Western maine 2017

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Volume 26 | Issue 4 | 2017

Maine’s History Magazine

15,000 Circulation

Western Maine

Winthrop’s Island Park Dance Hall Trolley line lured more riders

South Casco’s Opening Day At The Manning Ballfield Farmington Fair Our own lil’ field of dreams

Elvis Presley’s Augusta concert

www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine

Western Maine

Inside This Edition

2 3

I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley

5

The Little Engines That Did The hard-working B&SR narrow gauge railroad served rugged Western Maine Jeffrey Bradley

9

Discovering Spring The season brings a breath of new life Leon Anderson

12 Winthrop’s Island Park Dance Hall Trolley line lured more riders

Brian Swartz 16 South Casco’s Manning Ballfield Our own lil’ field of dreams

David M. Carew 22 The Central Maine General Hospital Story Created by a dedicated community

Charles Francis 26 The Ordeal Of Peggy Forbes A journey of suffering

Charles Francis 34 Norway’s Amazing Snowshoes Once made by the tens of thousands

Jeffrey Bradley 38 Cordwainers And Cobblers

An elite group of craftsmen

Charles Francis 44 Opening Day At The Farmington Fair Still going strong after 177 years Brian Swartz 48 The Kingfield Riot Adapted from “Maine at War”

Brian Swartz 52 T he Genealogy Corner Preserving family stories

Charles Francis 60 The Hathaway Shirt Man Waterville businessman strikes it big

Charles Francis 64 The Black Ghost Of Maine Oquossoc’s Herbert Welch - a fly tying genius John Murray 69 Skowhegan Is Rich In History Memories of the past

BJ Bangs

Maine’s History Magazine

Western Maine

Publisher & Editor Jim Burch

Layout & Design Liana Merdan

Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield

Advertising & Sales Julian Bither Dennis Burch Tim Maxfield Zackary Rouda

Office Manager Liana Merdan

Field Representatives Dale Hanington George Tatro

Contributing Writers

Leon Anderson BJ Bangs Jeffrey Bradley David M. Carew Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca John Murray James Nalley Brian Swartz Published Annually by CreMark, Inc. 10 Exchange Street, Suite 208 Portland, Maine 04101 Ph (207) 874-7720 info@discovermainemagazine.com www.discovermainemagazine.com Discover Maine Magazine is distributed to town offices, chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, lumber companies, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine.

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Front Cover Photo:

Child in carriage in East Dixfield. Item # LB2007.1.100580 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Western Maine edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine.

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

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It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

A

nyone who follows World War II history is probably well aware that the U.S. government sent German prisoners of war (POWs) to remote locations in western and northern Maine. As a quick reminder, Maine Congresswoman Margaret Chase Smith, among others, lobbied to have German POWs sent to Maine in order to relieve the shortage of laborers in the paper mills and farms, since many Mainers had left for the war effort. Although there were some initial protests by the locals, approximately 4,000 POWs arrived in Maine in 1944, with roughly 300 sent to the Spencer Lake facility. However, after eight months of relatively acceptable treatment, three men (i.e., Horst Schlueter, Atone Geib, and Franz Keller) grabbed what they could and fled into the surrounding snow-covered woods.

Under the relatively relaxed environment at Spencer Lake, no one actually noticed that they were gone until that evening’s roll call. According to Ron Joseph in Down East magazine, “The trio fashioned crude snowshoes from rail ties and short boards, making harnesses out of discarded leather belts…They were armed with home-

made knives…and a compass, made from a sewing needle, a magnetized electrical coil, and a tin top from a can of peaches.”

Their plan: head straight toward the coast and board a ship headed out of the country.

Over the next several days, surveillance planes circled the area, and members of the Maine State Police and sheriff’s office trudged through the snow looking for clues.

Meanwhile, the three men traveled at night and constructed makeshift huts from snow and branches. After three days, the police had requested the help of a local man named Bill Hall, who generally kept to himself in a one-room cabin located nearby. First, in order to thwart any future escape attempts, he promptly killed a deer, placed its organs into a sack, and dumped the bloody remains over the barbed wire fence into the POW camp. His peculiar plan was to give the impression that it was one of the former escapee’s remains. However, according to Joseph, “Hall tried to punctuate his point with a German phrase that he had learned the previous day. ‘Binden sie ihre schuhe,’ he growled through the fence. What Hall thought he said was ‘Let this be a lesson to you,’ but his interpreter corrected him.

He had just announced, ‘Tie your shoes.’”

Despite his faux pas, Hall advised the officials to head toward West Forks, where he correctly assumed that the three men would be unable to cross the icy Kennebec River. On March 12, 1945, after five days on the run, the three men were apprehended, just 12 miles from their starting point.

Well, on this note, allow me to close with the following jest: An English POW was held by the Germans. One day, the German said, “Englander, your arm is infected and vee must cut it off.” The English prisoner said, “Okay, but could you drop it over England on your next bombing run?” “No problem,” replied the German. A few weeks later, the German tells the Englishman that they have to cut off his other arm and a leg for the same reason, after which the Englishman asks, “Well, could you drop them over England like last time?” “Ya,” replied the German. Later, the German says that they have to cut off his other leg. “Well, could you…” Then the German snapped, “No! Vee think you are trying to escape!”

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The Little Engines That Did The hard-working B&SR narrow gauge railroad served rugged Western Maine

by Jeffrey Bradley

“

The thing about trains is, it doesn’t matter where they’re going. It’s deciding to get on.”

— the Polar Express

The tiny trains that ran on rails only two feet apart were vital economic engines at the turn of the 20th century.

Between 1870 and the 1940s, at their peak, five narrow gauge railroads operated over 200 miles of track, providing a commercial link that connected the rural sections with the rest of Maine.

Western Maine is big country with a small population, rich in natural resources. The narrow gauge “two-footers” proved ideal as a cost effective method of hauling people and products in and out of the area. Although they may have appeared as toy trains, they

were anything but.

George Mansfield of Massachusetts was impressed by the two-foot railroad he found on a visit to Wales. Back in America, he established the first commercial narrow gauge line in 1875.

Next, he tuned his hand to the B&SR — the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad — chartered in 1881. Construction on the original 16-mile road began in Hiram and was finished in just six months.

Seven years later, the line was extended to Harrison. Taken over in 1912 by the Maine Central, it still later became the Bridgton & Harrison Railway Company.

Standard gauge railroad track measures 4-feet 8½-inches wide. These are the rails the steam locomotives

thundered over in taming the western plains. But the engines’ sheer size, their need for wide, sweeping curves, and the upkeep of the intricate bridges and trestles that carried their heavy weight over the many waterways, made them impractical for interior Maine’s topography. Miniaturized versions evolved instead to run on track just 2’ wide.

Quickly becoming a regional mainstay, these Lilliputian lines hauled freight and passengers across the marshes and through the woods and up and over the mountains while passing hamlets and towns and tiny farmsteads before they reached the cities. Built and maintained at a far less cost, these durable little railroads ably picked up the slack. (continued on page 7)

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (continued from page 5) The 21-mile B&SR, which threaded a watery landscape of ponds and streams and bluewater lakes, was among the most colorful. Some still remember riding its narrow rails past the stations of Rankin’s Mills, Twin Lake, West Sebago and Mullen’s Siding, while they skirted Barker, Hancock and Wood Ponds, Highland Lake and Long Lake, as they followed the Saco River north. In the 1930s, Camp Accomac on Peabody Pond drew crowds of city kids that arrived by train in the summer.

Reports tell of them hanging from windows, grabbing at the passing brush, and finding the “Dinky” a neat little ride. Trains ran through this remote setting twice a day, and for some it was the only chance they’d have of experiencing a wider, more romantic world — such as distant Brownfield Junction!

A case could be made for not building the line at all, as the trains were a long time coming to Bridgton. Endless

proposals for alternate routes, shouting matches, and a series of back-room deals had to occur before the town voted to purchase some railroad stock. The line cost $200,000, and the first cars rolled into the Bridgton Depot in January 1883.

Even after passenger service declined — a brief flurry of nostalgia increased ridership in the 1930s — the line continued to haul freight. But in time, the hard-working Bridgton & Saco became the hardly-working Bridgton & Harrison, then a historical ride, and then it was gone. Highways and cars, and the Great Depression, mostly did the railroad in. In 1941, a fit of Yankee practicality had sold and moved the line in its entirety to a cranberry bog in Massachusetts. There it continued to move product and tourists around the fields until everything returned to Portland in 1993.

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railroad, although there were some notable features: • The rail yard in Bridgton was located at the turn of Depot Street on a parcel of four and a half acres.

• An impressive trestle near the Harrison Station along the shores of Long Lake lead on to the “northern terminus.”

• In a black and white photo an idled B&SR steam engine is dwarfed by a Maine Central standard-size locomotive on a parallel track. Only a stretch of old roadbed and a turntable pit now mark the site of this once-busy yard at Bridgton Junction.

• “The Notch,” a rock cut on the long grade between Bridgton Junction and the Bridgton Depot, was 600 feet above sea level. In winter it was cleared of snow using pickaxes and shovels.

• A stone arch at Hancock Brook stood for well over a century before being sold to a collector. (continued on page 8)

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(continued from page 7) • The steel girder bridge along Stevens Brook remained in place for 60 years after the railroad’s demise.

• A “Y” track a ½ mile south of the Bridgton Depot expanded the line to stations in North Bridgton and Harrison • Tracks laid down along Portland Street ran past Pondicherry Mill and the Farmers Exchange then headed through Lower Main Street to the western shore of Long Lake.

Today, many people love that world where the old trains ran, though it has almost disappeared. Some were young then, and collect old schedules or ride the narrow gauge rails of the old two-footers now by way of keeping their memories alive. For a younger generation, trains represent an imaginary yet vital past of the way America was, when trains with names like The City of New Orleans rushed shrieking through the night. Somehow, it all seemed so full of promise. And there

are those that actually worked the railroads, who knew them for their industrial grittiness, and told the kind of epic tales that Americans treasure most. And they did represent the difficult but honest life that’s become an integral part of the national story. The B&SR narrow gauge railroad was one of those lines exactly, and it helped western Maine to enter the modern world.

Of course, things are more mundane today. Yet the nonprofit Maine Narrow Gauge & Railroad Museum of Portland still carries 25,000 visitors on narrow gauge train rides over a short stretch of track during the summer.

Which is really quite amazing.

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Discovering Spring The season brings a breath of new life

I

by Leon Anderson

chanced upon a pea-green orchid and stopped in my tracks. That’s not right, I said. That can’t be an orchid. I’ve never seen a pea-green orchid before. They don’t come in shades of green, at least not that I know of. Still, it had five pale green petals, perhaps tending to yellowish, forming a corona around a lower spotted green petal that introduced the protuberant yellow stamen. It is an orchid, I said. How can that be? But there it was, in a Western Maine wood growing in a nest of weeds and poison ivy up in the notch of an old red maple tree. Well, I said to myself, we do things our own way in Maine.

Western Maine is ski country with world famous winter sports resorts —

names that echo through the record books: Sugarloaf, Saddleback, Sunday River, Black Mountain, Shawnee Peak and Mt. Abram, and in winter that’s where the action is. One doesn’t normally associate Maine with spring and orchids but if you’re a hiker and observant, it doesn’t take long to realize that this is a state filled with ecological diversity from coastal swamps to windwhipped mountain passes. There are fantastic hiking trails that the resorts are happy to point out to adventurous vacationers. Some are along streams, mountain crests, in deep valleys and across mixed coniferous and hardwood forests. The wilder ones are mostly old game trails where centuries of deer and

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If you like the sound of rustling new green leaves on trees that have barely thawed and still drip with a melting icy crust, and if you like the whisper of a spring breeze raising the color on your cheeks, then Western Maine is about as close to heaven as you can get without having to drop a month’s pay to cover travel expenses.

This is wild country. There are bears here, large, hungry black bears just awakening from a winter snooze, as well as moose. There are coyotes and even a few wolves that still haunt the deeper canyons where people seldom go. Cougars are not unheard of either. (continued on page 10)

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(continued from page 9) The deep forest is not a playground for unprepared walkers; there are plenty of graded trails for casual hikers. Wilderness hikes, however, need to be approached with caution and preparation and never alone. It’s important to carry survival gear beginning with a pair of sturdy boots that protect your ankles.

There are few things more pitiful than a grown man down on his bottom with a sprained ankle and no way to get up and walk home again. That’s why a partner is always a good idea along with the usual water, food, matches, flashlight, a hand mirror and shelter.

The nice thing about Western Maine is that the people are generally nice.

It’s a sparsely populated area, and the residents seem to understand that not everybody is born to the outdoors that they love so well. They are ready to give advice and point out the best campsites or picnic areas, places to find water and shelter in a storm. I make it a practice to

visit a few of the local hardware stores or sporting goods stores in places like Farmington, Livermore and Winthrop before I start hiking in Franklin County. These people are almost all familiar with local conditions, and when you stop to think about it, who works in stores like that except people who have an interest in outdoor living? There is also no way a sensible person can ignore the help available online before you set out on a wilderness experience.

Here are two of these helpful agencies, and you can’t go wrong contacting either the Maine Camping Guide (campmaine.com) or the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (maine.gov/dacf.)

Most bird watchers out trekking in the backcountry are not especially turned on by a flock of black-capped, black-bibbed chickadees, but to me they’re a gift of nature to add pleasure and a smile to the lips of any hiker. I

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walked into a copse of black and green alder trees one morning last April and heard the familiar “dee, dee, dee” tune the chickadees sing to alert each other that visitors are arriving. When I sat down on a granite outcropping to rest a moment and enjoy a thermos of coffee, they carried on about their business of gathering seeds and insects, bobbing their relatively large heads — in relation to their tiny, cute bodies — with such a pretty symphony of song. I love them; they give me a lift.

When you’re outdoors and have nothing to do but enjoy the birds and scenery, when you’re looking and listening for the wonders of nature, the most amazing discoveries can be made.

I nearly stepped on a week-old fawn one morning near West Paris in Oxford County. The poor thing must have been frightened to death, but it wouldn’t move. I backed away carefully and wished it well. Its mother doe could

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not have been far off, but I might have looked for an hour and never seen her, they blend so well into the background.

What I did see, though, was a small, pale blue gem lying half buried among the stones along the path I was following. I had seen the signs for a gemstone mine near the beginning of the trail I was on, but hadn’t thought twice about it, believing it must be for tourists only.

Not so I was soon to learn. There are several important gemstones found in Western Maine, among them was the one I picked up, a tourmaline about the size of a boy’s large marble. Once I managed to pick away the dirt and crust that clung to the stone, I had a pretty tourmaline that now resides on my desk and gives me the opportunity to tell my grandchildren the details of another of the many adventures I’ve had in Western Maine.

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I love all the signs of renewed life throbbing with the pulse and energy of warming sunshine that makes the sap rise in trees and blossoms bud on wildflowers along the roadsides. There’s a special vibrancy to life in spring; it encourages people to get outdoors, to shed their winter coats and let the sun shine down upon them. It makes me want to go look for what’s happening — to discover spring, to discover Maine again.

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Winthrop’s Island Park Dance Hall

by Brian Swartz

Trolley line lured more riders

A

trolley line headquartered in Augusta made Island Park in Winthrop economically feasible — but the dancers and revelers put Island Park on the map.

The second trolley system to be developed in Maine, the electrically operated Augusta, Hallowell, & Gardiner Street Railway initially ran from Augusta south through Hallowell and Farmingdale to connect with Gardiner. In time, another line extended west from Augusta to Winthrop Village.

Along the way, this particular line skirted the northern shore of Lake Cobbosseecontee. Trolley-line directors realized in 1903 that with ridership not meeting expectations on the westward-running line, perhaps they should

do something to lure riders and increase revenue from fares.

That “something” involved creating a tourist attraction at Island Park, an 8-acre island a short distance off the north shore of Cobbosseecontee in East Winthrop. Island owner Fred Hersey agreed to lease seven acres to the Augusta, Hallowell, & Gardiner Street Railway.

Workers constructed a bridge to the island and built a 75-by-150-foot dance pavilion and a theater for the expected guests who would be mostly transported by the trolley line, of course.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com more fans as the 1920s arrived.

The decade’s prosperity led middle-class Mainers to buy automobiles, previously affordable only by the upper class. The auto’s arrival spurred the Maine State Highway Commission to start rebuilding major roads, thus allowing more people to travel from farther away to dance at Island Park.

Conversely, the use of private autos caused passenger traffic to drop on the Augusta, Hallowell, & Gardiner Street Railway and similar trolley systems elsewhere in Maine. Even with the 25 cent-per-vehicle toll they paid to cross the bridge to Island Park, more people preferred driving to the resort rather than using the trolley.

The Augusta, Hallowell, & Gardiner Street Railway abandoned its Winthrop line in 1928.

Talented bands continued to draw people to Island Park. Among the bands and musicians performing at Island Park over the years was the Al

Corey Orchestra, the resort’s premiere band from 1948 to 1959.

“I thought it was a very romantic place,” Corey recalled Island Park years later. “You drove over a small wooden bridge in your auto. You could rent a boat or enjoy the island. And the music carried all over the island.”

As for the dance pavilion, “it seemed to be the best dance hall in central Maine,” he said. “It had a wonderful dance floor. People from all around came to Island Park.”

Roland Lavallee grew up in Winthrop and went dancing at Island Park in the 1940s. “I couldn’t wait for Saturday night,” he recalled in author Will Anderson’s 2002 Those Were The Days! “It was the bands and the people, the dancers. It was very, very nice.”

During the early 1950s, Augusta teenager Patricia (Buotte) Jortberg would dance beneath the silver ball that turned above the dance floor. The ball cast “dew drops of light throughout the

dance hall,” she told author Anderson.

Among the other musical acts appearing at Island Park were Leo Doucette, the Fenton Brothers, the Lewiston-based Lloyd Rafnell Orchestra, and Vaughan Monroe and his orchestra.

The availability of musicians dropped sharply during World War II, when the military scooped up thousands of talented young musicians and made them into soldiers, sailors, and marines.

And the war also took thousands of central Maine men far away from home, thus removing many Island Park dancers from the local scene for at least a few years. With fewer men available as dance partners, fewer women visited the resort.

But Island Park survived the war.

Afterwards, big bands (including the Al Corey Orchestra) were popular for a long time; Vaughan Monroe and his orchestra headlined a July 1955 weekend that saw hundreds of people dancing on the dance floor, which had just been re(continued on page 14)

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(continued from page 13) stored.

The ownership of Island Park passed through various hands, and the resort struggled to remain relevant as an entertainment choice with the advent of privately owned TVs in the 1960s.

Life also changed on Lake Cobbosseecontee; visitors who had stayed at its camps and cottages and hotels in the past started going elsewhere, reflecting the growing desire of Americans to explore their country farther away from home.

The victim of changing times, shifting demographics (the dancers were growing older), and changing music genres (the mid-1950s’ arrival of rock ’n roll adversely impacted many dance halls), Island Park finally closed. The dance pavilion was torn down, and houses were built on the island. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

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Western Maine

16

South Casco’s Manning Field

by David M. Carew

Our own lil’ field of dreams

I

am standing on a primitive baseball diamond in South Casco, Maine, and the air is filled with the excited voices of young boys. The boys are not actually here; they are ghosts from a simpler time, a simpler dream. They live in 1968 and where they live it is always summer, the world is always fresh and innocent, and tomorrow will always bring another sandlot baseball game to be played under the eternally blue Maine sky.

It is as though I’m transported back and forth — in fractions of seconds — from my sixty-year-old self — here, now — to my twelve-year-old self, then. Suddenly a voice is speaking to me, in the urgent, endlessly endear-

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ing tone of a twelve-year-boy with a big dream, which he can’t wait to let escape from his mouth. It is my friend Kenton Varney, and his eyes look at me straight on, as his mind and heart and soul share a vision with me.

“Dave,” Kenton says in the Maine accent that forever says “home” to me.

“You know, we’ve been talking about building a baseball field, right? Well, I know how we can do that.”

And with that, I’m suddenly transported into the mysticism of Kenton’s baseball vision. This is 1968, after all.

The Red Sox won the American League pennant just last year, proving anything — absolutely anything — is possible.

Especially if you are twelve years old

and infinitely more innocent than you’ll ever be again, and your friend is talking with you about his baseball dream.

“By golly, I do, Dave,” Kenton continues. “You know that old man, Shy Crockett, who lives up there on the road toward the Hawthorne House?

Well, he’s got this pasture, out back of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s uncle’s house, and he trained horses there for years.

But he doesn’t anymore, ’cause he’s an old geezer now. Well, ol’ Shy said we could build a baseball diamond on that old horse pasture.”

Being the literature and history buff I was (as much as a twelve-year-old can be a literature and history buff), I ask Kenton for an explanation of this

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com fascinating, in-passing reference to one of America’s all-time greatest authors.

My inquiry sets off an earnest history lesson from my fellow twelve-yearold, struggling valiantly to convey the history of the tiny town in which he’d lived his whole life. (I needed the history lesson, as I’d only moved to South Casco the previous year.)

“Yah see,” Kenton began. “Ole Nathanial Hawthorne — or the Nathanial Hawthorne, as Ma calls him—moved here when he was eight years old. His mama moved him here after his daddy, who was a sea captain, died from yellow fever. His daddy died in 1808, and, a few years later, in 1812, Nathaniel’s uncle, Richard Manning, wrote to his sister . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mom . . . and told her she should move up here from Massachusetts. So, they did.”

In my remembrance, Kenton’s words hang in the air and he pauses for dramatic effect, then continues.

~ Photograph by Stephen M. Warren ~

(continued on page 18)

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(continued from page 17) “They ended up living in the Hawthorne House — which, of course, wasn’t called the Hawthorne House until they started living in it — just up the road from Richard Manning, Nathanial Hawthorne’s uncle.”

I was still wondering what Nathaniel Hawthorne . . . and his daddy’s death . . . and his ma . . . and his uncle, Richard Manning . . . had to do with building a baseball field, but I soon got the scoop from Kenton.

“So anyway, that’s the history of that horse pasture — our new baseball field. It’s right directly behind Nathaniel Hawthorne’s uncle’s house.”

And so, it was, as a ten-minute bike trip from Kenton’s house proved later that day.

“Hey, yah know what?” Kenton said when we got there. “We ought to camp out here tonight — like we’re Daniel Boone — then start building our baseball field in the morning!” It sounded

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like a great plan to me.

Luckily my parents agreed—or, at least, didn’t object — and we spent the remaining hours of the afternoon gathering up old posts, two-by-fours, and chicken wire from Kenton’s carpenter-father, the essential makings of our forthcoming baseball backstop.

We also enlisted help from other four-foot-high, wannabe baseball players. By the time we got back to the horse pasture, at around 8 p.m. that night, we’d enlisted Kenton’s brother, Bobby, and two of his friends, one of whose claim to fame was he knew where we could get a copy of Playboy to ogle that night, while we were in our pup tent in the middle of the horse pasture. This highly-sought-after possession never materialized, however, so we were forced to spend the hours past 9 p.m. lying restlessly in our sleeping bags, talking (or rather lying) about girls we’d once kissed. This was, of

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course, at the age where half the listeners thought this was the most riveting conversation they’d ever heard, and half the most disgusting.

Finally, morning came — dim sunlight creeping just above Nathaniel Hawthorn’s uncle’s barn — and the five of us got to work.

We made stunning progress, helped significantly by the fact that our vision of the hoped-for baseball field was so ridiculously modest. Within four or five hours, we’d constructed an eight-foothigh, chicken-wire backstop, mapped and etched out the seventy-foot-long base paths, and built a pitchers’ mound capped by a strip of rubber that previously had served some mysterious purpose at the local Aubuchon Hardware Store. With that, our own li’l “field of dreams” was complete — a full twenty years before a popular baseball movie would popularize that expression.

In the years that followed — up un-

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til the time I was about sixteen, when “real” baseball diamonds would divert our collective attention away from our little horse-pasture field — we played hundreds of pick-up games in our field, followed dozens of times by campouts on the field itself, so we could rise at sun-up the next morning, play early-morning baseball, and otherwise be young boys in the (for us) still innocent, peaceful, and profoundly hopefilled 1960s.

Today the horse-pasture-turnedbaseball-field we built so many years ago — now known as The Manning Ballfield — still functions as a T-ball and softball field, after being a Little League field for many years. Our rude, chicken-wire backstop has long since been torn down — replaced by a “real” backstop — and the field otherwise has been cosmetically altered to look official. Or, as “official” as a tiny little baseball field in rural Maine can look.

~ Manning Field ~ But for those of us who built the field — so many smiles and tears and sorrows and joys ago — our little field of dreams will always hold ghosts of remembrance, of a time when simple joy could be found in the smallest thing, the simplest accomplishment.

That field endures in my memory as a

sanctuary that time can never alter or diminish. And then I see, quite clearly, what we built that summer so long ago.

David M. Carew is an independent book editor and journalist and the author of “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville.”

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MAINE ON ON GLASS

The Early Twentieth Centur y in Glass Plate Photography W. H. Bunting, Kevin Johnson, and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. Published with the Penobscot Marine Museum

We hope you enjoy the images from our collection seen in each issue of Discover Maine Magazine.

There are many more to be seen in the book Maine on Glass and when you visit our website.

Archival prints and Maine on Glass are available in our Museum Store and on our website.

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Early view of West Shore Camps in East Sebago. Item # LB2007.1.100648 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

21

Western Maine

22

The Central Maine General Hospital Story

by Charles Francis

A

Created by a dedicated community

nnie Louise Cary, the first of the great Maine operatic prima donnas, died in 1921. Under the terms of her will, a room at Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston was dedicated in the memory of Cary’s father, Nelson Howard Cary. According to the Cary endowment the room and its bed were to be free. This gracious act on the part of one of the state’s most illustrious stage performers was just one in a series of magnanimous acts which helped to establish and maintain Central Maine General Hospital in its early decades.

Today, of course, Central Maine

General Hospital is Central Maine Medical Center The original hospital opened its doors in July of 1891, basically as an emergency care facility.

At the same time, the Training School for Nurses with its three-year program commenced operation. By the time Annie Louise Cary left her endowment to the hospital the facility was providing a full range of medical treatment for some 2000 annually. This might never have happened had it not been for the support of a great number of people and organizations, among the most notable of which must be listed John Harper, Dr. Edward Hill and the Woman’s Hos-

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pital Association.

That a city of some 20,000 would not have a hospital or at least some sort of medical facility may seem strange to some in this day and age. But that is how it was in Lewiston of the late nineteenth century. Even though there was Bates College and a myriad of businesses and industries ranging from the Lewiston Bleachery to the Lincoln Mill to the Androscoggin and Continental mills, the doctors and surgeons of the day had no central treatment facility to call upon. Nor was there anything resembling an emergency care facility.

Accident victims were treated on the

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com scene, in the doctor’s office or not at all. The same was true for births which for the most part occurred in the home or else wherever a woman happened to go into labor.

As early as the Civil War there was a call for a hospital for Lewiston. At that time most hospitals were privately funded and maintained and that is what the then mayor of Lewiston, William Frye, proposed. It would take the Maine Legislature to come through with an appropriation in 1891 for Frye to see his hopes come to fruition, however. That appropriation came about through the efforts of John Harper.

John Harper was a New Brunswick born Lewiston businessman who came to Maine via Calais and the 9th Maine Regiment. Born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Harper moved to Calais to live with an aunt after the death of his parent. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Harper enlisted in the 9th Maine as a seventeen-year-old

private. At the close of the conflict he settled in Lewiston where he went into the coal and wood business.

In 1887 and 1889 John Harper served as Lewiston’s representative to the Maine House. In 1890 he was elected to represent Androscoggin County in the Maine Senate. It was at that time that he pushed an $8000 appropriation through the Legislature which served as the seed money for Central Maine General Hospital as well as for the Training School for Nurses.

Harper wasn’t alone in his efforts in getting the appropriation through the Legislature, though.

Probably the one person who was as much responsible for the initial funding which made Central Maine General Hospital a reality as John Harper was Dr. Edward Hill. Dr. Hill, who had long sought an emergency care facility for Lewiston, lobbied the Legislature as well as area businessmen for their support. It was thanks in part to his

efforts that former Governor Nelson Dingley, a Congressmen and the editor and publisher of the Lewiston Journal, became active in the effort.

By the 1920s Central Maine General Hospital was seeing some ninety patients daily, most from Lewiston and Auburn. Most significantly, physicians and surgeons of the Lewiston and Auburn area now had a full service facility to utilize.

One of the reasons for the growth of the Central Maine Hospital was the dedication of the Women’s Hospital Association headed by Mrs. Stanley Brown and Mrs. Eon Leighton. It was thanks in part to the association that the hospital had one of the first orthopedic clinics in Maine. The association also played a part in raising the funds for the X-ray and pathological laboratories. In addition, it oversaw the hospital auxiliary which saw to maintaining linens as well as hosting and visiting. (continued on page 24)

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(continued from page 23) When Annie Louise Cary willed the fund for the maintenance for a room in memory of her father for Central Maine General Hospital the act was described by a local writer as “mute testimony to the generous heart of Annie Louise Cary…and a monument to the love she bore her native state.” Much the same could be said for John Harper, who made Maine his adopted home state, as well as the countless others who contributed their time and effort to the founding years of Central Maine General Hospital. It is a remarkable story of community involvement and dedication, one that the people of Lewiston and the surrounding area can be proud of.

Discover Maine

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26

The Ordeal Of Peggy Forbes A journey of suffering

by Charles Francis

I

n the winter of 1784 Robert Forbes of Nouvelle-Bois, Quebec on the Chaudiere River resolved to move his family to New Gloucester, Maine.

Forbes had friends in New Gloucester.

At the time, three Dutchmen, Midstaff, Pancake, and Christian, hunters who had come through from the Kennebec, offered to guide and help the family, assuring them that they could reach the upper Kennebec settlements in twelve days. The Forbes had five children at home at the time, ranging from thirteen-year-old John, down to one just fifteen months old. Five-yearold Peggy, the heroine of this piece, was the middle child. Robert’s wife,

Marie-Anne was expecting another.

The Forbes neighbors warned them that the Dutchmen would desert them in the wilderness. The warning went unheeded. Robert Forbes sold his property, purchased small sleds for hauling the four youngest children, baggage and food, and on March 17, 1784, they all set out for the hazardous trek across the Height of Land.

The above serves as an introduction to one of the most nightmarish tales of migration to Maine on record. There are two primary source accounts of the story. The first was published by Arthur Bradman of Minot in 1792. It appears that Bradman interviewed Robert

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The second primary source account is that of Marie-Anne Forbes.

It is impossible to determine when the account was written or who wrote it.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ble source or collaborator for this latter version, Peggy Forbes Merrill, our heroine. Peggy was one of the two Forbes children who lived through the experience. I believe that as Peggy was the youngest Forbes to survive, the experience would have been the most traumatic for her. For that reason, I have called this piece “The Ordeal of Peggy Forbes.”

Note: There are or were several other versions of the Narrative of the Sufferings of Robert Forbes. Two have been declared lost. The Canadian National Library has a rather garbled account of the journey. In 1982 a version of the Narrative of the Sufferings of Robert Forbes was published in Portland. A second was published in Philadelphia in 1983. The two appear to be based on the Bradman version. It should also be noted that Robert Forbes had other, older children. They did not travel to Maine but remained in Quebec. Their descendants live in the area between

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Quebec City and the Maine border. For them, the story of Robert Forbes’ journey is a very real one. They are proud to be descended of him and proclaim their Scots heritage which comes from him. This latter point is significant as Forbes is usually identified as Irish. He was Scots-Irish, and if you are not clear as to the distinction just ask one of that stripe. These comments concluded, we now move to consider Robert Forbes the man.

Robert Forbes was the son of Robert Forbes and Margaret Fontaine of St. Madelaine of Desermartines Parish in (Northern) Ireland. He enlisted in the British Army and served under General Wolfe in the attack on Louisburg and in the battle on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City, where Wolfe was killed. Upon his discharge, Forbes settled in Quebec City, practicing the trade of tailor. In 1764 he married Marie-Louise Sophie Vachon. Marie-Louise died in 1773 after producing

five children. Robert then married Marie-Anne Gosselin, who produced two more Forbes children prior to our story.

We are now at the dawn of the American Revolution.

In the winter of 1775 Jabez Matthews and David Dinsmore of New Gloucester and several other Maine men journeyed to Quebec to learn the feeling of the people there regarding the British. They happened to stop with the Forbes family where they were graciously treated. They should have turned back here.

In Quebec City, the British arrested the Maine men as spies. When Robert and Anne-Marie Forbes learned of the arrest they determined to do all they could to save the Mainers from a sure execution. Anne-Marie Forbes is described as “physically strong and stronger in will and resolution.” She happened to know the wife of the jailer in charge of the Maine men. Using her friendship with the jailer’s wife, (continued on page 28)

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(continued from page 27) Anne-Marie secured the prison keys and released the men. Giving then guns and snowshoes, she told them “to flee for their lives.” The men all made it home safely. Anne-Marie Forbes was questioned by the British. Though there was no hard evidence against her, she lived under a degree of suspicion till leaving for Maine. The suspicions helped explain Robert Forbes’ decision to leave Quebec for New Gloucester. With the war over it seems there was increased attention being paid to Anne-Marie.

There is another Revolutionary period episode involving the Forbes family worthy of noting. Benedict Arnold on his famous march to Quebec stayed with the Forbes family. We now return to the trip across the Height of Land.

Robert Forbes paid his guides a substantial amount for their services, which included hauling the sleds. For eight days, the party made slow but

There is another Revolutionary period episode involving the Forbes family worthy of noting.

Benedict Arnold on his famous march to Quebec stayed with the Forbes family.

steady progress up the Chaudierre River. Note the party were reversing Arnold’s march under the same or even worse conditions.

On day nine the guides persuaded

Forbes to leave his wife and children in the previous night’s camp and proceed on, backpacking the greater part of the provisions and baggage to Lake Megantic. The idea was to then return for the family.

Now comes the horror of the tale.

Part way to Megantic the Dutchmen deserted Forbes, taking all the provisions and baggage. This was even with Forbes pleading and crying. The pleading and crying netted Forbes a gun, an axe and two loaves of bread. With these he returned to his family, who were now without food. At this point, Forbes made a great error in judgement. He should have turned back. He didn’t, thinking the settlements of the upper Kennebec closer.

Robert took the two younger children on one sled. John took Peggy on another. Seven-year-old Mary walked with Anne-Marie. On they went. There was a snow storm. Finally, they encountered an Indian they knew from

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Quebec. He fed them moose meat and guided them to the Dead River. From here on they traveled the Dead River on the ice until reaching open water. Here they built a raft and floated downriver until the craft broke up on rocks. At this point, pregnant Anne-Marie could go no further. It is now April 12. Robert and John continued, hoping to find help.

On April 22, ten days after leaving Anne-Marie and the four children, Robert and John built a fire on a high point of land. The fire was seen by two hunters, John Crosby and Luke Sawyer.

Crosby and Sawyer took Robert and John to what is now Anson. There they persuaded a small party to go back for the rest of the family. However, Robert and John were too weak to go with them. The party didn’t find Anne-Marie and the children, and returned after a week.

Robert Forbes now starts out for

his family with two men. It is May 28 and heavy rains have caused flooding.

Forbes can’t keep up. He sends the men ahead with directions. Six days after leaving Anson, the two hear faint voices. The voices are those of Anne-Marie and Peggy. Not far from mother and daughter are the bodies of three unburied children.

Anne-Marie and Peggy are “reduced to living skeletons, languid as starvation could make them....” It has been fifty days since Robert and John left.

On the thirty-eighth day, the youngest child expired; the next day, the next to the youngest, and four days later, Mary.

Anne-Marie later told of a small wild animal that came and laid down at her back at night, only leaving with the dawn.

Back in Anson it was determined that if the first relief party had gone a mile further all the Forbes family would have been rescued.

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Robert, Anne-Marie, John and Peggy spent their recovery period in Norridgewock. It was there Robert Forbes Jr. was born. Incredibly, young Robert was a strong healthy infant.

The five members of the Forbes family eventually went on to New Gloucester where they settled. The New Gloucester men Anne-Marie had delivered from a British prison made them welcome in the town and helped establish them there.

In 1800 Peggy Forbes married William Merrill of New Gloucester. Their first child, John, was born in February of 1801. A girl Abigail followed in March of 1805.

In 1816 William and Peggy, along with Robert Forbes Jr. and Anne-Marie moved to Foxcroft. Robert Forbes Jr. eventually settled in Sebec.

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Norway’s Amazing Snowshoes Once made by the tens of thousands

by Jeffrey Bradley

I

t’s an odd thing, being called the snowshoe capital of the world. But just north of the bridge where the road forks at the edge of town — the right hand takes you down Lower Main Street, the left up Route 26 to South Paris — a sign once stood announcing that you were entering Norway, the “Snowshoe Town of America.” Not just any sign, either; but a giant snowshoe measuring some 16-feet high and four feet wide, four times the size of your average snowshoe. Forty years and more it beckoned folks from all points of the compass to come and have their picture taken beside it. Then it vanished for good during the 1980s.

Originally made by Elmer Aldrich as a backdrop for the wood-and-leather snowshoe displays then making the rounds of the trade show circuit, it was Omer, his son, who put the sign up at the crossroads around 1945. (He also later founded the hugely successful SnoCraft company, Norway’s biggest purveyor of snowshoes.) Taken away by persons unknown and for reasons nefarious, bits and pieces of the catchy sculpture have been turning up years, with some found recently stashed in a barn in Vermont!

Fiddle-playing Mellie Dunham was a storied Norway character that added his own wrinkle to snowshoe design —

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his had toes that turned up instead of being flat. In Maine, snowshoes were considered essential, and the innovation caught on. Old man Dunham started commercially producing his ware in 1878 with the help of his wife “Gram.”

(A grainy photograph shows an eccentric couple seated before a ramshackle house looking almost exactly as you’d expect an old Mainer couple that makes snowshoes in the Norway woods ought to appear.) But the business ended in 1933 with the death of Dunham’s son.

From his tiny shop on Crockett Ridge Road, Dunham turned out a pair of snowshoes for Admiral Peary’s 1909 dash to the North Pole. An old photo

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com shows that arctic explorer wrapped in heavy furs, his trademark walrusy moustache rimed with ice, standing atop those toe-up snowshoes.

The magnetically shifty North Pole sits at the very top of the world, from where every place else is south. Residing somewhere in the Arctic Ocean, it’s more a concept than a place; no fixed position exists, and no X marks the spot. To even locate it you must first wait until everything’s completely frozen over, which isn’t always. Scrambling after this will-o’-the-wisp over the broken floes has left more than one expedition prone to mishap and miscalculation. There’s also the little matter of the North Pole and the geographic North Pole not being one and the same thing, exactly, and all of it spelled trouble for Admiral Peary.

Born in 1856, Robert Edwin Peary came to later reside in Portland. His claim of being the first man to reach the North Pole lacked credible proof; testimony before Congress was neces-

sary before he was finally awarded the prize. Today, consensus holds that he probably missed the mark by 30 miles or so. That expedition included 24 men (among them Matthew Henson, Peary’s black assistant), 19 sledges, 133 dogs — and Dunham’s famous snowshoes.

Also at about this time, H.H. Hosmer, whose family had been in the snowshoe-making business since the 1850s, opened a shop in Norway. Competition between the two men wasn’t particularly fierce; they were friends and both played the fiddle. It was Hosmer’s idea to use the trade show fairs as a means of promoting their product. His business thrived until the death of his son in the 1940s. Into this fast-crowding field of Norway snowshoe producers, enter one W. F. Tubbs, Dunham’s enterprising nephew. After a short stint working with his uncle, W. F. opened his own shop, the Tubbs Snowshoe Company, in 1907. Just what Uncle Mel thought concerning this independent streak on the part of his nephew goes unrecorded. (continued on page 36)

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(continued from page 35) However things stood between all these men, the fact is that they’d managed to corner the market in snowshoes in Norway.

Tubbs even surpassed his uncle when it came to supplying polar explorations with snowshoes. He outfitted two: Donald MacMillan’s 1912 Crocker Land Expedition to the remotest reaches of Greenland, and Richard Byrd, Jr.’s South Pole expedition a year later. In 1923 Tubbs sold the business and headed west.

Yet another Norway native, James Wiles, continued this odd Norway/ polar connection by serving as a chief engineer aboard supply vessels to both expeditions.

In the early, dismal days of World War II, fortune smiled upon Norway.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the brief shelling of the West Coast by surfaced submarine, and the firing of the Oregon woods using incendi-

ary-bomb balloons floated over from Japan, U.S. military brass were fearful of an all-out invasion. The strategic Battle of Midway in the Central Pacific included a Japanese thrust aimed at Alaska that captured the outermost islands of Attu and Kiska. Military reasoning, at that point, ran along the lines of supplying all the American troops defending against an enemy force in the deep Alaskan drifts with snowshoes. Lots of snowshoes. Eventually, they were overproduced by the many tens of thousands to combat a threat that never materialized. Still, Norway rejoiced, especially Aldrich’s SnoCraft company, which had landed the lucrative government contract. The old-timers in Oxford Hills still chuckle in recalling the days when you could walk down Main Street during the war and peer through the big window of the SnoCraft facility (the building still stands) at workers frantically webbing

their back-order piles of snowshoes.

In time, SnoCraft became the world’s largest producer of snowshoes.

But the good times can never last; and, strangely, the company went bankrupt at about the same time that famous sign of theirs disappeared. Coincidence? Could be. But in the amazing timeline of snowshoe-making in the little town of Norway, it’s sometimes hard to separate fact from fiction.

But, sadly, they don’t make them here anymore.

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Cordwainers And Cobblers An elite group of craftsmen

by Charles Francis

M

aine has a long history of shoemaking. Towns like Auburn and Wilton based much of their early prosperity on tanneries and shoe factories. Long before there were factories turning out countless pairs of shoes on assembly lines, however, there was the local shoemaker who was either referred to as a cordwainer or cobbler.

Almost every town of any size in Maine had at least one shoemaker in the early nineteenth century. One such town was Canton, which had shoemaker Edward Childs who also doubled as a farrier shoeing horses and oxen. Because Childs was working when the nineteenth century became the twen-

tieth, a fair amount is known about him. In fact, he was one of the last of the traditional independent shoemakers whose skills dated back to a much earlier period.

While Edward Childs worked at his trade, he was first and foremost a shoemaker. This meant he was a cordwainer. If you were to call him a cobbler, he probably would have been insulted because there was a good deal of difference between a cobbler and a cordwainer.

The term cordwainer has its origins in the Middle Ages when the very finest leather was cordovan, the leather developed in Cordoba, Spain. Cordwain-

ers only worked with cordovan, which was horsehide tanned with vegetable matter. It was the leather preferred by the rich for boots because of its sheen.

In America a cordwainer was a craftsman who made new shoes and boots. A cobbler was several steps below a cordwainer on the social scale as he was a mere repairer of shoes. While the cordwainer was a working man, he was a good deal more than a laborer or hired hand. He was a self-made man who had “made” something of himself and was recognized as possessed of more than a certain degree of “character.” Therefore, when Edward Childs stated that he could make eleven pairs

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com of shoes in a day, it wasn’t so much a boast on his part as a statement that he was a member of an exclusive working men’s fraternity.

Backing up the idea that the cordwainer was a member of an elite group of craftsmen was a little book that was published in 1849, Lives of Distinguished Shoemakers. The book was written by William Winks of Winthrop.

It was published in Portland and is still available today. Winks was a cordwainer and proud of it. In Lives of Distinguished Shoemakers Winks held up the cordwainer as an example of a man of industry and character. In short, the cordwainer was a man who had “made” something of himself. The cordwainer, unlike the cobbler, was a man with a certain degree of “standing” or position in the community.

One of the distinctions between a cordwainer and a cobbler is that the former only works with new leather.

The cobbler, on the other hand, has al-

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ways based his livelihood on repairing old shoes; he has always worked with old leather. Cordwainers looked down upon cobblers because some would even go so far as to collect old shoes or boots, cut them up and make a cheap pair of footwear from the remnants.

For this reason cordwainers were often successful in getting laws passed making it illegal for cobblers to make shoes.

It also explains why, when shoemakers unionized, they called themselves cordwainers and set some of the stiffest criteria for union membership of any skilled trades.

Edward Childs got his start as a shoemaker shortly before the Civil War traveling to farms in the Buckfield, Turner and Livermore area. As a traveling shoemaker he carried a set of lasts with him. Lasts were blocks of woodshaped feet in standard shoe sizes.

They served as the mold for the shoe or boot. Childs would match a customer’s foot to a last and then make shoes or

cowhide boots for the men of the family from the hides that the farmer had cured himself. For the women he made something that we would probably describe as a leather slipper. When the War Between the States began, Childs established his own shoe shop and made boots for the Union Army.

By 1870, Edward Childs was a well-established figure in Canton.

While not a member of the professional class like a lawyer or a minister, he was still a highly respected figure as a skilled producer of first-rate quality goods. This put him just one step below the social class referred to as gentlemen.

As a man of “standing” in Canton, who was second only to the college-educated professionals of the town, Edward Childs was looked to for his opinion, and on numerous occasions held various positions in town government.

In his latter years, Childs liked to say (continued on page 40)

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(continued from page 39) that he could shoe a horse or an ox just as easily as he could a man or woman.

It was a boast that indicated his traditional roots and values.

The big Maine shoe factories put traditional cordwainers like Edward Childs out of business. They, in turn, were put out of business by the multinationals like Nike. Today, however, there seems to be something of a rebirth in the cordwainers’ craft. Handsewn shoes and boots now have an established niche in the footwear market. Those who make them have also acquired a certain degree of status as their footwear is priced even beyond that of expensive shoes like Gucci. It is undoubtedly a situation cordwainers of an earlier age like Edward Childs and William Winks would approve of.

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Opening Day At The Farmington Fair

by Brian Swartz

Western Maine

Still going strong after 177 years

Places exist in Maine where people can still walk through history. The Farmington Fair is one such location, and opening day at this delightful agricultural fair is a good time to experience the past.

That’s because not all that much has changed since the gates swung open on the 1908 fair.

The 69th Annual Exhibition of The Franklin County Agricultural Society got off to a delayed start as rain poured on northwestern Maine on Tuesday, September 29. Fair directors opted to postpone the grand opening for 24 hours.

“Wednesday proved to be a day that was all that could be desired,” a local Farmington Chronicle reporter extolled the gorgeous early fall sunshine and crystal blue sky so familiar to Farmington Fair visitors since 1840.

Tuesday’s rain — “copious showers” — had knocked down the dust kicked up by passing horse and ox teams.

Opening day traditionally was “‘cattle show’ day,” when “a good-sized attendance” packed the fairgrounds because “the [agricultural] society has established the desirable reputation of presenting unusually large and highgrade cattle exhibits,” according to the

Chronicle.

And 1908’s delayed opening day “brought a repetition of former opening days in as much as both cattle and people were there in goodly numbers,” the reporter noted. “Sleek animals representing the leading breeds raised in the county” mooed from their stalls in “the long sheds” extending along the fairground perimeter along High Street from “the lower entrance … to the race track.”

The “large assemblage of bovines” included cattle from farms all over Franklin County and points beyond.

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“small business works”

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com “a pair of Durham work oxen” and two three-year-old Durham steers.

Farmers Enoch Bridges, C.L. Green, and F.N. Blanchard had brought “some herds of fine Hereford registered stock,” and farmer H.R. Seamon had transported two four-year-old heifers (a Durham and a Hereford) from his Weld farm to Farmington.

And what Farmington Fair would be complete without Jersey dairy cows?

Wilton farmer Charles W. Adams drove a representative herd from his Elmdale Farm.

In 177 years of fairs at Farmington, some things have not changed. As they walk through today’s barns, visitors notice the signs identifying farms — and the modern signs astonishingly resemble those of 1908, when Charles Adams “made his exhibit the more noticeable by placing signs bearing the name of the farm over his stall, exhibiting a framed picture of his premises.”

In another advertising move still in

practice at the Farmington Fair, Adams tacked “up cards near each animal bearing its name, registered number, etc.”

Modern farmers post similar information for most cows they display at the fair … and then there were the calves, now and in 1908, when the Keep brothers of North Jay “had a nice showing of Jersey … milch cows, heifers and a bull calf.” That little critter probably got much attention, not all from people evaluating him solely for his veal value.

Farmington dairy farmer Eugene Luce also brought a bull calf, and other farmers displayed bull and heifer calves. Since farmers brought their best stock to display, the calves probably sported excellent physical attributes desired by potential buyers.

Farmers displayed other cattle breeds, too. A short distance from the Jerseys were the Guernseys, including “a good display of stick” from the East Wilton farm of G.W. Walker. The re-

porter found fewer Guernseys than Jerseys, but he mentioned every Guernsey farmer by name.

“Frank A. Roberts of Vienna showed a good herd of Shorthorns,” the reporter noted, and “B.C. Hardy & Son of Farmington had on the ground a herd of their Holstein stock.” So did “A.L. Adams of Wilton,” and “Frank Stanley of New Vineyard also had a good display of the same breed of stock — including several premium takers.”

Farmer F.A. Hardy of Farmington brought a yearling heifer, “the only Swiss stock we saw at the show,” the reporter wrote. Ayrshire and Devon cattle were evident in the stalls.

Some towns had entered oxen “town teams” in competition, and the Wilton team took first place when the judges handed down their decisions. The Temple and Chesterville oxen teams came in second and third, respectively.

The two oxen representing Farm(continued on page 46)

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(continued from page 45) ington did not mind placing fourth.

Other farm animals were not forgotten in print, of course. According to the Chronicle, “the swine exhibit this year was, as usual, not an extensive one, but we think fully as large as the average.”

The Chronicle’s reporter stumbled onto a major change occurring within Maine’s farm economy, but he was unaware of its importance. Since around the mid-19th century, farmers had maintained large flocks of sheep to meet the domestic demand for wool.

Much land had been cleared for pasturage by 1908. Wool demand was peaking, though. Farmers were reducing their flocks; while “an interesting exhibit of sheep was to be seen in the pens” at Farmington, “the numbers shown were not as large as we have seen in some years,” the reporter commented.

Like its 21st-century descendant, the 1908 Farmington Fair boasted a

substantial “poultry display,” though the birds were “seen in the room under the grand stand” beside the racetrack, not in a specific freestanding building like today. Roosters crowed, hens fretted, and geese honked; the reporter was especially smitten with the “pair of African geese shown by Archie Pratt of Farmington.”

John R. Tufts of Farmington showed off “wild Mallard ducks” and even “exhibited a pen of several ferrets which were looked upon with interest by many,” the reporter scribbled after viewing the feisty, funny ferrets.

By now he had walked through the animal sheds. Stepping into “the lower hall,” he espied “the fruits and products of the field.” Before anyone could say “apples,” the reporter was in seventh heaven amidst the fresh-picked fruits.

Some things never change at the Farmington Fair, where the past merges with the present every opening day.

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The Kingfield Riot

by Brian Swartz

Adapted from “Maine at War”

M

arching in a tour de farce across Franklin County on a warm, humid day in July 1863, about 100 Maine soldiers put down the “Kingfield Riot,” an anti-draft protest hyped into a “rebellion” by angry Republican officials in Augusta.

Congress had set up a national draft earlier in 1863 to provide fresh manpower for the Union armies. Opposition to the war was already strong among Franklin County Democrats, and the idea that men could be sent to war against their collective wills ignited a strong reaction.

Undertaken in Lewiston in early summer 1863, “the first draft called for 12 men from Kingfield,” recalled

14-year-old Francis Edgar Stanley of Kingfield. Democrats outnumbered Republicans by “about one-half more” in that town, but “the Democrats drafted outnumbered the Republicans four to one.” Had Nathan Saunders, the Republican draft official in Kingfield, picked more Democrats than Republicans?

According to Stanley, “the drafted men and their sympathizers got together and talked the matter over, and the more they talked, the madder they got.” Marching to Saunders’ store in mid-July, the draft opponents learned Saunders had cleared out of town. They promptly painted black stripes on his white store.

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On Thursday, July 16, “a mob of nearly fifty persons” met a marshal named Lambert who had brought draft notices to Kingfield from Phillips, noted Maine Adjutant General John Hodsdon. Surrendering the draft notices, Lambert left Kingfield.

According to Hodsdon, mobs destroyed draft notices in Freeman and Salem, and “certain other riotous demonstrations took place a few days later” in Kingfield, so state officials decided to suppress “by armed force the treasonable spirit that had begun to show itself.”

Issued on July 23, Special Order No. 13 summoned Capt. Jesse T. Stevens

49

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com and 61 men from the Lewiston Light Infantry and Lt. James A. Godfrey and 21 soldiers from Augusta to put down the Kingfield Riot.

Upon learning that they had been called to arms with the Lewiston unit, many militiamen hired substitutes, a practice available to drafted men, too.

Ten to 15 recently discharged veterans of the 10th Maine Infantry Regiment, including Leroy Tobie, took the cash and “donned their old uniforms “and “wore their old army ‘brogans,’” Tobie recalled in the First Maine Bugle in October 1893.

Joined by Godfey’s Augusta contingent, the erstwhile warriors left Lewiston by train at 3 p.m., Thursday, July 23. Each soldier carried 10 rounds of ammunition and four days’ rations.

Five men detailed to serve draft notices accompanied the punitive expedition: “captains Knowlton and Nye, privates A.O. Morgan, W.W. Aayer, and Dr. Martin,” according to Tobie.

Arriving in Farmington at 6 p.m., the soldiers camped on the town common “while those selected to serve the notifications proceeded to New Portland,” he recalled.

At 5:30 a.m., Friday, Stevens led his men on the 22-mile hike to Kingfield, where “no news of the coming of the soldiers had reached” local residents that same morning, Francis Stanley recalled.

Onward limped the foot-sore citizen soldiers. The 10th Maine veterans “could march all day, straight away, while the militiamen, with neater looking shoes, couldn’t march a little bit,” Tobie recalled.

The soldiers had heard “the harrowing stories of the blood-thirsty and desperate character of the rioters and the people at Kingfield,” according to Tobie. Ignoring the rumors, the 10th Maine boys “took the advance and easily kept far ahead of the column” while “picking berries” and doing “etc.”

Meanwhile, Nye and his four companions rode into Kingfield about 10 a.m. on Friday. A prominent Democrat “reined up in front of the Hotel,” then “looked up the street and saw the officers coming at a smart canter down the hill, heading directly toward him,” Stanley said.

“He took just once glance, long enough to see the blue uniforms and sparkling brass buttons” and wheeled his horse and “went tearing along over the bridge and down the road toward his home” while shouting, “There’s a Regiment of Cavalry coming into town!”

Once convinced that Nye et al intended to only serve draft notices, Kingfield residents welcomed their uniformed visitors. Before splitting up to deliver notices in Kingfield, Freeman, and Salem, Nye and his companions mentioned that even more soldiers approached Kingfield via New Portland.

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(continued from page 49) “Democrats and Republicans vied with each other to see who could do most for the comfort and convenience of the visitors,” Stanley noticed.

Chased into New Portland by a thunderstorm, the approaching soldiers sheltered “in a barn on the outskirts of the town, and then in the hotel, where the citizens received them with open arms and doughnuts,” according to Tobie. After enjoying lunch “and the singing of patriotic songs,” the soldiers headed for Kingfield, only 6 miles distant.

The footsore militiamen “were transported in hay racks, while the 10th Maine boys trudged along cheerfully,” Tobie noted. The soldiers learned in New Portland that “the rioters had thrown up the fortifications and had pickets out on the road,” and “as the column neared Kingfield [,] the militiamen heard the sounds of martial music and were seized with a trembling.”

The approaching music grew loud-

er; suddenly a large crowd “appeared above the crest of a hill a quarter mile away,” Stanley recalled.

The veterans gaped, then grinned, because toward them marched Kingfield’s fife-and-drum band and “some fifty men and boys” sent to escort the soldiers into town. After the hay rack-riding militiamen caught up with the veterans, the Kingfield musicians played “The Girl I Left Behind Me” as residents escorted the soldiers across the Carrabassett River bridge into Kingfield.

The soldiers camped that night, and at 3 p.m., Saturday, July 25, Kingfield residents tossed their uniformed visitors a scrumptious outdoor banquet.

The obligatory speeches followed, and later that day the well-fed soldiers broke camp and headed for Farmington. With all the draft notices served to their unhappy recipients, the Kingfield Riot ended.

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The Genealogy Corner

by Charles Francis

Preserving family stories

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abez Holden was a Revolutionary War hero. He fought at Bunker Hill and in other engagements of the Revolution. There is a wonderful story about Jabez at Bunker Hill. It has been preserved by his descendants and appears in numerous histories. Jabez married Rachel Farnsworth. Both were of Groton, Massachusetts. The couple had a number of children including a son named Samuel.

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she moved to the wilds of the Moose River Valley. Rachel Farnsworth Holden’s story, like that of her husband’s at Bunker Hill, is a wonderful one. It, too, has been preserved by descendants, and it, too, appears in histories.

The stories of the three individuals mentioned above are part and parcel of the building of America. They are the sorts of stories family historians hold dear. There is a caveat that must be considered when one encounters stories like them, however. There are differing versions of the tales. The differences relate to when the stories were or are told, and who is doing the telling. For one thing, the stories appear

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in Maine and Massachusetts histories.

For another thing, the stories appear in a number of family histories. Jabez Holden and Rachel Farnsworth were both members of very large extended families. In some cases those families have differing versions of the stories of Jabez, Rachel and their son Samuel.

They also have tales of the progenitors of both Jabez and Rachel. For example, Richard Holden, great grandfather of Jabez, was one of the original proprietors of Groton. Richard was driven from the town during King Philip’s War in 1676. The war decimated Groton.

Richard Holden was one of the settlers who returned to rebuild it.

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53

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com History is fickle in what it preserves. Just look at what you can see in a museum. Sure, there are works of art — statues, jewelry and the like. But then there are broken pieces of pottery, simple tools, weapons, and objects of everyday life. Often as not these are items scavenged from a trash heap.

There is a lesson here — that which is most treasured does not stand any better chance of preservation than the most common object. For example, we have one letter my great grandfather wrote from the gold fields of California. He was a ‘49er. Once there were a whole series of letters chronicling his experiences looking for riches. They have disappeared.

Stories of our ancestors’ pioneer persistence, military service, and flight from a life that may have been one of poverty and despair in the old country deserve to be known and cherished by all. We are intimately connected

to these peoples’ lives. But for them we wouldn’t be, and communities like Moose River, Maine and Groton, Massachusetts perhaps wouldn’t be, either.

This leads to a question: just who were the Farnsworths and the Holdens?

There is a sidebar, too. It deals with the other families that have tales of Jabez and Rachel, their son Samuel and their forebears. It also deals with some of the sources of these tales.

The marriage of Jabez Holden and Rachel Farnsworth was more than the marriage of two residents of Groton, Massachusetts. It was a marriage of cousins.

In earlier times, families lived very near to one another. They worked, laughed, and cried together. They had plenty of time in each other’s company with which to share stories of how grandparents, great-grandparents and all those who came before worked to make life better and safer for them.

Families in Maine frontier communities like Moose River were close.

There was intermarriage. The same was true for Groton.

Richard Holden wasn’t the only Groton proprietor. Matthias Farnsworth was another. Samuel Woods was, too. The families intermarried.

For example, Sarah Holden married Lemuel Woods. A Woods cousin of Jabez Holden, Benjamin, served with Jabez at Bunker Hill. So, what of the story of Jabez at Bunker Hill?

The tale of Jabez Holden appears in local Maine histories like that of Francis Sprague. Sprague cites Jonas Colby and Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Vol. 8 for his version. The exploits of Groton soldiers at Bunker Hill are discussed in Samuel A. Greene’s Colonel William Prescott and Groton soldiers in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Green bases his account on one David Kemp, a Groton (continued on page 54)

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(continued from page 53) soldier. It was Prescott who gave the famous command “Don’t fire until you see the white of their eyes.” Given the almost mythic stature of the Battle of Bunker Hill, there are a great many other accounts. It should be noted that the Prescott family was related to the Farnsworth, Holden and Woods families.

As to the Bunker Hill tale of Jabez himself it goes something like this.

Holden was a company captain in Prescott’s regiment. He and his men were behind a trench. At the point when the Patriots ran out of ammunition the British charged around the end of the trench. It seems, though, that Captain Holden still had one load of buckshot, nine shot to be exact. Holden fired.

His comment was “If powder and ball ever killed human beings it must have killed some there.”

Holden was wounded at Bunker Hill. Though the exact extent of his

injuries is not clear, he broke an arm.

Nevertheless, he continued to carry his rifle.

Jabez Holden was ninety-one when he died. It was his death that led to Rachel Farnsworth Holden becoming a Maine pioneer, joining her son Samuel and his family in Moose River.

Samuel Holden first settled in Anson. He had eleven children. Two were born in Groton, the rest in Anson.

When Samuel moved to Moose River, he brought with him a goodly assemblage of willing hands to hew out a place in the woods.

There are a wide variety of ways to honor those who came before us. Preserving family history and stories is one of those. The above material on the Holden and Farnsworth families is little more than a brief introduction to the two. It is presented as a suggestion as to just what anyone might find

about their own ancestors that would be worth preserving.

Disclaimer: The Woods and Farnsworth lines are two of my family lines. I am descended of both Matthias Farnsworth and Samuel Woods, two of the original Groton, Massachusetts proprietors. The story of the wounding of Jabez Holden at Bunker Hill has long been one of my family tales. Tradition has it that the Samuel Holden who settled Moose River was named for Samuel Woods. The Samuel in this instance may be the third to bear the name, the grandson of the proprietor. It seems Rachel Farnsworth Holden thought highly of this particular relative. At least that is how this particular story goes.

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Norway Lake Supply Co. in Norway. Item # LB2007.1.101989 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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The Hathaway Shirt Man Waterville businessman strikes it big

by Charles Francis

J

ames W. King left Waterville for Portland in 1888. King left for Portland to start the same kind of business that had engaged him in Waterville, clothing and apparel. On the surface, it appears that in leaving Waterville King was breaking up a partnership with his uncle C. F. Hathaway to strike out on his own. The Hathaway/ King partnership specialized in underwear and shirts.

The name Hathaway as it is used here should be enough of a clue to indicate to the reader familiar with Waterville history that our subject is a bit more than that implied by the title.

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was once a well-known advertising ploy. Histories of C. F. Hathaway’s shirt company most always begin with Hathaway’s 1853 move to Waterville.

Those histories seldom, if ever, mention C.F. Hathaway’s partnership with his nephew James King. Nor do they mention that C. F. Hathaway was once involved in a clothing and apparel company in Portland, the King Manufacturing Company.

The title of this piece, “Hathaway Shirt Men,” is obviously a play on words. The Hathaway shirt man or “the Man in the Hathaway Shirt” of mass market advertising was an iconic figure. “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt”

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was a symbol, fictive. Most everyone seeing the figure understood this.

Some, if they thought about it, understood the real Hathaway shirt man to be C. F. Hathaway, founder of the Waterville company that bore his name for so long. James King may be considered another Hathaway shirt man. There are good reasons for taking this position.

Much of what James King knew of the apparel business he learned from his uncle. King first worked for Charles Hathaway as a teenager. James King was half Hathaway. His mother Betsey and Charles Hathaway were brother and sister.

It is relatively easy to see C. F.

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61

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Hathaway as James King’s mentor.

James was an adventuresome sort. He spent three years as a before-the-mast sailor on a whaler. Then he enlisted in the Union Anny. Between the two he worked for his uncle in Waterville.

Following the war, James returned to Waterville to again work for Charles Hathaway. The implication here is that Hathaway was a point of stability for King.

It is possible to view C. F. Hathaway as the patriarch of the extended Hathaway family. James King was not the only one of Charles Hathaway’s close relatives to make Waterville their home. James’ sister Bessie married Lyman Shaw. Shaw worked for Hathaway. At the death of her husband in 1868, Betsey King, Charles’ sister and mother of James, made her home with daughter Bessie and son-in-law Lyman.

The listing of Hathaway connections can be expanded.

C.F. Hathaway and James King were

both born in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Charles Hathaway’s father, Joshua, is described as “poor, industrious and virtuous.” James King’s father was the captain of a whaler. Neither Hathaway nor King had much in the way of formal schooling. Hathaway was working full time in a nail factory at eleven. By fifteen he had upgraded his career skills to printer. One of his employers was G. & C. Merriam, publishers of Webster’s Dictionary. James King was fifteen when he signed on to a New Bedford whaler for its three-year stint in the Pacific and Arctic.

Charles Hathaway worked some seven years in the printing trade before making his first foray into clothing. The 1840 Plymouth census finds Charles Hathaway’s occupation identified as “neck stock.” Neck stock is a reference to ties and cravats. The most common material for the two was linen.

Hathaway must have been successful in “neck stock.” His customers included

Senator Daniel Webster and George Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts.

Hathaway’s career in Waterville has two distinct periods. Between 1843 and 1850, he worked as a printer and newspaperman. In the latter capacity, he started the Waterville Union. Then in 1850 he opened his first shirt factory.

It wasn’t in Waterville. It was in Watertown, Massachusetts with an outlet store in Boston Hathaway returned to Waterville in 1853 to begin what would prove to be the most successful manufacturing period of his life, one that included besides shirts, ladies’ underwear and muslins for both ladies and children.

Hathaway came to Waterville for its water power and because his wife Temperance missed her hometown. It needs to be noted that Hathaway still had his Boston store. Boston was his outlet.

James King worked for his uncle for close to nine months in 1862, from January to August. He was nineteen. It was (continued on page 62)

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(continued from page 61) the time the call for Union Army volunteers reached its first great peak. James King enlisted. What’s surprising is that he didn’t do it sooner. Three years of whaling had inured him to hardship.

King enlisted as a private. He mustered out a 2nd lieutenant. His term of duty included one re­enlistment. With the war over he went back to Waterville to work for his uncle. 1879 saw him strike out on his own, establishing his own shirt and underwear manufactory in Waterville. 1882 found him back again with Charles Hathaway, this time as partner. The next event in our story of Hathaway men is the move to Portland. First, however, a brief aside.

Tradition has it that Charles Hathaway and James King began their manufacturing concerns almost single-handed. Charles Hathaway is supposed to have begun making his first shirts in the living room of his Waterville home.

James King is said to have begun the manufacture of ladies’ and children’s

muslin underwear in Portland with a young girl as his only assistant. The stories provide a rag to riches backdrop common for the times, little else.

The Civil war provided the first big growth spurt for C. F. Hathaway.

Hathaway provided soldiers shirts under government contract. As a general statement, from the Civil War on, the company employed between I 00 and 150 workers. Two years after moving to Portland, James King had between eighty and ninety employees.

Charles Hathaway gave up his Boston store in 1874 to concentrate on the wholesale market. With James King in Portland, C. F. Hathaway now had easy access to a major new market. Portland was a railroad town. The Grand Trunk connected Portland to Montreal and Canadian markets.

James King died September 26, 1890. The King Manufacturing Company did not long survive his death.

Charles F. Hathaway died December 5,

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1892. The passing of uncle and nephew, the “true” Hathaway shirt men, marked the end of an era.

The Hathaway Shirt Company went on to become America’s number one producer of shirts, giving us the era of “the Man in the Hathaway Shirt.”

Then, almost 106 years after Charles Hathaway died, the plant making the shirts with the famous red “H’’ closed its doors for good, victim to changing times and markets. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

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The Black Ghost Of Maine Oquossoc’s Herbert Welch - a fly tying genius John Murray

T

he early 1900s were an important time for the inland sport fishing heritage, and Maine’s residents were responsible for many fishing inventions that helped promote the sport.

Among those innovators was a man named Herbert Welch, who would create many famous fly fishing patterns at his fly tying vise, including the world famous black ghost streamer fly.

Herbert Welch, known as Herb to his friends and neighbors, resided in the quiet town of Oquossoc, in western Maine, not far from the New Hampshire border. For a fly fisherman such as Welch, Oquossoc was a fishing paradise. Oquossoc is located directly between two of Maine’s premiere fish-

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ing lakes, which are Lake Mooselookmeguntic and Rangeley Lake. Lake Mooselookmeguntic is the larger of the two lakes, and holds the distinction of being the fourth largest lake in the state of Maine.

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locked salmon, and these fish would become the catalyst for the invention of numerous fly tying patterns. In reality, the deep cold waters of Lake Mooselookmeguntic and Rangeley Lake became the personal science laboratory for Welch, and it was on these waters that different fly patterns were tested, tweaked and modified to become very effective fish catchers.

Welch was a person that would not stop the creative process until perfection was accomplished. Unquestionably, this goal for perfection was linked to Welch’s diverse background, and this background set him apart from most other fly tyers of this time period.

In actuality, fly tying is an art form, and

65

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com fly tying patterns are beautiful works of art. The field of art was where Herbert Welch excelled.

Paris, France has been the center of great art for hundreds of years, and Welch spent time in Paris studying and mastering his chosen craft. A gifted artist, Welch created beautiful bronze sculptures, some of which are on display in museums today, including the renowned Smithsonian’s American Museum of Art. Welch was also a wellknown taxidermist, and he favored the magnificent trout and salmon of this area. Possessing a gift for realistic art in his taxidermist works, Welch was a highly sought after master of his art.

As with his bronze sculptures, many of his taxidermist fish mounts are still on display today.

To friends and neighbors of Welch, it was obvious that fishing was in his blood, and he excelled at the sport. Not only was Welch a superb fly tyer, but he (continued on page 66)

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(continued from page 65) was also an exceptional fly rod caster.

For a period of time, Welch participated in competitive fly rod casting, and he held the record for distance casting.

With the aid of a 5 ž ounce split bamboo fly rod, his winning distance casting record was recorded as an amazing 154 feet. To this day, that is still astounding, as many fly rod casters of today cannot duplicate such a feat with the modern high tech fly fishing rods. The fly rod casting skill resulted in Welch being a featured demonstrator at many sporting shows. A natural showman at heart, he thoroughly enjoyed these events and was a natural teacher. The accompanying fame helped turn Welch into a Maine guide, and his guiding services and intimate fishing knowledge was highly desired from many clients.

Among his clients was the President of the United States, Herbert Hoover.

When Welch sat down at his fly ty-

ing bench in his workshop at Haines Landing on Lake Mooselookmeguntic, his mind was fully focused on creating the best possible fly tying patterns for trout and salmon. During the creative process, Welch would often pause for a few minutes and analyze his work in progress. When asked about these pauses, Welch would often respond that he stopped tying the fly in the vise because he was fishing in his mind. After the completed fly pattern was removed from the vise, Welch would test out the fly pattern to see how the resident trout and salmon responded to the new creation.

All of the fly tying patterns that Welch developed were based on the small bait fish that swam in Lake Mooselookmeguntic and Rangeley Lake. These bait fish, including the common smelt, were a favored forage food of the trout and salmon. The fly

patterns that replicated the bait fish were called streamers, a name that is still used today. Welch focused on using a blend of chosen fur, feathers, floss and tinsel in accurate colors to precisely mimic the bait fish. Among these fly pattern creations was a streamer that would make Welch famous throughout the land. This streamer fly was the black ghost. Welch long considered the black ghost as a work in progress, and made slight modifications on the fly pattern from its initial creation during 1919 until its perfected pattern that was tied in 1927.

The black ghost was different from many of the fly patterns of this time period. Unique in color, it featured a slim black body that was complimented by a winding of flashy silver tinsel along its length. Sparse segments of rooster feathers that were dyed yellow comprised the tail and throat section of the

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fly pattern. Overlapping the top of the body, four matched and stacked white rooster saddle hackles were attached, and the finishing touch was the jungle cock cheeks, covering the front portion of the saddle hackles.

Welch possessed a unique ability to create effective fly patterns such as the black ghost, but he was also a pioneer in the modification of the hook design that was used on streamer fly patterns.

The hooks available during that time period had short hook shanks, and often resulted in the trout or salmon grabbing the rear of the fly pattern, and not making contact with the hook. This was commonly known as “short strikes,” and infuriated Welch. Recognizing that the hook shank length of a bluefish bait hook was longer in length, Welch decided to incorporate these hooks into his streamer fly pattern design. Heating the bluefish hook to reshape it to his re-

quired specifications, Welch constructed a much more efficient fly pattern hook for his streamers. The resulting longer hook shank was a tremendous advantage for eliminating the problem of short strikes, and the catch ratio of Welch’s streamer fly patterns was dramatically increased. Ultimately, hook manufacturers realized the virtues of Welch’s hook modification, and began to manufacture longer shank fly hooks designed for streamer patterns.

By 1927, the black ghost streamer fly pattern was a local favorite among fishermen. In 1928, Welch gave detailed fly tying directions to another Maine fly tyer, a woman named Nellie Newton, who performed a fly tying demonstration of the black ghost streamer fly at the Boston Sportsman Show. Nellie Newton was a production fly tyer for Percy Tackle Company in Portland, Maine. Soon after the demonstration at

the show, the black ghost streamer fly was under contract and being marketed for sale elsewhere in the country. With that course of events, the black ghost was considered by many to be one of the most effective streamer fly patterns for trout and salmon in the northeastern states. In later years, it would be used on most every trout and salmon fishery throughout the world.

Other streamer fly patterns were also developed by Welch in his Haines Landing workshop. As expected, these additional streamer fly patterns were equally effective for trout and salmon.

Among this list of streamer fly patterns were the Welch rarebit, Kennebago streamer, green spot, Welch Montreal and the Jane Craig. The Jane Craig streamer fly pattern was named after a well-known vaudeville actress of that time period. Craig toured with the team Dalton and Craig. The Jane Craig (continued on page 68)

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(continued from page 67) streamer fly was a successful imitation of smelt and was devised in 1923. Afterward, another namesake streamer fly was created in honor of Ms. Craig.

This pattern was named the Yellow Jane Craig, and with yellow feathers incorporated into the fly pattern, it was a useful high visibility streamer fly on dark days or stained water.

The state of Maine has a rich history in the development of fishing innovations. Anglers are proud of this history and hold noted fly tyers such as Herbert Welch in high regard. Today, the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum maintains a display in his honor.

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

Public library in Madison. Item LB2007.1.101318 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Skowhegan Is Rich In History Memories of the past

by BJ Bangs

little room for anything else.

Skowhegan Island is situated near the perpendicular Skowhegan Falls, where the river descends 28 feet in a half mile. It divides the Kennebec River into two channels, and has always been important to the community, which also serves as the Shire town (the county seat) of Somerset County.

Abner Coburn, Maine Governor from 1863-64, was instrumental in this.

A man of considerable wealth, he was instrumental in the construction of a new courthouse and jail being built in Skowhegan. Then, he reportedly used his political power to move the county seat from Norridgewock to Skowhegan.

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Skowhegan Island was once an area brimming with activity. Today, it remains a beautiful place to visit, accessible by footbridge and the Margaret Chase Smith bridges. There is open space, making it an ideal place for tourists. Its also hosts a park built to commemorate Benedict Arnold’s march up the Kennebec River on to Quebec City.

Before the formation of a town was even heard of, Native Americans (The Red Paint Indians and later the Abenakis) used Skowhegan Island on their annual trip to and from the coast.

In addition to fishing the mighty Kennebec, they planted corn which they harvested on their return trip. (continued on page 70)

_____________

S

kowhegan is rich in history — some still visible in town, some living only through memories of those who remember the past or through historical archives.

While this community of 8,824 people may be best known as being the home of the Honorable Margaret Chase Smith, (1897-1995) who served in the U.S. Congress from 1940 to 1972 and was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, this Somerset County community was a bustling manufacturing community during the 1800s. River drives on the Kennebec River winding through the community could be witnessed every spring. And Skowhegan Island was so congested that there was

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(continued from page 69) In 1724, the massacre at old Norridgewock village drove most Native Americans away from the Kennebec Valley. In 1772, the first white settlers came and built their homes and farms several miles downriver. One of their first needs was to find a location that could provide water power to run sawmills. Skowhegan Island was perfect because of a natural cleft in the ledges that a current ran through. The first mills were built on the “Power Channel,” also known as the Slucieway, in the 1790s.

Sawmills were powered by two waterfalls prior to the construction of the first small dams to raise the water level and make water power more efficient.

The slucieway served as an ideal place to build mills and factories. But after larger dams were installed, the water level rose considerably, and the once important sluiceway was no longer visible.

Early transportation to the island was via ferry that was neither safe, nor time efficient, and history has recorded many fatal ferry accidents. In 1809 the first wooden covered bridges were built, allowing people to go back and forth to Skowhegan Island easily at any time of the year. In the late l800s, those bridges were replaced with steel bridges, providing stronger reinforcements for heavier loads. Then, in 1970, the Margaret Chase Smith bridges, the major access routes to the island today,

were constructed.

Historical records show that in the mid-l800s, the island hosted the town’s first bank, first high school, two churches, fire station, one of the first dairy treats in Maine, and a new spinning mill built to replace older factories. That spinning mill later became the home of Solon Manufacturing Co., manufacturer of Popsicle sticks and other small wood pieces. In the early 1900s Central Maine Power built two large dams and power stations that remain in use today.

One of the area’s tourist attractions, the swinging bridge, originated because a local farmer wanted to shorten his walking distance to the island. Six years later, his bridge was destroyed when the cables gave out and the bridge collapsed. The Floods of 1901 and 1936 destroyed subsequent bridges. Finally, a bridge was constructed high enough to escape flood waters and it still stands today — even though it feels very wobbly when you walk over it.

Skowhegan Island and the Kennebec River offer additional historical significance. In the winter of 1775, General Benedict Arnold led his Revolutionary Army up the Kennebec River to Quebec City. Because there were no dams at the time, the men and animals had to journey their way up the high waterfalls. The rugged territory resulted in many men and supply animals dying. Additionally, much needed food

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supplies were lost in the cold, icy river. Is it any surprise that their mission failed, and many were either killed or captured? One of the earliest settlers of Skowhegan, Mr. Joseph Weston, joined the expedition.

The Kennebec River hosted the annual River Drives for years, with the last one being held in 1976.

Hard work and low wages were the norm for river drives. In the early 1900s, the men worked from before sun up to after sun down, working what is called “pod auger” days. They were served four meals a day: breakfast at 5 am, a second meal at 9 am, lunch at 2 pm, and supper at 7 pm.

While lodging facilities for the workers varied and work practices varied depending upon the time of year, if the drive was moving down river, temporary camps were erected.

These camps consisted of three large tents holding 80 to 85 men. The cook’s shack was in front of the tents. If the drive wasn’t moving down river, camps were more stationary, consisting of log cabins with bunks and an attached or adjacent cook’s shack.

In the mid-1900s, a typical log drive would begin in April. Once the ice had melted, they hooked the boom logs together and the drive began. The men ran over the logs in the river with caulk boots, boots with thick soles and nails sticking out of the soles so that the men wouldn’t slip. They used pick poles,

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long poles that had spikes on the end to keep the logs going down the river. Reportedly there were only four responses to a logjam. First, the men would try to break the jam by hand. If that didn’t work, they tried to cut away the key logs, the logs that were holding the others back. If they couldn’t get to the key logs, they would use dynamite to blow them away. If the jam still didn’t come apart, they would raise the water level of the river through the use of dams.

Usually, it was a matter of just keeping the wood moving down the river, but in the fall it was a different story.

Workers bringing up the rear had to walk along the banks of the river and make sure there wasn’t any wood left behind. When high water resulted in wood being left back in the woods, the men would form a line, passing the wood along until it could be thrown into the water. After all of the wood was in the river, boats would come along with the booms and continue moving the wood along the river till it reached its destination — many times a sawmill or lumber mills.

Because Skowhegan has such a wealth of history, students at the Skowhegan Area Middle School have worked on an in-depth study of the community. This work was done in conjunction with the town’s History Center and the Maine Memory Network, a part of the Maine Historical Society in Portland.

Much of the students award-winning

work has been compiled in studies, movies, web pages, and reports, published on the internet.

Their web site is www.msad54.org/ sams/projects/community/

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Early view of Madison Avenue in Skowhegan. Item # LB2007.1.103164 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Family Pet Connection Gerald G Dunn, OD, PA • Family Eye Care D. Alex Pakulski, OD, PA • Sports/Safety Glasses • Contact Lenses • Fashion Eye Wear

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Danforth’s Greenhouses in Skowhegan. Item # LB2007.1.102461 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

LACASSE SHOE REPAIR, INC. Heritage House Sales & Repairs

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Early view of Athens. Item # LB2007.1.104032 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

207-654-3341

athens corner store Agency Liquor Store Pizza • Fresh Sandwiches • Groceries Fresh Cut Meats • Produce Chester’s Chicken • Beer/Wine • New England Coffee Irving Gas • Diesel • Off Road Diesel • Oil Oregon Chainsaw Supply Seasonal Hunting / Fishing Megabucks • Powerball • Instant Tickets Mon-Sat 4am-9pm │ Sun 5am-9pm

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W.D. Hinds store at Haynes Landing in Rangeley. Item # LB2007.1.101025 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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18 Below Raw Bar, Grill & Lounge ....................................................42 ABC Pool & Spa Center .....................................................................10 Above and Beyond, LLC .....................................................................24 Advantage Insurance ........................................................................47 Alan’s Automotive Incorporated .......................................................30 Alfond Youth Center .........................................................................40 Altus Construction LLC ......................................................................36 Amazing Chase Sebago .....................................................................13 Andrew Ames Logging .......................................................................3 Androscoggin Bank ..........................................................................22 Archie’s Inc. Rubbish Removal ...........................................................63 Athens Corner Store ..........................................................................73 B&M Auto Repair ..............................................................................10 Barker Tree Service & Logging .........................................................36 Bessey Insurance ...............................................................................47 Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce .................................................19 Betty’s Laundry .................................................................................34 Big Dawg Concrete ...........................................................................37 Bissonnette’s Plumbing & Heating ..................................................18 Blanchet Builders, LLC .......................................................................55 Blue Door Primitive Peddler .............................................................14 Bob’s Cash Fuel ................................................................................68 Bolster Monumental Works ..............................................................17 Bolt Fabrics .......................................................................................31 Boomers Restaurant & Saloon ..........................................................58 Bourque-Lanigan Post 5 American Legion ......................................40 Bowley Brook Pure Maple Syrup .....................................................46 Boynton’s Greenhouse ......................................................................55 Boys and Girls Club of Greater Waterville .........................................40 Bradbury’s Market & Diner ................................................................62 Brian’s Brake & Muffler ...................................................................29 Brown’s Construction ........................................................................19 Camp Keepers Complete Property Service .......................................28 Carrier’s Lawn Care & Landscape Design .........................................24 Casco Village Variety .........................................................................34 Central Maine Community College ...................................................3 Central Maine Powersports ...............................................................22 Central Maine Sandblasting ............................................................70 Central Tire Co. Inc. ...........................................................................30 Chim Chiminey Chimney Sweep ......................................................12 Chris’ Electric ...................................................................................34 Cole Harrison Insurance ....................................................................49 Cooper Farms ....................................................................................37 Cornerstone Plumbing & Heating ....................................................61 Cornish Hardware .............................................................................31 Cozi Corner Cafe ................................................................................14 Creaser Jewelers ...............................................................................35 Crooked River Resources ....................................................................36 Cushing Construction .......................................................................40 D&R Paving & Sealcoating ..............................................................14 D.A. Wilson & Co. Excavation ..........................................................37 D.H. Pinnette & Sons, Inc. ....................................................................5 D.R. Salisbury & Son, LLC .................................................................51 Daggett’s Garage ...............................................................................60 Damboise Garage .............................................................................41 Dave’s Appliance ..............................................................................11 Davis Concrete ...................................................................................19 Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers ...............................................60 DeWolfe & Wood Rare & Used Books ..............................................29 Dick’s Auto Body & Collision Center ................................................38 Dionne & Son Builders .......................................................................54 Dirty Bristles Chimney Sweep Inc. ...................................................33 Don’s No Preference Towing .............................................................25 Don’s Stove Shop & Chimney Care ...................................................38 Douglass Construction, Inc. ...............................................................32 Dovey’s Kitchen ................................................................................61 Dunn & Pakulski Optometrists .........................................................71 Dutch Treat ........................................................................................46 Dyer Septic Service ..........................................................................36 E.W. Moore & Son Pharmacy ...........................................................65 Ed Hodsdon Masonry, Inc. ..............................................................11 Edmunds Market ..............................................................................64 Ed’s Grove Discount Warehouse ........................................................29 Ellis Variety .......................................................................................61 Evergreens Campground & Restaurant ............................................68 Family Pet Connection & Grooming .................................................71 Farmington Farmers Union ..............................................................61 Farmington Ford ...............................................................................46 Fast Eddies .......................................................................................12 Fine Line Paving & Grading ..............................................................52 Finelines Auto Body .........................................................................33 Firefly Boutique ................................................................................33 Fireside Stove Shop & Fireplace Center ............................................26 Flagstaff General Store ......................................................................65 Floormaster North ...........................................................................55 Food for Thought ...............................................................................35 Franklin County Chamber of Commerce ............................................61 Franklin Health Urology .....................................................................6 Franklin Memorial Hospital ..............................................................6 Franklin Savings Bank .........................................................................7 Franklin-Somerset Federal Credit Union .............................................4 Fraternal Order of Eagles #1248 ........................................................63 Frederick Heating .............................................................................69 Fryeburg Glass .................................................................................16 G&G Cash Fuels ................................................................................26 G&L Contracting Lift Services .............................................................43 Gateway Marina ................................................................................35 Generators of Maine ..........................................................................43 George’s Banana Stand ....................................................................55 Giberson Funeral Home ..................................................................52 Gingerbread Farm Perennials ..........................................................39 Glen Luce Logging, Inc. ...................................................................37 Goodridge Electric ...........................................................................56 Gray Family Vision Center .................................................................27 Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce ...................32 Gridiron Restaurant & Sports Pub ....................................................23 Grimaldi Concrete Floors & Countertops ..........................................39 Hammond Lumber Company ...........................................................44

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Hardys Motorsports .........................................................................69 Harris Drug Store .............................................................................50 HealthReach Community Health Centers ...........................................4 Heart & Hand Inc. Landscape ..........................................................32 Heritage House Restaurant .............................................................72 Hight Ford .........................................................................................8 High Tide Low Tide Seafood ............................................................53 Highland Farms Logging, LLC ...........................................................15 Hodgdon Well Drilling, Inc . ...............................................................7 Homestead Realty ...........................................................................26 Hungry Hollow Country Store ............................................................4 Hydraulic Hose & Assemblies ............................................................5 Image Auto Body .............................................................................69 J.D. Potter Construction ...................................................................29 J&J Haines Excavation, Inc. .............................................................63 J.E.T.T. 24 Hour Towing & Transport ..................................................39 J.L. Brochu, Inc. ................................................................................65 J.T. Reid’s Gun Shop ..........................................................................7 JT’s Finest Kind Saw .......................................................................55 Jake White Logging ..........................................................................30 Jason Stevens Excavation & Earth Work ..........................................60 Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls Chamber of Commerce .................19 Jean Castonguay Excavating ...........................................................38 Jimmy’s Shop N Save ........................................................................67 Johnny Castonguay Logging & Trucking ...........................................40 Johnny’s ............................................................................................11 Jordan Lumber Co. ...........................................................................65 Jordan’s Store ...................................................................................29 Joseph’s Market ...............................................................................60 Judy’s Variety ..................................................................................63 JW Awning Co. .................................................................................11 K.E.Y. Services, LLC ...........................................................................32 Kash for Kans Recycling, LLC ..........................................................14 Kelley Petroleum Products, Inc. ........................................................73 Kiesman Drywall, Inc. ......................................................................32 KL Construction & Real Estate ...........................................................9 KMD Auto Repair .............................................................................71 Knowles Lumber Company .............................................................11 Kramers Inc. .....................................................................................43 L&L Day ...........................................................................................18 LP Poirier & Son Inc., Excavation ....................................................23 LaCasse Shoe Repair, Inc. ................................................................72 Lake Region Paving & Seal Coating .................................................28 Lakewood Continuing Care Center ....................................................39 Laney’s Pit Stop ...............................................................................54 Larsen’s Electric ................................................................................62 Larsen’s Jewelry ..............................................................................59 Lavallee’s Garage .............................................................................66 Law Office of Brian D. Condon, Jr., Esq. .............................................26 Lewiston House of Pizza ...................................................................24 Liberte Auto Sales & Service ...........................................................22 Linkletter & Sons, Inc. ......................................................................7 Lisbon Community Federal Credit Union ...........................................26 Lizotte Construction ........................................................................42 Logan Home Builders ......................................................................31 Long Green Variety ..........................................................................59 Long Pond Camps & Guide Service ...................................................9 Luce’s Meats & Maple .......................................................................52 Madison Automotive & Recreation ..................................................68 Maine Family Federal Credit Union ..................................................9 Maine Gro Compost ..........................................................................22 Maine Historical Society ...................................................................3 MAINE-LY FOAM ................................................................................32 Maine Forest Service .......................................................................68 Maine’s Outdoor Learning Center ....................................................66 Maine Pellet Sales LLC ...................................................................11 Maine Roof Solutions ......................................................................53 Maine Veterinary Medical Center ...................................................21 Maine’s Paper & Heritage Museum ................................................38 Major’s Heating, LLC ........................................................................58 Mama Bear’s Den .............................................................................51 Marc’s Auto Body .............................................................................26 Matheson Tri Gas .............................................................................24 Maurice Restaurant .........................................................................35 Mayer Builders Professional Carpentry .............................................28 Maynard’s In Maine ..........................................................................51 McAllister Accounting And Tax Services ............................................59 McNaughton Construction ..............................................................44 Mel’s Raspberry Patch .....................................................................30 Memorial Guard LLC .........................................................................38 Merle Lloyd & Sons Earthwork Contractors ......................................67 Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce ...................................................41 Mike Wainer Plumbing & Heating ...................................................44 Montello Heights Retirement Community .......................................23 Moosehead Motorsports ..................................................................51 Morrell’s Septic Tank Service & Excavating .....................................16 Motor Supply Co. ...............................................................................5 Moulton Lumber .............................................................................30 Mt. Blue Drug ..................................................................................45 Naples Marina ................................................................................33 Naples Packing Co., Inc. ..................................................................63 New Portland Lions Agricultural Fair .............................................64 Nordica Homestead Museum .........................................................46 Northeast Laboratory Services .......................................................5 Norway/Paris Soft Serve .................................................................18 Oberg Insurance & Real Estate Agency ............................................17 Oquossoc Marine ...........................................................................50 Otis Federal Credit Union ................................................................59 Our Village Market ..........................................................................65 Oxford Casino .....................................................................back cover Oxford Federal Credit Union ............................................................47 Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce ................................................58 Oxford Hills Taxi ..............................................................................34 Packard Appraisal, Inc. ...................................................................33 Paines Primitive Patch ...................................................................53 Pat’s Pizza Auburn ..........................................................................25 Pat’s Pizza Windham .....................................................................28 Penobscot Marine Museum .............................................................20

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Perfect Edge ...................................................................................15 Perkins Management ....................................................................40 Phil Carter’s Garage .........................................................................60 Pinnette Bros. Roofing & Sheetmetal LLC ......................................41 Pitcher Perfect Tire Service ............................................................45 Pressure Pro ...................................................................................25 Prestige Pools ................................................................................25 Prime Financial Inc. ........................................................................41 Provencher’s Landscape .................................................................10 Quality Construction ......................................................................60 R.E. Lowell Lumber Inc. .................................................................37 R.F. Automotive Repair ....................................................................70 R.S. Pidacks Inc. ................................................................................4 R.W. Day Logging ..........................................................................16 Randy’s Full Service Auto Repair, LLC ............................................56 Range Pond Campground ................................................................13 Rangeley Lakes Chamber of Commerce ..........................................49 Red Mill Lumber .............................................................................34 Redington-Fairview General Hospital .............................................57 Registered Maine Guide .................................................................66 Remco Radiator & Auto Care ..........................................................25 Richard Wing & Son Logging Inc. ..................................................28 Rick & Kevin Lewis Building & Remodeling .....................................17 Ricker Hill Orchards ..........................................................................38 Rick’s Garage ..................................................................................52 River Valley Chamber of Commerce ................................................63 River Valley Grill ............................................................................48 Riverbend Campground .................................................................12 Riverside Realty ..............................................................................62 Robin L. Day & Sons .....................................................................45 Rod’s Cycle & RV .............................................................................54 Rolfe Corporation ............................................................................33 Ron’s Transmissions .........................................................................9 Rottari Electric ................................................................................12 Roy Brothers Excavation .................................................................25 RTD Excavation ................................................................................17 Russell & Sons Towing ....................................................................35 S.A. McLean, Inc. ............................................................................30 Sackett & Brake Survey, Inc. ...........................................................72 Sam-O-Set 4 Seasons Housekeeping Cottages & Dockside Sports Center.....49 Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce ...................................13 Seth McCoy’s Excavating ..................................................................14 Shawn’s Masonry ............................................................................18 Shelly’s Hometown Market ............................................................47 Sillanpaas Trading Post & Outfitters ...............................................48 Siragusa Builders ............................................................................12 Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce .......................................54 Smile Again Dentures, Inc. ..............................................................24 SMT&E .............................................................................................14 Solon Corner Market ......................................................................55 Solon Superette ..............................................................................52 Spanky’s Speed Shop .....................................................................15 St. Peter’s Cemetery .......................................................................10 Stacy’s Service Center .....................................................................16 Sterling Electric ..............................................................................46 Stetson’s Auto Service .....................................................................18 Stony Brook Recreation Campground .............................................47 Stratton Plaza Hotel .......................................................................66 Strong Hardware & Building Supply ............................................64 Styling Dog Grooming Boutique ......................................................9 Sugarloaf Rentals & Cleaning Services ............................................49 Summit Roofing .............................................................................50 Sun Auto & Salvage .......................................................................70 Sunnyside Restaurant ....................................................................32 Taste of Waterville ..........................................................................41 Taylor’s Drug Store ..........................................................................53 The Irregular ...................................................................................48 The Kingfield Woodsman Restaurant .............................................50 The Korner Store & Deli .................................................................44 The Little Red Hen Diner & Bakery ...................................................49 The Looney Moose Cafe .................................................................67 The Peppermill Restaurant .............................................................15 The Sterling Inn Bed & Breakfast ....................................................50 The White Elephant Country Store ...............................................48 Thompson’s Restaurant ..................................................................52 Tilton’s Market ................................................................................18 Town of Farmington .......................................................................45 Town of Mexico ...............................................................................47 Traitor Lounge .................................................................................66 Trash Guyz .......................................................................................27 Triple D Redemption & Tanning Spa ...............................................69 Tuck’s Ale House .............................................................................62 Tuttles Auto Sales ...........................................................................44 Twin Town Homes ..........................................................................17 Valley Gas & Oil Company ...............................................................64 Vintage Maine Images.com ..............................................................3 W.D. Bickford Machinery ...............................................................41 Weber Insurance ............................................................................47 W.L. Sturgeon, Inc. ...........................................................................15 Wadsworth Woodlands ..................................................................31 Weber Insurance Group .................................................................47 Western Maine Pharmacy, Inc. .......................................................48 Western Maine Towing & Recovery ...............................................34 Westwood Cottages ........................................................................29 Whittemore & Sons Outdoor Power Equipment ..............................57 Whittemore Pool & Spa Management ............................................36 Whittemore’s Real Estate ................................................................53 Willie’s Towing ................................................................................12 Willyn To Do What You Can’t Find Time To Do ...................................16 Wilson Excavating, Inc. ...................................................................58 Wilson Funeral Home .....................................................................13 Winslow Supply, Inc. ......................................................................59 Woodlawn Rehab & Nursing Center ..............................................56 Wood-Mizer of Maine .....................................................................59 Woodsome’s Feeds & Needs ...........................................................13 YMCA of Greater Waterville .............................................................40 Zippy Copy Center ..........................................................................15

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Southern Maine’S CaSino 24/7 CaSino aCtion 26

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The fun never stops at Oxford Casino! Over Oxford Casino is southern Maine’s 850 state-of-the-art home for wicked good fun! slot machines, 28 heart-pounding table games and delicious food, only minutes from Portland.

Portland

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