There was also the cookee who was a kind of apprentice, learning the trade.

He washed dishes and built the fire. Finally, there was the bull cook, whose primary job was keeping the fires going and keeping the kitchen supplied with wood and staples as a general all-round kitchen handy man. The cook and cookee were responsible for feeding the men more then 8000 calories, about four times as much as an adult today needs. The cook had one primary rule, and it demanded silence at all meals and once a seat for meals was selected it was the loggers’ seat for the season.

By having preselected seats the logger knew where he was sitting, speeding up the start of the meal. No talking allowed making it go that much faster to speed up eating. It was all about getting the men in and out as quickly as possible, so they could get back to work in the woods.

The cook would rouse the men in the darkness of a cold winter morning by ringing a bell or banging on a pot which would take place long before

the sun was up. The men would quickly get dressed, hoping for dry clothes, or head for the frozen group outhouse, then settle in for a quick hot breakfast.

The breakfast for the loggers was the most important meal of the day as it would give them a kick start for the work day. After a breakfast filled with calories consisting of beans, pork and biscuits or pancakes they would head off into the forest to fulfill their daily quota for the cutting of the timber. Arriving at the work site sometimes close but more often miles away from camp well before daylight and often in subzero stormy temperature. These men were engaged in hard physical labor in wet, cold weather conditions for twelve hours a day. Hot lunch was served to the logger on tin plates, the metal cooled the food quickly, so it was eaten without delay or cold. Lunch hour was at most twenty minutes and often time half that amount of time. Part of the cookee’s job was to deliver the lunch if the workers were any distance from the camp. They would deliver the food in a sled that they would pull, or in buckets hanging on a pole over their shoulders.

They would walk to the job site, build a small cooking fire, warm the food on a fire and serve the food to the loggers.

Once the meal was done they would return to the camp to help in the preparation of the supper meal.

The food selection was almost always the same with most camps having only salted meats, salted or canned fish, (cont. on page 44)

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(cont. from page 43) pork and beans, flour, molasses, gingerbread, and tea. Hardly a nutritious diet but a diet that kept the men from becoming hungry and staying fairly healthy. Most of these items came in barrels and today one of the most common things that is found in old camps are the various metal barrel hoops verifying that it was the location of an old camp. What made a good cook was his ability to use what he had and prepare meals in several different manners so that the loggers would think they were having something new. Richard Judd said it best when he wrote in his book, Aroostook: A Century of Logging in Northern Maine (1989), “The art of camp cooking … hinged on the knack of preparing one thing in a number of different ways.”

As camps grow larger they had more assistants and better cooks.

Sometimes the reputation of the cook

~ Wassataquoik Stream logging camp ~ spread through the neighboring camps, becoming a draw for the better workers who wanted good food over good pay.

If the cook was good he would make

molasses cookies or cake. Perhaps he’d cook some venison, partridge, or rabbit when someone was lucky enough to shoot it. But all power did not rest

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com with the cook. If the loggers were unhappy with the food, they talked during meals and carried out other disruptions to force the boss to fire the cook, but it was a two-way street, for a well-respected cook could threaten to leave the camp if they felt they were being treated unfairly. They might threaten to walk off the job if the boss demanded something or was disagreeable. A camp with no cook, or one with a bad cook, would not survive the season.

When the loggers were working the forest, they would cut trees using either an axe or crosscut saw and skid them down to the edge of the stream.

When the spring arrived, they would roll the trees into the water to head down stream. The logs were stacked so that when one bottom front log was moved the whole pile would roll into the stream making it extremely dangerous for the logger removing the log.

They used long pole to keep the logs

moving, calked boots (boots with short sharp spikes in the soles) and always carried a knife to cut their overalls if they got snagged. Imagine walking on floating logs with your calked boots using your pole for balance while going down river hoping not to fall into the stream. The most important tool was a peavey that was invented in Stillwater.

The peavey is a five-foot shaft with a sharp point and a moveable hook on the end. It could be used to roll logs to unjam them along the drive as it was all about keeping the logs moving down river as fast as possible.

Their life was hard, and the work was dangerous. Some would make it through the winter just to be killed in the spring log drive. One logger was drowning in a log jam at Orin Falls freeing a jam. He was buried on the shore and his name was etched into a stone in the river by his friends to remember him. Or William Haskell, who

was killed breaking up a log jam and buried next to the location where they found his body. He would have a rapid named after him. But more commonly the logger or driver was just buried along the edge of the river with their boots hanging in a tree. Perhaps their name would be inscribed in a rock by their friends just to be worn off by the future drives and lost in time.

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SEC 5 B/W Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

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Mystery Cabin Builders Central Aroostook invaded by escaped convicts

I

by Pat Hughes

n the northeastern portion of Maine lies vast, wild Aroostook County.

It’s the largest county east of the Mississippi River, and even today, most of the people are settled in the eastern section, leaving the rest of the county virtually uninhabited. It is covered with potato fields and forests. The forests are a lumberman’s dream, covered with spruce, pine, cedar, birch and maple.

The lakes and streams are filled with trout, salmon, pickerel and perch. The woods teem with moose, bear, fox, deer, wolves, beavers, otter, sable and mink.

There are many large areas of the county that are permanently swampy. It’s a vast wilderness, pristine and untouched

by humans. When the area became a county in 1839, with Houlton as its Shiretown, it took a hardy soul to put down roots. Why, then, when the first pioneers came to the area of Salmon Brook (near Washburn), did they find 30 cabins, obviously built before any permanent settler ever lived in the area?

These 30 cabins, actually tumble-down huts of a peculiar design, were in groups of 5 to 6 cabins each.

They were not built near the river, but far back in the woods out of sight. That they were built out of small trees and poles, around six inches in diameter, proved that the builders, whoever they were, used an ax and saw when they

built these structures. They were small and low, with shed roofs, covered with spruce or pine bark. This proves that the cabins were built in the summer when bark was peeling from the trees.

There were no floors in the cabins, but there were cut blocks of wood inside, perhaps used as seats. There was a fireplace in the center of each, and a hole cut in the roof above it so smoke could escape.

These cabins were built by someone, but they were there when the supposed first permanent settlement was being built. Who built them? A number of theories have arisen, the first being that perhaps it was the Indians of the

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SEC 5 B/W 47

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com St. Francis tribe — specifically the members who refused to leave Aroostook County when the other members of the tribe were induced to move to Canada. This theory is unlikely, however, because the First Peoples didn’t build cabins to live in, and even if, for some reason they did build these cabins, these natives were never known to use a saw.

The second theory is that the Acadians came to the area and built a small community by the water. The problem with this theory is that the Acadians built substantial log cabins with double-steeped roofs, covered with cedar or pine splits. Besides, why would they wander so far from their kinsmen? It isn’t a logical theory.

The third theory is that the cabins were built by trappers who came down from Canada to catch the fur creatures of the area. This is also doubtful as, first of all, there are too many cabins to be

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needed by trappers. They don’t usually trap in groups of 30 or more. Secondly, the cabins are quite far from the river, which really wouldn’t be helpful to the trappers. The third and last problem with this theory is that fur is not good or salable in the summer, when these cabins were built.

The fourth theory is that perhaps criminals sought shelter in the Maine woods from lawmakers. This is a good possibility because it is very remote and far from civilization. But, once again, why so many cabins? A large group of escaped criminals would have been recorded somewhere.

The last theory seems to be the best possible solution to this mystery. In 1794 a ship set sail from England. Its destination was the penal colony at Van Demens Land, and she had 190 convicts on board. As the ship rounded the Cape of Good Hope and was just entering the Indian Ocean, a storm of enormous

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magnitude struck. The ship was on the verge of sinking and the crew, fearing immediate death, let some of the convicts free from down below. They were known as good sailors, and used to help keep the ship afloat.

The convicts seemed to turn the tide in the war against the storm and the ship didn’t sink, making it safely through the storm. When the crew tried to return the convicts below, they refused to go. Some started to fight the crew, and the others went below to free the rest of the convicts. A long, horrible and bloody battle endured. The crew was fighting for their lives for the second time on this trip, while the convicts were fighting for their freedom. Many died on both sides, but in the end, the convicts came out ahead and any remaining crew was thrown into the sea.

Alexander McVane was the leader of the convict revolt and a pretty good (cont. on page 48)

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(cont. from page 47) sailor. He was chosen by his convict crew as the new Captain of the ship.

He knew that the authorities in Britain would soon be after the convict ship, and he told his crew that the only place to hide and be safe was in the great forests of Canada.

The convict crew agreed, and they turned the ship around and headed for the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River.

Three months later in May, the citizens of Quebec awoke to the cries of fire near water’s edge. A great sailing vessel had run aground sometime in the night and was on fire.

The people ran to help the hapless sailors, but no one was around. The vessel was completely destroyed by the fire, but no bodies were ever found.

On a path leading out of town toward the forest, there were the footprints of many feet. Sensing something wasn’t right, soldiers were sent to search and

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bring back the men who had been on the ship.

Later that night as the soldiers set camp, they were surrounded by at least 100 rough-looking men, all carrying pistols and cutlasses. These men ordered the soldiers to turn around and return to Quebec or die. The men took the muskets, ammunition, food and supplies, then disappeared. The soldiers returned with their story and another group of soldiers were sent to search for the group.

The new band of soldiers followed the men to the Maine border, where they disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again.

The mystery cabin builders didn’t die near the cabins, because there were no tools or graves found in the area.

The cabins just appeared to be deserted.

Perhaps once the occupants felt safe to leave, they did so, and started new lives in new places.

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One last point to mention is that the Aroostook River area Indians speak of ancient lore that in the years before any European was seen in the area, strange looking men, calling themselves Swiss sailors, but speaking English, came to the area and settled. They took MicMac wives and lived in the area with the Indians until they died.

There are only two facts known about the mystery cabin builders. One is that the cabins were built before any permanent settler came to the area and two, they weren’t built by the Indians of the area.

Were the cabins built by the prison ship convicts to be a first settlement out of harm’s way from the British authorities, or is this still an Aroostook County unsolved mystery? * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

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SEC 8 49

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SEC 7 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

50

The Lunksoos Camps On the road to Katahdin

by Eric Hendrickson

I

n Myron Avery’s Appalachia article, The Monument Line Surveyors on Katahdin, he explains that shortly after Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820, an east/west line was surveyed across the state from the New Brunswick border to the Quebec border starting where the border was no longer the St. Croix Stream. The line became known as the Monument Line, and it allowed for the equitable distribution of lands not already incorporated or otherwise conveyed by Massachusetts. In 1833 timber and cheap land attracted friends William Harman Hunt of Carthage, Maine and Hiram Dacey of Skowhegan to the area. In Charles

Huntinton’s article titled The Hunt Farm — A History, he details how they floated down the Seboeis River looking for places to settle. Hiram Dacey settled on the bank of the East Branch of the Penobscot River on the slope of Lookout Mountain while William Hunt settled a couple of miles downriver at the location of the Hunt Farm. The lands were purchased for one and a half cents per acre, and they began clearing the land to make their homes. These farms were the last outpost of civilization for travelers and the jumping off point for loggers going into the wilderness.

In John Neff’s book, Katahdin: A Historic Journey he describes how Hi-

ram Dacey constructed a farmhouse in 1833 on the side of Lookout Mountain which became known as the “Dacey Clearing.” The outpost in the wilderness was the last stopping place for travelers headed north, up river into the Allagash region. His farm was constructed with a stone foundation made of granite, still at the location today, and a framed log building. According to legend Dacey built his farm without using a single nail. He cleared the area and brought his family in to live in the wilderness with him. The cabin was also periodically used as an inn for travelers.

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SEC 7 51

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com American author, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau during his third trip to Maine in 1857, canoed past the location of the Dacey cabin on July 31, 1857. The cabin would have been there, but he did not mention it in his book, In the Maine Woods. He did camp about a mile below near the mouth of the Wassataquoik Stream. He describes in his book of seeing the tote road along the east bank of the river.

But while traveling down the river on July 31 they ran across what his guide described as very recent tracks of an Indian Devil or cougar. The book was widely read during that time by people wanting to experience the wilderness.

The story of the tracks may well have been the source of the name for the camps, because the name “lunksoos” is the Algonquian word for “Indian devil,” or “catamount,” which refers to a wild beast that terrorized native people and was said to be heard screaming in the valley by travelers to the area. (cont. on page 52)

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SEC 8 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

52

(cont. from page 51) John Neff describes how the cabin and clearing was sold to C.R. Patterson, the owner of Hunt Farm, in 1881, who connected the two farms by a better road along the river. That road is the same road that is there today. Patterson built a new guest house in 1885 that he called the Patterson House. In 1892 due to increased business and promotion of his location he built a cable ferry that was used to carry sports and logging equipment across the river. It was a simple system with a cable attached to trees on both sides of the river that could be removed during the winter.

This cable was used to pull a flat raft that people used to cross the river. The ferry was in operation until 1922 when it was finally removed. By 1895 the old Dacey cabin had decayed to the point that it had to be torn down. Patterson’s business continued until 1891 when Fred Ayer and Luther Rogers leased the

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facility from Patterson as a headquarters for their logging operation up the Wassataquoik Stream. They renamed and rebuilt the Patterson House, calling it the East Branch House, which continued to operate for recreational activities in the area. In 1894 rail service finally arrived in Stacyville, increasing the popularity of Lunksoos with the final part of the trip to the camp being made using wagons over rough roads. In 1895 after removing the Dacey Cabin they constructed an elaborate log sporting camp, calling it Lunksoos Camp. The structure was a three-story affair with a large open deck on the first and second floors offering a view of Katahdin to the west. On the third story which was used for storage the word “Lunksoos” was spelled on the front using birch logs. It was the era of the great sporting camps where the traveler could stay overnight, get a home-cooked meal and

hire a guide which brought the comfort and safety of home to the wilderness.

The advertisement in the 1905 edition of the Bangor & Aroostook magazine In the Maine Woods show the importance of the sporting camp. Myron Avery in his article, The Keep Path and its Successors: the history of Katahdin from the East, he talks about how the camps were used for logging operations. In 1901 the Ayer and Rogers Operation ceased, with the ownership reverting to Dr. Charles Cook.

In 1903 George Hallowell was hired to follow the logging operation up the Wassataquoik documenting it with his photography. With the great wildfire of 1903 he barely made it to cross the river seeking refuge at Lunksoos. While the wildfire was stopped by the river, Lunksoos did burn to the ground in 1908. The camp was rebuilt in 1910

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SEC 8 53

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

the Ross Lumbering Operation began promoting the Saddle trip to the great Basin. The Ross Lumbering Operation held the lease and continued to push the roads deep into the Great Basin. The camps were once again leased in 1920 to Edward Drapper to be used for his logging operations.

Howard Whitcomb in his book, Governor Baxter’s Magnificent Obsession, he tells how it was in 1920 that perhaps one of the most important visitors came to Lunksoos Camps, Percival Baxter. On August 5, 1920 that a group met at the home of Bert Howe in Patten to visit and climb Katahdin. This was Percival Baxter’s first climbing trip to the mountain. His party was made up of politicians, reporters, farmers and sportsmen as well as guides. The party stayed at Lunksoos, where they crossed the river to head up the Wassataquoik to Katahdin. It was this trip that crys-

tallized his vision of a wilderness park.

During this period Edward Drapper continued to operate the camps until late 1930 when Nelson McMoarn took over the lease operating the camps for recreational purposes. The era of the great sporting camp was quickly coming to an end. Perhaps it was the automobile that gave people the ability to travel and greater freedom to take short vacations.

Donn Fendler, in his book, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, tells how it was Nelson McMoarn, who on July 25, 1939, came to the rescue of 12-yearold Donn Fendler after his wilderness ordeal. It was the end of the Great Depression and the country needed a hero that would show the courage and persistence of the American people. The Fendler party was climbing the Hunt trail on July 17, 1939. The party was neither experienced nor prepared, and

the group made their way up the mountain with little idea how quickly the weather could change. On the tableland of Katahdin, Fendler became separated from his party. As rain and clouds engulfed the mountain he became lost for nine days. Donn’s tale is a story of survival and the will to live. Alone he tried to find his way down the mountain following the Wassataquoik downstream then following the remains of the Wassataquoik Tote Road, finally reaching the banks of the East Branch of the Penobscot. Despite the efforts of hundreds of searchers, it was Mrs. McMoarn who happened to be standing at the window looking out at the river who first sighted Donn on the far side.

He was brought across the East Branch River to Lunksoos Camp, immediately cared for, and his parents contacted. Donn was brought downriver in a canoe to Grindstone, hospitalized, and (cont. on page 55)

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SEC 9 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

54

Danforth’s East Grand Health Center The oldest rural health center in Maine opened in 1965

by Brian Swartz

M

aine’s oldest rural health center continues to provide diverse medical services for people living in the greater Danforth area.

Originally staffed by a doctor and a public health nurse, the East Grand Health Center opened in the Danforth Town Office building in 1965. Initially open one day per week, the health center gradually grew under the guidance of its medical director, Dr. John Madigan, MD, and in 1981 the board of directors voted to construct a new facility at 201 Houlton Road (Route 1).

An early 2000s’ expansion added a procedure room, an area for nursing and triage, a conference room, an employee break room, and a kitchen and an expanded office space.

Dr. Ted Sussman, MD, served as the health center’s medical director for more than 25 years, and “when we had the new addition put on, we had the new conference room dedicated to him,” said Administrator John Massey.

One long-time staffer said that Sussman

“had a heart for this place,” reflected in “his dedication to the people in this area and to the health center.”

The goal of East Grand Health Center “is to bring health care to rural Maine,” said Massey. Designated a Federally Qualified Health Center “to provide services to the underserved in rural Maine,” East Grand covers a region lying within a 30-mile radius of Danforth, he said.

Residents know each other, and many families have lived in the region for generations. “Our town is such a close-knit community,” Massey said. “Something that separates us from other health centers is that we like to think of ourselves as a family.

“We are the place our neighbors go to receive medical care,” he noted. “It would be a 45-minute to an hour drive in any direction to receive medical services elsewhere.”

Medical providers at East Grand Health Center can refer patients to medical specialists elsewhere, but “the patient makes

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the choice,” Massey said. Many opt to go to Houlton Regional Hospital.

The East Grand Health Center is open 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m., Monday and Tuesday and 8:30-4 p.m., Wednesday through Friday.

The medical director for the past 10 years, Dr. Mark Kaplan, DO, oversees a staff that includes a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, a certified medical assistant, and a certified nursing assistant. A licensed clinical social worker provides behavioral health and mental health services, and a podiatrist also sees patients at the health center.

Since becoming East Grand Health Center’s medical director, a decade ago, Dr. Kaplan “has helped us expand services,” Massey said. “In response to the drug crisis that has hit our area particularly hard, Dr. Kaplan became a certified addiction specialist almost two years ago and started a suboxone program that has helped many patients suffering from drug addiction to turn their lives around,” Massey said.

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SEC 10 55

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (cont. from page 53) fully recovered his health. His story was in all the newspapers, and he was given a parade in Augusta and even had a with a visit with President Franklin D. Roosevelt who presented him with the Army and Navy Legion of Valor’s annual medal for outstanding youth hero of 1939. There was even a 1941 proposed trail following Donn Fendler’s route from the tableland to Lunksoos Camps.

In the mid-1950s the camps once again burned and were replaced by the lodge that stands there today and is leased to private parties for personal use. The camp was purchased in the 1990s and four cabins were added to the property for use by hunters. The camps were opened to the public as sporting camps in 2003, gaining a reputation for bear hunting in the great north woods.

Nick Sambides of the Bangor Daily News tells how on April 15, 2011 Roxanne Quimby purchased the 13.8-

acre Lunksoos parcel, which included a lodge and four cabins, from a Florida couple to be used as an artist and writer retreat in his article titled, Quimby buys historic Lunksoos Camps on the Penobscot. Phyllis Austin in Queen Bee: Roxanne Quimby, Burt’s Bees, and Her Quest for a New National Park explains why she wanted this location when it was the most expensive per acre purchase, but she wanted it to protect the area from commercial development. On May 9, 2011 in a meeting in

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Millinocket, Roxanne Quimby shared with the public her intent to make the lands a gift to the federal government in 2016, the birthday of the National Park System. The purchase on her part was considered a tactical move to prevent the property from becoming a commercial business. Accord to Phyllis Austin, she continued to work toward the purchase of a parcel of 900 acres to the south, including Whetstone Bridge, which never took place.

On August 23, 2016, in Millinocket, Roxanne Quimby transferred her lands in the Katahdin region to the federal government. Then on August 24, 2016, President Obama designated about 87,500 acres east of Baxter State Park as Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, one day before the National Park Service turned one hundred years old. Lunksoos Camps now serves as a work center for the monument.

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Sec 10 Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

56

The “Spirit Of The American Doughboy” Lincoln statue recognizes our soldiers’ sacrifice

by James Nalley

A

fter the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson spent several years avoiding conflict and attempting to broker peace. However, in January 1917, Germany resumed its unrestricted submarine warfare, resulting in the sinking of seven U.S. merchant ships.

On April 2, 1917, Wilson called for war on Germany, after which the U.S. Congress agreed four days later. At that time, the U.S. had a relatively small army, but after the introduction of the Selective Service Act, it drafted 2.8 million men. By the summer of 1918, it was sending approximately 10,000 new soldiers to France every day. According to the book Maine in World War I

by Jason Libby and Earle Shettleworth Jr., “With the same patriotic fervor as Maine’s response to a call for troops in the Civil War, more than 35,000 men and women across the stated joined the armed forces in 1917-1918.”

As for the town of Lincoln, 160 men answered the call to service. As stated in the History of the Town of Lincoln, Penobscot County, Maine 1822-1928

by Dana Willis Fellows, “Some of them entered through the Regular Army, but a very large majority were conscripted

and sent as the American Expeditionary Force.” Most of these men would go on to witness horrors never seen in the history of war. Thus, in the early to mid1920s, there was a national campaign to honor the men who had died, were wounded or served in the so-called “War to End All Wars.”

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tential money), Georgia-based sculptor Ernest Moore Viquesney (18761946) made preliminary sketches of an American soldier or “Doughboy.”

According to the article The Spirit of the American Doughboy by Viquesney researcher Earl Goldsmith, “He wanted to depict an American soldier in battle, but he didn’t want to depict excessive might or power by portraying a soldier charging or running forward. Instead, he wanted to depict the ‘spirit’ of the American Doughboy’s determination to preserve freedom for his country. So, he portrayed a Doughboy striding firmly forward in an erect posture through no man’s land.” More specifically, the Doughboy pose, which is its most recognizable trait, includes an extended right arm with a grenade in the hand and a left arm with a bayoneted 1903 Springfield rifle. He also wears the typical flat steel helmet, trousers bloused above the knee, and wrapped leggings.

In addition, his left leg is straight, while the right leg is bent, creating the sense of moving forward.

As for its material, the most common version of the Doughboy was made of pressed copper, which, according to Goldsmith, was created by

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Section 10 57

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com machine die-stamping more than 75 separate pieces and welding them together over an internal metal frame.”

All the Doughboys were hollow, and each weighed roughly 200 pounds. The hollow interior was also 20% as costly as a solid figure would have been, thus explaining why so many Doughboy statues were erected across the country.

In fact, the Smithsonian American Art Museum currently lists 159 locations, of which 134 existing originals have been independently authenticated.

During the campaign to create as many monuments as possible, the Doughboys were installed in cemeteries, town squares, public parks, courthouse lawns, etc. As stated in the book The History Behind the Doughboy by Karen Gardnerl, “The design is said to be the most-viewed example of outdoor statuary in the United States (after the Statue of Liberty), although many people do not even realize that they have seen it.”

Regarding the authenticated Doughboy in Lincoln, it is located at the intersection of Main, Broadway, and High Streets. Constructed of pressed copper, the inscription on the front plaque is as follows: “1917-1918, In honor of the Men of Lincoln Who Answered Their Country’s Call to Service in the World War. To the Dead, a Tribute, To the Living, a Memory, To Posterity, a Token of Loyalty to the Flag of Their Country.

Erected by the People of Lincoln, A.D.

1927.” According to Lee Rand of Lincoln, “Ground-breaking for the monument occurred on November 15, 1926, just after Armistice Day, at a location originally known as the Hay Scales Lot. A dedication ceremony followed on May 29, 1927, which was attended by 200 schoolchildren and many citizens. The dedication speech was given

by Governor Ralph Brewster…with the unveiling done by local Lincoln area Civil War veterans.”

Since the dedication, the Doughboy has been turned approximately 90 degrees from its original position. As stated by Rand, “It used to face down Main Street, but it now faces down Broadway. Years ago, the youth of Lincoln use to ‘cruise the main drag’ by circling the Doughboy, driving to the far end of Main Street to circle a Civil War monument, then drive back to circle the Doughboy, ad infinitum.”

Unfortunately, due to its hollow structure and relatively cheap design, time has been getting the best of this monument. According to Rand, “The stone on the ledge of the base has been damaged. The sculpture has also become very discolored and it could stand a lot of cleaning and restoration.” Despite its appearance, flowers are usually planted around the monument each Spring, and it is still a relatively popular tourist attraction.

Over time, the Doughboys across the country had become somewhat

forgotten amidst new historical events such as the Great Depression and World War II. Regarding the latter, the American public focused on a new type of soldier, the G.I. Despite Viquesney’s attempts to create G.I.-themed works, they failed to have the same following as his beloved Doughboy, and this once-prosperous sculptor disappeared into obscurity.

As stated in a newspaper article from Americus, Georgia, dated October 10, 1946, “E.M. Viquesney, 70, former resident of Americus and the sculptor who designed the Doughboy monument now standing at the corner of Lee and Lamar Streets, took his own life at his home in Spencer, Indiana, on October 4.” He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer, where he lived most of his life. In the same way that he typically self-aggrandized his life, Viquesney’s gravestone includes the words, “And So the Scene Closes.”

Always Remembered: Theresa, Ricky & Peter

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

58

Early view of Penobscot Avenue in Millinocket. Item # LB2007.1.101520 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Smith Associates, Inc. ...............................................................45 Babin Construction, Inc. ......................................................................6 Bacon Auto & Truck Care ...................................................................14 Barresi Benefits Group ......................................................................35 Bouchard Country Store ...................................................................22 Bouchard Family Farm ......................................................................22 Bouchard’s Seamless Gutters ............................................................4 Bowers Funeral Home .....................................................................51 Bread of Life Bulk Food & Specialty Store ..........................................44 Briarwood Motor Inn .......................................................................42 Buck Construction, Inc. .....................................................................44 CAM Manufacturing .........................................................................45 Caribou Vet Center ...........................................................................15 Caron’s Paving & Sealing ...................................................................21 Caron’s Redemption Center ................................................................8 Cary Medical Center ..........................................................................29 Casual Elegance Caterers ...................................................................52 Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce .........................................46 Central Building Supplies, Inc. ..........................................................11 Cindy’s Sub Shop ...............................................................................16 City Jewelry & Loan ...........................................................................16 Clay GMC - Chevrolet of Lincoln ........................................................43 Coffin’s General Store ........................................................................48 Cold Spring Cabins ............................................................................48 Colin Bartlett & Sons, Inc. ..................................................................3 Colonial Health Care ..........................................................................55 Complete Construction .....................................................................48 Country Village Estates LLC ..............................................................26 Countryside Retreat, LLC .................................................................12 County Abatement Inc. ......................................................................4 County Electric .................................................................................18 County Sports, Inc. ...........................................................................14 CountyQwikPrint ..............................................................................30 Cove Corner Kennels .........................................................................19 Crandall’s Hardware ..........................................................................53 Crossroads Motel & Restaurant ........................................................53 Crosswinds Residential Care .............................................................18 Crown Park Inn .................................................................................30 Cushman & Sons Inc. ........................................................................35 Dennis The Menace Home Handyman ..............................................15 Desjardins Logging ............................................................................5 Doris’ Cafe ..........................................................................................8 Dr. Durwin Libby, DMD .....................................................................43 Dubois Contracting ...........................................................................21 Dubois’ Garage ...................................................................................9 Dunn Funeral Home .........................................................................50 East Grand Health Center ..................................................................54 Eddie Beaulieu Welding ....................................................................34 Elwood Downs Incorporated ..............................................................55 Farms Bakery & Coffee Shop .............................................................16 Fiddleheadfocus.com ........................................................................38 Fields Realty LLC ..............................................................................27 First Choice Market & Deli ................................................................28 First Settlers Lodge ...........................................................................42 Forest Diversity Services Inc. ............................................................19 Fort Kent Outdoor Center .................................................................20 Fort Kent Power Sports ....................................................................23 Frank Landry & Sons, Inc. ..................................................................52 Freightliner of Maine Inc. ...................................................................3 Front Door Pharmacy Delivery ..........................................................20 Furever Friends ................................................................................54 Gary Babin’s Groceries & Meats ...........................................................7 Gary Hughes Licensed Denturist .......................................................32 Gas-N-Go ............................................................................................8 Gervais Fence ...................................................................................13 Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home .......................................................13 Gil’s Lock ‘n Key .................................................................................11 GP Carpentry ....................................................................................18 Graves Shop ‘n Save Superstore ......................................................45 Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce ................................8 Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce ...........................................50 Greater Van Buren Chamber of Commerce .....................................10 Greenmark Information Technologies .............................................31 Griffeth Ford / Lincoln / Mitsubishi / Honda ..................................29 Ground Perfection Specialists Inc. ....................................................44 H&R Block Caribou / Madawaska .....................................................29 H.C. Haynes, Inc. ..............................................................................54

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Haines Manufacturing Co., Inc. ........................................................44 Hair & Beyond ..................................................................................32 Hanington Bros. Inc. ........................................................................55 High Street Market ...........................................................................54 High View Rehabilitation & Nursing Center .....................................26 Hogan Tire ........................................................................................51 Home Town Fuels, Inc. .....................................................................27 Houlton Pioneer Times .....................................................................38 Houlton Towing Auto Salvage & Repair ............................................49 Huber Engineered Wood, LLC ...........................................................31 In-Home Care Personal Care Services .............................................41 Inn of Acadia ....................................................................................25 Irish Ridge Outfitters, LLCBUSINESS .................................................................27 Irish Setter Pub ...............................................................................46 Irving Woodlands, LLC ....................................................................22 J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC ....................................................37 J.R. Construction.................................................................................9 J.R.S. Firewood ..................................................................................9 Jato Highlands Golf Course ..............................................................54 Jeff Brooks Septic System Design ....................................................52 Jerry’s Shurfine ................................................................................51 John’s Shurfine Food Store ..............................................................10 Kajais Redemption ............................................................................4 K&C Quik Stop & Service Center .......................................................39 Katahdin General Store ....................................................................40 Katahdin Kritters ..............................................................................53 Katahdin’s Four Season Vacation Rentals .........................................39 Keith Mitchell & Sons Trucking ..........................................................51 Ken L. Electric, Inc. .............................................................................6 Key Realty ........................................................................................35 King Construction & Lumber ............................................................56 Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices ...................................................17 K-Pel Industrial Services .................................................................13 LafayetteTravel.com..........................................................................21 Lake Road Grocery .............................................................................4 Langille Construction, Inc. ................................................................30 Lawrence Lord & Sons Inc. Well Drilling ...........................................41 Leisure Gardens & Leisure Village ....................................................31 Levesque Business Solutions ...........................................................26 Limestone Chamber of Commerce ...................................................14 Little Daniel’s Den ............................................................................23 Longlake Camps & Lodge ................................................................19 Longlake Construction ....................................................................12 Long Lake Motor Inn ........................................................................20 Louisiana Pacific Building Products ..................................................37 Luke’s Small Engine Shop ................................................................28 M. Rafford Construction ...................................................................36 M.L. Pelletier Trucking ......................................................................24 Macannamac Camps ........................................................................40 Madtown Clothing ............................................................................26 Maine Cedar Specialty Products ........................................................49 Maine Country Charm .......................................................................39 Maine Fire Prevention ......................................................................36 Maine Forest Service ........................................................................22 Maine Historical Society .....................................................................3 Mainely Rent To Own .......................................................................43 Maine’s Outdoor Learning Center .....................................................57 Mark’s Towing ...................................................................................15 Marquis Michaud Well Drilling ............................................................6 Mars Hill Pharmacy ..........................................................................49 Martin Acadian Homestead ..............................................................12 Martin’s Motel ..................................................................................27 Martin’s Point Health Care - TRICARE .................................................28 McCain Foods ....................................................................................31 McGlinn’s Plumbing & Heating .......................................................47 Mer & Boy’s Body Shop ......................................................................6 Micmac Farms ..................................................................................29 Mike’s Family Market .......................................................................13 Mike’s Gun Sales .................................................................................6 Mike’s Quik Stop & Deli ......................................................................28 MJ’s Pub & Grub ..................................................................................5 Mockler Funeral Home .....................................................................15 Modern Beauty Salon .......................................................................38 Nadeau Logging, Inc. .........................................................................7 Nickerson Construction Inc. ..............................................................49 North Country Auto ............................................................................4 North Woods Real Estate ..................................................................40 Northeast Applicators, LLC ............................................................... 3 Northeast Propane ...........................................................................16 Northeast Publishing .......................................................................38 Northern Dispatch Energy ................................................................37 Northern Door Inn ............................................................................24 Northern Lights Motel .....................................................................34 Northern Maine Oral & Facial Surgery, PA ........................................33 Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery Corporation ..............................14 One Stop ...........................................................................................17 Ouellette Cleaning Service .................................................................7 Ouellette’s Garage ............................................................................12 Overlook Motel & Lakeside Cottages ................................................19 P&E Distributors ..............................................................................11 Paradis Shop ‘n Save Supermarkets ...................................................23 Pat’s Pizza Presque Isle ......................................................................35

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Pelletier Electric .................................................................................4 Pelletier Florist Greenhouses & Garden Center ...............................22 Penobscot Marine Museum .....................................................bk cover Percy’s Auto Sales ..............................................................................46 Presque Isle Pharmacy ......................................................................47 Presque Isle Snowmobile Club, Inc. ..................................................34 Quest Title Company ..........................................................................9 R.L. Todd & Son, Inc. .........................................................................14 Randy Brooker, General Contractor ..................................................27 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. ...........................................40 Registered Maine Guide ...................................................................57 RE/Max North Realty - April R. Caron .............................................15 Reliant Repair ...................................................................................36 Rendezvous Restaurant ....................................................................13 Rick Hannigan Plumbing & Heating .................................................36 Ridgewood Estates ...........................................................................18 River’s Edge Motel .............................................................................41 Riverside Inn Restaurant ...................................................................45 RMJ Cash Plus ..................................................................................46 Robert J. Plourde, Esq. Attorney at Law .............................................9 Robbie Morin Paving ..........................................................................8 Robert Daigle & Sons .......................................................................9 Rob’s Auto Repairs & Salvage ............................................................12 Roger Ayotte Electric, Inc. ................................................................11 Rozco .................................................................................................19 Russell-Clowes Insurance Agency, Inc. ..............................................17 S. Paradis & Son Garage .....................................................................6 S.O.B. Oil & Earthworks Co., LLC ........................................................55 Salon De La Vie ..................................................................................10 Sandra’s Kitchen & Pizza To Go ........................................................7 Saucier’s Collision Work ......................................................................5 Saucier’s Roll-Off Containers .............................................................5 Savage Paint & Body .......................................................................39 Scootic In Restaurant .......................................................................53 Scovil Apartments ............................................................................48 Scovil Building Supply, Inc. ..............................................................48 Select Designs & Embroidery ...........................................................54 Service First Automotive ..................................................................17 Shaun R. Bagley Construction ...........................................................47 Shaw Financial Services ....................................................................49 Shear Delight Full Service Salon .......................................................46 Shin Pond Pub ..................................................................................52 Sleepy Hollow Storage ......................................................................47 Sonny’s Gun Shop ............................................................................16 Spoiled Hair Studio ..........................................................................40 Spudnick ...........................................................................................31 STEaD Timberlands, LLC ....................................................................55 St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce & Tourism ............................11 St. John Valley Pharmacy ................................................................20 St. John Valley Realty Co. ...................................................................9 St. John Valley Times..........................................................................38 St. Joseph’s Memory Care, Inc. .........................................................18 Stardust Motel ..................................................................................37 Stay Lafayette ..................................................................................21 Storage Solutions .............................................................................45 Sturdi-Bilt Storage Buildings LLC .....................................................39 Swallow Associates Land Surveyors..................................................50 T.A. Service Center..............................................................................44 T.W. Willard, Inc. .............................................................................16 Tang’s Palace ....................................................................................26 Taylor’s Katahdin View Camps ..........................................................51 The Homestead Lodge & Buffalo Ride-In Restaurant .....................36 The Pioneer Place, USA ...................................................................52 The Salvation Army-Houlton ............................................................38 The Star-Herald ................................................................................38 The Swamp Buck ...............................................................................7 Third Eye Global ................................................................................21 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor .....................................................40 Thompson’s Hardware Inc. ...............................................................56 Tidd’s Sport Shop .............................................................................38 Timberland Trucking Inc. ..................................................................53 Town of Enfield ................................................................................57 Town of Fort Kent ...............................................................................7 Town of Frenchville ..........................................................................18 Town of Lincoln ................................................................................42 Town of Linneus ...............................................................................37 Town of Madawaska .........................................................................26 Town of Mars Hill ................................................................................3 Trapier’s Steak and Seafood ..............................................................56 Trombley Industries ..........................................................................28 Tulsa, Inc. ..........................................................................................10 Underwood Electric, Inc. ..................................................................44 United Insurance ..............................................................................34 Valley Rentals ..................................................................................10 Vintage MaineImages.com...................................................................3 Voyageur Lounge & Restaurant .......................................................25 Waite General Store Inc. ..................................................................41 Wardwell’s Service, Inc. ...................................................................16 Ware’s Power Equipment ...................................................................53 Whitney’s Outfitters ..........................................................................55 York’s of Houlton ..............................................................................50

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