2016 Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

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Volume 25 | Issue 3 | 2016

Maine’s History Magazine

15,000 Circulation

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Bangor’s Bob Cimbollek

Coach devoted 70 years to basketball

Tales of Towering Pines History of Patten’s township

Ellsworth’s Eugene Hale

Senator suffered a fiery loss

~ Patten Celebrates 175 Years! ~ ~ Acadia Celebrates 100 years! ~ www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Inside This Edition

Maine’s History Magazine 3

I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley

4

The Pickerel Of Maine A long-time resident John Murray

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Jungle Under The Tent The day Mabel Stark’s tigers turned on her Dave Bumpus

12 Undead Cinema The places that put Maine on the horror movie map

Dave Bumpus 16 Ellsworth’s Eugene Hale Senator suffered a fiery loss

Brian Swartz 22 Different Knots A mysterious death at the Bangor House

Dave Bumpus 26 Bangor’s Bob Cimbollek Coach devoted 70 years to basketball

Brian Swartz 32 The Magnificent Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge Charles Francis 35 Stockton Springs Hero

American Legion Post 157 honors a WWII airman

Jeffrey Bradley 38 Pittsfield’s Etta Mae Nelson Who says a woman can’t do a man’s job?

Brenda Seekins 41 Moosehead Lake Hotel A local’s landmark

Travis Wallace 47 S avage Inferno Arson murders on the Trim estate

Dave Bumpus 50 The Etna Wolverine Local trapper Samuel Parker’s hunt for a predator

Charles Francis 55 The Joy Of Motorcycling Her bike brought Denize Gauler to Cambridge Brian Swartz 58 Crazy Like A Fox The Lincoln, Maine Ponzi scheme

Jeffrey Bradley 63 Tales Of Towering Pines History of Patten’s township

Brian Swartz

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Publisher & Editor Jim Burch

Layout & Design Liana Merdan

Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield

Advertising & Sales Dennis Burch Chris Girouard Tim Maxfield Zack Rouda Sherri Skinner

Office Manager Liana Merdan

Field Representatives Fred Connell George Tatro Mike Pagliaro

Contributing Writers

Jeffrey Bradley Dave Bumpus Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca John Murray James Nalley Brenda Seekins Brian Swartz Travis Wallace

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 FORM ON PAGE 66

Front Cover Photo: William Allen and his bear cubs.

Item # LB2007.1.108979 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine.

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

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It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

I

t is surprising to know that the total land area of Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Hancock counties covers approximately 9,000 square miles. Moreover, within this vast amount of land includes Maine’s greatest highlights: miles of untouched forests, breathtaking mountain peaks, and numerous lakes and rivers. Regarding the latter, there was once a time when people (with their horse-drawn carriages) would need to cross these rivers in their travels.

In some instances, they would get swept downstream, especially during times of high water. So, around the 1850s, a series of covered bridges were built to shield both the passengers and the bridges themselves from the elements.

Generally, covered bridges were built by skilled craftsmen who used the same principles as the finest Maine-built ships.

The designs originated from some of the best professional bridge designers of the day, who naturally held patents on their trusses. Unfortunately, there are little to no records about the men who actually built the bridges, and much like today, any existing records from town meetings seem to only focus on the budget. For example, regard-

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ing the 70-foot Lovejoy Bridge in Andover, built in 1868, “It is to be built of square-sawn spruce, at about a cost of $743.47.” However, this was relatively cheap compared to the 792-foot Bangor-Brewer covered bridge, which cost $60,000 in 1846. By the late 1800s, there were 120 covered bridges in Maine. However, everything from fire and floods to shifting ice destroyed all but nine of these historic treasures. According to the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT), the remaining bridge structures are named after the designers themselves.

For example, two of the remaining covered bridges use a Long truss (120-foot Lowes Bridge in Guilford and the 73-foot Robyville Bridge in Corinth), while another two use a Howe truss (170-foot Watsonville Settlement Bridge in Littleton and Babbs Bridge in South Windham, which was built in 1864, burned down by vandals in 1973, and rebuilt in its original design in 1976).

Since then, modern steel structures have been constructed to cross these rivers and transport greater numbers of people, automobiles, and commercial supplies. As stated by the Maine DOT, “These by-passed wooden structures have been retired to pass their

final days as picturesque symbols of Yankee ingenuity and skill of the early bridge builders of Maine.” So, the next time you cross one of these rivers, keep your eye out. You might see something amazing. Well, until next time, let me close with the following: A man walking along the Maine coastline was deep in prayer. Suddenly, the sky opened up and the Lord said, “Since you have been faithful to me, I will grant you one wish.” The man said, “Build a bridge to the Bahamas so that I can drive over anytime I want.” The Lord replied, “Your request is very materialistic. Think of the enormous challenges for this undertaking.

The supports to the bottom of the Atlantic and the concrete and steel! I can do it, but it is difficult for me to justify your desire.

Take some time and think about something that would glorify me instead.” The man thought for a long time. Finally, he said, “Lord, I wish to understand my wife. I want to know how she feels, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong.” The Lord replied, “You want two lanes or four on that bridge?”

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The Pickerel Of Maine

by John Murray

T

he chain pickerel, or more commonly known as the pickerel, is a native, long-time resident of the state of Maine. Pickerel have been present in the western and southern portions of Maine since the last glacial ice age. Inhabiting the shallow weedy waters of lakes, ponds and some rivers, the pickerel is a resilient, prolific fish that has a dense population. A member of the pike family, it is often confused with the northern pike, as it bears a strong resemblance.

Possessing a long greenish colored body with a dark chain like pattern along its sides, the head of the pickerel has a forbidding appearance, with eyes that are dark and lifeless as a doll’s eyes.

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A long-time resident These eyes punctuate the unwavering brutality of this predatory fish, which is further enhanced by a mouth which is adorned with many razor-sharp teeth.

Pickerel can grow to lengths approaching three feet and can attain weights of nearly seven pounds for some larger specimens. The ominous features of the pickerel suit the personality of this fish well. The pickerel is truly the apex predator in the waters it inhabits. An ambush predator that lays concealed in weed cover, waiting for its potential victim to venture close. The pickerel is a voracious feeder who will consume every other fish smaller than itself.

This lengthy list of fish includes other pickerel.

The native Americans used the pickerel as a source of food for hundreds of years, adorning the fish with the name ‘Ta-Me-He’, which means long fish. The pickerel has a sweet, white flaky meat and was a delicious and nutritious source of food that was readily available and simple to harvest. Unlike the fishing rods of more modern times, the native Americans used hand crafted fish spears to capture the pickerel.

Most of this fish spearing was done with a stealthy approach as the pickerel would lay in the shallow weedy waters.

The practicality of the pickerel as a food source was a notion that was shared by the early European settlers that moved into the land which is now

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com known as Maine. As the population of Maine grew, logging became a necessary industry to acquire the timber that was required for building the many new structures that were dotting the landscape. The men of the logging camps needed to be fed, and pickerel was the perfect food for the menu.

As the need for more pickerel was necessary, many pickerel were captured and transported to other non-native waters within the state of Maine.

Commercial fisheries were established in some lakes as a business venture to provide a source of food for the growing population. After years of transporting the pickerel to many other lakes and ponds, the urgent need to curtail this practice was deemed necessary because of the impact that the pickerel was having on other species of fish, especially trout and salmon. The Maine fisheries commissioner’s report of the year 1867 advised state legislation that forbid the introduction of pickerel into Pickerel and trout caught from Indian Pond, Maine in the 1950s.

Pickerel are on the left and trout are on the right.

(continued on page 6

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waters in which it was not native.

The aggressive predatory mannerisms of the pickerel were a great concern. When pickerel are present in waters that have trout and salmon populations, cohabitation is a very fragileconcept. Each species — the pickerel, trout and salmon, have a preferred preference for the type of water they inhabit. Pickerel inhabit shallow weedy areas and the trout and salmon inhabit the deeper, colder water. Even though the species of fish will generally live in different areas of the lake, the inevitable encounters occur. When the pickerel encounters a trout or salmon, these prized game fish will fall victim to the pickerel.

As undesirable as the pickerel is considered to be by the Maine Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the pickerel rapidly developed a steadfast following as a hard fighting game fish in the eyes of many Maine anglers. When the pop-

ularity of fishing in Maine grew during the early 1900s, many anglers were fishing with the intent to catch pickerel in the picture-perfect scenery that Maine had to offer. Many sportsmen consider Maine’s North Woods region to offer the finest fishing in Maine. In this vast area of remote beauty, the pickerel will not disappoint the sportsman.

The popularity of fishing for pickerel continues to this day. An angling survey conducted in 1999 concluded that anglers in Maine fish more for pickerel than any other species of fish.

Anglers in Maine fish for pickerel during both the summer and winter months, as the pickerel will readily bite an angler’s offerings at either time.

Unlike some other species of fish, the pickerel is an active cold water feeder, and many ice fishermen have superb results fishing for this game fish through the ice. Surveys have shown that compared to other cold water species of

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fish, including salmon and trout, the fishing results for ice angling for pickerel is nearly three times better.

The 1950s saw a marked increase in the number of sportsmen venturing to Maine to take advantage of our superb fishing opportunities. It was during this time period that many sportsmen discovered the fantastic pickerel fishing in Maine. Due to the fact that pickerel were present in many waters that also had populations of trout and salmon, many anglers were able to reap the benefits of fishing for multiple types of game fish in one area.

An added benefit of pickerel fishing is that it is not difficult angling, due to the inherent aggressive nature of the pickerel. When an angler’s fishing lure goes into the visual sight of a hungry pickerel, the odds are very good that a pickerel will strike that lure, and that strike will be vicious. The fun doesn’t end after the initial strike of the fishing

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lure. When hooked, a large pickerel will provide a battle that few anglers will soon forget. At the end of a fishing line, large pickerel will make high speed power runs, and some will also perform astonishing leaps out of the water in an attempt to shake the hook from its jaw.

The pickerel anglers of Maine discovered a lot through trial and error in their initial fishing trips. What these Maine anglers did discover was that the key to fishing success for pickerel is to fish in the vicinity of the weed beds.

Weed beds are preferred ambush locations for the pickerel to hide. The natural camouflage color of the pickerel makes the fish blend in with the weeds.

Pickerel will tuck themselves into the outside edges of these dense weed beds, facing outward into the open water. Find the weeds, and the angler will find the pickerel. In the spring season, once the water temperature reaches the temperature range of near sixty de-

grees, the pickerel will really begin to move into the shallow weed beds. As summer arrives and the water warms, many of the smaller pickerel will stay within the same location as they were in the spring, but the larger pickerel will go into the deeper weed cover.

Often these trophy-sized pickerel will find weed cover that is from ten to twelve feet deep and this is where they will spend the bulk of the warm summer season. If weed beds remain alive during the winter months when there is ice cover, the pickerel will remain

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within the edges of these weed beds.

Maine’s pickerel anglers discovered that bright flashy lures outperformed most other lures in the tackle box.

Spinners and spoons that had a silver color side would reflect the available light, providing a flash that would be evident for the pickerel to see. These bright flashy lures would either be trolled or cast along the outside edges of the weed beds. When the lure passed the ambush location of the pickerel, the pickerel would burst out at a rapid

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speed and seize the passing lure.

Fishing with live bait was also an effective tactic for pickerel. On the previous day, the angler would venture out onto a nearby creek that was known to harbor a population of stream chubs.

Stream chubs are small chubby-looking minnows that are common in many of Maine’s creeks, and these chubs are often no bigger than five to six inches.

With a small piece of worm for bait, the angler would catch enough of these chubs to provide bait for the pickerel fishing the following day. The creek chubs were kept alive by placing them in a pail of water.

When rigging up the chubs for pickerel fishing, a large hook was passed through the upper back of the chub and a sinker weight was attached to the line about twelve inches from the chub to keep it under the water. A large floating bobber was attached about three to five feet from the chub, depending on water

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depth, and the chub was cast into the water along the edge of a visible weed bed. Many anglers felt that to catch the biggest pickerel, it was required to use the biggest available creek chub for bait.

If a Maine angler was lucky enough to catch a large trophy pickerel, the reward was bragging rights for many years to come. Big pickerel were photographed and weighed at the general store of the closest town. Sometimes, big pickerel were mounted by a taxidermist and the trophy was displayed at a nearby fishing tackle store or tavern.

Maine has a rich history of fishing for pickerel and that legacy of fishing for this hard fighting game fish continues to this day.

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Jungle Under The Tent The day Mabel Stark’s tigers turned on her

by Dave Bumpus

F

& Bailey/Ringling Brothers’ Circus was the second home to the world’s first female tiger handler, Mabel Stark.

She was born in 1888, in Tennessee.

She had originally planned to go into the medical field, but all that changed when she adopted a sick baby tiger, in order to nurse it back to health. She named the feline Rajah, and in Rajah she found a friend. She discovered that she had a knack for reading him, and that she could judge her handling of Rajah according to his temperament levels. And so a stage act was born.

Mabel would wrestle with Rajah while onlookers cheered, and it wasn’t long before the Ringling Brothers took notice of her act.

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As children, most of us had a chance to experience the fun and wonder that the show had to offer, from impressive magic shows, to exotic animals being tamed. Lions, elephants, even monkeys and tigers, all performing tricks for our childish amusement. And the Barnum

(continued on page 10)

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The Ringling show recruited Mabel, and she quickly rose through the ranks, and before long she was in the center ring of the most famous show on Earth. Her act was impeccable, as the large felines did whatever she commanded. They were less like tamed animals; they were her friends. However, in 1926 Ringling would trade Mabel to a more medium sized show named the John Robinson Circus, where she would continue to enthrall audiences of young and old alike.

But while things seemed perfect for Stark and her cats, things would take a nasty turn when the travelling circus made a trip up to Bangor. That is where her feline friends would suddenly turn on their trainer, forever establishing their dominance over their human counterpart.

On that day in 1927, torrential weather conditions had slowed the Robinson convoy on its way to Bangor,

which caused them to show up late.

Normally that would call for show cancellations, to let the performers have time to prepare. But Mabel, ever the high spirit, decided to go ahead with her act anyway.

The crowd was electric as Mabel entered the center ring with her tigers in close pursuit. However, because they had not properly prepared the act, one of the large cats hopped up on the wrong podium. And that podium happened to belong to the alpha of the group, an irritable tiger named Sheik. The animal’s instincts kicked in, and Sheik took a powerful swing at Mabel’s left leg. The blow was so forceful that it almost severed her limb below the knee.

Now, it is important to note that (at least in that time period), large cats were trained to respond to sounds. The following short spurt of events would showcase that fact. One could even debate as to whether it may have saved

Mabel Stark’s life.

As per protocol, Mabel’s assistant saw that things had gone wrong, and started rattling the tigers’ cage, a signal to the cats that it was time to come back to confinement. The tigers obeyed and headed for the cage doorway. However, two of them arrived at the same time, causing a bottleneck effect that halted their traffic. Sheik, again frustrated from this, turned her sights back on Mabel and attacked the woman. Another cat named Zoo also became excited and joined Sheik in assaulting their tamer.

During the chaos, Mabel managed to get one hand free to grab a pistol at her side. The gun was filled with blanks, and was meant for an occasion such as this, to be used as a tool to startle and scare the tigers into submission. Mabel took aim directly at Zoo’s face and fired. The jolt of the bang was enough to make the cats retreat, and then she

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fainted. The unconscious body of Mabel Stark was then dragged from the center ring and rushed to the hospital.

With the lack of penicillin in that day and age, it is nothing short of a miracle that she survived the attack. It would take two years for her to fully recover, but she returned to the stage only a few weeks after the incident. And that event would set in motion other terrifying shows where she would be attacked in her career. It was as if her feline friends had shown their rule once, and after that, were not afraid to show it again.

Mabel Stark had a lively career performing with tigers. But at some point, things started going downhill, and her animals were turning on her. One can only speculate if things might have gone differently, had she just cancelled that show in Bangor in 1927. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Undead Cinema The places that put Maine on the horror movie map

by Dave Bumpus

I

t is no secret that the name Stephen King is synonymous with the state of Maine. The publicly proclaimed “Master Of Horror” has been chilling our spines since his first widely known publication in 1974 (Carrie). Before that, the man had been published several times on a smaller scale. But Carrie would jumpstart the career of one of the most prolific faces of horror in our lifetime.

So, it is no surprise, that in 1983, we were presented with yet another terrifying masterpiece in the novel Pet Sematary. Considered to be one of King’s scariest works, the book was picked up for a movie adaptation the following year. Because of the directing rights

swapping hands, the film would not be released until 1989. And you may be surprised to find out that while the film takes place in Ludlow, Maine, the majority of the horror classic was shot in Bangor and Hancock at the insistence of Mr. King himself.

The story of the movie itself is about a doctor from Chicago who has relocated to Maine with his family, to take a job in the medical department at a local school. To the side of the house is a trail that leads to a cemetery containing the graves for several pets. When the family cat is killed, Judd (the neighbor) leads Louis (the doctor) to a burial ground beyond the pet cemetery. I will not spoil the story for those of you who

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have not seen it, but the story is so well written that Mr. King himself had to take a break from writing it, because he started giving himself nightmares.

Much of the original novel is based on some of Mr. King’s actual experiences while living with his family in Orrington. While residing there, his cat was killed by a car, and his son was almost hit by a car when he wandered towards the road. There was even a path that led to a pet cemetery trailing off to the side of the family home, and the character of Judd was fashioned after King’s elderly neighbor.

So it is no wonder that when the opportunity to make the novel into a movie came up, King was insistent that

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ly disturbing scene that involves digging up a body (again, trying my best not to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it). The exact spot of King’s cameo is located on the State Street side of the cemetery. If you decide to visit, look for a steep hill with a stone staircase. That is where King made his speech, and to the left of the staircase is where the later scene takes place.

If you are a fan of the horror genre, then you may recall an era when horror movies were all about suspense and burning images into our minds that we would never forget. It was before filmmakers started spoonfeeding us. It was before all the jolts and loud, jarring sounds that were meant to make us jump in our seats, but only act as a one-time trick. You may recall an era of movies in the 1980s and early 90s, that gave us a flood of horror stories that would prove to not only withstand the test of time, but were also able to pull at the very fibers of our darkest fears.

In an era like that, it is certainly a feat to gain the title of “Master Of Horror.” But Stephen King did it. And he decided to share his success with us, his fellow Mainers, by making the towns of Bangor and Hancock a piece of what would become one of the biggest staples of the horror film genre that we have ever seen.

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Magazine Maine’s History 2 | 2016 Volume 25 | Issue

the the film be shot close to home. The house they chose was in the town of Hancock, located at 303 Point Road. It is a rural area, with homes spread out, allowing bigger yards and wooded areas. The red roofed yellow home looks the same it did in the film to this day, and there is now a road sign across the street that says “Children At Play.”

The house became iconic after the movie release, with many of the creepiest scenes taking place in the home or in the yard. Over 50 percent of the footage that made it into the film took place at the Point Road location.

The Bangor location used in the film was the Mount Hope Cemetery, located at 1048 State Street. This location was only used a couple of times in the final cut, but it was for two of the most memorable scenes. The first was Stephen King’s only cameo in the movie. He plays a priest, giving a presiding speech at a funeral. Mount Hope also appears later on in the film, during an especial-

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Roland Harmon lobster pound in Winter Harbor. Mr. Harmon, manager, in center. Item # LB1992.301.54 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Newest Woodmaster Dealer in the area

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16

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Ellsworth’s Eugene Hale

by Brian Swartz

Senator suffered a fiery loss

O

nly great tragedy could deter Senator Eugene Hale from fulfilling his duties in Washington, D.C. — and such a tragedy sent him hurrying home to Ellsworth in spring 1896.

Hailing from Turner, where he was born on June 9, 1836, Eugene Hale arrived in Hancock County after his 1857 admittance to the Maine bar. He served as the Hancock County district attorney, spent a term in the Maine House of Representatives, and then served as a congressman for ten years before winning the 1881 election to the United States Senate.

Already an Ellsworth resident, Hale spent $60,000 in 1882 — then a stupen-

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dous sum — to build a Queen Annestyle mansion on high ground rising above Ellsworth Harbor and the Union River. The first story facing the main drive was constructed from brick.

“The house was situated in a park of spruce and pine through which wound beautiful driveways,” wrote a local newspaper reporter. Pleased with the conifers rising around his mansion, Hale named it “The Pines,” and area residents knew where it was located; “the chimneys and the many-pointed roof of the house rising above the tops of the trees which surrounded it was a familiar feature of the landscape for miles,” the reporter noted.

“The towers of the building com-

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

manded a superb view in all directions,” he wrote.

When not attending to national affairs in Washington, D.C., Hale often lived at The Pines and practiced law in Ellsworth. He insured his home for $30,000 and its contents for $15,000.

Among the staff members overseeing the property were Daniel Doyle and his son, John W. Doyle; they lived in apartments attached to the stable, a separate building located a short distance from the main house.

A frightening noise awoke the Doyles about 2 a.m., Saturday, May 2, 1896. Listening briefly, they realized that fire was burning somewhere, the flames causing wood to crackle and snap. Responding to the noise, the Doyles discovered fire consuming a section attached to the ell at the rear of the main house.

Assisted by others, the Doyles connected a hose to a fire hydrant near

“All day long and all day Sunday visitors flocked to the ruin and gazed almost awestruck at the havoc wrought by the flames in a few short hours” The Pines and attempted to quench the flames as the alarm sounded at the Ellsworth fire station.

Experienced firefighters soon arrived and added their expertise to the Doyles’ efforts, which had kept the fire confined to the ell. Insufficient water pressure hampered firefighting efforts as the fire burned through the ell and reached the main house.

The conflagration took its time, at least for a while. Rushing into the house, volunteers started removing expensive carpets and furniture. With

(continued on page 18)

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flames crackling nearby, the daredevils spirited Hale’s private library to safety and grabbed the safe containing the senator’s silverware.

Out the door went the safe — and, of course, the valuable silverware.

As the fire took hold, Lewis Foster rushed from The Pines to where sonin-law Clifton Woodward lived on Water Street in Ellsworth. The two men hitched a team of horses to a wagon, which Foster brought to the burning mansion.

There he helped load evacuated furniture into the wagon. Apparently while lifting a heavy item, Foster suddenly collapsed and died from a heart attack.

He had suffered from heart trouble for some time.

The fire merrily burned its way through The Pines. By 6 a.m. Sunday, “four hours after the fire was discovered, nothing remained of the handsome building but a mass of ruins,

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 17)

above which towered the five massive chimneys, with their many fire-places staring on the blackened ruin below,” the newspaper reporter wrote.

“All day long and all day Sunday visitors flocked to the ruin and gazed almost awestruck at the havoc wrought by the flames in a few short hours,” he noted.

A stunned Hale arrived in Ellsworth on Tuesday, May 5. After inspecting the ruins, he announced plans to rebuild The Pines on site, with the new mansion resembling the original. The only major change unveiled by Hale was enlarged servants’ quarters.

Workers started clearing away the rubble so a newer, better mansion could rise above the pines. Eugene Hale would live there through his remaining senatorial career; not for another 15 years would he retire from the Senate. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

WILLIAMS & TAPLIN Water Wells Complete Water Systems Installed Service Installation Repairs All Types of Well Drilling Commercial & Residential Call

Early view of Main Street in Deer Isle. Item # LB2007.1.100495 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Early view of Old Town Canoe in Old Town. Item # LB2007.1.102029 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Indians harvesting potatoes in Old Town, ca. 1909. Item # 19165 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Early view of Monument Square in Orono. Item # 200 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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22

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Different Knots A mysterious death at the Bangor House

by Dave Bumpus

(Disclaimer: It is important to remember those involved who are still with us. Out of respect for the friends and family, the name of the victim has been changed.)

I

f you study true crime at all, the name Albert DeSalvo should ring a bell. Between 1962 and 1964, DeSalvo murdered eleven women in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Several of his victims were sexually assaulted, and each of them was strangled to death with their own nylon stockings, using a specific type of knot. The crimes would deem him the nickname “The Boston Strangler,” and DeSalvo would eventually confess to three of the eleven

murders, which would earn him a death sentence (for decades, it was speculated whether Albert was telling the truth, or simply taking credit for the slayings, but recent forensic evidence has proven him to be the culprit).

He became one of the most famous serial killers in our history, and for a moment, his name was in the spotlight in a case stemming out of Bangor. Although investigators would later rule him out as a suspect, one can only wonder if they were correct in that ruling, as the details of the crime are bizarrely concurrent with the Strangler’s other victims. Whatever the validity of DeSalvo’s involvement, the murder of “Grace Lynne” would become one of

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Maine’s most notorious cold cases.

After growing up in Houlton, Grace moved to Bangor in the 1930s. Although a marriage would take her back home, she would return to Bangor following her divorce in 1956. She had hoped to settle closer to her family. She would accomplish that, but unfortunately, it would be at a brutal cost.

Grace first took up work in the Quality Bakery located on Ohio Street.

She would hold her position there for quite a few years, but the bakery would fall on hard times, and closed its doors permanently. So Grace was forced to find work elsewhere, in order to maintain the close connection to her family, which she adored.

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23

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com The Bangor House had opened on the corner of Union Street and Main Street over a century prior to Grace Lynne’s presence in Bangor. Since officially opening its doors in 1834, the luxury hotel had been host to several famous politicians, including four different presidents. The establishment was also a go-to stay for many famous entertainers, and even some celebrity sports players. Needless to say, by the time Grace Lynne started working there as a chambermaid in the 1960s, the Bangor House had established itself as a hotel that offered the finer things in life.

The morning of March 18, 1965 was no different than any other Maine winter morning. And it wasn’t anything special for Grace Lynne either, as she showed up for work at the hotel on time at 9 a.m. She had no idea that it would be the last time she would ever arrive there. She began her duties cleaning the rooms throughout the giant building.

Sometime around noon, she said hello in passing to some fellow employees.

They would be the last people to see Grace Lynne alive.

Around 2 p.m., some co-workers started becoming concerned, as they couldn’t find Grace anywhere. Her supervisor was aware of Grace’s asthma condition, and feared that she may be in trouble. A sweep of the entire building was conducted. On the first floor the crew found nothing. As they frantically searched through the large ballroom on the second floor, there was again no sign of the woman. But when they entered a guest room on the third floor, they would make a gruesome discovery. There, in the center of the room, was the lifeless body of Grace Lynne.

Her clothes had been ripped from her person, and she had been sexually assaulted. Her own stocking had been tied around her neck and used to strangle the poor woman.

There is no mystery as to what hap-

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pened to Grace Lynne. She had been murdered, and it was obvious that it had been in brutal fashion. The question was, who?

The investigation team, led by a Mr. Clifton E. Sloane, Detective Captain, immediately began narrowing down suspects. Guests in the hotel, workers in the area, etc. They were eventually able to pinpoint it down to a handful of people. And after interviewing all of them, they had it down to one man. His (continued on page 24)

24

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 23)

name was never released to the public, but according to information given to the Lynne family, the man was seen leaving the hotel through a back door around the time of the murder. However, without a confession, the police had nothing strong enough for a conviction and that man has now passed away.

The questions are part of a void without answers in this case. Who was the man seen leaving the Bangor House that afternoon? Is it too far a stretch to say that this could have been the work of the same man who would later become the infamous Boston Strangler?

He had been ruled out because the knot used to strangle Grace was different than the signature knot used in DeSalvo’s Boston murders. Perhaps this was a sort of a “practice” murder for DeSalvo, before he decided on a different knot. Because, besides the knot, every other detail of the Grace Lynne murder scene fit the Boston Strangler M.O. I

will also admit that there are probably many details of the crime scene that I do not have access to.

Today, where the Bangor House once was, stands housing for senior citizens. But this writer in particular cannot help but wonder if this may be the location of one of the first murders of Albert DeSalvo. Back in 1971, Detective Clifton Sloane said in an interview that he knew who had killed Grace, without a shadow of a doubt, but he did not have enough physical evidence to gain a conviction.

Unfortunately, Sloane passed away in 1976, taking the presumed identity of Grace Lynne’s killer to the grave with him.

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Bangor’s Bob Cimbollek Coach devoted 70 years to basketball

by Brian Swartz

F

ifth and sixth-grade boys playing pick-up basketball during lunch and recess at Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor in autumn 1943 probably did not notice their young fan.

Second-grader Robert “Bob” Cimbollek (the only child of William and Hilda Cimbollek) watched in fascination as “the older boys played the game.” The game’s appeal launched a lifetime affiliation with basketball that saw Cimbollek set scoring records in high school and college and spend most of his adult years coaching and officiating the sport.

“The game itself intrigued me,” Cimbollek said. “It was a skill you could practice on your own.”

He convinced his father to “put up a hoop” at the family home at 300 Birch Street on Bangor’s East Side. Cimbollek practiced dribbling, foul shots, and jump shots; the single hoop became two, a rarity in Bangor, and Cimbollek and his friends practiced and honed their skills in his yard.

Bangor’s four elementary schools — Abraham Lincoln, Hannibal Hamlin, Larkin Street, and Mary Snow — fielded boys’ teams for the elementary school league. In the fifth grade, when “I was maybe 5 feet tall,” Cimbollek played with the sixth-grade team from the Abraham Lincoln School. “We won the city championship one or two years in a row,” he recalled.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com “Mary Snow School had the only gym,” so “we played our games there on Fridays and Saturdays,” Cimbollek said.

Church leagues and the Bangor YMCA offered several other basketball-playing venues for Bangor youngsters in the 1940s and 1950s. After playing for the Garland Street Junior High School team, he went to Bangor High School, then located on Harlow Street next to the Bangor Public Library.

Playing as the sixth man on the Bangor High Rams’ junior varsity team in 1952-53, Cimbollek was a substitute on the 1953-54 varsity squad. The next season, when he became the sixth man and a part-time starter on the varsity team, the Rams won the regional and state championships in Class L and finished third in the New England tournament after defeating a Connecticut school in the consolation game.

“I still seemed to be the smallest guy on the court,” Cimbollek said while

Bob Cimbollek shoots for Bangor in 1955

(continued on page 28)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 27)

smiling at an unspoken memory. “Then I had a growth spurt from March of my junior year to September of my senior year. I was finally as tall as most of the other guys!”

Graduating from Bangor High in 1955, Cimbollek figured he would soon be drafted by the Defense Department.

In mid-October, Husson College basketball coach Del Merrill “called and asked me if I would be interested in attending Husson and playing basketball there,” Cimbollek said.

Husson was located “on the hill” on Park Street in Bangor, he remembered.

“I started taking classes [for a degree in business education] and practicing basketball. So then my career took off at Husson.

“I’ve always said that one phone call changed my life. I met my wife (Judy) there. Going to Husson made all the difference for me,” Cimbollek said.

Tapped as a starter in his freshman

year, he set 13 scoring records, such as most points (38) scored in a game, most points (468) and field goals (178) scored in a season, most completed free throws (120), and the highest average points per game (24.6) for a season.

The 1955-56 Husson College team won the school’s first basketball championships by winning the North East Small College title and then the State Small School College title.

“Basketball was played differently then. The clock only stopped for fouls, time outs, and jump balls when these records were set, and there was no three-point shot,” Cimbollek said.

Named captain of the 1956-57 Husson squad, he broke 10 of his own scoring records and led the team to the North East Small College title. Husson finished as runner-up in the State Small School College league.

Cimbollek became the first 1,000-point scorer in Husson College

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history during his junior year, but an injury incurred during the season’s sixth game ended his basketball-playing career.

After graduating from Husson, Cimbollek attended the University of Maine to earn a certificate to teach physical education. He was soon hired by the Bangor School Department to teach phys ed at Garland Street Junior High School.

Then Cimbollek stepped into the career field with which most Maine highschool basketball fans would associate him for four decades. He became a coach, initially with the Fort Fairfield Tigers in 1961-1962 (the team went 6-11) and then for seven years with the Orono Red Riots.

Under Cimbollek’s guidance, the Orono boys won three Eastern Maine Class B titles and two state Class B titles and went 126-36 from 1962-1969.

Cimbollek achieved a 118-48 record

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while coaching the Bangor Rams from 1969-1977.

He stepped away from coaching for the next decade to spend time with daughter Kimberly and son Robby.

Cimbollek took over the helm for the John Bapst Memorial High School Crusaders in Bangor in 1987 and coached the boys’ varsity team until 2000.

During his 13-year run, the Bapst teams went 196-66 and won two state Class C championships and a state Class B championship.

For Cimbollek, coaching always involved teaching more than basketball skills. “I wanted to teach life lessons you can’t teach in the classroom,” he said, explaining that such lessons involved learning that “life isn’t always fair” and that “you understand your role on the team.

“You realize it takes a lot of hard work not only to make the team,” but to “remain competitive on the court” with

other skilled players, Cimbollek said.

“It all takes discipline,” he commented. “If you teach discipline, you are going to be successful,” not only in coaching, but “in many aspects of life.”

Cimbollek has watched high-school basketball change, not only in its technical aspects, but in its generational appeal, too. “The experiences I had in high school and college, it was competitive to make the team back then,” he said.

Bangor High School housed only sophomores, juniors, and seniors during his eight years coaching there.

“I remember seeing more than 100 boys turn out from the three grades.,” Cimbollek said. “We had 24 [player] slots, 12 for varsity, 12 for jayvee.”

He remembers similar percentages of potential talent trying out for the boys’ teams at Orono and Fort Fairfield.

Today, far fewer players, in terms of a

high school’s population, try out for basketball teams; student populations have shrunk in most schools affiliated with Eastern Maine basketball, and Cimbollek believes that “other factors” are causing less interest in the sport.

“There are more sports” available to high-school athletes, he said. “We only had basketball.”

Then there are TV, computers, the Internet, social media — and parents who intervene on behalf of their children, either by complaining to a coach or an athletic director. According to Cimbollek, this parental interference can teach children that they need not work hard to succeed.

He officiated basketball games for a long time. “I either coached or reffed or played for 70 years,” said Cimbollek, who retired from basketball in 2013.

“I’ve gone over 30,000 miles on a basketball court all these years, either as a player, a coach, or an official.” Cim(continued on page 30)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 29)

bollek writes a seasonal basketball column for a Bangor newspaper; he has also published two books about the game.

Looking back on his years as a highschool coach, Cimbollek said, “I knew I did my job” because of the approximately 180 athletes who played for him, “a third of my players went into coaching. That satisfies me the most.”

Years ago Cimbollek constructed a large, solid-surface basketball court behind his East Side home in Bangor.

He recalls when “a single hoop set up at a playground or school” would lure youngsters to play pick-up games.

“You don’t see kids playing outdoors now,” he said wistfully. “It’s all organized today.”

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

The Magnificent Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

by Charles Francis

H

ave you ever had the opportunity to explore the Downeast region by air? It is a breathtaking experience, one seeming to have been created with the camera-bug in mind.

Unfortunately, it can be a sobering experience, too.

A number of years ago I was lucky enough to garner a seat in an Air National Guard Huey flying out of Bangor. We flew down the Penobscot and over the Blue Hill Peninsula. Our turning point was Eggemoggin Reach.

Thinking back on that low level flight now, I identify two violently contrasting images. As you progress down-

river from Bangor you come to realize the dominant man-made geographical feature is the gravel pit. They are everywhere, blots in woodland and fields.

Their profusion speaks to how man has despoiled the Maine landscape. You have to be in the air to truly appreciate their ugliness. Simply put, open pit mining speaks to the worst of man’s environmental degradations. Man’s impact on the Downeast landscape has not been all negative, though. The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge is perhaps the most notable of man’s complementary additions to the natural beauty of the magical Downeast Maine setting,

especially where land and sea meet.

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge spans Eggemoggin Reach. It is a suspension bridge. Therein lies its beauty.

It is a beauty that can be appreciated from the air. At the time of its completion in 1939, the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge was recognized as one of the most beautiful bridges in the world.

You need to be airborne to see just how beautiful a structure the bridge still is, though. You need to be airborne to take in the gentle rise of the long center span above Eggemoggin Reach, to appreciate the contrasting greens of towers and cables and blue-green waters below.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge is a gateway and it is a lifeline. It is a lifeline for the people it serves. While most of downeast Maine is served by roads leading from towns to the westward like Bucksport and Brewer, there once was no way for a vehicle to cross Eggemoggin Reach except by ferry. In fact, the bridge replaced a ferry service, a ferry service that was very much a seasonal affair.

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge has often been compared to the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State. This is the bridge famous as Galloping Gertie and best known for its collapse some six months after being put in use in July of 1940. The collapse of Galloping Gertie is described as a convergence of periodic wind frequency and Gertie’s natural structural frequency. It is a fate the bridge connecting Deer Isle and the mainland escaped.

Anyone taking a close look at the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge will see

obvious modifications to reduce unwanted motion in the bridge deck. The entire plate girder deck is obscured with wind deflectors. The cross-bracings between the cables and the deck, forming X’s above the roadway, are additions. Also noticeable to even the untrained eye is the fact that the cables are not wrapped, just bundled at the suspender connections. The latter circumstances relates to the cable connection, which uses sleeve nuts to connect each main strand socket to its anchorage rod.

These types of connections, first used on the Thousand Islands Bridge, make small adjustments to the main strands relatively easy. Even before the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge was finished, unexpected wind-induced motion in the relatively lightweight deck indicated the need for greater stability. This is why diagonal stays running from the main cables to the stiffening girders on both towers were added to stabilize the bridge.

The opening of the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge on June 19, 1939 was a time for celebration. Governor Lewis Barrows was present. The bands from Deer Isle and Stonington high schools marched across the bridge. Members of the local Lions Club were in attendance, which was fitting, as the Lions had been a driving force behind the effort to get the bridge constructed.

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge did more to change Deer Isle and Stonington than any other public work possibly could. Prior to the construction of the bridge, the ferry which connected Deer Isle and the mainland had to negotiate the broad reach. This placed it at the mercy of the elements. Eggemoggin Reach is known for its high winds and, in fact, the bridge is sometimes closed because of them today. Pack ice also accumulates along the shore of the island and the mainland. In addition, the entire reach is prone to icing. These circumstances made it impossible for (continued on page 34)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 33)

ferries like the car-carrying scow of the 1920s, which was towed by a motor boat, to make a crossing.

The extraordinary significance of the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge in the lives of the island residents cannot be overstated. This in part explains why the bridge had been recognized as a national landmark.

The organization which has designated the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge a national landmark is the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The ASCE is sometimes called the “watchdog of the nation’s infrastructure.” As such its pronouncements are of the greatest import as regards to what makes the country tick, be it from the standpoint of roadways, bridges or dams or anything else requiring the expertise of highly trained engineers. For

Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, ca. 1959. Item 3 25802 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

the past fifteen or so years the ASCE had been recognizing particular historic public works across the country that have significantly affected the general community in which they are found.

The organization’s action in designating the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge as a national landmark places new and

much-needed attention on the historic bridge and its place in the lives of the residents of Deer Isle and Stonington and the region of which they are a part.

I would like to thank Philip Dunn of the Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers for his contributions to this article.

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Stockton Springs Hero American Legion Post 157 honors a WWII airman

by Jeffrey Bradley

A

t 21,000 feet the 10-man crew of the four-engine B-17 heavy bomber Beats Me! was preparing to blast Nazi submarine pens in occupied France. Unterseebooten — German U-boats — had been sinking Allied shipping almost faster than it could be built. If the hemorrhaging wasn’t stopped and soon, the Battle of the Atlantic would be lost. Sheltered inside their fortified bunkers, these menacing submersibles were targets of vital importance. So on that momentous January day, 21 B-17 “Flying Fortresses”— American strategic bombers fairly bristling with weaponry — flew in formation from an airbase in England to keep their rendezvous with fate. As

part of the 360th Bomb Squadron, attached to the 303rd Bomber Group, aka the “Hell’s Angels,” the Beats Me! had only recently deployed. And that is how it came to be, in the cold gray light of a misty dawn, that this B-17 was lifting off on its eleventh and final flight.

Aboard his plane, 20-year-old SSgt Jerry Walter Dobbins of Stockton Springs, Maine, readied his 50-calibre machine gun, anticipating an enemy onslaught. As left-waist gunner, Dobbins manned one of the two armaments mounted on either side of the fuselage.

One responsibility was to provide covering fire in case of emergency, such as the crewmembers bailing out of a crippled aircraft. Superb Luftwaffe fighting

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(continued on page 37)

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machines like Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s, slung with machine guns and a pair of cannons, in the capable hands of combat veterans, were the bane of Allied bombers. Below, too, ranged the infamous German 88s, long guns able to reach great heights to knock the bombers out of the sky.

Those U-boat pens would be fiercely defended.

As the targets approached from below, scores of enemy fighters swarmed aloft to intercept the formation. Precision bombing from this height was tricky, with pilots holding their ponderous craft steady in the face of an allout assault to fix their bomb-sights on target. Heavily-armored B-17s were

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

take history to heart,

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Check out our historic photography collection for photos of your town, your street, your family, and more.

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37

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (continued from page 35)

difficult to bring down, so enemy tactics were designed to disrupt, causing the bomb payloads to fall wide of the mark. Bombers forced out of formation were easier to drive away or destroy.

Sowing confusion by attacking from many different directions, the aim was to make a level approach on any given target nearly impossible. In the swirling melee, bombers often responded by lurching evasively, jettisoning, in some cases, their entire complement of bombs in the hopes of hitting their target even while veering away.

In fact, a plane did dump its ordnance as it frantically tried to flee, inadvertently blowing the tail section clean off the Beats Me!. Inside, chaos ensued. Coping at such altitudes required the wearing of oxygen masks, and the suddenly rudderless plane buffeted the men about mercilessly. SSgt Charles I. Roth, attending to injured, had the oxygen tube knocked loose from his apparatus, which put him in danger of

blacking out. Dobbins sprang forward with another tube — rather than donning his parachute — a gallantry that cost him his life. Seconds later, and the plane flipped over and nose-dived into the earth.

Seven, including Dobbins, died in the crash; Roth and two others parachuted to safety but, captured, spent the rest of the war in a Stalag internment camp.

On June 16, 2012, Roth, now 90 and the only living survivor of that fatal flight, journeyed from Colorado to appear as the guest speaker at the Jerry W. Dobbins Commemorative Event hosted

by Legion Post 157 in Stockton Springs Elementary School. There, he presented the Dobbins family with an award.

Representatives from the French town of Pluvigner, near where the Beats Me! went down, also presented his dog-tags.

A monument stands today at the crash site commemorating those fallen heroes.

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The remains pulled from the wreckage were returned and buried together at the National Veterans Cemetery in Rockport, Illinois. Dobbins, the first of eight Stockton Springs residents killed in World War II out of the 70 who enlisted, subsequently had the local American Legion Post named after him. For his actions that day, Dobbins was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor in 2013.

A recent Memorial Day parade held by the Jerry W. Dobbins American Legion Post 157 of Stockton Springs and Bucksport American Legion Post 93, which included a Searsport contingent, terminated in Mosman Park with invocations and a ceremony to honor those fallen in defense of their country. The crowd stood silently as wreaths were laid, a firing squad saluted, and the sound of “Taps” died softly away on the breeze.

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Pittsfield’s Etta Mae Nelson Who says a woman can’t do a man’s job?

by Brenda Seekins

I

n the early 20th century, fewer than one hundred women were employed as rural letter carriers across the United States. Of that number, Etta Mae Nelson of Pittsfield was one, possibly the only one, who was declared a champion carrier.

In March 1907, Assistant Postmaster General Degrew, citing a recent investigation of rural letter carriers, listed Etta in first place on the rural delivery efficiency list. Degrew reported her record was “practically unequalled,” delivering mail for three years in all weather conditions and missing just two trips because the local postmaster decided she shouldn’t deliver that day.

Motorized deliveries were just being

talked about in that time period, and of course, wouldn’t reach rural Maine for several more years, even though motorized routes began in Washington, D.C. in 1906. Etta took to a horse and wagon, and a sleigh in winter, six days a week to complete her 20-mile route in rural Somerset County serving 75 families in Pittsfield, Detroit and Palmyra.

Her delivery vehicles were described as a buggy with the top removed, but including a large umbrella in the summer.

In the winter months her horse pulled a sleigh with 3-inch runners.

In contrast to many mail carriers today, it was not to be her lifelong career. She was doomed before she started when Postmaster General Henry C. Payne ordered on November 24, 1902, that effective Dec. 1 : “a classified woman employe(sic) in the postal service who shall change her name by marriage will not be reappointed.”

Payne reportedly told The Washington Post, after marriage, women “should stay at home and attend to their household duties.”

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Etta didn’t start her deliveries until September 1903 and at age 27 still quite single, a relatively advanced age to be unmarried in that era in rural Maine. But Etta had been busy for about a dozen years as housekeeper and surrogate mother to her siblings in her father’s home in West Pittsfield, while her father, Augustus, was employed as a blacksmith and a carriage maker.

It was after her father entered postal service and moved “into town,” she learned there were more opportunities as a letter carrier and took the examination to win the post over a competing young man. A newspaper article on Etta’s championship workstyle in 1907 remarked she not only worked as a letter carrier, but “keeps no help” for her household duties.

The policy on single women affected rural and city carriers, and remained in effect, with few exceptions, until November 1921. During the Great Depression, a similar policy was brought back

with a decree to dismiss the spouses of federal employees in the event of a reduction in force. That policy stood until 1937.

Etta, five-foot-three, weighing about 115 pounds, was described as “persevering and courageous” by the Bangor Daily News reporter sent to learn the secrets of her winning workstyle in 1907. She told the reporter she took the job for her health and found battling the changing weather conditions a benefit and certainly a daily challenge.

Despite her obvious enjoyment of the job, she disliked being singled out as an exception in an unlikely job for a woman, and was reportedly quite reluctant to be interviewed by the Bangor Daily News. She also didn’t advise other women to take up the challenge, likely thinking that not many women would care for the work. It’s a characterization well-accepted by her family today, who recall an often stubborn and opinionated woman who came to be known as

“Grammie Libby” up until her death in 1958.

Hearing tales of her perseverance, her family was not surprised to learn of her reaction when she found herself “thrown from her buggy” by a horse frightened by a passing automobile.

“With her usual stick-to-itive-ness she held to the reins and was dragged some distance before she would let go,” according to the Bangor Daily News reporter. At that point, she apparently was obliged to borrow another carriage before she could complete her rounds. By the time she returned to town, her story had preceded her, and she reportedly was laughing off any inquiries about her accident. Her choice of sensible work clothes could well have spared her serious injury. She told the reporter her winter garb would include a sweater, a light coat, a fur coat, a fur cap and two pairs of mittens, the outer pair being boys’ leather mittens. (continued on page 40)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 39)

Her choice of preparedness might explain how she was often able to fulfill her duties when others from the same post office could not. When the Boston American reported Etta’s award, the headline said “Girl Carries Mail in Storm.” The article cited her as the only carrier from the Pittsfield office to complete her route during the “awful blizzard” of January 23. On that occasion, she managed to best her own father by completing her 20-mile route, while he and another carrier completed only a few miles of their respective routes.

The article reports how Etta carried the mail “rain or shine, having a record unequalled by few carriers across the state.” That report also recognized the pride of local people in the award she received, noting that she “drives in the worst storms of the winters and faithfully discharges the duties of her office regardless of storms.”

Etta’s faithfulness to her duties

would come to an end later that same year when she married Aaron C. Libby of Detroit, presumably a customer on her route, and 21 years older. They would go on to have four children, leaving Etta widowed thirteen years later.

She continued, however, to manage her home and raise her children “keeping no help.”

Brenda Seekins of Hartland is a freelance writer and historian who would like to share the stories of your ancestors’ or your adventures in Maine history. Contact her at brendaseekins@gmail.com. But above all else, she encourages everyone with a story to “write it down.”

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Moosehead Lake Hotel

by Travis Wallace

T

he hotel was built in the days when vacationers came to the woods by passenger train. It towered near the railroad trestle in the Junction and could be seen in the distance from any direction, four stories tall and rambling, with classic, stately lines, a mansard roof and a white-painted 2nd floor balcony porch that hung in the air near the street. From this porch you could look out over the street and down onto Wiggin Stream and the row of small, working-class homes along the opposite bank. High on the ridge beyond these homes stood the lumber mill that gave the Junction its sound — a far-off din of screeching saws, diesel engines and warning beeps that settled

A local’s landmark over the valley every day from morning until night and nobody ever complained about the noise because it meant that men were working.

The people who stayed at the old hotel were the blue-collar sportsmen who traveled to northwestern Maine for the woods and the water and the remoteness. They didn’t come to Moosehead Lake Hotel seeking luxury and they certainly didn’t find it. Never known for elegance, by the 1970s, the hotel had grown dated and tired. Guest rooms still opened with skeleton keys and hallway floors squeaked beneath your feet, and the long balcony porch, now weathered and warped, stretched along the building’s front like a wrinkle

on an old woman’s brow. Few rooms had private baths, fewer still had TVs. None offered air conditioning. But guests appreciated the clean rooms and modest rates with hearty meals and boxed lunches included in the price.

They also enjoyed the staff’s genuine, small-town hospitality. And, of course, they loved the barroom. Everybody loved the barroom.

With its tin ceiling, long bar of dark wood and the small tables with their wooden slat seat chairs, Moosehead Lake Hotel’s street-level cocktail lounge looked as though it belonged in a western, so much so that the locals took to calling it The Long Branch, after the saloon in Gunsmoke, a popular (continued on page 42)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

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TV series of the time. The real Long Branch may have been better known than its television namesake, at least in Maine. In the history of drinking, there has perhaps never been a honky-tonk better destined for success than The Long Branch. It operated during the 1960s and 70s, when hundreds of wellpaid, hard drinking loggers lived in the region. The 60s and 70s was also a time when laws against public drunkenness were still but mere rumors to residents of this little town in the woods — and because this little town in the woods had only two cops and one cruiser, most residents ignored such rumors. Add live music, 25 cent drafts and a fun-loving proprietor with a Devil-May-Care attitude, and it’s easy to see how The Long Branch became the epicenter of debauchery for an entire region of Maine.

Indeed, the place could be as rough as its barn board walls. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes it was scary, but even when it was scary, nobody ever

wanted to leave. Such is the allure of 25 cent drafts.

There are still people living in Maine’s North Country who drank at “The Branch.” Each will tell you in his own way that there’s never been another place like it, and then you’ll hear the stories. All the stories are good, and some are truly wonderful. If you’re lucky, you might hear about the day Dave Belmont married wife number four while standing behind the bar in front of the Budweiser tap, the Protestant minister presiding, or the night that Charlie Smith, irritated at having been shut off by the bartender, fetched a chainsaw from his truck and attempted to cut down the cedar posts that held up the ceiling and the three floors above it. You might hear about an otherwise quiet afternoon when Rollie Warman found himself being thrown out of the bar through the front door only to be thrown back in a minute later — this time through a window. If you’re very

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lucky, as I have been, you may encounter a man — a senior citizen now — who will tell you about his very first visit to The Long Branch.

The man and his friend had spent the morning fishing for trout at a small pond north of Greenville and decided to have a drink at The Long Branch on their way home. Neither had ever been to the place and wanted to give it a try, but they found The Long Branch empty, not a customer or employee in sight, and they hesitated inside the entrance, wondering if perhaps the barroom hadn’t yet opened for the day.

They decided to stay, though, when they heard the smacking sound of billiard balls coming from out back. The men sat down at the bar and waited, and the bartender appeared a moment later, a man in his 60s with a horseshoe of white hair and a pool cue in his hand.

“Hello there!” he said,“What can I get for you, fellas?”

“Whiskey and ginger,” said the first

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man. His friend raised a finger and nodded. “I’ll take the same.”

“Sounds like a winner,” said the bartender, who leaned his pool cue against the bar rail and reached for his ice scoop. He placed two ice-filled highball glasses on the bar, then peeled the pop-tops from two cans of Fanta ginger ale and placed those on the bar. Then, the bartender placed a bottle of Canadian Club on the bar. “Holler if you need anything,” he said, and the two men stared at each other, dumbfounded, as their bartender grabbed his pool cue and walked away.

I heard this story many years ago.

The man who told it to me chuckled hard at the memory as he slapped my shoulder with the back of his hand. I smiled at him and felt the sting around my eyes because he’d been talking about my Dad. I often went to work with my father in the years before I started school and

Piscataquis Exchange (the old Moosehead Lake Hotel) (photo courtesy of Travis Wallace)

(continued on page 44)

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 43)

afterward on weekends and summer breaks. The bar opened at one o’clock each afternoon, so we arrived in late morning. Dad parked the pickup truck out in front and I slid across the seat and he set me down. I heard the sounds of the lumber mill coming down from the hill across the stream and I felt the summer heat radiate up from the asphalt. We stepped into the shade beneath the porch and Dad unlocked the hotel’s wide wooden front door. The door opened with a long creak and I followed him into the barroom. Behind us, the heavy door closed with a rhythmic whoosh and satisfying clank, and then the only sounds were the hum of beer coolers and our footsteps along the plywood floor. Two small rectangular windows high on the wall on either side of the fireplace cast narrow beams of sunlight diagonally downward. We walked amid a strange daytime darkness through a maze of tables and

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chairs and bar stools, and the air felt cool and smelled of cigarette smoke and stale beer.

Dad stepped behind the bar and opened the circuit breaker box on the wall, and The Long Branch revealed itself section by section as he snapped the switches one by one. On came the fluorescent light over the air hockey table, then the light over the pool table, the foosball table, the other pool table, then the wall lights on each side of the fireplace, the entryway lights and finally, the bar lights themselves. He flipped one more switch to turn on the jukebox. Sometimes it flickered to life in silence, but often the jukebox would turn on in mid-song at extremely loud volume, filling the room with the twang of whatever 1970s country record had been playing at closing time the previous night. Whenever this happened, Dad would walk over and reach behind the jukebox to lower its volume.

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He liked music, only not so loud and so early.

While Dad swept the floor with the push broom, I retrieved my Big Wheel from the dance floor and went for a cruise. I rode in giant loops around the building’s first floor, pedaling down the middle of the two-sided bar and continuing down the hall. I took a sharp right after the liquor closet and drove through the hotel lobby, past the ladies’ room and the men’s room and the staircase and back into the bar through the main entrance. Dad moved tables and chairs as he swept, providing me with a brand new obstacle course each time I barreled through the door. I zigged and zagged as fast as I could peddle, and as long as I didn’t drive through any dirt piles, he never seemed to mind.

When he’d finished sweeping, my father took the change drawer out of the safe and placed it in the cash register. I climbed onto a stool and watched him

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count the money. “Daddy?” “...eight, nine, ten, yes, dear?”

“Can I have a Shirley Temple?” “...thirteen, fourteen, fifteen — what do you say?”

“Please?” “...seventeen — sure, give me just a minute, Trav, and I’ll make you one. Eighteen, nineteen...”

He finished counting and filled the ice bin, then made my Shirley Temple, spooning cherries from a gallon jar. He tossed a cardboard coaster in front of me and set down my drink. “That’ll be fifty cents.”

“Daddy, you know I don’t have any money.”

“Well, that’s alright,” he said with a wink, “your credit is good.”

I drank my Shirley Temple and stabbed the cherries at the bottom of my glass while Dad restocked the bar.

He filled the reach-in cooler with fresh bottles of Budweiser and Miller, then

lifted each liquor bottle from the rack and held it up to the light to check its level. If one appeared low, he jotted it on a piece of paper. He placed red hot dogs and fresh hot dog buns in the steamer, filled the chip rack and wiped down the bar with a wet towel. Hot, soapy water helped erase rings of beer.

Finally, Dad poured a splash of Lestoil into the mop bucket and filled it with water. As he waved the mop back-andforth across the gray painted floor, the strong chemical pine smell filled the room and signaled a brand new day.

When he’d finished, Dad pushed the mop bucket down the hall and out the back door. He poured the dirty water in the gravel parking lot and leaned the wooden handled string mop against the building to dry in the sun. He came back inside, crossed the still damp floor to the large picture window overlooking the trestle and pulled the metal chain on the neon OPEN sign. He

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walked behind the bar and called me over. I stood next to him as the cash register opened with a loud ca-ching.

My father took two quarters from the drawer and dropped them into my waiting hand.

“Rack ‘em up!” he said.

Time to play pool.

Travis Wallace lives in the suburbs of Greenville Junction and refuses to upgrade from his flip-phone.

Interior shot of the hotel (courtesy of John Morrell)

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Savage Inferno

by Dave Bumpus

Arson murders on the Trim estate

I

t was a crisp, cool autumn evening in Maine the night of October 13, 1876. As unlucky as the date may have seemed, that night seemed to hold nothing out of the ordinary. Just outside of Bucksport, families slept soundly in their homes, and the breeze outside ruffled the leaves that still remained intact, waiting to fall to the ground, signifying the coming winter months. It was as surreal as you can get in our beautiful state. That is, until the early morning hours, when the night sky would be disrupted by the glowing spectre of death.

The Trim house was owned by Robert Trim, who in 1876 was around 74 years old. He had a daughter named Melissa Thayer, who had recently

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moved with her 4 year old daughter to be with him, following the death of her husband. Melissa was young, in her early 30s, and she was able to help with chores around the Trim home. Also visiting Mr. Trim was a Captain Smith along with his wife. The Captain was well respected, and was visiting the Trim house while waiting for his next ship to leave. While there, he would also help around the homestead, doing yard work and hunting small game.

On the morning of October 12, Smith had been hunting rabbits and partridge. When he had returned, he began freshly dying his clothes, as they were covered with animal blood (this was a very common practice at the time).

On either side of the home were their neighbors, the Harrimans, and on the other side, the Phillips. There are two different accounts as to the events that occurred shortly before nightfall that evening. By one account, Melissa Thayer had decided to travel to the post office when the Harriman’s step-daughter, Ada, met her. The girl said that since Captain Smith was visiting, it would be okay for her to accompany Mrs. Thayer on her walk. By the other account, Melissa was greeted on her way by both Ada and Captain Smith, and the girl decided to walk with Melissa to the post office. When the girls returned from their venture, it was time for Ada to go to bed. So she said her goodbyes and

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(continued on page 48

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 47)

returned to the Harriman house, along with Captain Smith.

Melissa Thayer said goodnight as well. It would be the last thing anyone would hear her say.

The time frame is blurry, but sometime either around midnight or 3am, Mrs. Harriman awakened to see an unusual flickering ambiance coming from the Trim home. Upon focusing, she could see that the carriage house and the barn were engulfed in flames.

She quickly sprung out of bed and began alerting neighbors. Several members of the community flocked to the scene, and managed to put the flames out, saving what they could of the two buildings.

But when the smoke cleared, that was when the true horror of what had happened became a reality. Inside the carriage house was the badly burned body of Robert Trim. When they pulled him out, it was clear that the fire had been so intense that both of his arms

and legs had completely burned into charred remains. On the floor of the barn they found the body of Melissa Thayer. Also burned beyond recognition, a charred skeleton was all that remained of her. The body of her 4-year old daughter was never found, but given the extent of the other victims’ injuries, it is likely that the fire completely disintegrated her.

People were justifiably both horrified and puzzled. What (supposedly) happened next was just as baffling. According to one story, Mr. Trim’s nephew then showed up on the scene, and looked as though he had seen a ghost.

Trembling, he said that his Uncle had appeared to him in a vision, and told him to go down the road, to a pole that was slumped onto the side of a fence.

Reluctantly, the crowd followed the directions, and when they reached the pole, they found the bloody scarf of Melissa Thayer. They also found a rock that had blood on it. They followed the

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trail, which led them to the back of the now burnt barn, leading them to believe that Melissa’s body had been placed there after she had been killed. If no one had suspected foul play up until this point, they certainly did now.

As the investigation played out, all of the clues pointed to Captain Smith.

When detectives searched his home, they found that some of the bloodstains on his clothes were indeed human.

They also found a hunting knife with human blood on it. It seemed strange, as respected as the man was. But police believed that the motive was over the inheritance money that Mrs. Thayer would have collected from her late husband, even though she was not in possession of it at the time of the murder.

Nonetheless, Captain Trim was tried and found guilty of the arson murders of Melissa Thayer, Robert Trim, and the 4-year old girl. And although he maintained his innocence, he was given a sentence of life imprisonment. That

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49

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com “life” would come to an end 30 years later, when Smith would be murdered by another inmate.

So what really happened on that cold night in October, 1876? Investigators believe that Smith waited for Melissa, and killed her in a robbery gone bad.

After the sun went down, he went to the Trim home, and murdered Mr. Trim and his granddaughter. He then attempted to cover it up by burning the bodies.

That could be what happened. If not, then what? What should be made of the strange vision from the Trim nephew? We can file that under “unknown.”

What we do know, however, is that on a fall night in Maine, three lives were snuffed out, leaving only two charred buildings, a pile of ash and bone, and a crippled community in their wake.

(Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.)

Bar Harbor horse show, ca. 1910. Item # 7765 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

The Etna Wolverine Local trapper Samuel Parker’s hunt for a predator

by Charles Francis

A

long time ago Samuel Packer shot and killed a wolverine in Etna. This was when Etna was known as Crosbytown. Samuel Parker was a trapper. The wolverine had been raiding his traps. Samuel Parker considered himself completely justified in killing what he considered a vicious predator.

There aren’t any wolverines in Maine today. The wolverine falls into the classification extirpated. That’s according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Extirpated is one of those terms like threatened or extinct. Roughly speaking, extirpated means eliminated with certain qualifications. The wolverine has been elim-

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inated from Maine, but still occurs elsewhere. Examples of species that have extirpated from Maine, but that still exist elsewhere, include the gray wolf, woodland caribou, Karner blue butterfly, timber rattlesnake and eastern cougar.

Samuel Parker was probably the third person to settle what would become Etna. The first are said to have been Phineas Friend and Benjamin Friend. Much of the story of Samuel Parker and the wolverine comes from a Friend descendant, John Friend.

Phineas Friend and Benjamin Friend were brothers. They came to Penobscot County in 1806 or 1807. The brothers had families. To start with, both fami-

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lies lived in a single, one-room, log cabin. The cabin was built without nails.

There was no glass, just openings cut in the logs to let in light. Family members slept on spruce poles that made up the floor. As soon as the first cabin was build a second was constructed. Samuel Parker and his family joined the Friend families as the third permanent settler of the area in the summer of 1807.

Phineas Friend and Benjamin Friend were farmers and loggers. Their chief crop was wheat. They raised sheep.

Samuel Parker made his living as a trapper and hunter. Keep in mind this was a period when a good quality pelt brought twenty cents.

It would seem Samuel Parker was

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51

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com a rapacious trapper. He was ready to clean out every fur-bearing animal in the vicinity. Anyone or anything that stood in is way was to be damned.

That’s how Parker came to run afoul of a wolverine.

The wolverine is a member of the weasel family, and the largest member.

Some western Native Americans called the wolverine “skunk bear.” Wolverines have a reputation as a predator. For some, the term predator means indiscriminate killer, which is how Samuel Parker viewed the creature.

Wolverines have a broad head, small eyes and short rounded ears. Wolverines have glossy dark brown fur, a light face mask and a stripe running down both sides of its body. It is powerfully built and has short legs with wide feet for traveling across the snow. They are known for scavenging dead animals like deer or moose but are also very capable of killing their own meal, which is usually confined to the likes of ground squirrels and rabbits.

John Friend tells the story of Samuel Parker quite succinctly. Friend describes him as “making sad havoc among the wild animals.” These animals included otter, fox, marten, raccoon, and mink. Parker had a reputation as a bear hunter, though one bear got the better of him.

This particular bear was making a nuisance of himself by raiding Phineas Friend’s cornfield. Then it went after Friend’s sheep. When it took a whole sheep and five lambs from Friend, he was, as John Friend says, “tried and condemned to be shot.” The bear escaped, however, but only “after sentence was in part executed, leaving bloody signs of parole.” In short, Samuel Parker only succeeded in wounding the predator.

Marten and mink were Parker’s first choice for trapping. He particularly liked marten as there were more of them and they provided his steadiest source of income. Parker’s trapping methodol-

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ogy was to drag a muskrat carcass from one of his traps to the next. His trap line extended for some ten or twelve miles.

Traps were baited with muskrat. As this tale goes, Parker was doing well until someone or something began robbing his traps. Whatever it was went so far as to destroy the traps. Parker would have blamed other trappers had there been any in the area, but there weren’t.

Then he met the robber face-to-face.

Of course, the robber was a wolverine. When Packer encountered the creature it had three marten in its mouth and seemed intent on acquiring another. The way John Friend tells the story, Samuel Parker didn’t know just what the creature he was confronting was. At least he didn’t know at first. He even thought it might be an Indian Devil: there were stories of them about. For those who don’t know, an Indian Devil is Maine’s equivalent of Big Foot. A smaller version of the mythical creature, they are still said to be glimpsed on occasion. (continued on page 52)

BRYANT STOVE & MUSIC, INC. Come in and browse in the Bryant Stove Works Showroom.

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52

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 51)

Regardless, Packer didn’t care what he was seeing. He simply shot. That was his reaction, shoot now and investigate later. Once the creature was dead and laid out Parker knew he had killed a wolverine.

It seems Samuel Parker was a talker, a story-teller. From this time on he told stories of the predacious wolverine. If his traps were robbed, it was the fault of a wolverine. If he heard of another trapper having traps robbed, he blamed a wolverine. I lived not far from Etna. I knew someone who trapped there in the 1980s. When his traps were robbed, he blamed a wolverine. This was so even though the creature was long gone from Maine.

John Friend cited some trapping figures for Samuel Parker. It seems that one fall he took “about 300 marten, 25 mink, 7 otter, 150 muskrat, 9 fox, and 2 beaver.” Friend went on to say that

the “report fails to tell how many ducks and partridges he shot.” It took Samuel Parker about twelve years to clean out the Etna region of game. He then moved up near the Passadumkeag River. Here it is said he continued the sane trapping practices. There is no mention of his encountering another wolverine, though. If he did there is little doubt what his reaction would have been.

Today it is estimated that fewer than 300 wolverines exist in the lower forty-eight states.

Why are there so few wolverines today? Experts cite climate change and man as the chief culprits in bringing about a decline in the wolverine population. Climate change doesn’t necessarily mean global warming but rather the rise in temperature since the last ice age. As for man, clearly many who came in contact with the wolverine had the same attitude as Samuel Packer:

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they viewed the creature as a threat, an animal to be killed. * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

Discover Maine Magazine has been brought to you free through the generous support of Maine businesses for the past 25 years, and we extend a special thanks to them.

Please tell our advertisers how much you love Discover Maine Magazine by doing business with them whenever possible.

Thanks for supporting those businesses that help us bring Maine’s history to you!

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Early view of the Grange Hall in East Newport. Item # LB2007.1.105515 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Foreign & Domestic Repairs Frame Repair State Inspections Computer Diagnostics Transmission Flushes ASE Certified Master Technician

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Pray’s Service Station & Motel

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Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

G.A.R. Hall in Garland. Item # LB2007.1.100880 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Ray McPherson Master Carpenter

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

The Joy Of Motorcycling Her bike brought Denize Gauler to Cambridge

by Brian Swartz

T

he first time that Denize Gauler explored Maine, she did so on a 1982 Honda Gold Wing. Years later, after exploring much of Canada and the United States on a motorcycle, she decided to call Maine “home.”

Denize, whose maiden name was Tredan, was born on the Isle of Jersey in the British Channel Islands.

With German armor and troops racing for the Channel coast in spring 1940, many people fled Jersey, abandoning businesses and homes to reach safety in Great Britain.

The Tredans were unable to leave before the Germans occupied the Channel Islands in June 1940. The occupation lasted almost 60 months, during Ray Thompson

Chad Crooker, Assoc.

THOMPSON

which time the islanders endured a stifling curfew and orders not to listen to Allied radio broadcasts. Denis Tredan, her father, “built these little bitty radios in flashlights and pens and gave them to people he trusted,” Denize said.

On May 6, 1945 — her 11th birthday — she was surprised when Denis said, “Let’s go for a walk. It’s such a nice night.”

“It was a beautiful, beautiful evening,” Denize recalled. “My sister said, ‘We’re going to be late for curfew.’”

But Denis persisted on taking his family for a stroll. He had learned from a radio broadcast that “it was the unofficial end of the war in Europe.

“Of course, he knew it; the Germans

occupying the island also knew it, that’s why he didn’t care about the curfew,” Denize said. “That was the best birthday present anybody could ever have had.”

Living with the Occupation had taught her to be independent. “I began to feel very claustrophobic” during the war, she said. “I would do a lot of stuff alone,” such as riding her bicycle to the end of Jersey, looking out to sea, and asking, “What is on the other side of that horizon?”

Denize worked for the local phone company after the war. She learned that Australia and Canada were encouraging emigration; when she turned 18, Denize asked her father for permission

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(continued on page 56)

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(continued from page 55)

to move to Canada.

In October 1952 her mother accompanied her to Liverpool and waved her handkerchief as her ship pulled away from the dock. After the ship arrived in Montreal, Denize caught a train to Toronto. She was hired by the phone company and lived in Toronto for 10 years, returning to Jersey every three years to visit her family for a few months.

In time Denize moved to New York State and lived on Long Island. She was working as an import-export traffic manager; needing freight transported to and from the docks, she hired a trucker named Harry Gauler.

He taught Denize how to ride a motorcycle in 1977; she acquired a Kawasaki 400 KZ “with a little fairing and some boxes on the back, just like a big old motorcycle,” and Harry rode a 1977 Kawasaki 900 police bike. Denize commuted to work on her motorcycle; when the weather was nice on

After taking her long drive in 1998, “I decided, ‘I’m coming home to Maine.’” she recalled.

Buying the Cambridge house, she moved to Maine in April 1999 “and never looked back.”

Saturdays, the Gaulers went for long rides just “for the sheer joy of riding,” Denize said.

For Harry’s 50th birthday in 1981, Denize offered to take him for a fourday weekend wherever he wanted to go in the continental United States. The Gaulers visited Arizona, which Harry described as “marvelous riding country”; he wanted to move there and buy some land.

Then Harry unexpectedly died 10 days before the land became available.

Denize gave his bike to his brother, “sold his truck, and learned to live as a widow.” By now a member of a few motorcycle clubs (including the Blue Knights), she participated in weekend rides from Long Island to other points in the Northeast. Riding a 1982 Honda Gold Wing she had bought on sale, she participated in a ride “up to Maine,” where the bikers stayed at the University of Maine before traveling to Quebec and returning to Long Island.

“These long rides, you see the country,” Denize said. In 1982 she rode with some Blue Knights to Lake George, New York for the Aspencade (now Americade) motorcycle rally. Three years later, Denize won the competition for the title “Queen of the Rally”; she “got to lead the parade through town.”

Denize started thinking about moving from Long Island (with its high taxes) to “a nice place to live [that] I can afford.” Selling her house in Au-

ACE DRYWALL & FRAMING • METAL & STICK FRAMING

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57

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

gust 1986, she “set off on a gypsy tour, looking for a new home; all I had to my name was a post office box and a friend who would check it every few days.

“I had no destination and the rest of the summer to get there,” Denize recalled. She rode “just a little less than 20,000 miles through 36 states” before returning to New York that December.

“I was meeting people and talking to them in their own hometowns,” she said. Taking notes, she compiled “a list of ‘come-back’ towns.”

Denize bought a home in Daytona, Florida in winter 1987 and lived there for seven years. “I had people crashing on my floor for the next seven years, every Bike Week,” she recalled.

She visited the Isle of Jersey whenever possible; as her father aged, Denize sold her Florida home and her motorcycles and moved to Jersey to care for him during the last four years of his life. When he died, Denize and her

sister flew to the United States and explored parts of the United States; they even took an Alaska cruise.

After her sister returned to Jersey, Denize traveled to Long Island to visit friends, only to learn they had moved to Cambridge in Maine. She came to Maine in 1998 and looked at a Cambridge property that “used to be the old carriage house for the local inn.”

Taking photos of the house, Denize headed out for a long ride across Canada and the United States. She now traveled in a vehicle; while on a 1995 motorcycle ride through Colorado to Utah, she was caught in a snowstorm in Eagle Canyon.

She pulled into Moab, Utah when the temperature was “111 [degrees] in the shade.” she got sick, recovered sufficiently to drive her motorcycle to Lubbock, Texas and sold it to a dealer.

Denize bought a car and never rode a motorcycle again.

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* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

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After taking her long drive in 1998, “I decided, ‘I’m coming home to Maine.’” she recalled. Buying the Cambridge house, she moved to Maine in April 1999 “and never looked back.”

Small-town living in rural Maine “is the closest thing to what I knew in [the Isle of] Jersey growing up,” Denize said. “You know all the neighbors, all the neighbors know you.”

She does miss motorcycling. “You experience everything that is on the road” when on a bike, she said.

“Every time I meet up with somebody on a motorcycle, I ask them to ride a mile for me,” Denize said.

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58

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

Crazy Like A Fox The Lincoln, Maine Ponzi scheme

by Jeffrey Bradley

A

s fox fur became a big business, methods of collecting their pelts other than running a trap line were needed. Farm-raised foxes possess a silkier, more luxurious fur than their wild cousins, and it quickly became a fashion. Black fox was especially striking, but the hands-down “aristocrat” was silver fox, which could sell for upwards of $10,000.00.

Farming foxes was a messy business. Besides the actual culling, they lived in cramped conditions in high wire cages. Disease, stress, even cannibalism was rampant, but before the days of animal rights, nobody really cared.

Enter one Frank H. Gordon, erstwhile dentist, with some unconventional ideas for making raising foxes pay.

He operated fox farms, in a manner of speaking, throughout Maine, with one

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in Easton, and other into parts of New England. But the holdings were mostly for show. What his business really consisted of was more the idea of selling furs than actually selling the foxes.

The Katahdin Black Fox Company that Frank opened in 1922 was really a classic Ponzi scheme.

Starting out with just 17 pairs of foxes, within two years Frank held contracts worth $2,500,000.00. The way it worked went something like this: an investor would “buy” a pair of foxes for $2000 — Frank did the raising and breeding — then “sell” the pups back — guaranteed two a year — for $1500 apiece. (That’s 75 per cent re-

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59

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com turn on the investment.). But the genius lay in selling fractional parts of the same pair of foxes, which made them a lot more valuable — to Frank! The catch, of course, was that sooner or later the dividends would fall due. And by the end of 1924 Frank owed his investors a million dollars. In this kind of a scheme, paying creditors obliges the promoter to find a steady stream of new clients. This money goes to paying the dividends. Frank, with no intention of paying anything, possessed a remarkable talent for self-promotion.

It was said that Frank had character, and all bad. Put another way, this was a man of uncommon complexity. Under duress from those looming payments, he played the part of an affable entrepreneur. Even knowing that he would be filing for receivership (money might be recouped through a liquidation) didn’t faze him. He turned up next at a gala event with the director of the Maine Music Festival, Professor Wil-

liam R Chapman — as his partner! The professor hosted musical extravaganzas on his Shelburne, New Hampshire estate that attracted chorus groups from all over Maine. Somehow, Frank finagled his foxes onto the program. (The foxy fox breeder had already beguiled the naïve professor into selling another estate in Bethel, Maine, to develop into a fox farm — which outraged Mainer music aficionados everywhere as this was a prominent concert venue.). So here was fast Frank, grinning and posing for the movie cameras, and giving guided tours of his silvery foxes to gawking festival-goers, and conducting, in his zany way, a kind of ‘meetthe-foxes-in-boxes’ music rendition.

The Lewiston Evening Journal of September 12, 1924, breathily explains it: ONE THOUSAND ATTEND ANNUAL CHAPMAN PICNIC! Breaks All Records — Festival Guests Inspect Fox Farm — Moving Pictures Made of Fox Farm

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“I have been going at a double rate,” gushed Mrs. Chapman (the professor’s wife) to her enthralled audience. “Festival, and foxes, and fortissimo.”

If only the giddy Mrs. Chapman knew what that crafty Frank Gordon had up his sleeve. Her beloved estate was to become a fox farm.

Frank was quick to put this new fame to use. Announcing plans to purchase a silver-black fox farm in Massachusetts, he exulted that it had “the world’s biggest electric sign.” A short time later, the sign went ominously dark.

The man was on a roll, but cracks were developing under his feet. Those pesky dividends were falling due, for one thing. His answer: on the last day of December, 1924, Frank H Gordon, Inc., was duly incorporated. But one scheme too many was being juggled, and it all came crashing down. On November 13, 1925, a dejected Lewiston Evening Journal reported just how far things had fallen since that “breaks all (continued on page 60)

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60

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 59)

records” fox and music fest: LITTLE IS LEFT OF THE GORDON FOX FARM EXTENSIVE PURCHASES Doctor Gordon bought extensively and lavishly but there’s little left for receivers…not good news for investors. However, like all Frank’s entanglements, these contracts were mostly smoke and mirrors, filled with “options,” “trade agreements” and legalistic doublespeak for keeping as little money as possible from changing hands. The “purchases” proved worthless, and the titles remained with the owners (no doubt leaving the fluttery Mrs. Chapman to heave a sigh of relief). The man of “silver black fox ranching fame turned out to own nothing more than the “fox plant” in Lincoln he started with. It was not deeds he held but zero assets.

As the Evening Journal ruefully observed, “there were heard from the

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first whisperings that it was a bubble that would burst,” lamenting over the fox-king with the Midas touch leaving a tangle of “fox ranch wreckage.”

Incredibly, Frank wasn’t finished.

Ignoring reality, he pressed forward his liquidation sale. To foil the legal hounds hot on his heels, he peppered his corporate trail with shenanigans designed to confuse and delay. His chutzpah knew no bounds. Katahdin Black Fox Company ads began to appear in magazines extolling “the large profits certain to be made” from fox farming.

Qualms were brushed aside with the compelling, if dubious, statement that investors would be dealing with “one of Maine’s foremost fox men.”

But time, like sand in an hourglass, finally runs out. A Federal court, frowning severely on attempts to incorporate, hide assets, and bamboozle the creditors, promptly found Frank a bankrupt and seized the liquidation sale pro-

ceeds. A trustee was appointed to decode the disaster but successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to do it for him. On December 13, 1928, a blurb appeared in the Berkeley Daily Gazette that fairly well sums it up: A case arising from a $3,000,000.00 black-fox farming project cited by lower courts as a Ponzi scheme in which between 3,000 and 4,000 persons invested money has just arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court from Maine.

You know how courts are. A ruling was handed down based on obscure legal meanings that affected the outcome of Doctor Frank vs. Outraged Investor hardly at all. And here the trail grows cold; but whatever else happened to Dr. Frank H. Gordon, it’s certain that his goose was cooked. Or, more to the point, his fox got skinned.

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62

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

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63

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

Tales Of Towering Pines

by Brian Swartz

The history of Patten’s township

F

orget the sign post at the south edge of town: When traveling north on Route 11 “above” Sherman, I know I’ve reached Patten when Mount Katahdin and its precipitous neighbors hove into view west of Ash Hill.

Years ago, a wise highway engineer designed a scenic turnout on the west side of Route 11 about 3 miles south of downtown Patten. I cannot resist turning into the turnout and stepping from the truck to relish Maine’s version of a Grand Teton view.

Nothing blocks it. Fields roll downhill toward the distant woods, beyond

which Katahdin lifts its glacier-carved eastern flank (including the Great Basin) above the western horizon. Flexing their rugged summits alongside Katahdin, other mountains (including South Turner, which I have hiked) thrust above the horizon, too.

For those privileged to visit Jackson Hole in Wyoming, does not this incredible view of the Baxter peaks resemble that of the saw-toothed Grand Tetons, albeit on a lesser scale?

I wonder if Amos Patten saw a similar view when (or if) he visited Township 4, Range 6. Did the surveyors he sent to find valuable white pine in his

latest property acquisition see Mount Katahdin as passersby do today?

Probably not. As they are wont to do in northern Penobscot County, trees covered T4R6 nineteen centuries ago, and except for the occasional natural meadow, blow down, or acreage burned flat by a wildfire, open ground was probably difficult to find.

Amos Patten had already decided to change that fact, though.

Named for Old Testament characters, brothers Amos and Moses Patten played influential roles in the early history of Bangor. Successful merchants, (continued on next page 65)

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64

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

~ Patten celebrates 175 years ~ FRANK LANDRY & SONS, INC.

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65

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (continued from page 63)

they served as selectmen (the voters really liked Moses), and Amos became the town clerk in 1801.

Then James Monroe got the bright idea of convincing Congress to declare war on Britain in 1812, and British troops marched into Bangor in early September 1814 to seize ships, mercantile goods, and just about everything else of value. The Brits sailed away to Castine and left the Patten brothers and other Bangor merchants financially ruined.

But Amos and Moses bounded back.

District of Maine residents were livid that Massachusetts had done little to defend its northern possessions during the recently concluded war. The General Court of Massachusetts viewed Maine as a bottomless pit into which Boston poured money — so if Maine wanted to go its separate way, then good riddance!

Much of the new state was divided into townships that usually measured

36 square miles (6 miles on a side).

Reports often reached Bangor about the massive white pines growing in the headwaters of the Mattawamkeag River.

Maine-grown white pine was valued for use as lumber and ships’ masts.

Amos Patten learned that white pine particularly abounded in T4R6; in this portion of Maine, townships were numbered from east to west, starting at the ill-defined border with New Brunswick.

Reports and maps suggested that pine logs harvested in T4R6 could be floated downstream via the Mattawamkeag watershed. The sawmills sprouting in Old Town, Orono, Bangor, and Brewer lusted for the valuable white pine; with customers already available for his logs, Amos Patten negotiated a deal to buy T4R6 for 20 cents an acre in 1828.

He did not quite get a square deal, however. “Maine townships are 6 miles

square, but Patten isn’t,” Patten historian Doug Campbell explained.

He indicated that T4R6 measured 6-by-5¾-by 5¾-by 5-2/3 miles in size and totaled 22,400 acres rather than 23,040 acres. So Patten paid $4,480 for his township instead of the $4,608 he would have paid for a full-size township.

But he still got a real good deal.

Not a young man in 1828, Patten hired Ira Fish, Eli Kellogg, and Samuel Wiggin to survey T4R6 and find that valuable white pine. Traveling in the spring when melting snow provided higher water levels on Maine waterways, the three men paddled their canoes up the Penobscot to its confluence with the Mattawamkeag River.

They followed that river as far as Mattawamkeag Lake, then ascended Fish Stream to a point past the marked boundaries of T4R6.

“What they saw there on that beau(continued on page 66)

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66

Penobscot-Piscataquis-Hancock Counties

(continued from page 65)

tiful day in May made them stand in absolute awe,” according to Campbell.

“Towering above them were white pine over a vast area, standing 150 feet to 200 feet tall!”

If Amos Patten had stepped from a canoe at the same place, he would have quickly calculated the financial value of the white pines he could see: imagine his eyes flashing dollar signs as he thought, “Ka-ching! Ka-ching!”

Fish, Kellogg, and Wiggin finished their timber survey and “went back to Patten brimming over with excitement as to what they had found,” Campbell indicated.

The three men asked Patten if he would let them “establish farms there,” noted Campbell.

Amos Patten would — and did.

Settlers offered him several advantages, including available labor to cut his white pines and move the logs downriver, plus many pairs of eyes attentive to any attempted timber poaching.

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“Caught up by their contagious report,” Amos Patten “told the three men they could clear land and establish homes there,” Campbell indicated. In 1829, “Fish and Wiggin came back and built log cabins at the foot of Mill Hill.

Kellogg came a little later.

“David Lowe cut the first tree in Patten” in 1829, and by the next year a rough trail ran from T4R6 to Mattawamkeag, according to Campbell.

“The first white woman, Ellen Blake, and her three-month-old daughter, Sarah, made the trip on horse back” to the township in 1830.

“Her husband, Henry Blake, had preceded her and had a cabin well under construction,” Campbell noted.

“Others soon followed, cabins were built, trees cut down and burned, and crops grew around the burnt stumps.”

Township 4, Range 6 was becoming something — specifically the Town of Patten, incorporated in 1841 and named for Amos.

• Do you enjoy brian swartz’s historical stories?

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DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS BUSINESS

PAGE

A.E. Robinson Oil Co., Inc. ......................................................40 Aaron M. Graves General Contractor ...................................51 Abbot Pawn Shop .................................................................7 Abbott Insulation Plus ............................................................9 ABM Mechanical, Inc. .........................................................27 Access Auto .........................................................................59 Ace Drywall & Framing .........................................................56 Action Septic Service .............................................................34 Advanced Hypnosis Center P.A. .........................................18 Affordable Restaurant Equipment ........................................13 Aire Serv Heating & Air Conditioning ....................................44 Albert Fitzpatrick ...................................................................66 All Aspects Handyman Services ...........................................21 Ambit Energy ..........................................................................10 Ames Construction Inc. ..........................................................39 Amherst General Store & Restaurant ...................................14 Amity Webs & Professional Services .....................................62 Andy’s Auto Repair Full Service Repair Shop ......................50 Art’s RV Repair & Service, Inc. ...........................................60 Auto Radiator Service ..........................................................27 Bagaduce Music Lending Library ........................................17 Bangor Frameworks ..............................................................10 Bangor Tire Company .............................................................27 Bangor Truck and Trailer Sales, Inc. ...................................11 Bangor Window Shade & Drapery Co. ...............................24 Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce ...................................49 Bates Fuel, Inc. ....................................................................65 Bear Paw Inn ........................................................................45 Birmingham Plumbing & Heating .........................................26 Blackwell Insurance Agency ...................................................5 Blaze Restaurants ...................................................................24 Bob & Tom’s Gun Shop ..........................................................61 Bolster’s Rubbish & Recycling ..............................................52 Bowden Marine Service .........................................................49 Bowers Funeral Home ..........................................................66 Bowman Mini Storage ..........................................................52 Boyce’s Motel .........................................................................18 Bradley Redemption Center ...................................................19 Brewer Veterinary Clinic, PA ................................................28 Brookings-Smith .......................................................................4 Brooks Tire & Auto & U-SAVE Car & Truck Rental ....................39 Bryant Stove & Music, Inc. .....................................................51 Bucksport Bay Area Chamber of Commerce .......................48 Bucksport Golf Club ..............................................................48 Bucksport Monuments & Sandblasting ................................33 Bucksport True Value ..............................................................7 Bud’s Shop ‘N Save Supermarkets ......................................37 Buffalo Ride-In Restaurant ....................................................45 C&I Custom Builders, LLC ....................................................44 C&J Variety ..........................................................................57 C&J York Electric, Inc. ...........................................................29 C.A. Newcomb & Sons Fence & Guardrail Company .............50 Call Construction ...................................................................22 Cantrell Seafood ...................................................................37 Caron & Son Screening Company ........................................5 Carousel Diversified Services .............................................19 Carroll Drug Store ...............................................................49 Cary Brown Trucking & Excavating ....................................61 Central Maine Smiles .............................................................5 City of Old Town ...................................................................20 Clay Funeral Home ..............................................................60 Clay GMC-Chevrolet of Lincoln ............................................59 Clouston Trucking ....................................................................9 CMD Power Systems ...........................................................12 Coach House Restaurant ......................................................13 Coastline Homes .....................................................................6 Cold Stream Storage .............................................................58 Complete Denture Center ....................................................28 Complete Tire Service, Inc. ...................................................17 Concord Coach Lines ..........................................................23 Corinna Auto Body ..............................................................52 Country Junction Greenhouse & Garden ...........................58 Covered Bridge Motel ..........................................................42 Cowan’s Service Station, Inc. ..............................................13 Cox Law Offices ...................................................................38 Crandall’s Hardware .............................................................62 Crossroads Motel & Restaurant ...........................................61 Cummings Health Care Facility, Inc. ......................................43 D&D Paving, Inc. ..................................................................44 D.A. Carson Carpentry, Inc. ..................................................19 D.C. Auto Electric Heavy Duty Machine Shop Service.........65 D.C. Welding & Fabrication ....................................................16 David Schofield Carpentry .................................................32 Dean’s Automotive & Small Engine .................................47 Designed Living Kitchen Showroom & Home Center ............42 DeWitt-Jones Realty .............................................................43 Dexter Lumber Company ....................................................53 Doane Foundations & Construction ......................................48 Dorsey Furniture .....................................................................4 Dover Audiology and Hearing Aid Sales ........................39 Dover True Value Hardware ...................................................55 Dr. Durwin Libby, DMD .....................................................44 E.A. Pearl Concrete ..............................................................37 Eagle Arboriculture ................................................................31 Eagle’s Lodge Motel ..............................................................31 East Grand Health Center ...................................................61 Eastern Maine Shooting Supplies, Inc. ................................57 Ellis’ Greenhouse and Nursery .............................................57 Ellsworth Chain Saw ...............................................................49 Ellsworth Moose Lodge .........................................................16 Elwood Downs Incorporated .................................................60 Enfield Citgo & Service Center ...........................................58 Eric Curtis / Back Yard Joe ......................................................56 Evelyn Farrar - Ambit Energy Independent Consultant .......10 Evergreen Auto Salvage ......................................................41 Exeter Country Store ...........................................................54

BUSINESS

PAGE

F.A. Peabody Company ........................................................6 Far Out Foreign Auto ........................................................54 Finelli New York Style Pizzeria ...........................................16 Francis Cormier Construction .............................................18 Frank Landry & Sons, Inc. ................................................64 Frankfort Automotive ..........................................................53 Frank’s Bake Shop & Custom Catering .............................27 Freightliner of Maine Inc. .......................................................7 Frost Septic & Sons LLC .....................................................9 Frost’s Garage Inc. .............................................................29 General Rental Center ...........................................................8 Gerald Pelletier Inc. ...........................................................46 Gina L. Nadeau, EA ............................................................63 Gordius Garage & Island Motors .....................................50 Greater Northern Paving ......................................................24 Green Door Framing ...........................................................55 Guagus Enterprises ............................................................30 H.C. Haynes, Inc. ..............................................................61 Haley Power Services .........................................................35 Hammond Lumber Company ..............................................23 Hampden Antique Mall ........................................................14 Hampden Redemption Center .............................................13 Hanington Bros., Inc. ...........................................................62 Hannaford Bar Harbor .........................................................34 Hannaford Bucksport ...........................................................48 Hannaford Ellsworth ............................................................17 Hannaford Lincoln .................................................................59 Harmon’s ..............................................................................39 Harold’s Transmission Repairs, Inc. .................................15 Heanssler Oil Co. ................................................................18 Herring Brothers Meats .......................................................57 Hilton Garden Inn Bangor ..................................................22 Hogan Tire ............................................................................65 Home Care for Maine ..........................................................37 Hot & Cold Electric ..............................................................33 Houston-Brooks Auctioneers .................................................6 Howard Johnson Inn & Restaurant - Bangor .....................12 HW Dunn & Son Inc. ...........................................................16 Island Auto Repair ..............................................................34 Island Fishing Gear & Auto Parts .........................................47 Island Nursing Home ..........................................................32 J&J Auto & Recycling ..........................................................13 JKA Motor Sports, Cars & Trucks .....................................16 J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC Excavating Contractors..............45 J. Wilbur Construction ..........................................................55 J.D. Brawn Inc. ...................................................................55 J.M. Brown Construction General Contractor, Inc. ...........27 Jackson’s Automotive, Inc. .................................................21 JB Logging ............................................................................51 Jerry’s Shurfine ...................................................................63 Jimar Construction Products LLC .........................................26 Jim’s Small Engines ............................................................28 John Firth Builders ...............................................................41 John R. Crooker Agency Insurance .....................................48 John Williams Construction ..................................................30 Johnson Foundations ..........................................................39 Jon D. Woodward & Son, Inc. ...........................................17 Just Barb’s Restaurant .......................................................35 Katahdin Health Care .........................................................63 Katahdin Valley Real Estate .................................................46 Keith Mitchell & Sons Trucking ............................................63 Kimball Insurance, L.L.C. .....................................................56 King’s Appliances & Floor Coverings ................................52 Knight’s Grocer ....................................................................61 L.A. Dow & Sons Construction ..............................................47 L.H. Martin Mini Construction ............................................34 LaBelle Electric ....................................................................19 LandJet Transporter LLC ...................................................31 Law Office of Charles W. Hodsdon II .................................9 Levesque Business Solutions ............................................21 Lincoln Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce .................59 Lincoln Powersports ............................................................59 Lindsey Foundations Inc. ....................................................19 Linkletter & Sons, Inc. .........................................................6 Lovell’s Guilford Hardware & Building Supplies ....................41 Magoon’s Transportation & Energy, Inc. .........................15 Magoon Realty, Inc. ..............................................................15 Maine Alternative Solutions, Inc. .......................................57 Maine Cedar Specialty Products ........................................65 Maine Collision Center ........................................................26 Maine Energy Inc. ...............................................................26 Maine Equipment Company .................................................4 Maine Highlands Federal Credit Union ................................39 Maine Historical Society .........................................................4 Maine House Home Furnishings and Gifts, Inc. .................43 Maritime International ..........................................................22 Martin Dow Construction ......................................................64 Maynard’s In Maine .............................................................42 McKusick Petroleum Co. ...................................................39 McLeod Water Wells ..........................................................29 Merle B. Grindle Agency .....................................................32 Midas Auto .............................................................................3 Mike Stevens Plumbing .......................................................38 Milford Motel ..........................................................................8 Morall Brake & more ............................................................11 Motor Supply Co. ..................................................................6 Newport Glass ....................................................................38 North Woods Real Estate ....................................................45 Northeast Applicators LLC .....................................................5 Oakfield Railroad Museum ...................................................64 Oakley Hutchins & Son .......................................................47 Old Creamery Art & Antique Mall ........................................30 Oliver’s Heating & Plumbing LLC ......................................27 Osborne’s Plumbing & Heating, Inc. ..................................33 Page Farm & Home Museum ..............................................21 Paredes Painting & Pressure Washing, LLC........................14

BUSINESS

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Pat’s Pizza Orono, Hampden & Holden ..............................21 Patten Drug Co. ..................................................................63 Patten Lumbermen’s Museum ...........................................64 Penobscot Marine Museum ................................................36 Perkco Supply, Inc. ..............................................................54 Perry O’Brian, Attorney at Law .............................................10 Peter Qualey, Broker ..........................................................46 Philip Barter Studio Gallery .................................................30 Pine Grove Crematorium ........................................................4 Pray’s Service Station & Motel ............................................53 Professional Web Design ..................................................62 R.J. Morin, Inc. Mechanical Contractor ...............................7 Ray McPherson - Master Carpenter .................................54 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. ............................28 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. .............................46 Real Pro Painting House Painting Contractor ...................60 Red’s Automotive ................................................................35 Results Physical Therapy ..................................................10 Rideout’s Seasonal Services ................................................55 Right Hook Towing ..............................................................57 River Cafe ...........................................................................63 River’s Edge Motel .............................................................46 Robbins Auto & Truck Repair ..............................................14 Rob’s True Value.....................................................................7 Rocky Shore Realty ............................................................14 Rogan’s Memorials ..............................................................33 Roger’s Market Inc. ............................................................58 Rollin’s Orchards ...................................................................53 Route 2 Antique Mall Antiques & Collectibles ...............50 Rowell’s Garage Sales & Service and Car Wash .............56 Royal Flush Septic ..............................................................34 Rumery’s Marine ................................................................30 S.O.B. Oil & Earthworks Co., LLC .....................................58 Sara Sara’s ........................................................................32 Savage Paint & Body ...........................................................46 Scootic In Restaurant ...........................................................62 Seawall Motel .....................................................................35 Sebasticook Family Doctors ...............................................38 Shady Oaks Campground & Cabins ....................................47 Shin Pond Village ..............................................................64 Shorey Oil Inc. .....................................................................38 Sign Services Incorporated of Maine ......................................35 Snow’s Saw Shop .................................................................55 Solar Marine LLC ...............................................................32 Solartechnic Contractors Inc. .............................................54 STEaD Timberlands, LLC ...................................................62 Steinke & Caruso Dental Care ..............................................5 Stepping Stone Farm.............................................................50 Stewart’s Wrecker Service ..................................................29 Stone Plumbing & Heating ..................................................51 Stone Sparrow Cafe ...............................................................9 Stonington Lobster Co-op ..................................................47 Storage Plus ..........................................................................31 Sturdi-Bilt Storage Buildings, LLC..........................................7 Sullivan Granite Co. .............................................................14 Sullivan’s Wrecker Service ..................................................19 Summit Sound Home Audio & Theatre ............................12 Sweet Seniors Guest House .............................................62 Swett’s Tire & Auto ................................................................3 T&R Automotive and Small Engine Repair .........................16 T&W Garage .........................................................................37 Tax Resolution Doctor, Inc. ..................................................8 The Curran Homestead Living History Farm & Museum .......23 The Good Kettle ....................................................................35 The Granite Shop ..................................................................33 The Gravel Doctor .................................................................25 The Homestead Lodge ..........................................................45 The Maine Store ....................................................................51 The Pioneer Place, USA / Country General Store ...................64 The Tax Clinic ...........................................................................8 Thomas Logging & Forestry, Inc. ..........................................41 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor - Brewer ...........................28 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor - Millinocket .....................46 Thompson Funeral Home & Cremation Service ...................55 Tideway Market ....................................................................15 Town of Enfield ......................................................................58 Town of Hampden ..................................................................29 Town of Lincoln .....................................................................45 Town of Mars Hill ...................................................................66 Traction Heavy Duty Parts ...................................................29 Tradewinds Market - Milo ......................................................41 Transition Hair & Tanning ......................................................60 Tri City Pizza .........................................................................11 Tucker Auto Repair ...............................................................15 United Country Lifestyle Properties of Maine ........................46 Vancil Vision Care .................................................................48 Varney’s Newport Ford .........................................................52 Vintage Maine Images .............................................................4 Wardwell Construction & Trucking Corp. ...............................49 Wardwell Oil ...........................................................................17 Ware’s Power Equipment .....................................................60 West End Drug Co. ...............................................................34 West’s Coastal Connection ....................................................3 Wheaton’s Lodge ..................................................................44 Whited Peterbilt ....................................................................24 Whitten’s 2-Way Service, Inc. ..............................................28 Williams & Taplin Well Drilling Services ................................18 Williams Welding ...................................................................56 Wing Wah Restaurant ............................................................59 Winn Equipment & Parts .....................................................44 Winter Harbor Food Service .................................................15 Witham Family Hotels ..............................................Back Cover Woolen Mill Primitives ..........................................................53 XL Air Heating & Cooling ....................................................26 York’s of Houlton ....................................................................65

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