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Volume 25 | Issue 2 | 2016
Maine’s History Magazine
15,000 Circulation
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
On Being Lebanese In Waterville
Augustus Stanwood’s Gardiner Paper Mill
A strong history of involvement in the community
Egyptian mummies were put to good use
Lewiston Fire Dept. Comes To The Rescue South Paris downtown badly hurt in 1927 blaze
~ Proud to be celebrating our 25th year! ~ www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
Inside This Edition
2 3 5 7
It Makes No Never Mind James Nalley
Maine’s History Magazine
Backtrack Excerpt from the novel V. Paul Reynolds Augustus Stanwood’s Gardiner Paper Mill Egyptian mummies were put to good use Jeffrey Bradley
Kennebec & Androscoggin River Valleys
12 The Controversial 1965 Heavyweight Bout In Lewiston It was over before it started Dave Bumpus
Publisher & Editor
15 According To Harry Cochrane Monmouth’s town historian Charles Francis
Layout & Design
21 The Darkest Day In Maine 1780 fire brought believers to Sabbathday Lake Shaker community Penny S. Harmon
Advertising & Sales Manager
24 Lewiston Soldier Told His Father About Bull Run Adapted from Maine At War Brian Swartz 30 Lewiston Fire Department Comes To The Rescue South Paris downtown badly hurt in 1927 blaze Brian Swartz 33 Mary Jane Richardson Readfield’s fortune teller Dale M. Clark 36 George Huntington Hartford A history of food retailer A&P Roger Gordon 42 On Being Lebanese In Waterville A strong history of involvement in the community Jeffrey Bradley 45 The Great Blizzard Of 1952 Waterville area citizens got pounded hard John Murray 48 P oetess Louise Bogan The Poet Laureate from Livermore Falls Charles Francis 53 Gardiner’s Alvin M.C. Heath Newspaper editor gave his all for his country Jeffrey Bradley 56 Winslow’s Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Company Sometimes the mill livin’ could be easy Charles Francis 59 The Saga Of Philander Coburn He was loved by the lumberjacks Charles Francis 62 Thomas College Pioneeers The Kiest-Morgan Scholars Dale M. Clark 66 Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camps A 19th-century tradition continues in Somerset County Brian Swartz 70 Hitting Sixty Old age never stopped a diehard Maine hunter Penny S. Harmon 71 Sterling Inn Celebrates 200 Years Eric Angevine 73 The Cellar Coping with rigorous winters in the 1950s Dale Murray
Jim Burch
Liana Merdan Tim Maxfield
Advertising & Sales
Barry Buck Dennis Burch Chris Girouard Tim Maxfield Zackary Rouda
Office Manager Liana Merdan
Field Representatives George Tatro Mike Pagliaro
Contributing Writers Eric Angevine Jeffrey Bradley Dave Bumpus Dale M. Clark Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca Roger Gordon
Penny S. Harmon Dale Murray John Murray James Nalley V. Paul Reynolds 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, 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 © 2016, CreMark, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION FORMS ON PAGE 65 & 74
Front Cover Photo: Street scene in Turner, item # LB2007.1.102769 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Kennebec & Androscoggin River Valleys edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine. Photos are also provided from our collaboration with the Maine Historical Society and the Penobscot Marine Museum.
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It Makes No Never Mind by James Nalley
A
s you read this, most likely you are at least waist-deep in snow and facing a typical long winter. Now, this could mean two things. First, you find every possible moment to enjoy snow-related activities such as skiing, snowmobiling, etc. or second, you stay inside. In regard to the latter, this is when you can learn something or two about cold-related matters in the warmth of your home. So, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Kennebec Valley region and Androscoggin Valley region was formed as a result of the Wisconsin Glaciation, which was the most recent advance of the North American ice sheet that radically transformed the geography of North America, including Maine. Talk about slow-moving, this massive ice sheet extended from 85,000 to 11,000 years ago. Speaking of ice, around 1815, Frederic Tudor began establishing trade markets for the commodity in the West Indies and the southern United States. In 1826, the first large ice house was built near the city of Gardiner to supply ice for Tudor’s business.
THANK YOU!
The ice was harvested by farmers who did not have much to do during the long winter. Interestingly, the ice, known as “pristine Kennebec Ice,” was cut by hand, floated down the Kennebec River, and packed in sawdust to keep it frozen for shipment to as far as China and India. Later, during the economic depression following the American Civil War, trade ships had difficulty finding a sufficient amount of cargo for their journey, which created dangerous imbalances for these sailing vessels. As a result, the captains used large blocks of ice as ballast. Naturally, all of this need for ice created demand of which marketers were quick to promote. Despite the fact that ice is basically frozen water, the ice harvested from the Kennebec River was promoted as having “higher purity” and “health benefits” for consumers. In fact, many ice companies around the world began referring to their products as “Kennebec Ice” even though the ice originated from other states such as New York, Massachusetts, etc. However, like many short-lived novelties, the ice industry quickly ended with the invention of the refrigerator. Afterwards, the farm-
ers went back to farming and the families found other ways to make a living. Well, my short time with you is over. So, let me close with the following ice-related story: Once upon a time, there was a sparrow who decided to NOT fly south for the winter. However, the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly started flying south. On his journey, ice began to form on his wings after which he dropped from the sky, landed in a barnyard, and started to freeze. Soon after, a cow passed by and crapped on the sparrow. The sparrow thought “this must be the end of my pitiful little life.” However, the manure warmed him and thawed his wings. Happy and warm, the sparrow began to sing. Just then, a cat approached to investigate the sounds. The cat found the pile, cleared away the manure, saw the bird hidden inside, and quickly ate him. The morals of this story? 1) Those who crap on you are not necessarily your enemies; 2) Those who dig you out of crap are not necessarily your friends; and 3) If you are warm and happy in a pile of crap, then by all means, keep your mouth shut!
In these pages you will see businesses from Maine’s Kennebec & Androscoggin River Valleys Region which take great pride in serving the public, and business owners and employees who also take pride in being Mainers. A complete index of these advertisers is located on the inside back cover of this issue. Without their support, we could not produce this publication each year. Please support them!
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Early street view in Monmouth. Item #LB2007.1.101586 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Backtrack by V. Paul Reynolds
A
Excerpt from the novel
backtrack is, quite simply, going back where you came from. I picked Backtrack as the title for my latest book because it seemed to fit my plan — to go back along the path of my life’s journey and revisit some vivid outdoor experiences. My late father, Harvard Reynolds, brought me along in the outdoors. Beginning in the late 1940s, he often took me with him when he fished and hunted his favorite haunts. A couple of memories from those days stand out as clear as the water in a remote Maine trout pond. I am there with him at Hatcase Pond. Hatcase was loaded with nice brookies, and, back then, it wasn’t a municipal water supply. We are standing atop a
huge rock with our fishing rods and worm cans. As the night crawler and gold spinner dance to the bottom of the pond, dozens of fat little trout attack our offerings. My dad, a serious man most of the time, is excited in a childlike way. His joy and enthusiasm is infectious. Working together, we stuff the creel with trout and cool them down with some wet moss from the shore. (In those days you kept trout for the pan, and the daily limit was ten, as I recall.) Memories. That same June, we fished from his Old Town square-stern boat at Spring River Lake, down near Franklin. To my delight, Dad spat on a fidgeting night crawler that he had affixed to my hook. Lowering the bait into the boat’s wake, (continued on page 6)
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(continued from page 5) he promised that the spit would bring good luck. I caught one of the biggest brook trout I have ever caught, even to this day! Memories. Dad and I hunted, too. Birds and deer. My father was not an exceptional deer hunter. My uncles, on my mother’s side, were, however, the best when it came to putting whitetails on the game pole. I was pretty “tuned in,” even at a young age, and noticed that my uncles were the real deal. Dad always went away to deer camp for a week down in Beddington with my uncles, though he rarely bagged a deer. I begged to go, to see why my dad and uncles so looked forward to that annual fall getaway. “Someday,” he said, but he never said when “someday” would come. As it turned out, I was probably still too young to go when he finally decided that “someday” had arrived. I remember clearly. It was twilight along the Union River drainage when
we opened the old battered door to deer camp and stepped into a world that I had never seen before. What a hovel! The sights, the sounds, and the smells remain with me to this day. Next to the door stood a big, Clarion woodstove crackling and throwing off heat. The floor was dirt. The roof was tar paper and weathered gray boards. Steam rose from the soggy wool clothing that hung on every nail and hook above the stove. Across the room was a large gun rack that held an assortment of hunting rifles and gear. There was loud talk and glasses of amber liquid. My uncles were hunched over a big kitchen table covered with playing cards, poker chips, and ashtrays — lots of ashtrays. There was also something else. Beneath the loud talk and general deer camp din, flowed an endless stream of fascinating deer-hunting stories mingled with warm fellowship. There seemed to be a manly connection. I
took to it all. Memories. V. Paul Reynolds is editor and co-publisher of the Maine Northwoods Sporting Journal. For 23 years, he worked as editorial page editor and managing editor of the Bangor Daily News. He has also been a radio talk show host and a journalism instructor at the University of Maine. Reynolds also writes a self-syndicated weekly outdoor column for a number of Maine newspapers, and co-hosts a Sunday night radio program called "The Maine Outdoors." He is an active outdoorsman, a devoted deer hunter, and a Registered Maine Guide. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and serves on the board of directors of the New England Outdoor Writers Association. He and his wife, Diane, a retired teacher, live in Hampden with an English setter named Sally. You can find Backtrack at local bookstores or online at www.islandportpress.com.
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Augustus Stanwood’s Gardiner Paper Mill Egyptian mummies were put to good use by Jeffrey Bradley
I
t’s a little known fact that 19th century America was crazy about mummies. As exotic curios, they were displayed in traveling road shows as a major attraction. Folks paid up to a quarter — big money in those days — for the opportunity to shuffle past and gawk. Mainers, of course, turned a more practical hand to the matter. They made paper out of them. Since before the Revolution, the Western world had relied on cloth for making paper, specifically, “rag paper.” By the 1850s, the 1,000 or so paper mills in New England already consumed 10 tons a year to keep pace with
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production. The insatiable demand of the Civil War (almost every shot and shell required some sort of paper wadding), made this scarce commodity even scarcer. Mill owners in southern Maine were practically at wits’ end in finding an alternative. One lay, luckily, literally at hand. A decade earlier on a quest for the lost mines of Cleopatra, a New York adventurer (really a chemist) stumbled across a treasure of a different kind: “mummy pits.” Every shovelful of dirt seemed to turn up hundreds of linen-wrapped beings. Linen! A quick calculation revealed some startling statistics: a death-obsessed population
of some eight million people, with an average lifespan of 33 years, added up, over thousands of years, to five hundred million mummies — plenty, there, to keep Maine’s mills busy for the foreseeable future! Each came wrapped in about thirty pounds of quality bandages, with one princess “producing” 40 yards of the fine-textured stuff. Nor did embalming end with people; cats, bulls, even crocodiles were mummified by the thousands, leaving material enough to make any mill owner’s head spin. And more was constantly uncovered by the shifting desert sands. (continued on page 8)
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(continued from page 7) Soon, by the score, by the ton, by the boatload, the mummies of Egypt began arriving in Maine. Mummies have an odd history of being repurposed. The Cairo & Alexandria Railroad, for instance, burned them to power their steam locomotives. In treeless Egypt, this made estimable sense. They were dry, slathered with resins, and the sticky pitch that glued them together went up like a torch. In a word, they were combustible, there for the taking and, anyway, a mummy tells no tales. Worse, from the point of view of the mummy, perhaps, it was being ground into mulch to fertilize an English rose garden. (I say; anyone care for a spot of tea?).Worse, from our point of view, was that ground-up mummy formed the basis of many pharmaceuticals until fairly recently. But ground or distilled, these ancient peoples could be turned into “mummy brown” ink, an aromatic oil, machine lubricant, or even
incense! The “multi-purpose” mummy. Who knew? Some will tell you this is sheerest flapdoodle, stuff and nonsense to keep the children quiet at night. Where are the photos and the documents? Well, periodicals of the day did mention the subject. In 1847, the Paper Trade Reporter recorded a cargo of “Egyptian rags” fetching $25,000. Later that year the New York Tribune wrote that two and a quarter million pounds had been imported. And the April 1873 edition of the Druggists’ Circular and Chemical Gazette describes an American businessman who “purchased and exported mummies from the catacombs to be converted to pulp for papermaking.” Even the Egyptian government got in on the act, dealing with some mills directly. And although most came by way of a duty free bale of “rags,” complete specimens were hurriedly stripped in the dead of night, with their wrappings
furtively dumped into giant vats to dissolve eventually into a mummy slurry. Is it any wonder that the mill owners kept a low profile and very few records? Still, there’s too much evidentiary data to be pooh-poohed away by the critics who in any case would never admit to being bested by a bedtime story. There’s little doubt that mummy paper has been circulating around longer than people realize. These heathenish products had been manufactured since the 1850s and shipped up and down the entire length of the Eastern Seaboard. It may be a stretch to say that the paper plate holding your hotdog at the company picnic might have been somebody’s uncle, but only by a little. Of course, the paper was not always authentic but sometimes mixed with inferior cloth. Most mummies destined for the mills received less than the royal treatment. And the old boys seemed to resent
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it. A mill worker who removed mummy linen in 1856 claimed that the ‘cocoon’ repeatedly snapped back into the mummy shape despite all attempts to unroll it. And heaps of wrappings carelessly tossed into corners could suddenly deliquesce, as if by evil magic, into unspeakably vile piles of ichor. Cholera also broke out in the mills, which workers were quick to blame on the mummies. One Mainer rag merchant was even summoned before a senate committee to testify. Still, mummy mushbased paper-making was a macabre idea that caught on. Mills as far away as Wisconsin reportedly used it before wood pulp finally put the mummies out of the paper business for good. Then there’s the story of Augustus Stanwood, who owned a paper mill in Gardiner. With the supply of Southern cotton disrupted during the Civil War, and the Union army confiscating almost every scrap of rag left over,
Stanwood planned to shut down his operation. Being a resourceful man, he turned his attention to this business of the mummies. Yet after importing a few boatloads, and despite his amazing cleverness, Stanwood had only brown paper to show for all his efforts. The wrappings were simply too saturated with unguents to bleach. Resourceful, and also a quick study, Stanwood began convincing local grocers and merchants to start wrapping their sales items with his new all-purpose “butcher paper”—a practice still very much common today. Mummies. We tend to think of them as unstoppable, foot-dragging monsters implacably hunting down those who dare desecrate their tombs. But in reality, they were small brown men with bad teeth that, just occasionally, were turned into paper. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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Farm near Sabbathday Lake, ca. 1900. Item #7934 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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The Controversial 1965 Heavyweight Bout In Lewiston It was over before it started
by Dave Bumpus
W
hen fans of professional sports think of their favorite teams, Maine rarely comes to mind. That is because we don’t have an MLB team, an NBA team, or an NHL team. In fact (as far as I know) the only professional sports team we can validly claim is the New England Patriots, because we are part of the New England region. As a result, and something I seem to always wind up explaining to outof-staters, is that when you grow up in Maine, at a very young age, two things happen. First, you are sat down and shown the proper methods to getting every single milligram of meat out of
a cooked lobster. Second, you are given a choice: you can root for New York, or you can root for Boston. Whichever you choose, you choose for life, and you can never switch sides. Personally, I chose Boston, so I have lived my life as a Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins fan. But that is not to say that professional sports have not made their mark on our great state. We still have plenty of minor league teams, and many professional athletes have come from our great state, including baseball’s Billy Swift, and Jack Coombs. But it would be one of boxing’s most famous icons, and one of his most controversial performances that would actually put the
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13
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com city of Lewiston on the sports map, and change the world of boxing forever. In May of 1965, Cassius Clay, who would later adopt the alias ‘Muhammad Ali’, had climbed the ranks in the ring to become the world heavyweight champion. He had taken the belt from Sonny Liston a year prior, in a fight that many believed was staged. So the two agreed to a rematch, and after several venues had refused to house the fight, it was eventually decided that the two would battle at the St. Dominic’s Arena (Central Maine Youth Center) in Lewiston. And this rematch would prove to be even more bizarre than the rivals’ first bout. The fight started normally enough, with Liston throwing shots to the body, and Ali bobbing and weaving around the ring, landing only a single left to the head. And then, almost as quickly as the fight started, it was over. Liston was on the mat. He tried to get up once but fell over. After he got to his feet again, the ref stopped the fight, declaring Ali
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the victor. The problem was, none could see what exactly had knocked Liston out. One second he was fighting, and the next he was floored. Watching the video today, you can see the punch that Ali threw, but it is short, and seems to have barely any power behind it. On top of that, it has been strongly speculated that Liston threw the fight, and for a very good reason. It is rumored that the supporters of Malcolm X had become angered at the fact that Ali had sided with X’s rival Elijah Muhammad, and had ordered the boxer to be killed. In a defense move, Elijah’s people managed to kidnap Liston’s wife, Geraldine, along with his son Bobby. Liston was told that if he did not take a dive, his family would be killed. If this were the truth, it would seem the man would have no choice. It would also explain how that effortless swing, which would later be deemed “the phantom punch,” could knock a man like Liston unconscious. Liston did not have a ‘glass jaw’ by any
means, and at just two minutes into the fight, it is highly unlikely that he was gassed out at all. Seeing the actual hit, it also seems highly unlikely that he would have been knocked out, or even stunned by such a light blow to the head. The whole thing reeked as being fixed, prompting such harsh headlines as “Fight Stench Rocks Maine,” and causing many old-time fight fans to question the reality of the sport they had grown up loving so dearly. A great percentage of fight fans from that era swear the match was corrupt to this very day. However, the controversy and intensity of the circus brought on by the media led to the sport gaining a slew of younger, excited fans. It was almost as if boxing’s fan base had just turned a complete 180 degrees. The long-time fans felt cheated, and the newcomers wanted more. That would lead to a long line of morally questionable champions, including the more recent “Iron” Mike Tyson. (continued on page 14)
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(continued from page 13) Joe Graziano, the late owner of Graziano’s Casa Mia in Lisbon, donned his restaurant with boxing memorabilia, and boxing trivia blanketed the eatery’s atmosphere on a daily basis. Being an avid fan of the sport, Graziano recalled that fight as one that “put Lewiston on the map. People still talk about it all the time. They say, ‘I just sat down, looked around, and it was all over. I didn’t even seen the punch.’” The boxing-themed restaurant became known as having some of the best Italian cuisine in New England for 43 years. Sadly, several years after Joe Graziano’s passing in 2000, the restaurant closed its doors for good, and the building has since been torn down. However, the legacy of the Ali-Liston fight in Lewiston lives on, and likely will for the rest of time. It would prove to be the beginning of a new road for one of the world’s most prolific sports, and that new road began in Lewiston, Maine.
Lisbon Enterprises newspaper building ca. 1962. Item #5551 from the collections
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15
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
According To Harry Cochrane Monmouth’s town historian
by Charles Francis
“
Thomas Gray carried to the grave a mangled and withered hand”.... The words have a sense of romance to them due to the image of carrying a “mangled” and “withered” hand to the grave. Verbs used as adjectives as mangled and withered as here are particularly descriptive; they catch the attention of the reader, which was undoubtedly the writer’s intent. The writer was Harry Cochrane and Harry Cochrane was most definitely a romantic. Thomas Gray’s hand was the way it was not by accident of birth but by Gray having stuck it down a bear’s gullet. Gray kept his hand there until Reuben Ham dispatched the animal with an axe. The story of Thomas Gray’s antics
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with a bear is found in Harry Cochrane’s monograph on the town he considered his hometown, Monmouth. The monograph is found in the Illustrated History of Kennebec County. According to Cochrane, Thomas Gray was the first to explore the area that would eventually be named Monmouth, and he was the first to settle there. Today Harry Cochrane is best known as a muralist and as the designer of Monmouth’s Cumston Hall. His work as a muralist often featured Biblical scenes and scenes of the Middle Ages. Kora Temple in Lewiston is an example of the latter. There is more to him, though. Cochrane was a writer and a poet. He had a musical side: he was a composer, a conductor, a musician, and
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a singer. All of these pursuits speak to Cochrane’s romantic bent, they speak to his imaginative side. Harry Cochrane wrote more history than just the monograph cited above, which is the subject of this piece. He also wrote a two-volume history of Monmouth and neighboring Wales, the History of Monmouth and Wales. It isn’t quite clear if Cochrane’s monograph was written specifically for the Illustrated History of Kennebec County or if it was adapted for that volume from other works of Cochrane. It really doesn’t matter for the purposes of this piece, however. This piece is concerned with how Cochrane’s obvious romantic inclinations and imaginative sense are a part of the monograph (continued on page 16)
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tin assert his relationship to King Philip “with evident pride” Cochrane is using his imagination. It is the romantic Harry Cochrane who created fabulous pictures of the Crusaders in the Holy Land for Lewiston’s Kora Temple talking. Though this may not be good objective history, it makes reading Cochrane’s Monmouth monograph interesting. Let’s go back to Thomas Gray for a moment for another example of Harry Cochrane’s romanticism. Cochrane says Thomas Gray was a hunter and trapper, that he was from New Meadows, down on the coast in Brunswick. Cochrane has us believe and accept that Gray found the lakes and meadows of what would be Monmouth so much to his liking that “he returned to his neighbors with glowing accounts of the wonderful section abounding in fine meadow grass — a product of considerable importance in those days — and so excited them that they determined to join him in forming
a settlement on the newly discovered territory.” In 1774 Gray led a party from New Meadows to his discovery. They cut grass and timber. That winter, Gray and his teenage son James drove in cattle belonging to the New Meadows men and built the first cabin in the area. It’s a story akin to Moses leading the Israelites to the “Promised Land.” Remember Harry Cochrane liked Biblical themes, and Thomas Gray does make a good Moses. Cochrane deals with the name of Cochnewagan Lake, Monmouth’s dominant body of water, in a manner somewhat similar to his story of the first settlers. He begins by saying there is controversy as to the meaning of Cochnewagan: that there are claims it means “a place of praying Indians” while others, notably Native Americans, say it means “a battle, or fight.” Cochrane then proceeds to give his view. Cochnewagan, he says, comes from the Cochnewagas who destroyed
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(continued from page 15) as a whole ― as when he presents Benjamin Austin as asserting with “with evident pride, that his grandfather was a brother of the Indian King Philip.” Benjamin Austin was one of the early settlers of Monmouth, early enough that the threat of an Indian raid was a real one. King Philip was the English name for Metacomet, the Native American leader in King Philip’s War, the war which has been called “the single greatest calamity to occur in seventeenth century Puritan New England.” In citing Austin’s ancestral claim, Cochrane is clearly appealing to the imagination. Harry Cochrane wrote history and he was an artist. History deals with facts. Art begins when we decide we don’t quite like something the way it is, when we say this is not quite the way I imagine it. Harry Cochrane was not a contemporary of Benjamin Austin. He never heard Austin talk of his grandfather or King Philip. When he has Aus-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Schenectady, New York in 1690. Cochrane refers to the Cochnewagas with the adjective “celebrated.” He says they camped on the shores of the lake that bears their name. There is, of course, a link between the “celebrated” Cochnewagas and King Philip. The names are associated with two of the greatest acts of violence in early colonial history. But then Harry Cochrane was drawn to the romantic aspects of warfare. He would not have created his murals of Holy Land Crusaders had he not been. One of the most romantic sections of Cochrane’s monograph is that which deals with John Chandler. Chandler was a major figure in Maine history. Much has been written of him. He was the first President of the Maine Senate and a United States Senator. Most writers present Chandler as a self-made and driven man. Harry Cochrane is an exception. Cochrane describes Chandler when
he arrived in Monmouth as a young man in human terms, terms that are the product of Cochrane’s imagination. Chandler is “not only distressingly poor, but illiterate in the extreme.” He learns to read with the aid of a traveling “pedagogue” and his wife. All his spare time is spent in study. His wife is by his side in everything: in the blacksmith’s shop, in the field clearing and piling logs and in planting and harvesting. There is no way Harry Cochrane could have known the day-to-day actions of John Chandler and his wife. What he describes is how he imagines things to be, how he thought they “should” have been for John Chandler to accomplish what he did. Cochrane’s description could have served as a model for Horatio Alger. It is a rags to riches tale. Much of Harry Cochrane’s monograph on the history of Monmouth is straight fact. He presents the development of Monmouth industry, town schools and religious institutions. He
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deals with important people like General Henry Dearborn and Dearborn’s relationship to town squatters. He deals with them and the particulars of how they influenced the town. He lists heads of families and family members. He has a presentation on town government. These are things one expects of a local history. It is in his romantic break with this pattern that he becomes something more than a writer of local history. Harry Cochrane wanted to do more than just present the cut and dry. He succeeded. There are those who would argue that history should have objective standards much in the same way science does, that history should only deal with facts. They argue for history as a social science following the social science model, that history should be oriented toward statistics. There is another viewpoint, however, one that espouses history as narrative. Francis Parkman used
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(continued from page 17) the narrative approach; Samuel Eliot Morison did, too. Narrative piques the imagination. The human brain is adapted to narrative. It seems Harry Cochrane understood this. That’s why he included imagination in his writing of the history of Monmouth. That’s why he is a pleasure to read. * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.
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take history to heart,
own it!
Check out our historic photography collection for photos of your town, your street, your family, and more. Go to www.penobscotmarinemuseum. org/photography or email images@pmm-maine.org An historic photograph is a perfect gift.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
The Darkest Day In Maine 1780 fire brought believers to Sabbathday Lake Shaker community by Penny S. Harmon
M
knew what was happening. The frogs started to peep, chickens went inside their houses to roost, and farm animals quickly strode back to their barns believing that night had fallen again. Children were called back into their houses, where the mothers had lit candles. Farmers came in from the fields. Everyone was in a panic. What was going on? Many people believed that the end of the world was coming. Nothing like this had ever happened and people began to get out their Bibles and pray. Two particular verses in the Bible stood out. Rev 6:12 “The sun became as black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Joel 2:31 “The sun shall be turned into darkness,
22
2
ay 19, 1780 started out like any normal day in what would later become the state of Maine. Farmers were out working their fields while their children played in the yards or did their chores. The only thing different was that even though the sun rose, it was partially obscured by what most people thought were clouds. Things started to change by ten o’clock in the morning, though. The sky became overcast and darkened. Farmers stopped what they were doing to look at the sky. Wives came out of their houses wondering why their homes were getting dark inside. This continued until it was complete darkness by noontime. No one
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and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” There were some people who noticed that a black sooty-like material was falling from the sky and there was an acrid odor in the air. No one connected the darkening of the day with a fire. There were no emails stating there was a fire in Canada that was sending so much smoke and ash in the air that it blocked the sun. There were no phone calls or television news shows to watch. This was 1780 and there was no technology to help them through a crisis. People panicked. This Dark Day was experienced all over New England and people every(continued on page 22)
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(continued from page 21) where were put into a panic. In fact, the Connecticut Legislature wanted to adjourn and run, fearing the end was near. It was Abraham Davenport, a member of the Legislature, who was quoted as saying, “I am against adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.” The Dark Day that had suddenly taken over the sky was gone the next day, but the feelings of panic did not subside. For many, the fear of the end led them to a deeper religion. Many believe that the Dark Day in 1780 was the reason for the increasing popularity of the Shaker religion. People turned to their Bibles during this time and more people began to attend the meetings held in Shaker communities. In turn, Shaker communities began to increase.
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One of the most successful Shaker communities that formed after the 1780 incident was the Shaker community in Poland. The Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village is still in existence today. The religion itself wasn’t established until 1747 in England. In 1774, the religion was brought to America by Mother Ann and eight others after Mother Ann was prosecuted in England for her religious beliefs. In America, they kept to themselves until 1780, when people turned to religion after the scare of darkness on May 19th. As more and more turned to this religion, Shaker villages sprouted up all over New England. In 1783, the Thompson’s Pond Plantation was founded in Poland, soon after to be renamed the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community. Within a short time, there were more than two hundred people attending meetings at this community.
While the Dark Day in Maine was not the coming of the end as many feared, it did influence people to look for religion in their lives. In today’s world, we would have known about a fire in Ontario that would send Maine into darkness, but in 1780, there was no technology. Homes did not have electricity. There were no lights and telephones. Communication of news happened on foot. One can assume that if this occurrence happened today, and we had non-existent technology as they did in 1780, that we, too, may just turn to our Bibles and look for an answer within religion.
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Winter snowstorm in Auburn, ca. 1943. Item #74755 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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Lewiston Soldier Told His Father About Bull Run by Brian Swartz
Adapted from Maine At War
W
hen Frank L. Lemont of Lewiston went to war with the Lewiston Light Guards in late June 1861, he gave little thought to what “war,” as represented by an actual battle, would be like. A few weeks later, he detailed the horror of battle in a letter to his father, Samuel. The Lemonts — Samuel and his wife Jane, plus two sons and two daughters — lived in Lewiston in 1860, according to the Census Bureau. The oldest child (and son), Lindley Francis, was born in 1842; he attended Bates College, which identified him as Lindley
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F., but by spring 1861, he had switched his first and middle names to become Frank L. Lemont. He belonged to the Lewiston Light Guards, a militia company sent to Portland to muster into the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment as its Co. E on Monday, June 24, 1861. With a big campaign brewing in northern Virginia, the War Department needed every rifle-toter that Maine could send; under Col. Mark Dunnell, the 5th Maine shipped out for Washington, D.C. two days later. Among the regiments already on duty near the nation’s capital was the 3rd Maine Infantry, led by Col. Ol-
iver Otis Howard of Leeds. In early July the War Department made Howard, an Army officer who had resigned his commission to command the 3rd Maine, commander of the 3rd Brigade in the 3rd Division led by Col. Samuel Heintzelman. Allowed to cherry pick four infantry regiments for his new brigade, Howard chose the 3rd Maine, 4th Maine, 5th Maine, and 2nd Vermont. After Union Gen. Irvin McDowell marched his Army of Northeastern Virginia west toward Manassas Junction, Virginia in mid-July, Howard led his nervous sol(continued on page 26)
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(continued from page 24) diers into camp near Centreville on Saturday, July 20. “My Dear Father,” Lemont (now a sergeant) opened his letter days after the battle. “It occurred to me last night while walking out alone, and thinking of home, that a true account of my actions and feelings that eventful day of Bull Run, might not be wholly uninteresting to you.” Lemont led off with Saturday night’s regimental parade, during which Howard told his men that “he wished all to join in prayer for our welfare and the success of our arms.” Howard stood beside a chaplain, “and the whole Brigade uncovered their heads. “It was a solemn sight,” recalled Lemont, who “felt as though I would like to ask God to be my support for the next 24 hours.” He felt “very calm[,] although I did not know” if “I should behold” another sunset. Howard then excused his men. With the 5th Maine under orders to march at
1 a.m., Sunday, July 21, Lemont “had a refreshing slumber” and awakened when “the long roll” (a steady staccato drum beat) sounded the next morning. He drank some coffee and ate “my hard bread with a good relish.” The day dawned hot and humid, with no breeze to stir the regimental flags. The 3rd Brigade crept west for a few miles until McDowell pulled Howard and his regiments aside into reserve. Even as battle ebbed and flowed a few miles to their west, the 3rd Brigade soldiers could only swelter and wait in the cruel Virginia sunshine. “During our march, at regular intervals of a few seconds could be heard the booming of cannon,” and later “we could hear the cracking, snapping, sound of Light Infantry as they made their successive charges upon the masked batteries of the rebels,” Lemont told his father. If McDowell needed the 3rd Brigade, he would call for it, which he fi-
nally did at 2 p.m. The fight had gone badly for the Union army; McDowell hoped to reverse his dwindling fortune by hurling his sole reserve brigade at the Confederate army’s left flank. Howard pushed his men several miles cross-country at the “double quick.” Already suffering in the Virginia heat and humidity, “hundreds of stalwarts fellows fell out on both sides” en route from the Warrenton Turnpike northwest to Sudley Ford on Bull Run, Lemont remembered. Splashing across the shallow stream, the soldiers passed the brick-built Sudley Church, now converted into a field hospital by Union surgeons. Early that morning, Union troops had passed this way while attempting to shatter the Confederate army’s left flank. Stalling atop Henry Hill to the south, the Union assaults bled wounded men north across Matthews Hill to Sudley Church. “Filled with the wounded and man-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com gled in every shape,” horse- and muledrawn ambulances partially blocked the 3rd Brigade’s march past the church, Lemont recalled. Many Maine soldiers paused at Sudley Ford to fill their canteens; officers chased the malingerers into the ranks, and the 3rd Brigade soldiers started running toward the battle. The men trampled “over the wounded, sitting and lying by the way,” Lemont admitted. In a few minutes the brigade emerged from a tree line on Matthews Hill; spying the Union reinforcements, Confederate gunners on Henry Hill targeted them. The 5th Maine soldiers ran for a quarter mile “with the six pound shots whizzing just over our heads and falling around us,” Lemont described the bombardment. Although “but very few of our men fell in this movement,” the Confederate artillery fire changed the attitudes of many 5th Maine lads about fighting on this particular day. As Howard led the 3rd Brigade
southwest toward the Dogan farm, the 5th Maine’s ranks noticeably thinned. Men had fallen out during the frantic run from the Warrenton Turnpike to Sudley Ford; now the near-miss “shot and shell” apparently convinced many soldiers to slip away rather than fight. “By the time we got to” a sheltering ravine south of the Warrenton Turnpike and west of Henry Hill, “most of the men had deserted us either through fatigue or, — but I don’t wish to cast any reflections,” Lemont wrote, declining to accuse other soldiers of cowardice. As Howard reformed his regiments in the ravine, Lemont counted only 10 Co. E men present: himself, 1st Lt. Aaron Daggett of Greene, and eight enlisted men. So far Lemont “had felt no fear[,] but still I felt very uncomfortable. My strength had not deserted me and I think my cheek was not pale.” Like his comrades he “stood waiting and taking breath” — and then a nightmare
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occurred. A Confederate bullet zipped past Lemont “and struck a fellow in the forehead[,] killing him almost instantly.” The soldier had stood only three feet from Lemont, who would “never forget the sound the bullet made as it struck him.” Lemont watched as the soldier “fell upon his back, threw up his arms, trembled slightly and was dead.” The Maine lad “was the first man I saw killed that day.” Lemont paused, thought a moment, and told his father that “you may think that I have grown hard-hearted when I tell you that that sight did not move me, but I assure you it did not unnerve me in the least.” However, Lemont “did think” about the dead soldier’s mother, “if perchance he had any, as he lay thus uncared for.” By now Howard had shaken his regiments into two lines. The first line
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(continued from page 27) comprised the 4th Maine on the right and the 2nd Vermont on the left; the second line comprised the 5th Maine on the right and the 3rd Maine on the left. Leaving the second line in the ravine, Howard rode his horse as he led the first line up the northern slopes of Chinn Ridge, high ground due west of Henry Hill. Atop the ridge — Lemont described the site as “a broad opening with a wood in front and one in the rear” — the 2nd Vermont and 4th Maine took a hammering that dropped men all along the line. The Union boys could see only the gunsmoke drifting from where Confederate infantrymen stood in the trees to the south. Meanwhile, fleeing Union cavalrymen — a military specialty in short supply for the Federals that awful day — fled downhill between Howard’s rear line and tore through the woods screening the ravine from the action atop Chinn Ridge. Maine soldiers start-
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ed yelling, “Black Horse Cavalry!” A nickname for the 1st Virginia Cavalry commanded by J.E.B. Stuart, the term struck fear in Maine hearts. Then multiple musket balls whistled overhead; afraid of the alleged enemy cavalry and the all-too-real lead balls, many 5th Maine boys voted with their feet for the sanctuary of Sudley Ford and the nearest road to Washington. Survivors later expressed their embarrassment at watching comrades flee, with at least several officers leading the way. Howard rode back to advance his second line, which climbed “through a thick growth of scrubby oaks and firs,” Lemont told his father. Under heavy cannon fire, the Maine boys “noticed many dead bodies” as they ascended Chinn Ridge, Lemont said. The 5th Maine formed on the 4th Maine’s right flank, fired eight to 10 rounds, and fought well. Then Howard shifted a regiment’s position to meet a
perceived threat, and his firing line collapsed. “Our regiment (nor any others) … did not keep together after a short time, all breaking up and mixing with other troops,” Lemont admitted. The entire Union army ran away, with “every one for himself rushing in greatest confusion, cavalry running down Infantry, field pieces dismounted, horses dashing away without riders,” Lemont said. While fleeing past the Dogan farm, which lay north across the turnpike, he looked back at Chinn Ridge. Confederate infantry swept across the ground where the 3rd Brigade had just fought; “for a few moments I was lost in the grandeur of the spectacle,” Lemont commented. “They presented to us a mighty front, extending to the right and left … I saw their banners wave and the glittering of their bayonets in the sun,” he described the sight. Lemont unabashedly detailed the
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Union flight. The actual enemy “Black Horse Cavalry” appeared and harried the fleeing Federals. To run faster, Lemont sat on a stump, pulled off his boots, and fled in his stocking feet. Frank Lemont survived the Battle of Bull Run, and his father and family received a well-detailed account of the Union’s first defeat.
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Lewiston Fire Department Comes To The Rescue South Paris downtown badly hurt in 1927 blaze by Brian Swartz
A
devastating fire literally cut off South Paris from communication with the outside world in spring 1927. Fortunately the telephones still worked in nearby Norway. When South Parisians went to sleep on Sunday, April 11, they anticipated rising to a quiet Monday and the start of a new school and work week. Among the residents settling in for a good night’s sleep was 85-year-old Elisha Turner; late the previous fall he had moved from his home in Bolster’s Mills to live with his daughter, Mabel, and her family: husband Harry and daughter Edith. Harry was the first assistant engineer for the South Paris Fire Department. Already in his mid-50s, he was three
years younger than Mabel. The family lived in the two-story Frothingham Block, which stood at Main and Pine streets in downtown South Paris and housed the W.O. Frothingham Store. Living in rented quarters at the rear of the Frothingham Block were James and Alice Perry and their three children: Ruth, Howard, and Albert. Next door stood the wood-framed Merrill Block, owned by restaurateur Chester Merrill. Occupying the woodframed building’s first floor were Merrill’s business and the Brookside Store.
Merrill lived on the second floor with his wife, Lulu, and their children Stanford and Jeannette. The Merrills, like the Lowells, went to bed that night expecting nothing out of the ordinary.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Suddenly, sometime between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Monday, April 12 — the exact time proved quite difficult to confirm — a fire broke out in the Merrill Block. Investigators could not pinpoint the fire’s exact point of origination; the fire evidently started in an ell or a stable attached to the Merrill Block. Roiling smoke awakened Harry Lowell shortly before 3 a.m. Responding immediately, he helped Mabel and Edith reach safety, then attempted to reach his father-in-law. On that calm night, fire swiftly ate into the Frothingham Block. James and Lulu Perry awakened to find their rented rooms already ablaze. All five Perrys fled safely into the fire-illuminated darkness — then James rushed into the family’s burning quarters to retrieve $75 raised during a recent Odd Fellows Lodge benefit. He escaped with his life and the money. Awakened by the fiery horror en-
gulfing the Frothingham Block, Chester Merrill called in the alarm to the Norway telephone operator. He waited almost too long, because fire now blocked the doors and stairs of the Merrill Block. All four Merrills jumped out the second-floor windows. The Paris fire whistle was located at the Mason Manufacturing Company; when the phone operator reached the mill, an on-duty employee discovered that low steam pressure prevented the whistle from sounding. By then other South Paris residents were frantically calling the Norway phone operator: Despite the still air, the fire was spreading. “In the section where the fire is raging[,] large wooden buildings are thickly located and spread the length of the [South Paris] village,” wrote a Lewiston Sun Journal reporter. Awakened from a sound sleep, he raced the “20 some odd miles” from Lewiston to South Paris in 35 minutes in his Husdon coach.
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Along the same road tore Engine No. 1, a fire pumper belonging to the Lewiston Fire Department. Accurately assessing the fire’s potential, Paris Fire Chief Charles Bowley requested assistance from the LFD at 3:05 a.m. Departing Central Fire Station in Lewiston at 3:10 a.m., nine firefighters rode in Engine No. 1, a “motor pumper.” Another six Lewiston firefighters crammed into a Checker Cab taxi operated by the delightfully named Napoleon Levesque. Like the Daily Sun reporter, Levesque needed only 35 minutes to reach South Paris. Engine No. 1 covered the distance in 40 minutes, and the Lewiston firefighters went right to work. Norway firefighters were already on the scene, working their hoses and spraying water alongside their South Paris comrades. Bowley’s call to Lewiston was possibly the last outgoing call from South Paris that night. As the Lewis(continued on page 32)
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(continued from page 31) ton reinforcements watched the fiery glow draw nearer on the northwestern horizon, in South Paris the flames attacked “and melted about 200 feet of two [telephone] cables, with a loss of about $1,500,” the Daily Sun reporter noticed. Suddenly South Paris was cut off from outside communications. All calls now had to be made from Norway. The reporter quickly realized that the village possibly had a disaster on its hands. “At 3:45 [a.m.,] the fire was making rapid headway[,] sweeping with a roar through the wooden buildings[,] and the firemen seem to have little advantage in their efforts to check the spread of the flames,” he noted. The reporter watched the embers “floating over the entire village[,] and the people … on the roofs with buckets of water to put out any blaze that may be started by the sparks and embers.” Heroically battling the flames, fire-
fighters brought the blaze under control at 5 a.m. The brightening eastern horizon soon revealed the terrible destruction: “Five large buildings were totally destroyed[,] and six were badly damaged,” the Daily Sun reporter said during a call placed to his Lewiston office from Norway. Estimated to have caused $100,000 in damages, the fire had displaced 12 families. Gone were the Frothingham Block (valued at $21,000), the Merrill Block (valued at $18,500), the Theodore Thayer Block (home to a dentist’s office and the Thayer Market), the Hamlin Lodge Block, and Bowker Block, and two private houses. The damaged buildings included a gas station and the Maxim Block, which housed a restaurant and four tenement apartments. The Wednesday, April 13 issue of the Lewiston Daily Sun featured a four-column photograph that poignantly captured the fire-caused destruction.
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By then everybody in the fire-engulfed buildings had been accounted for, except for Elisha Turner. In the photograph, Paris firefighters are searching the charred Frothingham Block wreckage for the missing Turner. Harry Lowell had desperately tried to reach his father-in-law as fire consumed their home; driven back by the flames, he probably helped arriving firefighters place a ladder against the building to reach the second-floor windows. Flames moved too fast, though; the Frothingham Block burned flat before Turner could flee. Mabel Lowell, watching the fire from the sidewalk, “collapsed … when she learned that her father was missing,” the Daily Sun reporter sadly noted. In time downtown South Paris would recover from the 1927, but life would never be the same for the Lowell family.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Mary Jane Richardson by Dale M. Clark
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Readfield’s fortune teller
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that read “FORTUNES TOLD Poor People 5 Cents. Those with more money 10 cents.” The fortune teller’s name was Mary Jane Richardson. “The rent here is very satisfactory...nit a month… cheapest rent in town,” she told a newspaper reporter in 1910. She also sang songs to “make a little extree,” she said, pointing to a sign on an interior wall that said - “5 cents for 3 songs. 10 cents for 3 songs and 3 hims.” Richardson was born in Readfield to Asa and Sarah (Cottle) Richardson in 1828. She had become an eccentric old lady by the time that reporter discovered her. She refused to tell her age – perhaps she did not even know her age? After all, she had been the sixth child of thirteen born between 1815 and 1837, (continued on page 34)
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(continued from page 33) so her parents surely had trouble keeping all those birthdays straight. Survival was their major concern. Some of the children had to be farmed out or sent off to work in the factories in Massachusetts, including Mary Jane. She worked in the textile mills in Lawrence and also in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she made enough money to dress well and participated in social activities such as dances and shows. “If I hadn’t been so foolish as to try to keep agoing and wear so many fancy good togs when I was in the mills,” she said, “I might have more money now. It cost money to swim in society.” She remained single – in fact, she was reported to be a “confirmed spinster.” Sometime after 1870 she returned to Maine and for several years worked as a housekeeper for prominent families in Augusta, Brunswick and Gardiner. Then she found herself temporarily out of a job, and her life took a different direction. She met a woman who taught
The Readfield poor farm on Tallwood Drive, where Mary Jane Richardson lived until she moved into an old log cabin on Winthrop Road.
her how to tell fortunes with cards, and the very first week she made a little money using her newfound skill. After that she just kept right on reading cards as her livelihood, but she did not bring in enough income to live on. Mary Jane ended up living at the Readfield poor farm near Maranacook Lake, where she became well-known to locals as a for-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com site of the original poor farm, and Maranacook Hotel directly across the lake from the Sir Charles. A train station was built nearby to accommodate the out-of-state vacationers who flooded in by railroad. Coleman was the station agent at Maranacook Station, and owned the aforementioned, uninhabited log cabin, which was fairly near Lake Maranacook. The entrepreneurial Coleman must have seen Richardson’s mystique as a potential attraction for summer visitors and he invited her to live there. She had never known anything but deprivation and hard work at the direction of hard task masters, so the idea of having her own home where she could also make a living, must have been a welcome relief. Richardson took Coleman up on the offer. She lived very simply there, unlike her days of working in the textile mills. Richardson related that she ate a little bread and subsisted almost wholly on crackers and water and occasionally some milk. She told the reporter she
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would not wear “boughten” stockings and knitted her own hose and mittens. Come winter she sometimes returned to live in the shelter of the poor farm. A picture in the 1910 article shows Mary Jane standing in the doorway of her abode. Her face was serious and her eyes glared at the camera, one arm braced against the doorframe and the other at her side. She had large hands – like those of a working man one might say. Kerchief on her head, shawl over her shoulders, a checkered skirt covered with a tattered apron. One could almost feel her destitution while at the same time her contentment. Word about the local fortune teller spread quickly among the summer people, with help from Coleman no doubt. They made their way to Richardson’s cabin, where they confided to her their innermost secrets. Richardson told them things like who they would marry, how they would get rich, and whether they would die in the poor house. According to her, there were hobgoblins
all around her cabin and at one point she shushed the reporter, then went on to say “Do you know how much I made picking some people to pieces last summer? Well, I made $7.20. That ain’t so bad. And I’ve got it all in a bag in that box over in the corner. I wouldn’t put it into no bank. They break into banks, and the fellows in the bank run away sometimes.” She lived the way she chose and, by all appearances, the townspeople respected her choices. Three years after the interview Mary Jane Richardson died at the Readfield poor farm, of heart failure. One must wonder if she saw her own demise in the cards. This article was written by Dale Marie Potter-Clark, who is the Historical Consultant for the Readfield Historical Society. She also offers community education about Readfield’s history, and organizes “Readfield History Walks.” FMI visit www.readfieldmaine.blogspot.com.
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George Huntington Hartford by Roger Gordon
A history of food retailer A&P
A
&P. Three syllables that for 60 years made up the largest food retailer in the United States. From 1915 through 1975 – with the ‘30s and ‘40s the apex – the A&P was “it” when it came to where families did their grocery shopping. In fact, according to a blog post by The Wall Street Journal on December 10, 2010, “A&P was as well-known as McDonald’s or Google is today,” and that A&P was “WalMart before WalMart.” George Huntington Hartford may have passed away two years into that remarkable six-decade run, but that incredible ride never would have happened without him. He joined The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, the enterprise’s official name, as a clerk in 1861, and after stints as
a bookkeeper and as a cashier, quickly assumed managerial duties. When founder George Gilman retired in 1878, Hartford obtained control of the New York City-based company and eventually purchased the interests of Gilman’s heirs and helped the business grow into not only the country’s largest food retailer, but its largest retailer. Born on September 5, 1833, on a farm in Augusta, Hartford’s parents ran a boarding house and livery stable that is now the site of a firehouse in the state capital. Huntington received little formal education, and at 18 years old sailed to Boston where he began his career in retail as a clerk in a dry goods store. He and his younger brother John later worked for Gilman’s leather tanning firm in St. Louis, a satellite branch
of the main office in New York City. By 1860 Hartford had returned to Augusta and worked as a box maker. Right around the time he joined A&P, Hartford, while living in Brooklyn, married Marie Ludlum, with whom he had five children. As A&P expanded – including a nationwide mail-order business – Hartford’s responsibilities grew. He and Gilman were the ones behind the company becoming one of the first marketers to use brand names when it started selling tea under the Thea Nectar label. The two men purchased damaged tea that cost relatively little and mixed it to create a black tea with a green tea taste that was considered by the public a specialty tea. Thus A&P was able to sell Thea Nectar for less than the competitor’s special tea.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com For customers who couldn’t reach the A&P, the company provided “tea clubs” in which groups of people – either as a social group or as a business – could have tea shipped to them from the company for a third of the price. The tea clubs proved immensely popular, prompting orders from Vermont to Wisconsin. A&P was far ahead of its time as it also offered incentives to customers such as premiums. Based on the amount of products purchased, patrons received gifts from the company. Eventually, these premiums became based on stamps that were collected with each purchase and could be turned in for anything from lithographs to glassware. Hartford also instituted a pension plan that allowed employees to invest in company stock that they could retain after retirement. In 1871 Hartford opened an A&P in Chicago, the firm’s first store outside New York City, just days after the Great
Chicago Fire. By 1875 A&P had stores in 16 cities. By the time Gilman retired, the company operated 70 stores that, combined with the mail-order business, totaled $1 million in annual sales. Hartford was a busy man. While running A&P he was mayor of Orange, New Jersey from 1878-90 and did much to help the growth of that city. Around 1880 A&P began selling sugar. Four years later stores began opening in the western part of the country and as far south as Atlanta. During the next decade stores added to their shelves A&P-branded products like baking powder, condensed milk, spices and butter. By the end of the century the company had sales of $5 million from nearly 200 stores in gradually creating the very first grocery chain. Hartford revolutionized retailing. A&P reduced prices and made profit by heavy advertising and promotion. However, it did not own a monopoly over the United States, as new grocery chains began
popping up all over. In the early part of the 1900s A&P was the fifth-ranked grocery chain nationally. A&P quickly went into rebuilding mode. Soon after, Hartford retired from active management of the business and turned it over to two of his sons who had been with the firm for nearly 25 years. Hartford continued as an advisor while his boys continued the rebuild that resulted in the company’s immense success for many years later in the century. Hartford died in 1917, but his memory continues on and will live forever as evidenced by one of eight bronze busts honoring him and seven other merchants that stand between the Chicago River and the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. In 1953 the busts were commissioned by the building’s owner, Joseph Kennedy, the father of President John F. Kennedy.
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Early view of Bridge Street in Gardiner. Item #LB2007.1.100885 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Early view of post office in Branch Mills. Item #LB2007.1.100285 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Early view of Lawrence Library in Fairfield. Item # LB2007.1.100720 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Early view of Elm Street in Skowhegan. Item # LB2007.1.111854 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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On Being Lebanese In Waterville A strong history of involvement in the community by Jeffrey Bradley
I
mmigrants have long been drawn to the banks of the flowing Kennebec River. Although Ticonic Falls blocks navigation upstream, storied Waterville has served for centuries as a trade and shipping hub. French-Canadians, the Irish, Jews and Lebanese are part of the ethnic mix that came for the possibilities of steady work. Persons of Lebanese origin finding Maine congenial is not all that surprising in light of the fact that as Phoenicians in the distant past they were renowned Mediterranean traders and a power equal to Rome. Once settled in Maine, however, they abandoned mercantile pursuits to join the professional class, notably, in law and politics. This may be explained
in part by the strong emphasis placed on getting a good education. Not an ostentatious people, the Lebanese keep low-profile cultural icons. The most striking perhaps is the Lebanese Heritage Mural on Main Street celebrating100 years of their involvement in the community. In the 1860s Syrian-Lebanese refugees fled revolution in the Levant. Following advertisements in big city newspapers, they flocked to Waterville searching for jobs. (Don’t mistake the Lebanese for Syrians, though; for one thing, they aren’t Protestants. And ordering “Syrian” bread in a Front Street bakery might earn a sharp reminder that here they serve Lebanese bread, thank
you.) Settling in Head of Falls, they earned their livelihood the old-fashioned way: by merchandizing. Soon enough, they were finding work in the mills and the railroads. As Maronite Christians (an ancient Eastern Catholic sect that recognizes the Patriarch of Antioch), they worshipped with the French-Canadian or Irish Catholics until a second wave of Lebanese arrived in the 1890s. Maronite origins date back to 400 AD, preceding Islam in the Middle East by 300 years. Economic stability and a chance to join Maine’s Lebanese body politic beckoned, although many were escaping the oppressive Ottoman Em-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com pire. The influx allowed the Maronite community to go critical mass; Father Joseph Awad’s arrival in 1924 signaled that henceforth services would be conducted in Arabic. Impressive St. Joseph’s Maronite Catholic Church, reared in 1951, replaced an older wooden version; Temple Street, hard by the church, divides a French quarter from the Lebanese enclave south of Two Cent Bridge. The neighborhood, redolent with smells of fresh-baked Lebanese bread wafting from many brick ovens, still offers tasty Lebanese fare such as spinach pie, beef shawarma, and green beans and rice. Immigrant groups are fairly tightknit, and the Lebanese were no exception. Despite a fragmenting due to a steady moving away, kinship remains strong.“We love having a community we can relate to and that appreciates the same things,” says Jennifer Nale. “It’s like a really big family.”While the exodus diminishes even the power of the
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church — Maronite St. Joseph’s being a cornerstone for generations of Waterville Lebanese — Nale takes comfort. “We believe that certain staples of the community are always going to be here when we return.” Like many first-generations entering Waterville, the Lebanese initially worked in the factories. But their children entered the professions, with a seemingly extraordinary number becoming lawyers. As Thomas Nale, former mayor of Waterville explains in the American Dreams documentary The Lebanese, “The biggest emphasis... was education at an early age.” George Jabar, scion of another powerful Lebanese Waterville family, involved with unions during a time when most immigrants had difficulty obtaining work, persuaded the mills to relent; the family has since stayed active in politics and social issues. And though Justice Joseph Jabar, of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, was quoted in the
documentary as saying, “There’s nothing that makes us any different than any other minority that works hard,” the fact of that phenomenal Lebanese academic success rate remains, with many second and third-generation Lebanese-Americans finishing college and graduate school. Sports were another way that the community stuck together. Nale recalls a “just tremendous” time when athletics even transcended cultural differences. In 1944, for instance, Waterville fielded a basketball team composed of French, Lebanese and Jewish players that stormed into the New England finals undefeated(they won it handily). And, despite squabbling, the team “knew no different blood but purple — the color of Waterville High School.” Nale takes pride that today the victory is still remembered. “It was extremely important for the city, the state, and New England.” He also fondly recalls celebrating at (continued on page 44)
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(continued from page 43) Bang’s Beach on Messalonskee Lake in Oakland following Sunday Mass. The whole community turned out, picnic baskets “filled with zatr, kibbeh, cabbage rolls, grape leaves, potato salad” and anything else the Lebanese grandmothers could cook up, followed by softball. Nale’s cousin, George Mitchell, also from Waterville, and the former Senator from Maine and former Senate Majority Leader, was born Irish but raised Lebanese by adoptive parents. Considered Arab-American and fluent in French and Arabic, Mitchell is a recognized expert on Middle Eastern affairs — so much so he was named Special Envoy for Middle East Peace in 2009. But for all the accomplishments of these remarkable sons of Lebanon, “I’m just surprised there weren’t more Lebanese that went into retail,” muses Mayor Tom; “that’s what our ancestors did — we were traders.”
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Early view of dormatories overlooking Johnson’s Pond at Colby College. Item # LB2010.9.117695 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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The Great Blizzard Of 1952 Waterville area citizens got pounded hard by John Murray
T
he residents of Maine are a strong and resilient group of people. Spend a winter in Maine, and a person fully realizes just how tough the folks of Maine really are. In Maine, winter comes early and leaves late. Toes and fingers get cold, heavy quilts are laid upon the beds, extra logs are loaded into wood stoves, and the wearing of a sweater isn’t a fashion statement, it’s a necessary layer of insulation to combat the winter chill. People of Maine are accepting of the heavy snow and brutal cold that winter brings into their life, and the people here deal with it rather well. Sometimes, an event happens that will test human nature, and even bring
the strongest of native Maine residents to their breaking point. The great Maine blizzard of 1952 was one of those events. The blizzard, also referred to as the February 1952 noreaster, began as an offshore low pressure system near the New England coast that rapidly evolved into a near cyclone on February 17 and 18. The effects of this noreaster where far reaching, impacting
New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. Maine was impacted terribly, with heavy snows that accumulated to nearly thirty inches. The wind was a contributing factor to the intensity of the storm. Gale force sustained winds at 45mph with documented gusts up to 65mph created a dangerous environment of zero visibility. Many longtime Maine residents had never experienced a storm of this strength, and they were in for a heck of a storm. As a testament to the strength of the storm, two five hundred-foot tanker ships off the New England coast were broken in half by the unrelenting gi(continued on page 46)
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(continued from page 45) ant waves, which were estimated to be nearly 80 feet high. The cargo ships, the SS Fort Mercer and the SS Pendleton suffered sailor fatalities. The death toll would have been far worse if it was not for the heroic feats of the United States Coast Guard, which rescued many sailors from the sinking ships. On land, the blizzard conditions contributed to the death toll. It is estimated that 42 fatalities occurred throughout the northeast which were directly linked to the storm. Property damage was immense. The residents of Waterville had never seen a storm of such intensity. Waterville is located along the Kennebec river valley. Local residents were shaken to the core. “It was not a normal storm,” one resident of Waterville recalled. It was almost as if there was some sinister power at work to give the storm a reason for taking Waterville off the map.
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At 6 a.m. Sunday morning, February 17, the storm hit the Waterville area. Heavy bands of snow pulsed through the area and snow accumulation was rapid with the temperatures below freezing. Gale force winds whipped both the snow on the ground and in the air, causing the wind-driven snow to inflict intense pain on exposed skin. Visibility was nearly non-existent. Local residents spoke of not being able to see across the streets. Many considered the wind to be the worse part of the storm. The wind never stopped during the duration of the storm, and the folks of Waterville said that the wind howled like a angry lion. A Waterville resident spoke somberly of that fateful night. “I do not know of anyone who slept the night of the storm. The wind would not permit it.” Yet, those residents of Waterville that were within their homes, were in effect, the fortunate people. Oth-
er people throughout the area had the misfortune to be caught outdoors while they were traveling the roads. With the blizzard conditions, the roads quickly became a nightmare scenario. Not only was the sky depositing massive amounts of snow on the roads, but the wind was blowing that snow, causing windblown snow drifts that were many feet in height. All roads became impassible. Vehicles that attempted to drive would ultimately become stuck, or lost control and skidded off the road. Many vehicles just stopped in the roads. The drivers could not see the front their vehicles with the zero visibility. The occupants were literally trapped within their vehicles on the roads. Those who assumed that help would come soon to assist them were terribly wrong. Help did not arrive for many of these stranded motorists for many days. It is estimated that nearly one thousand motorists were stranded within their vehicles
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during and after the blizzard. With the relentless snow accumulations and snow drifts, snowplow crews fought valiantly to keep the roads cleared, but could not compete with the raging blizzard. Finally, by 4 p.m. Monday, February 18, the snow subsided, but the wind would torment the area for many more hours. As the residents of Waterville peered from their windows or finally ventured outside, what they witnessed shocked them. Vehicles were buried along sides of roads and snow drifts covered entire sides of buildings. Roofs were damaged and power was out in many areas. All in total, Waterville received 22 inches of snow during the blizzard. The task to dig out Waterville and the surrounding towns was monumental. Anyone that could carry a shovel was actively involved in the snow removal process. With no place to put
Downtown Waterville buried in snow. most of the snow, tons of snow was dumped into the Kennebec river. The winter of 1952 saw other storms, but none could compare to the blizzard of February. “The worst snow storm we ever saw” was spoken by every Waterville resident. That very same statement was echoed throughout most of Maine. It was a blizzard that Mainers
would not forget, and a blizzard that would be permanently etched into the weather record books.
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Poetess Louise Bogan The Poet Laureate from Livermore Falls
by Charles Francis
L
ouise Bogan was a libertine, a depressive, the possessor of a biting and caustic wit, and according to some notable critics the greatest female poet of the twentieth century. Her adolescence was a series of licentious acts of rebellion undoubtedly designed to offend the staid mill town mentality of her aesthetically disinclined, lower class, Irish parents. She openly bragged of an affair with fellow poet Theodore Roethke, who she deemed a talent of “very, very small lyrics.” In Cassandra, Bogan says “I bare the shambling tricks of lust and pride.” Was Cassandra, the fiery prophetess that no one would heed, Bogan’s alter ego? Perhaps. If the image is an apt JOHNNY
one, then the poetess was a master of irony. In fact, irony directed at herself may just have been the grace note of her life, the master metaphor that kept her sane — though she was once institutionalized. Livermore Falls-born Louise Bogan was the country’s Poet Laureate for 1945-46. The honor is an appointment bestowed by the Library of Congress as authorized by Congress. When Bogan acceded to the position the exact title was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. The above use of the word consultant doesn’t fit all those poets who have been honored as United States Poet Laureate. In many cases, the poet being
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com honored was just that — a poet. Louise Bogan was more. She was a critic of poetry. For thirty-eight years she was poetry editor of The New Yorker. Louse Bogan was born in Livermore Falls in 1897. Her father, Daniel, worked in a paper mill there and in a number of other mills and factories in northern New England as she was growing up. The family was in Boston when it was time for Bogan to enter high school, and she enrolled in the cream of that city’s girls’ high schools, Boston Girls Latin. From Boston Girls Latin Bogan went on for a single year at Boston University. Then, at the age of nineteen, she married her first husband. He died four years later in 1920. By this time Bogan was in New York City, where she had already begun to make her mark as a poet, with her work appearing in such notable magazines as the Atlantic Monthly, The Nation and Scribners, as well as the The New Yorker.
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Bogan’s first major collection, Body of this Death, came out in 1923. Bogan was twenty-six then, but clearly the possessor of a mature sense of irony. One might even suggest she possessed the intellectual maturity of someone who had never been young. After all, what twenty-six-year-old should be able to apprehend the following? She has attained the permanence she dreamed of, where old stones lie sunning. Somehow the image and emotion contained in the above lines is both reassuring and shocking at the same time. If one were seventy, they could be considered reassuring. But if one is not yet even thirty? The ‘old stones sunning’ evoke a sense of peace and serenity. Yet, what is “the permanence,” the subject of the two lines “dreamed of?” One intuitively knows it is not that of the graveyard. Yet, the lines come from Bogan’s poem Epitaph for a Romantic
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Woman. What is it that lies beneath the stones? At the time it was written Epitaph for a Romantic Women was intended as a humorous statement on the dreams and aspirations of a young woman about to be married, but in reality is an ironic foreshadowing of the poet’s own life. Bogan, who was already a young widow at the time she penned the lines, would go on to a second marriage that would end in divorce. By the time of the divorce, however, Bogan would have established herself as a permanent fixture in the world of arts and letters, both as a poet and as one of the most influential poetry critics in the country. Bogan’s last work, The Blue Estuaries: Poems, 1923-1968, was published in 1968, two years before her death. Harold Bloom, the greatest literary critic of the age and the figure who reset the bar of being well-read, places The Blue Estuaries in the Western Canon of (continued on page 50)
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(continued from page 49) literature. For Bloom, The Blue Estuaries is a work of “Canonical Prophecy” emblematic of the late nineteenth century on, an era Bloom refers to as an age of chaos. If Cassandra the prophetess was Bogan’s alter ego, then Bogan must be viewed as a mystic of a sort. She is mystic, though, without the ecstasy that one so often associates with prophecy. She does not writhe with snakes. She does not speak in tongues. With Bogan, intellect — and most notably wit — replace ecstatic rapture. In place of the pronouncements of the true believer, there is an ironic humor that comes at the poetess’s own expense. The poem Women, which begins with the following lines, is a perfect example of Bogan’s ability to combine humor and irony: Women have no wilderness in them, They are provident instead, A few stanzas on, Bogan continues: Their love is an eager meaningless-
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the place where a rebellious youngster began the career which led to her being recognized as one of the greatest of American poets.
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ness Too tense or too lax. as like as not, when they take life over their door-sill They should let it go. The poem begins rather obscurely, as we don’t really perceive its true subject. Then love “eager” and “meaningless” is introduced. Last comes Bogan’s traditional image of a young bride being carried across her door step in the arms of her husband. It is with the final line that the humor of the poem comes clear through its irony. Once the bride is carried across the door step, she must “let it [love] go.” Long before Louise Bogan’s death, the poet became friends with one of her contemporaries. This was author May Sarton, who spent her final years on the coast of York County. Sarton and Bogan spent part of one summer in the late 1960s at Sarton’s home. Together the two paid a visit to Livermore Falls. For Bogan it was a return to her roots,
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Gardiner’s Alvan M.C. Heath Newspaper editor gave his all for his country by Brian Swartz
G
ardiner newspaper editor Alvan M.C. Heath believed so deeply in preserving the Union that he joined the war effort — and gave his life for his country. The son of Dr. Asa Alexis Heath and Mary (Boynton) Heath, he was born in Monmouth. Heath married Sarah Hinkley Philbrook in 1852; their four children were Herbert, Willis, Frederick, and Emma. All of them lived much longer than did their father. When Heath founded the Gardiner Home Journal in 1858, Maine was awash in newspapers, dailies and weeklies alike. In nearby Augusta, Ezekiel
Holmes published the Maine Farmer on Thursdays; a well-illustrated front page always featured several articles of pertinent interest to farmers. The Daily Whig & Courier appeared six days a week (sans Sundays) in Bangor, as did the Portland Daily Press in Maine’s largest city. As did many other Maine editors, Heath blended local news with state, national, and international dispatches; the Gardiner Home Journal read more like a cosmopolitan broadsheet than a local paper. Its circulation was not great; most Maine weeklies struggled to attain and hold subscribers, and most such papers folded in time.
When the Civil War started, Heath championed the Union in print and person. He had no interest in fighting; “his whole character, tastes and instincts were opposed to a military life,” the Gardiner Home Journal would later state. Yet simply supporting the war in print ate at Heath, who stood 5’8” and had blue eyes and either blond or light brown hair. At age 33, he enlisted in Company B, 16th Maine Infantry in mid-August 1862. Offered an officer’s commission, Heath “deemed [being in] the ranks the most honorable position in which to serve his country,” the Home Journal noted. (continued on page 54)
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(continued from page 53) Under Colonel Asa Wildes, Heath and the regiment left for Washington, D.C., garrisoned a fort in the District for a few weeks, then tramped all over central Maryland during the Antietam campaign. About noon on Friday, December 12, Heath marched with the 16th Maine across a pontoon bridge spanning the Rappahannock River at the so-called “Franklin’s Crossing,” named for Union General William B. Franklin. His combat engineers had constructed two such bridges at this site two miles downriver from Fredericksburg. The 16th Maine boys camped that night on the plains abutting the river. Shivering in the Virginia fog settling along the Rappahannock Valley overnight, Heath awoke on Saturday morning and went to battle. Orders came for the regiment to charge west across muddy farm fields and attack Confederates dug in behind
the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. Beyond the tracks rose Prospect Hill, atop which Confederate artillery targeted the advancing Maine boys. Stepping off from the Bowling Green Turnpike, the 16th Maine crossed fields already strewn with Union soldiers killed or wounded during an earlier charge. Under fire for the first time, Alvan Heath and the Company B boys remained steady under fire. “About half the distance between the turnpike and the enemy,” the 16th Maine boys approached other Union troops who, unable to reach the railroad, were firing at Confederates hidden behind its raised bed, said 17-yearold Pvt. Thomas S. Hopkins. The Maine lads stopped and fired “a dozen or more rounds ourselves.” “Cease firing!” shouted Lieutenant Colonel Charles Tilden of Castine. “Charge bayonets!” His men growled
as they lowered their rifled muskets and pointed their bayonets at the railroad embankment. “Forward double-quick!” Tilden ordered, and the 16th Maine charged a quarter mile across muddy ground and deep ditches to take the bayonet to the Confederates. Somewhere on that water-logged field, a bullet struck Alvan Heath. Another bullet struck 19-year-old Sergeant George R. Parsons, another Gardiner resident serving in Company B. Possibly the men were friends; they fell near each other. A Confederate counterattack forced Tilden to withdraw the 16th Maine. The badly wounded Heath and Parsons were initially left behind. Unable to crawl to safety, his life fading with his seeping blood, George Parsons found a piece of paper in his pocket and with a pencil scribbled a poignant farewell to his father. “I write You’ve got to visit
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you while lying on the battlefield, wounded, perhaps fatally,” Parsons formed the letters with difficulty. “I am very weak,” he admitted. “I fell, wounded in the side. Good bye, if I never see you again. Tell mother I think of her while lying here, and wish I had her to be with me in my last parting moments. Much love to all.” Parsons told his father that “I fell doing my duty.” His family knew Alvan Heath, because then, as now, Gardiner was not that big a town that the local newspaper editor could remain anonymous. “Corp. Heath was near when I fell,” Parsons wrote, perhaps suggesting that Heath was still on his feet when Parsons was hit. “He did his duty like a soldier. He was cool and deliberate.” Comrades recovered Heath and Parsons that night. Parsons was dead; his family soon received his letter; “the lines were traced with difficulty, and
the paper was tinged with blood,” noted Ezekiel Holmes in the January 8, 1863 issue of the Maine Farmer. Alvan Heath lingered two or three days before dying. His embalmed body was shipped home for a January funeral held at the Methodist church in Gardiner. Residents raised $500 to cover the funeral expenses. The Gardiner Home Journal subsequently informed its readers that Alvan Heath’s “whole life was particularly wrapped up in his family. At home he was always happy, and he had seldom left it for a day, till he left it at the dearer call of his country.”
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Winslow’s Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Company Sometimes the mill livin’ could be easy by Jeffrey Bradley
M
aine riversduring Colonial times were major transportation corridors. In 1754, Fort Halifax was raised at the confluence of the Sebasticook andKennebec Rivers.The settlement that emerged in its shadow was named after the General Winslow who oversaw its construction. Benedict Arnold was among the many that stopped by this point of transit; the commander was on his way to infamy in Canada. When the fort’s usefulness ended, the structure was dismantled for wood. Only a blockhouse remained, but this was swept away in a raging flood.
A replica stands there today. But enterprises of all kinds have flourished where these rivers converge. Winslow took early advantage of the proximity to water power. Among the more notable industries was the Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Company. In time, this mill became adivision of the Scott Paper Company, which merged with Kimberly-Clark. It eventually fell victim to downsizing and closed in 1997. Now known as Kennebec River Development Park, the place is a mash-up of storage space and small manufacturing.
Compared to the endless drudgery in the hulking mills of Biddeford, Hollingsworth & Whitney could be considered genteel. No brooding brick buildings here, with their rows of narrow windows to miserly let in the light; instead wereworking conditionsthat for a mill were actually pleasant. The complex is now well over a century old. Headquarters was located at the mill entrance on the banks of the Kennebec River. Although significantly altered, the original outlines are still discernible in the dormers and triangular roof of the present building. The
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com plant manufactured sundry paper products, and so successfully that it opened a clubhouse for employees in 1902. This Taconnet Clubhouse was an amazing recreational and community center. The lower level containeda swimming pool, a smoking room with card tables, a barber shop, two bowling alleys, baths,restrooms with showers and, in the east wing, a billiard and pool room. Upstairs was the large conference room that doubled as a ballroom, an enormous kitchen, and a library filled with reading material. Boys of high school age gathered in the ground-floor gymnasium when school was in session, but with one proviso: no cursing allowed. Adjacent to the building were two immaculate clay tennis courts bisected by a gazebo-type bandstand complete with a scenic wrap-around porch that overlookedthe Kennebec River. The mills of Pepperell and Laconia lacked even stall doors in their company bathrooms. They were built at a
different time, for a different purpose. By comparison Hollingsworth &Whitney was the lap of luxury. It’s no small wonder that the mill produced 235 tons of paper a day at its peak! Eventually the clubhouse was converted by Scott Paper into the more staid Timberlands Office. In 1984, the buildingwas demolished. Many Irish and French Canadians that came to the Kennebec Valley during the 19th century found work here. In the neighborhood encompassing Benton Avenuenear Herd Street were houses built and leased by H&W to company workers. Still, many preferred living in Waterville and walking to work instead. This area later became the site of the Winslow Municipal Building. The plant began construction in 1892 on the east bank of the Kennebec River; across from the campus of old Colby College. Giant logs were crucial to the operation, so a canal was
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dug from the Kennebec River to divert them into a holding pond near the storage yard. There a floating crane that worked in tandem with a boom on rails above hauled the logs from the water. Fished out by means of a flexible steel-like net attached to heavy cables, they were hoisted aloft to thedrop zone. Stacked in immense, if precarious piles,70 feet high and several football fields long, the arduous work was performed by men wielding “pickeroons,” a hardened steel tool that resembles an axe but with a pointed hook instead of a blade. These logs were known to tumble. In the 1950s, Scott Paper introduced a process for chipping the wood for storage that made stacking obsolete. Driving logs down the river to the mills was ended in 1976 by an act of legislation. Later, adam was added to provide hydro-electric power. Millworkers played competitive amateur sports. The “Taconnets” were (continued on page 58)
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(continued from page 57) a company baseball team active into the 1940s. H&W bowling teams also won many trophies, some bearing the logo Elm City Bowling in tribute to the company’s affiliation with the bowling lanes of the same name in Waterville. League bowling championships involved teams from other companies; the many H&W bowling teams played their intra-mill competitions on the Taconnet Clubhouse bowling alley. Employees also contributed to a fund for bringing acts to the entertainment hall. The Hollingsworth & Whitney School, opened in 1895, also came under the company’s auspices. Itclosed in 1921 with the building of the Boston Avenue School. Two rail lines served Winslow; the Maine Central Railroad, which helped move the logs, and the more colorful Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railroad. This odd and oddly-named railway ran on narrow gauge tracks
built in the late 1800s. Its characteristic rolling stock gave it the appearance of a Disneyland ride. Running from Wiscasset to Winslow and Albion,it never made its original goal of Moosehead Lake — but then, despite the name, it never reached Waterville or Farmington either!The line went from Wiscasset through Cooper’s Mills to Week’s Mills, then on to Albion by way of North Vassalboro. In 1902 track was laid to Winslow, which became the railroad’s terminus. The rails crossed Route 201 and three abutments along the Kennebec River, but Maine Central peevishly refused the tiny train permission to cross its right-of-way, endingWW&F expansion plans forever. Today, ruined abutments are all that remain. The depot, off the old Augusta Road, was converted into a comfy white house that’s still occupied. In March of 1936, the Sebasticook and Kennebec Rivers flooded, causing
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chunks of broken ice to careen down the river with enough force to knock down bridges. Many thanks to the Maine Memory Network for help with this article.
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The Saga Of Philander Coburn He was loved by the lumberjacks by Charles Francis
I
f you ask any long-time resident of Skowhegan if they are familiar with the Coburn brothers, you will most likely get an emphatic “Yes, Abner and ....” The pause will come because Philander, Abner’s younger brother, simply is not as well-known as Abner, who served as one of Maine’s Civil War governors. There are other reasons why Abner Coburn’s name is better known than Philander’s, though, and quite possibly somewhat unfairly. Histories of Skowhegan, especially some of the old ones like that found in George Varney’s 1886 A Gazetteer of the State of Maine, often imply, or in the case of Varney state that Skowhegan “...is largely indebted to Hon.
Abner Coburn for its prosperity.” The old Varney history and others of its ilk have served as a basis for a number of abbreviated more recent histories of Skowhegan, none of which do justice to Philander, who, as one half of Coburn brothers, did as much for Skowhegan of the mid-1800s as his brother Abner. Backing this up is the fact that the first Coburn enterprise to include the brothers, E. Coburn & Sons, evolved into A. & P. Coburn. E. Coburn & Sons was a partnership made up of Eleazer Coburn, the father of Abner and Philander, and the two brothers. A. & P. Coburn, of course, was the brothers. The latter firm replaced the (continued on page 60)
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(continued from page 59) former at the death of Eleazer Coburn. The two firms were primarily involved in the timber business and speculation in timber lands. And, they were not the only enterprises the Coburn brothers cooperated in on a joint basis. They were also involved in a number of others. Philander Coburn was born in 1807 in what was then Canaan. Eventually that section of Canaan, where both brothers were born, became Skowhegan. Philander died in 1876. His elder brother, Abner, was born some four years earlier in 1803. As mentioned above, the brothers’ father was Eleazer. Their mother was Mary (Weston) Coburn. Mary Coburn was a granddaughter of Joseph Weston. Joseph Weston served a one of the guides on Benedict Arnold’s famed march to Quebec. As we shall see, Philander Coburn took after that ancestor as far as daring-do. It has been said that in his day Eleaz-
er Coburn knew the value of stateowned timberland better than anyone else. Quite possibly this was because he was State Timber Surveyor. Regardless, it was in part because of Eleazer’s knowledge that his sons became two of Maine’s greatest timber barons. The brothers were more than timber barons, however. Their name was or is connected to, among other things, a steamship line on Moosehead Lake, the luxurious Forks Hotel, where the Dead River joins the Kennebec, the Coburn Land Trust and Coburn Park in Skowhegan. In one sense, Coburn Park serves a symbolic centerpiece for the story of both Coburn brothers. Part of it was donated by Abner and part of it by Philander’s heirs. It overlooks the Big Eddy, one of the most famous fishing spots in the history of Maine. Two branches of the Kennebec come together at the Big Eddy to create the turbulence which gives it its name. The two channels
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were uniquely suited for the development of lumber mills, and the Coburn brothers took advantage of this. Much of the timber that went into the mills came from the brothers’ lands far up in the reaches of the Kennebec, and was floated down river on the great drives operated by the Kennebec Log Driving Company. The saga of Philander Coburn begins when he and his older brother joined their father in timber cruising the north woods, mainly in the Jackman and Enchanted regions. This was the time period when the newly created and financially strapped State of Maine began selling its public lands for as little as fifteen cents an acre. Eleazer, with his superior knowledge of these lands, invested heavily. His sons continued the practice. (At one point they controlled 450,000 acres or 700 square miles.) The experience of cruising with his
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father plus the genes he inherited from his grandfather turned Philander Coburn into an adult who preferred- more than his brother- spending time in the north woods. For this reason this led to his taking the greater responsibility for the day-to-day running of Coburn brothers’ camps and other north woods operations. One of Philander’s early enterprises was the development of the Ox Railroad at Northeast Carry. With several other north woods developers, Philander built a wooden railway connecting Moosehead Lake with the West Branch of the Penobscot. The railroad, which was powered by oxen and horses, proved a great success carrying men and supplies the two miles between the two bodies of water. One of the early passengers on the railroad was Henry David Thoreau, who described his trip on it in his Katahdin and Chesuncook relation.
One of the reasons why Philander Coburn’s life deserves the larger-thanlife term ‘saga’ is that he was a largerthan-life figure, the sort that has gone down in north woods lore and tradition of daring-do. Philander Coburn was famous for his daring rides through the woods on his spirited horse Old Railroad. Some people thought the horse would be the death of Philander. Old Railroad was extremely nervous and difficult to control. He often bolted for no reason at all with his owner pulling vainly at his reins. Sometimes this occurred at night when it was pitch dark. Racing over lumpy, hard-packed tote roads, Old Railroad’s hoofbeats could be heard for a mile or more on a still night. He never, however, succeeded in harming his master. Philander Coburn, even though he was a timber baron, was a popular per-
son among lumberjacks. The reason for this was that Coburn camps were considered the best to work at and largely because of Philander. The camps, especially at Brassua Lake and Holeb, were renowned for their cooks. These cooks turned out the best in pies, cakes and freshly baked bread. In addition, the Coburns paid better than most other timber companies of the day, as much as forty dollars a month. Today the Coburn Land Trust, some 100,000 acres in the Jackman area, stands as a memory to the days of Philander and Abner Coburn. Abner Coburn never married. The trust is controlled by Philander’s descendants.
* Other businesses from this area area featured in the color section.
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Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
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Thomas College Pioneers The Kiest-Morgan Scholars by Dale M. Clark
T
homas College in Waterville calls business students in their accelerated degree program the “Kiest-Morgan Scholars.” The title honors Harry Keist and William Morgan – two men who owned and managed Thomas College during its fledgling era. Who were Kiest and Morgan? To begin, let’s say the two men had a few things in common. They were born two years apart – Kiest in 1877 and Morgan in 1879. When they stepped up to the helm at the business college both were in their twenties — young, driven and energetic. They were the sons of farmers; and they each married children of professional men — one the
daughter of Rev. George D. Lindsay, who served the Methodist churches in Gardiner then Waterville; and the other a daughter of Dr. Eli S. Hannaford, a Readfield physician. Kiest and Morgan were both teachers, and neither had children. Harry Kiest was a first generation born American — the son of German immigrants. His father, John Henry Kiest, was only sixteen years of age in 1850 when he emigrated from Prussia to the United States. By 1860 the senior Kiest had established his own farm in Lincoln, Illinois and lived alone until he married Caroline Fetty in 1863. Harry was born in 1877, the fifth child of
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seven siblings. All of the Kiest children lived and died in Lincoln except Harry, who moved to Waterville, Maine. What lured Kiest east to Waterville is not known, but we do know he was a teacher, and that he arrived before 1899 when he purchased the business college there. According to the 1902 publication, Centennial History of Waterville, the school was first named Bliss Business College, and had become Waterville Business College by the time Kiest bought it. He immediately changed the name to Kiest Business College. The school, located in the Pulsifer Block on Main Street, was a nonsectarian, co-educational institution from the
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com beginning, and enrollment had swelled to 243 students by 1899. According to the Centennial History, Kiest moved the school next door two years later to “fine quarters in the new Flood Block.” By then Kiest had married Ethel Lindsay of Waterville. Like Kiest, she was a first generation American – the daughter of Irish immigrants. Kiest ran the school for five years, offering business courses like stenography, commercial law and practice. Things seemed to be going well until tragedy struck. In 1904 Harry Kiest died suddenly at age 27. Ethel, who was a bookkeeper and assistant at Brook St. School in Waterville, hired one L.C. Manning to serve as principal until she sold the business college in 1905. Enter William “Bill” Morgan, who changed the name yet again — to Morgan’s Business College. Bill Morgan was a 10th generation New Englander, born in Weld, Maine — the elder of two brothers. His parents
moved to Readfield in 1882 where they bought a 245-acre farm — east of and adjacent to the site of the present-day Maranacook Community School. In 1906 his folks sold out and bought another house nearby, also on Main Street, but with frontage on Lake Maranacook. They shared the second home part-time with Bill, who was married and living in Waterville by that time. He already
owned Morgan’s Business College at age 27, and he was about to enter into another successful enterprise. Bill Morgan was a go-getter from the start. He attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary (Kents Hill School) and afterwards (according to a 1911 Maine Chamber of Commerce Catalogue) he went to New York where he served as (continued on page 64)
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(continued from page 63) “head of a business college turning out 1,500 students a year.” In 1905 he returned to Maine and married Pearl Hannaford, a Readfield girl who was also a Kents Hill School alumnus. Together they led Morgan’s Business College, where both of them taught and Morgan assigned himself as principal. A 1908 advertisement proclaimed that Morgan’s Business College was a “…high grade commercial school which secures employment for its graduates… and special rooms for every department.” Even in Morgan’s time students were assisted in “securing desirable employment.” Thomas College provides that feature to this day with their Guaranteed Job Program. The 1911 Chamber Catalogue related that Morgan’s Business College was “on the highest standard of efficiency with all modern office devices, including billing machines, mimeographs, letter presses and other pieces of labor-saving machines, which are kept in actual
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daily use.” This promotion went on to say that “Under Mr. Morgan’s management the college has been phenomenally successful from the first.” The entry boasted that Morgan enlisted only the most competent commercial teachers and graduated hundreds of students who readily found business positions throughout the state. The institution had apparently outgrown its quarters
by then and had recently re-located to”…light and airy quarters” across the street, on the second and third floors of the new Edith Block. In the same Chamber Catalogue one could not miss a picture showing large canvas tents all lined up in a woodsy setting. The caption read “Real tent life at Camp Maranacook for boys, Readfield, Maine under the personal direction of W.H. Morgan of Waterville, Maine.” Morgan, who was known as a suave and likeable people-person with drive, had simultaneously developed a second venture — this one to satisfy his ambition during the summer months. Morgan had bought Birch Island on Lake Maranacook in 1907 where he built a cottage that same summer. From there he began to develop Camp Maranacook, an eight-week summer adventure camp for young men ages six to sixteen. More than likely Morgan was inspired by John Chase — another Readfield native and educator who
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had established Chase’s Boys Camp (Maine’s first) in Readfield ten years earlier. Morgan sold Morgan’s Business College to John L. Thomas, Sr. in 1911, who renamed it Morgan-Thomas Business College. In 1950 it became Thomas Junior College and in 1956 it was relocated from its downtown building to an estate on Silver Street. In 1962 the school finally became Thomas College. Today it is a highly regarded residential business and liberal arts college, specializing in business, education, and technology. Thomas offers over 30 majors in the undergraduate program, and also has a graduate program. Its present location is on West River Road on a 120-acres campus of fields and woods. William Morgan went on to build Camp Maranacook into a successful business that served boys from all over the country. As the camp evolved, he managed to accumulate two islands and one-hundred-eight acres with over a Metal Framing
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* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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mile of wooded lakeshore. Fifty buildings for every need were built on the property, as well as athletic fields and a horse riding facility. He also owned a forty-three acre outpost on Tumbledown Mountain in Weld. Campers were exposed to every kind of outdoor sport and athletic activity imaginable as well as photography, music, theater, woodworking and boat building. Morgan ran Camp Maranacook for thirty-eight consecutive years until he was stricken with heart disease and forced to sell out. He died suddenly in 1947 at age sixty-seven. Morgan is buried at Readfield Corner Cemetery with his wife, parents and brother. In 1965 Camp Maranacook’s subsequent owners sold out to a Massachusetts developer, who subdivided all the land into cottage and year-round house lots. A few of the original buildings remain as the only reminders of what once was.
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Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
66
Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camps A 19th-century tradition continues in Somerset County by Brian Swartz
O
ne Saturday each January, a late 19th-century tradition comes alive at Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camps in western Somerset County; for a brief moment in time, people harvest ice for use during the next summer. Located in the appropriately named Pierce Pond Township west of the Kennebec River, the camps are owned today by Gary and Betty Cobb. The camps date to 1903, when the Pierce Pond Fish and Game Association built a cabin on Pierce Pond. A year later, Great Northern Paper Company officials asked Charles Spaulding to establish a sporting camp at which fishermen and hunters could stay while visiting the Pierce Pond area.
Spaulding converted the game-association cabin into a combination kitchen and family quarters and constructed tent platforms for guests to use. Five new cabins appeared during the next few years. Lured by the landlocked salmon and brook trout found in Pierce Pond, fishermen packed the cabins and spent their days on the water. Hunters came each fall. Pierce Pond Camps changed hands in 1920, 1921, and 1944. Pierson “Perry” and Doris Grieve purchased the camps in 1947 and operated them until 1958. That year Floyd and Maude Cobb bought the camps. Floyd was a floatplane pilot familiar with the inland lakes
and ponds of Maine; he recognized the business potential of the camps, which remained physically isolated from the rest of Maine. To this day no road reaches the camps, and arriving guests pass through a gate on the road leading to Lindsay Cove at the southwest corner of Pierce Pond. Contacted by a gatekeeper, a staffer travels by boat to pick up the guests and transport them to the camps. Gary and Betty “were schoolteachers for just a little while in Millinocket” in the mid- to late 1960s, Betty recalled. Realizing “he wanted to be at Pierce Pond,” Gary left his teaching position, “and we moved to Pierce Pond Camps.” (continued on page 68)
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~ Gary Cobb with ice cutter ~
~ Sawing the ice at Pierce Pond Camps ~
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(continued from page 66) In 1969 Gary started Wilderness Bound Camp for boys, many of whom “were children of guests who came to the sporting camps,” Betty said. After constructing cabins not far from Pierce Pond Camps, Gary ran the boys’ camp for some 17 years and introduced his young guests to the Maine woods and waters. A hike up Katahdin Mountain was a popular trip for the boys. After Floyd and Maude Cobb retired, “we bought the camps in 1982, and things went along pretty much the same as they always did,” Betty recalled. Pierce Pond Camps now has 12 guest cabins and a main lodge containing a kitchen and dining room. Some cabins house two people, other cabins six or eight, and all guests take their meals in the lodge, which was constructed in 1917. The two oldest cabins were built by Charles Spaulding in 1904. Pierce Pond Camps open each May
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1 and close after the fishing season ends each September 30. “Everybody leaves on October 1,” Betty said. Besides fishermen, the camps attract “a lot of people now who just come and relax,” she said. For those seeking peace and quiet, Pierce Pond Camps and others similar to it are the best places to find solitude. “There is no wifi at our camps or television,” Betty pointed out. A generator provides power from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and gas lamps illuminate the camps afterwards. Besides fishermen and solitude seekers, “some people come for the food,” Betty said with a touch of pride. “I did the cooking for many years,” and in 2015 the Cobbs’ niece, Kristin McLaughlin, did the cooking “with a lot of good help. She has been cooking for us for quite a few years.” The Cobbs began the ice-harvesting tradition about 35 years ago. Since no
electric or phone lines reach the camps, the Cobbs cannot make ice with a refrigerator. “A lot of time people catch fish and want to put them on ice” in coolers, so a way to supply ice had to be found, Betty said. People gather on Pierce Pond the last Saturday of each January to harvest ice as was done in the camps’ early years. After clearing away the snow, volunteers — “we have quite a crew,” Betty said, — use an antique ice-cutting machine to cut a 200-block grid on the surface of the ice. Each block should measure 15 inches wide by 20 inches long when scored on the ice; the ideal ice block measures at least 20 inches thick when harvested. Volunteers use a chainsaw to cut the first block from the grid, then use traditional one-handed ice saws to cut the blocks. “There’s quite a crew sawing away,” with “the ice [blocks] bobbing around,”
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Betty said. Lifted from the water with tongs, ice blocks are then hefted onto ATV-towed trailers with a gallymander that Gary Cobb designed and built. The ice blocks are packed with sawdust and snow in the ice house. “They use a lot of sawdust,” Betty said. “We like cedar sawdust the best. That sawdust is amazing” as an insulator; “there will still be some chunks there when we go to cut the ice again” the next January. After the camps open, “we bring about two blocks of ice from the ice house down to the kitchen every day,” Betty said. After washing off the sawdust, a staffer chips the blocks with an ice pick to provide ice chips for campers’ coolers. “We have the clearest, cleanest water at Pierce Pond; when you pick up one of those blocks, it’s crystal clear, and you can see right through it,” Betty said.
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~ Ice blocks harvested at Pierce Pond ~ Water for the camps themselves is drawn from Pierce Pond and treated and filtered. The Cobbs’ son, Andy, has managed the camps for several years; assisting the experienced staff, he will continue doing so as Gary and Betty prepare to retire.
Pinkham’s
Elm Street Market
Pizza • Beer • Cold Cuts Videos • Groceries • Meats • Gas Fishing Supplies & Licenses Custom Silk Screening (T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Sweatpants & More)
Agency Liquor Store ~ Eat In or Take Out ~ Serving Western Maine ◆ Over 25 Years Experience
635-2503
207-635-2724 • 207-680-5655
5 New Portland Road • North Anson
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Todd West welcomes you to
Established 1894
Big Enough To Serve you... Small Enough To Care
Paul Keaten II
image@beeline-online.net
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126 Lakewood Rd. • Madison, ME
JIMMY’S SHOP ‘N SAVE Convenient to ITS 87 Ready-To-Go Chicken Baskets & Hamburgers Brick Oven Pizza
Prescriptions • Health & Beauty Yankee Candles Maine Souvenirs & Postcards Jewelry • Toys, Games & Models Chet Hibbard, R Ph.
MAIN STREET • BINGHAM
1-800-814-4495 337 Main Street, Bingham
JIMMYSSHOPNSAVE.COM
672-3312
And the land around the Pierce Ponds has been protected against development by the Maine Wilderness Watershed Trust, formed in 1989. Except for the existing camps scattered along the pond shores, “nothing else can be built on any of the ponds,” Betty said.
• Custom Fresh Cut Meats • Fresh Produce • All Your Grocery And Snack Needs • Agency Liquor Store
672-5528
414 Lakewood Rd, Rt 201 | Madison ME
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
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Hitting Sixty Old age never stopped a diehard Maine hunter by Penny S. Harmon
B
ig Joe sat in the chair contemplating the view of a parking lot outside his nursing home window in Augusta. It was November and he should be out there hunting. The last thing he expected was to miss this year’s hunting. The doctors kept telling him he could go home soon, but this was the third day of hunting season and he still wasn’t home. Who knows when they’d actually release him? What his doctor and even some of his own family didn’t understand was that his gun, Bessie (he’d name her when he was just eighteen years old), needed one more notch to hit an even sixty. His grandfather had given him Bessie, a Browning 30-06, in October on his eighteenth birthday and, since then, he’d never missed a year without getting a deer. The fifty-nine notches all represented a wide variety of sized deer, but the one notch he’d never forget was the first one. He and his grandfather had set out the first day of hunting season, just a month after he’d received Bessie. Now, he’d already bagged a deer prior to that, but that was with his father’s gun, not his own, and his father
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had pushed the deer toward him. Once he got his own gun, the other one just didn’t seem to matter as much. He needed to get that first deer with his own gun given to him by his idol, and he needed to do it on his own. From the moment they set out on foot from their camp in Jackman, Big Joe could barely contain his excitement. His grandfather walked a few steps ahead of him, the destination fully etched in his memory. Walking the trails was something his grandfather had been doing for over sixty years, and he was happy to have his grandson tagging along behind him. Thirty minutes into the hike, Big Joe’s grandfather pulled up short. “Joey,” he said, “I’m going to head off in this direction. You keep going north and look for signs. Come back to this spot before dusk. If I hear a shot, I’ll come back here in case you need me for anything.” With that said, he didn’t wait for a response, and headed deeper into the woods. Big Joe wasn’t sure what to expect. He hadn’t expected his grandfather to leave him completely on his own. However, he knew that if he was go-
ing to get a deer, he’d better get going north. Within another hour, weariness had set in. It was cold and damp, and he hadn’t seen one sign of a deer the whole time. He plunked down about twenty feet off the trail and leaned his back against a tree. Bessie was ready (although she didn’t have that name yet), but Big Joe needed a rest. Less than a minute later, he had the feeling that he was being watched. Looking off in all directions, he didn’t see anything, but still the feeling lingered. Seconds later, the largest buck he’d ever seen strutted past him just twenty yards away. His heart hammering in his chest, Joe slowly leaned forward, put Bessie to his shoulder and pulled the trigger. The buck dropped with a clean shot. Joe, being somewhat of a young buck himself, as his grandfather called him, was just about in shock. He dropped Bessie and ran as fast as he could back to the spot where his grandfather told him to meet him if he needed him. He was already there. To this day, Big Joe couldn’t remember exactly what he said to his grandfather, but the look in his grandfather’s (continued on page 72)
M.A. VINING LANDWORKS, LLC
Matthew Vining - Owner/Operator
Logging • Concrete Forms • Slabs • Foundations Free Estimates • Fully Insured
Open Monday-Friday 8am to 5pm
Phone: 668-9594 Cell: 399-2690
Dennis Johnston: Owner
16 Forest Street • Jackman, ME
207-668-2034
423 Main St. • Jackman, ME 04945 Email: MargarettePoml@live.com
www.oldcanadaroadinn.com
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
The Sterling Inn Celebrates 200 Years
B
uilt as a stagecoach stop along the road from Quebec to most of New England, the Sterling Inn in Caratunk was the first bar, dance hall, and post office in the area. It was constructed in 1816 by Joseph Spaulding Sr., who came to Caratunk from Embden. At the time, it had just four guest rooms, and of course, no indoor plumbing or electricity. In 1836, upon the death of his father, Joseph Spaulding Jr. took over operation of the hotel. In 1854, Joseph Clark Jr., whose father was a lumberman in the Bingham area, purchased the hotel from Spaulding, who moved to Richmond. The Clarks were business people who had many business interests in the area. To this day, many local residents are descendants of the Clarks. In 1858, Edward Livingstone (“Liv”) Webster, who had been born in Caratunk, moved back from Moscow and worked at the hotel. Liv Webster eventually married Abby Clark, daughter of Joseph Clark Jr. By this time, a wing had been added on the north side of the building, and it had eight guest rooms. In 1876, Omar Clark took over operation of the hotel, by then called The Clark Hotel, when his father Joseph Clark Jr.
moved to The Forks to operate The Forks Hotel. In 1885, Esther Clark, wife of Joseph Clark Jr., took over operation of the hotel with her daughter and son-in- law, Abby and Liv Webster. In 1896, Joseph “Jose” Webster, son of Liv and Abby, took over the hotel upon the death of his father. But two years later, Jose died, and Abby Clark Webster took over operation of the hotel, which by then was known at The Webster House. Around 1910, Ralph Sterling and his wife Leona (née Redmond), took over operation of the hotel from his grandmother, Abby Webster, when she moved to Waterville to be near her daughters. Ralph was both a great businessman and a local politician. He was chief Maine fire warden, a representative to the Maine House of Representatives beginning in 1929, and a State Senator. Under his ownership, the hotel (by then called Hotel Sterling) underwent a major renovation, adding electricity and indoor plumbing and updating the kitchen to then - modern standards. The Sterlings also built the Pierce Pond Stream Sporting Camps, which they ran in conjunction with the hotel business, including a “ferry” service across the Kennebec and transpor-
tation to and from Pierce Pond along the tote road. As best can be determined, Sterling’s ferry was a high-wheeled wagon and a team of draft horses. After Ralph Sterling’s death, Leona continued to run the hotel, along with her daughter Mildred, and Mildred’s husband, (John) Harold Smith. Mildred and Harold continued to run the hotel until 1988, when they sold the property to Matt Polstein, a local businessman and raft guide. Polstein developed the property into a tourism business, New England Outdoor Center, constructing a lodge, dining pavilion, and a dozen cabins across the street along the Kennebec River. Renaming the hotel The Sterling Inn, he renovated it throughout, updating the electrical wiring and plumbing and increasing the number of guest rooms to seventeen. In 2008, Polstein sold The Sterling Inn to Wallace and Nancy Pooler, who ran it as a bed and breakfast for four years. The Poolers sold the Inn to Eric Angevine and his son Zachary, who have operated it since March, 2012. The bulk of the property across the street is now operated as Maine Lakeside Cabins.
Celebrating our bicentennial this spring! ~ 200 Years ~
Bed & Breakfast
Sterling Inn ca. 1875
Sterling Inn ca. 1912
Sterling Inn today
Bicentennial Weekend - May 13-15, 2016 rafting, tubing, canoeing, games, food, etc., jet-skis, pontoon boat cruises, float plane tours available, Saturday banquet with live entertainment
207-672-3333 • 1041 US Rt. 201, Caratunk, ME www.MaineSterlingInn.com │ maineskeptsecret@yahoo.com
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
72
(continued from page 70) eyes was something he’d never forget. Pride. This was what pride looked like. It was something he never forgot and never would. Now, fifty-nine years later, at the ripe old age of seventy-eight, he was missing out. The day he’d shot his first deer, Big Joe had promised his grandfather he would never miss a deer season and that he’d always use that same gun. His grandfather had laughed, but he’d kept the promise. This year wasn’t looking good, though. The next morning, Big Joe was sitting at the window again when his doctor walked in. “Big Joe, you’re getting out of here today! However, you do need to take it easy for a few days.” “Doc, I’m seventy-eight. Every day I take it easy. But, that’s gotta wait a few days. Takin’ my grandson upta camp. He’s gonna learn the fine art of hunting. Been lookin’ forward to this all year.” Three days later, Big Joe and his seventeen year-old grandson, Curtis, set out for the Jackman camp. It had been in the family for years and hadn’t changed much since Big Joe was called Joey. Big Joe knew that Curtis was just as excited as he was. Curtis hadn’t got a deer yet, but his grandfather knew that this would be the year. Curtis had been tagging along behind his grandfather for the last fifteen years of his life. Big Joe’s only requirement of Curtis to go trapping and hunting with him had been that he couldn’t be wearing a diaper if he
was going out in the woods. Even at two years old, Curtis understood what needed to be done to go with Grampa, and within a few short weeks of hearing it, was out of diapers for good. From that moment, the two were inseparable. Walking through the woods together now, Curtis was amazed he was in the woods again with his grandfather. The stroke had scared him. He knew that he would be losing his grandfather soon, but right now he just wasn’t ready. Soon, Big Joe stopped and pointed to a clearing in the woods ahead. “We’re gonna sit here for a spell. I gotta gut feeling about this place.” Getting Bessy ready, he hunkered down where he was out of the way, but still had visibility of the field. Curtis sat just a few feet away. Less than an hour later, Big Joe tensed. About three hundred feet away, a group of three deer had come out of the woods into the edge of the clearing. A large buck and two does were right there for the taking. Big Joe had a doe permit this year, but Curtis didn’t. It would be a fine thing for Curtis to get a big buck for his first deer. “You ready for this?” he said to Curtis. Curtis simply nodded to his grandfather, while aiming his rifle. Big Joe turned and did the same. He didn’t say anything else, except, “On three.” Within seconds, the large buck and one of the does dropped to the ground and the other doe had run back into the woods. Big Joe stood slowly and said, “Let’s go see what we got.”
Later that evening around the supper table, Big Joe and Curtis told their tale of how Curtis got his first deer and Big Joe marked number sixty on his gun. Laughter and joy at family gatherings like this were common, but tonight was different. Big Joe held up his hand, signaling silence. “Today was a good day, but I think it’s my last time out there. Bessie, though, she ain’t ready to give up just yet. Curtis, I’m handing over Bessie to you. All I ask is that you tell me you are gonna do her proud. I hit my sixty. It’s time you started with yours.” Handing over his gun to Curtis, Big Joe had the same look in his eye that his own grandfather had once bestowed upon him. It was the look of pride.
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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The Cellar Coping with rigorous winters in the 1950s by Dale Murray Fifty-six years ago, in the days before snowmobiles, video games, and recreation departments, I spent many frigid Northern Somerset County winter days and evenings in the cellar of my home. On those twenty-five below days of January and February when it was too cold to play outdoors, the cellar served as my playground. It was there that I put into practice all the values taught by my parents and teachers, Sunday school teachers and the media. In the fall, while Dad stored rakes and lawnmowers in the cellar, I squirreled away my basketball, trucks and cars, and all my army and cowboy guns and gear. Half the floor was concrete and half was dirt. Dad commandeered most of the space in both parts. Shovels and rakes, scythes and grub hoes dangled from floor joists along the front wall. The mower, the bicycles and the wheelbarrow nestled against moisture-wrinkled cardboard boxes that held family treasures packed long ago and forgotten for almost as long. Firewood crowded in from the south wall, two tiers deep the entire thirty-foot length of the house. Dad laid two-by-fours over the dirt floor, and we stacked the wood on them to keep it dry. Four tiers elbowed around the chimney
to the edge of the door that opened to the back yard. Two more rows leaned against the north wall creating an aisle to the door, which was banked so high with snow that nobody could enter, or exit, until April. I shared that patch of earth with few except the spiders that wintered beneath the bark of the beech, maple, and yellow birch. The furnace dominated the room. It towered over me by a good foot and a half. Surely, eight ten-year-olds could easily have fit into it. Often I mistook it for a Normandy pillbox and blew it up with grenades made of four-inch pine strapping with a bent sixpenny nail for a pin. Sometimes it was a monster to be slain with the sword I had crafted with my jack knife, a hammer and a few nails. Mainly it heated the first floor through vents into the kitchen and the living room. No ductwork reached the second story bedrooms so each morning we kids tap danced across the linoleum to the bathroom, quickly did our duties and hurried downstairs to huddle next to the warm grates. That old heater crackled and roared as I shot Germans at Anzio, as my dad had, or plowed the woods roads for the Great Northern Paper Company from Pittston Farm to Scott Brook, as my dad had.
And it warmed me as the wind howled outside and more snow piled up against the door. My basketball hoop drooped from that door, the ball on the floor below. Rifles from every era leaned neatly against the wall under the stairs. Colt revolvers and .45 automatics dangled from their holsters. A fleet of cars, trucks and heavy equipment pieces were parked in crannies formed by the rows of firewood and in bunkers tunneled under the two-by-fours. Everything I needed for every cold day lay in its place. The spiders were my friends. My favorites were big and gray with enormous round bellies. Their webs framed doorways when people had been away from home for a week. They and lesser members of the species moved in each fall as Dad and I tossed the firewood inside. They were inactive and unseen most of the time, but my mother and sister did not understand that valuable fact. One day I introduced my sister to one of my eight legged friends. She never returned to my private world. Ma also stayed upstairs, and I ruled my kingdom without interference. Each year I kept my sanctuary in (continued on page 74)
r ad on ou e Menticover Main in Dis agazine! M
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
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mind as I wrote out my wish list for Santa Claus. My parents and aunts anticipated my reading interests and the need for new mittens or socks. However, they little comprehended the needs of a cellar baron because they did not think in worldly ways. They were trying to forget World War II. They did not remember the Alamo. They were immersed in building houses and homes while I dreamed of owning dump trucks and front-end loaders to build roads into the wilderness. While they balanced income and debts, I plotted strategies for defending the world against evil. My list was critical. Santa understood, and after Christmas new weapons invariably mixed with old ones as I prepared for my attacks against the cruelest of earth’s archenemies. Undaunted that the adults had abandoned hope for the world, I renewed my vow to defend humankind to the death. I was determined that the world would remain free so I could build my roads and so my folks could build their lives. With only my spider friends as
witnesses, I armed myself from my arsenal and patrolled my realm, alert for the enemy. On one day, the fiend disguised himself beneath one of Ma’s wide-brimmed gardening hats. He thought he was clever. At first, the hat seemed to rest on a pile of boxes stored there for the winter, but I quickly realized he was under it, biding his time until he could catch me off guard. “He who hesitates is lost,” Ma and Dad had intoned all my young life. I lobbed a grenade behind the hideout. Somehow, the fiend escaped. I was frustrated, but not discouraged. I knew to the very core of my being that evil could never, ever win. Satan had no chance. I was backed by an army of the toughest, most determined warriors of any era of history, some responsible for their own parts of the planet while others patrolled the entire planet and beyond. Our propaganda machine was unmatched on earth as books, morning cartoons, comic books, movies, radio, TV and newspapers spread the message across the land. Howdy Doody and Captain Kangaroo extolled the virtues
for which we all fought. Roy Rogers whispered encouragement to me daily from the Wild West. Superman used his telescopic vision to search for Old Scratch wherever he struck. Flash Gorden checked in from outer space. Brodrick Crawford protected California highways and The Phantom secured the length and breadth of Africa. So many heroic soldiers of the cause ― Paladin and Cheyenne, Jack Webb and Dick Tracy, Prince Valiant and King Arthur, Mighty Mouse and Rocky the Squirrel, and John Wayne and Audie Murphy ― supported me. All winter long, I battled fiercely, and I won. I won every encounter. Each and every time I drove off the most recent incarnation of the menace. I did not eliminate evil in those years. Still my victories were not hollow. I did save my little kingdom. I did protect my home for my parents. My cellar was safe. Their world was safe. They, and the spiders, little realized why they rested so easily during those long, cold months.
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3D Home Improvements ..............................38 ABC Pool and Spa Center ..............................13 Above and Beyond, LLC ..................................27 Act Now Rapid Rooter .................................23 Alfond Youth Center .......................................43 All Seasons Weatherization & Insulation ........28 All-Seasons Automotive .................................39 Alternative Auto Body ..................................11 American Awards Inc. ....................................18 Ameriprise Financial .......................................35 Aspire Behavorial Health & Counseling ..........44 At Home Electric ...........................................47 Athens Corner Store .......................................59 Atlantic Door Services ....................................22 Auburn Plaza Family Dentistry ......................22 Auburn-Lewiston Motorcycle Rider Education ..10 Auburn-Lewiston YMCA ................................24 Augusta Civic Center .....................................19 Augusta Tool Rental .......................................34 Austin Law Offices ..........................................39 B&M Building & Roofing ...............................32 Belgrade Lakes Marine & Storage, Inc. ........45 Belgrade Performance & Repairs .................64 Belgrade Regional Health Center .....................4 Bell Farms .......................................................10 Bemis Construction ........................................59 Ben Philbrook Custom Metal Fabricator .....53 Bethel Family Health Center ..........................4 Bill’s Auto Transport .....................................32 Bingham Area Health Center ...........................4 Bissonnette’s Plumbing & Heating ...................11 BK Auto ..........................................................33 Blanchette Moving & Storage Co. ...................5 Blanchet Builders, LLC ...................................41 Boards Under My Feet ..................................39 Bob’s Cash Fuel ...............................................68 Bolster’s Rubbish & Recycling .......................58 Bookkeeping Plus ............................................9 Bourque-Lanigan American Legion Post 5 ....43 Bowdoin Town Store ........................................4 Boys & Girls Clubs - Waterville ......................43 Brady’s ATV & Power Equipment .....................67 Brian Bickford Plumbing & Heating LLC.........40 Broderick Construction ..................................49 Brownie’s Auto Service ....................................68 Bryant Stove & Music, Inc. ..............................55 C&S Market ....................................................17 C.L. McNaughton ...........................................56 Camp Security Plus Property Management & Construction ..38 Canty Construction .........................................36 Capital Area Tree Service ...............................19 Caron & Son Screening Co. ...............................8 Caron’s Body Shop .........................................28 Carrier’s Lawn Care & Landscape Design ......12 Casey’s Redemption ......................................42 Cause 4 Paws Used Home Furnishings ..........19 Central Maine Powersports ............................26 Central Maine Property Management, Inc. ....13 Central Maine Septic & Portable Toilet Rentals.3 Central Tire Co. Inc. .........................................42 Champagne & Son Electric ............................15 Chim Chiminey Chimney Sweep ...................16 China Area Wash & Dry and Self Storage.......38 CJ’s Appliances................................................67 Cliff’s Auto Sales ............................................23 Cobbossee Motel ............................................33 Coldwell Banker .............................................17 Coleman’s Collision .........................................28 Conlogue’s Building & Property Management..49 Cornerstone Plumbing & Heating ................66 Corporate Construction Building & Remodeling....45 Countryside Auto Body & Repair.....................9 Cushing Construction .....................................46 D.Roy and Son Fencing ...................................26 D.B. Industries ................................................15 D.H. Pinnette & Sons, Inc. ...............................7 Dag’s Bait & Tackle .........................................9 Dahm’s Plumbing & Heating, Inc. .................12 Damboise Garage .........................................57 Dan’s Lawn & Yard Service ............................58 Dave’s Diner ...................................................53 Decker-Simmons American Legion Post 51 .....44 Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers ...........67 Diesel Dan’s Repair .......................................54 Dionne & Son Builders ....................................41 Don’s Excavating & Logging ..........................64 Don’s No Preference Towing ............................23
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Moore & Son Pharmacy .........................69 Eaton Mountain Ski Area ...............................61 Ed Hodsdon Masonry ....................................16 Edge Automotive ............................................51 Elmer’s Barn & Antique Mall ............................54 Everything Warehouse ...................................27 Fairfield Antiques Mall ....................................5 Family Pet Connection & Grooming ................60 Farmington Farmers Union ...........................67 Farmington Ford ..........................................50 Farrell Enterprises ............................................9 Film EFX Window Tinting ..............................10 Final Touch Painting & Carpentry ..................47 Fine Line Paving and Grading .......................51 Finish Line Construction .................................51 Fireside Stove Shop & Fireplace Center ............22 Fleet Service .................................................38 Fortin Forest Products .....................................55 Franco Center .................................................31 Franklin Memorial Hospital .................bk cover Franklin Savings Bank ....................................5 Franklin-Somerset Federal Credit Union ...........8 Front Porch Bakery ........................................15 Fusion Dining & Entertainment .....................30 Gardiner Apothecary ......................................37 George’s Banana Stand ..................................61 Georgio’s Pizza & Donut Shop ........................10 GLP Builders ...................................................31 Goggin’s IGA ...................................................54 Gould Builders ...............................................14 Gray Family Vision Center ..............................21 Green Bean Coffee Shop ................................39 Greenwood Orchards Farmstand & Bakery .......48 Gridiron Restaurant & Sports Pub ................27 Griswold’s Country Store & Diner ...................52 H&H Remodeling ...........................................19 Hammond Lumber Company ........................45 Hampton Inn of Augusta ................................36 Hannaford Supermarket - Jay Plaza ................66 Hanson Construction .....................................37 Harris Drug Store ............................................52 Harris Real Estate ..........................................50 HealthReach Community Health Centers .........4 Hight Dealerships ............................................6 Hillman’s Bakery ............................................57 Hilltop Store ...................................................55 Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch ..........25 Home Care For Maine .....................................35 Home, Hope & Healing ..................................44 Howard’s Masonry & Hardscapes ..................56 Hoyt’s Automotive ..........................................14 Hutch-N-Sons Drywall ...................................65 Image Auto Body ...........................................69 Independent Roofing ....................................57 Inside Out Painters ........................................24 J.R.’s Trading & Pawn .......................................62 J.T. Reid’s Gun Shop .........................................7 Jackman Auto Parts ........................................73 Jackman Hardware & Sporting Goods ..............4 James’ Eddy ..................................................14 James Thibodeau, Bagpiper ............................15 Jean Castonguay Excavating ..........................49 Jean’s Moosehead Rentals ..............................73 Jeff Meade Master Electrician ........................17 Jellison Fuel & Heating Service .....................38 Jimmy Worthing Smelt Camps ......................53 Jimmy’s Shop ‘N Save ....................................69 Johnny Castonguay Logging & Trucking .........48 John’s Painting, LLC .....................................26 Joseph’s Market .............................................62 Joseph Andres Home Improvements ..............53 Joyce’s In Hallowell ........................................19 JT’s Finest Kind Saw ....................................50 JW Awning Co. ................................................14 K&G Auto Sales ...............................................32 K.V. Tax Service, Inc. .......................................53 Kelley Petroleum Products, Inc. ....................60 Ken Card Foundations ....................................16 Kennebec Cigar Co. .........................................35 Kennebec Montessori School .........................40 Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce ........35
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Kim’s Garage ..................................................56 KMD Auto Repair ............................................61 KMD Driving School .......................................63 Knowles Mechanical Inc. ..............................38 Kramers Inc. ...................................................46 KSW Federal Credit Union ..............................63 L.N. Violette Co., Inc. ......................................57 L.P. Poirier & Son Inc., Excavation ...................28 La Fleur’s Restaurant ....................................48 LaBonte Financial Services ............................10 Lakeview Lumber Co. ....................................55 Lakewood Continuing Care Center ..............42 Laney’s Pit Stop .............................................41 Larsen’s Jewelry ..............................................63 Lavallee’s Garage ............................................72 Law Office of Brian D. Condon, Jr., Esq. .........33 Leland’s Masonry ..........................................46 Len Poulin Excavation Inc. ..............................58 Lewiston House of Pizza ...............................31 Liberte Auto Sales and Service .....................11 Linkletter & Sons, Inc. ...................................59 Lisbon Community Federal Credit Union ........31 Long Green Variety ........................................66 LT Floors .........................................................10 Luce’s Maine-Grown Meats ..............................51 M.A. Mathews Co. .........................................44 M.A. Vining Landworks, LLC ...........................70 MacCrillis Rousseau VFW Post 8835 ..............56 Macomber, Farr & Whitten ..............................18 Madison Area Health Center ............................4 Madison Automotive & Recreation ...............70 Maine Family Federal Credit Union .................12 Maine Forest Service .......................................4 Maine Gro Compost ........................................31 Maine Historical Society ..................................8 Maine Pellet Sales LLC ...................................13 Maine’s Outdoor Learning Center ...................73 Major’s Heating, LLC ......................................17 Mama Bear’s Den ...........................................52 Maple Street Stitches .....................................22 Marc’s Auto Body ...........................................24 Martin Driving Academy Inc. ........................12 Matheson Tri-Gas ...........................................28 McAllister Accounting & Tax Services ...........65 McNaughton Construction ............................42 Memorial Guard LLC ......................................48 Merle Lloyd & Sons Earthwork Contractors ....68 Merrill Road Self Storage ...............................26 Michael E. 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Pro Service .....................................................49 Pro-Tech Refrigeration ...................................24 Quinn Hardware .............................................59 R.E. Lowell Lumber Inc. .................................33 R.F. Automotive Repair .................................60 R.J. Energy Services, Inc. ...............................18 Ralph Libby Chain Saws ..............................33 Ramada Conference Center ............................30 Rangeley Family Medicine ...............................4 Ray Corporation .............................................13 RDA Automotive ............................................27 RDB Construction, Inc. .....................................9 Rebecca’s Place ..............................................19 Registered Maine Guide ..................................73 Renovate Right Construction ..........................50 Rick’s Garage .................................................51 Rick’s Repair ..................................................59 River’s Edge Masonry & More ..........................52 Riverside Kwik Stop .......................................65 Robin L. Day & Sons ......................................45 Rocky’s Stove Shoppe .....................................34 Rolandeau’s Restaurant ................................24 Ron’s Transmissions .........................................15 Roopers Beverage & Redemption ................29 Roundabout Farm Perennials ........................16 Roy I Snow, Inc. ...........................................21 SR General Contractors ..................................26 S.D. Childs & Sons Excavation .......................55 Sabattus Antique Mall ...................................15 Sackett & Brake Survey, Inc. ...........................61 Sarah Frye Home ...........................................10 Sarah J. Dunckel & Associates .........................35 Scott A. Doody, Master Electrician .................19 Sheepscot General Store ...............................54 Shelly’s Hometown Market ............................48 Skowhegan & Waterville Tire Center ...............60 Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce .....61 Smile Again Dentures, Inc. ..............................27 Smithfield Village Store .................................64 Solon Superette .............................................52 Sprague & Curtis Real Estate ...........................36 Spruce Gum Books ........................................48 Sterling Electric ..............................................50 Steve Roy Construction & Remodeling ..........30 Stevens Electric & Pump Service Inc. ................7 Strong Area Health Center ...............................4 Sun Auto & Salvage ......................................68 Tardiff Timber Sand & Gravel/Excavation .....54 Taste of Waterville .........................................42 Taylor & Son Plowing & Firewood ..................68 Taylor’s Drug Store .........................................51 The Almost New Boutique ..........................63 The Belmont Motel .........................................41 The Depot ......................................................37 The Formal Image ..........................................13 The Korner Store & Deli ................................43 The Roost Bed & Breakfast ............................34 The Sterling Inn ..............................................71 Theriault’s Snowshoes .....................................3 Thomas Agency .............................................17 Thompson’s Restaurant ................................52 Tilton’s Market ..............................................16 Tire King ........................................................62 Top Notch Heating ..........................................16 Traction Heavy Duty Parts ...............................34 Trash Guyz .....................................................21 Tri State Staffing .............................................17 Turcotte’s Garage ............................................62 Two Sisters Catering .......................................65 Uncorked Wine & Cheese ............................18 Upper Kennebec Realty ..............................69 Village Market ...............................................40 W.D. Bickford Machinery .............................39 Warren Brothers Construction .......................63 Weber Insurance Group .................................49 Western Maine Family Health Center ..............4 Weymouth Flooring ......................................64 Whatever Family Festival ...............................35 Whited Peterbilt / Whited Truck .....................23 Whittemore & Sons Outdoor Power Equipment.......40 Wicked Good Home Improvement .................67 William Mushero, Inc. ...................................43 Winslow Supply, Inc. ......................................56 Wood Pellet Warehouse ................................66 Woodlawn Rehab & Nursing Center ..............41 Wood-Mizer of Maine ....................................64 YMCA-Waterville .............................................43
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~ 2016 Kennebec & Androscoggin River Valleys ~
Kennebec and Androscoggin River Valleys
You’re going to feel great in
Greater Franklin County
But for those days you don't, there's Franklin Memorial Hospital and Franklin Health, a multispecialty group practice that includes primary care and specialty practices. Our highly specialized emergency department is designed to care for individuals suffering from serious medical problems who can't wait to be seen by a private physician. Our secure emergency department has nine treatment rooms including one designated trauma room. A physician is always on duty, along with specially trained registered nurses. If you have a health condition that requires prompt medical attention, but is not life threatening, please call the Franklin Physician Referral Service. We have four primary care medical practices and five specialty practices in the area. We'll find a provider who can fit you into the schedule. Franklin Memorial Hospital has an all-digital radiology suite, an advanced electronic health record, and computerized physician order entry. It is recognized as one of the nation’s most wired hospitals and has achieved The Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval for Accreditation, a sign of our commitment to the highest level of care for our patients. Welcome to Greater Franklin County; we're here for you if you need us!
111 Franklin Health Commons Farmington, Maine 04938 www.fchn.org
Emergency Department: 207-779-2250 Franklin Physician Referral Service: 1-800-450-2075