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Volume 12 | Issue 1 | 2015
Maine’s History Magazine
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
The Aroostook War Podcast
Podcast revisits disputed territory in early 1800s Aroostook County
Houlton’s Founding Father Aroostook’s Joseph Houlton
Fort Kent’s Mattie Pinette Honored, Recognized, Remembered
www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine
Inside This Edition
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
3 It Makes No Never Mind James Nalley 4 County Cats A personality all their own Christine Laws
Maine’s History Magazine
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
7 Gerald Bouchard Restored A 50-Year-Old Helicopter A labor of love Brian Swartz
Publisher & Editor
10 The Grindstone Train Wreck Always better to take it slow and easy Charles Francis
Advertising & Sales Manager
14 Houlton’s Founding Father Aroostook’s Joseph Houlton Dale Marie Potter-Clark 24 Cold Friday Temps can plummet quickly in The County Charles Francis 30 Fort Kent’s Mattie Pinette Honored, recognized, remembered Charles Francis 34 The Legacy Of Clifford G. McIntire Perham native was a significant political figure Charles Francis 39 Memories Of Long Ago Depression years required sacrifice and hard work Gladys G. Whittier 43 The Aroostook War Podcast Podcast revisits disputed territory in early 1800s Brian Swartz 48 The French Connection Out of Canada : “Vive les Acadiens” Jeffrey Bradley 51 Along The Aroostook Trail Highway began as a military road in 1832 Brian Swartz 55 Houlton’s Dr. John G. Potter What made the man? Dale Marie Potter-Clark
Jim Burch
Layout & Design Liana Merdan Tim Maxfield
Advertising & Sales Dennis Burch Chris Girouard Tim Maxfield Zack Rouda
Office Manager Liana Merdan
Field Representatives George Tatro Tim Churchill
Contributing Writers
Jeffrey Bradley Dale Marie Potter-Clark Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca Christine Laws James Nalley Brian Swartz Gladys G. Whittier Published Annually by CreMark, Inc. 10 Exchange Street, Suite 208 Portland, Maine 04101 Ph (207) 874-7720 info@discovermainemagazine.com www.discovermainemagazine.com Discover Maine Magazine is distributed to town offices, chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, lumber companies, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine. NO PART of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from CreMark, Inc. | Copyright © 2015 CreMark, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION FORMS ON PAGE 53
Front Cover Photo:
Sweden Street looking east in Caribou, Item # LB2008.14.115394 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Aroostook & Northern Penobscot counties edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine. Photos are also provided from our collaboration with the Maine Historical Society and the Penobscot Marine Museum.
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It Makes No Never Mind by James Nalley
W
ith names such as “The County” (commonly used by the locals) and the more spectacular “Crown of Maine” (regularly employed by the tourist industry), Aroostook County is, without question, Maine’s and continental America’s northernmost county. According to the Aroostook County Government website, “the county is bordered to the east, west, and north by Canada.” Now, this could be interpreted in two ways, depending on one’s perspective. First, you can feel geographically “hugged” and comforted by the fact that the Global Peace Index (GPI) named Canada as one of the World’s Top 10 Peaceful Countries, or second, you can feel that the same portion of the country is poised to attack at any moment and quietly drag you off in the middle of the night to force you into servitude as a butler/maid for a French-speaking family. In regard to escape from the latter, help will not be immediately next door, since the population density of the area is officially 11.1 persons per square mile. But don’t fret! The population density of Penobscot County, located just south, is 43 people per square mile.
During your journey south on foot (which is not only the quietest mode of travel, but the ONLY direction for escape), you can find sustenance in the county’s fertile fields of potatoes or broccoli. Comforting is the fact that the area’s farmers plant approximately 80,000 acres of potatoes each year, and according to the Bangor Daily News, “If you go into a supermarket anywhere east of the Mississippi River, odds are high that the broccoli displayed in the produce section is from Smith’s Farm in Aroostook County.” Just remember: broccoli can be eaten raw, but not potatoes. Finally, for those of you with some type of private aircraft and a need to slip out unnoticed, there is evidence of a runway near Estcourt Station, the state’s northernmost town. According to the website, Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Northern Maine by Paul Freeman, “The earliest depiction of this air field was on a 1987 USGS topo map, which showed a single paved east/ west 2,600’ paved runway…with an additional unpaved 1,800’ overrun on the west side.” So there is hope. Well, to close this edition of “It Makes No Never Mind,” I would like to share the following Computer Terms for Aroostook and Northern Penobscot Counties:
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Log On: Make the wood stove hotter. Monitor: Keep an eye on that wood stove. Download: Get the firewood off the truck. Hard Drive: Getting home in the winter. Window: What to shut when it’s cold outside. Screen: What to shut during black fly season. Byte: What the black flies do. Bit: What the black flies did. Chip: Munchies while watching TV. Microchip: What’s left in the bag. Modem: What you did to the weeds in the driveway. Software: Those plastic knives and forks at McDonalds. Web: What a spider makes. Website: High corners of the ceiling. Server: Waitress. Browser: A moose in your garden. Search Engine: What you do when the car dies. Sound Card: A birthday card that plays music when you open it. Internet: Complicated fish net repair. Netscape: What the haddock do when you don’t perform Internet.
T HE A ST RThe O County N AP
PLIC
ATORS LL
C
Your Quality Applicator for Potato Sprout Inhibitor ~ Covering All of Maine ~ 16 Industrial St. • Mars Hill • Maine
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
County Cats
by Christine Laws
A personality all their own
I
used to have three questions concerning cats. First, why did some folks keep their cats outdoors instead of in? And how could a nice fellow like my father-in-law have left a cat behind when he moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania? I shook my head, aghast at the apparent heartlessness. And finally, I wondered how anybody could end up with fifty-seven cats? Well, the cats my family and I came across in the County solved these mysteries. First came Timothy. Picked up on River Street for loitering, he soon found himself purring in a cage at the pound. We discovered him there and took him home, because a happy orange cat was
exactly what I had been looking for. And he really was a happy cat. Like a rag doll, he could be placed on his back, cradled in your arms, purring, perfectly content. He would let our daughter push him down the hallway in a stroller; he would chase moths and jingle balls throughout the house. He
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was a joy to have inside. But one morning something went wrong by the litter box; I discovered an unpleasant object on the bottom of my slipper. Then too, Timothy had claws that needed sharpening, fur that needed shedding, and hairballs that needed upchucking. So we soon saw the wisdom in introducing him to the great outdoors. After hiding under our old shed for three days, Timothy finally emerged, ready to forgive us for kicking him out, ready to face his new world. And soon enough he realized that there were certain benefits to being an outside cat. For one thing, those robins he had cov-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com eted from his perch on the windowsill were now within reach. He had adjusted nicely to his new life. Unfortunately, another upsetting event happened to our happy cat. We decided to move, and — of course — we would take our cat with us. My husband managed to lure Timothy into a cardboard box, and I held the box on the twelve-mile drive to the new place. I never heard so much clawing and carrying on! And I am convinced that, toward the end of the trip, I heard him cry, “Mama!” I longed to open the box and set him free, but my husband advised against it. Eventually Timothy forgave us for that, and he didn’t need to be boxed up for nearly two years. By that time, though, we also had a horse. So when moving day came, we figured we would haul Timothy those two miles by buggy — pulled by the horse, of course. But I guess Timothy didn’t like horses, or buggies, or the plastic tote
my husband so lovingly shoved him in. By the time the lid was popped open, Timothy was ready to bolt. He ran and ran, looked back once to make sure no one was chasing him, and then he kept on running. We saw him on a couple of occasions after that, but he would never come near us again. I finally understood why my father-in-law had skipped the relocating of cats ordeal. Other cats came along to fill the void. There was our orange and white kitten, Josephine, who should have been a Joseph as it turned out. She wasn’t the sharpest-clawed kitty in the litter. She would steal our dog’s food while he was within biting distance. He didn’t mind, but if Josephine had tried that with some other dog … So it was no surprise when one day she disappeared for good. Later came Martha, then George. Next came four kittens—Albert, Polly, Buddy, and Ginger Ale. We had half a dozen cats and I could see that we were
well on our way to fifty-seven. And as it turned out, all it took was Martha and a stray cat; George was too interested in food to bother with love. More pig than cat, George would ignore you unless it was mealtime, or you happened to be sipping a cup of cocoa or a can of cola he wanted. But again we moved, leaving all six cats with the neighbors, avoiding both greedy George and the upcoming population explosion. Those cats answered my few questions, but they also reminded me that being greedy and unforgiving are not endearing qualities. And yet, I still want to keep my naughty cats happy. There are several reasons for this. But perhaps the biggest one is what the poet Shelley understood so well: “When my cats aren’t happy, I’m not happy. Not because I care about their mood, but because I know they’re just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.” * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Early view of Main Street in Millinocket. Item # LB2007.1.101529 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Gerald Bouchard Restored A 50-Year-Old Helicopter by Brian Swartz
A
A labor of love
labor of love meticulously crafted by Gerald K. “Gerry” Bouchard recently (and figuratively) flew away. In February 2014, Bouchard sold a 1963 Hiller UH-12E light utility helicopter that he acquired “along with a lot of other parts” in Connecticut in 1996 for $12,000. The Hiller looked substantially different when Bouchard bade it “farewell”; the MASH-style helicopter, which “had been wrecked when I bought it,” left Maine “as a brand new helicopter,” he said. Bouchard spent 12 years restoring
the UH-12E — and if anyone in Aroostook County could do it, this experienced helicopter mechanic (and pilot) could do so. Bouchard lives in Stacyville, “within 5-10 miles of where I was born and raised” in Silver Ridge Township, which abuts Benedicta. After graduating from Sherman High School, he “hitchhiked to Massachusetts” to attend East Coast Aero Tech, located at Hanscom Field in Bedford. Tried and tested during the Korean War, helicopters represented a relatively new technology in civilian and
military applications in the late 1950s. After graduating from the tech school, Bouchard started working the second shift in the Experimental Division at Sikorsky Aircraft, a company that, under the visionary leadership of Igor Sikorsky Sr. was pioneering various uses for the helicopter. Then located in New Bridgeport, Conn., Sikorsky Aircraft worked closely with federal agencies. Bouchard helped assemble the first two prototype helicopters — NA80 and NA81 — for the Coast Guard.
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 7) Sikorsky Aircraft later moved to a new factory in Stratford, Conn. While working full time as the company’s night-shift crew chief, Bouchard attended daytime factory schools to learn the intricate mechanics of new military helicopters, including the H-13, H-34, and H-37. Then Uncle Sam drafted Bouchard into the Army on Dec. 4, 1959. His civilian training earned him a position as crew chief on a general’s helicopter (a Sikorsky H-13) in Europe; later Bouchard became a line chief, then a section chief, “and made sergeant E-5” before returning to Sikorsky Aircraft in March 1962. Now assigned to the day shift, Bouchard was involved in converting Army helicopters for use in the first presidential helicopter fleet. Later he worked as “the lead [technician] on the first 50” S-64 Skytrain helicopters that Sikorsky built for the Army.
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Sikorsky Aircraft later became United Technologies, and during the Vietnam War Bouchard spent time servicing military helicopters in Thailand and Vietnam. He returned stateside in the early 1970s to work for the company as a flight mechanic. Among the other places to which his subsequent career has taken Bouchard are Switzerland, New Jersey, and Florida, where he worked several winters for Montauk Caribbean Airways while based at the Millionaires’ Club in Key Largo. Summers he spent “working in the Hamptons” on Long Island, he recalled. For some years Bouchard had his own business, “a small flight operation” and “aircraft technical services. I had a 26-foot van with a full shop in it. I did contract maintenance.” Bouchard holds licenses as a commercial pilot (helicopters and single-engine aircraft) and as an “A & P (aircraft
and power plant) mechanic” and, until recently, certification as a Federal Aviation Administration inspector. He completed 18 technical schools, overhauled jet engines for Greenwich Air Service in Connecticut, and worked several years for PK Floats in Lincoln, to which Bouchard moved circa 1997. He and his wife, Mae, brought with them from Connecticut the disassembled Hiller, which he started restoring in his spare time. He carefully rebuilt and painted many parts, replaced others, and paid close attention to details. “I don’t put anything together unless it’s absolutely perfect,” Bouchard said. Acquiring some service manual and parts catalogs, he gradually assembled the three-place Hiller in the family’s two-car garage. Bouchard worked on the rotor blades in the spare bedroom of the 66-by-14-foot mobile home he shared with Mae. For a while until he finished them, the rotor blades jutted
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from the spare bedroom into the 18foot living room. The project involved a 305-horsepower Avco Lycoming engine, a bubble canopy, the instrument panel, the seats and seat backings, and updated avionics (among other components). Restored in accordance with FAA regulations, the Hiller “went back together as a brand new helicopter. “I overhauled the complete machine, everything. I figure I’ve got at least 1,000 hours, probably 2,000 hours, into building it,” he said. The day finally came when Bouchard finished the Hiller; now he wanted to see how it would fly. “I flew it [for the first time] in 2008,” Bouchard said. “I have a lot of pictures of the first flight,” including a photo of myself getting ready to lift off. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Here goes nothing after 12 years of building it.’” He flew the Hiller four more times;
for three years he towed it behind his tractor during Sherman Old Home Days “so the kids could ride in it. They loved it.” Ironically, the Hiller had ties to Maine; according to Bouchard, the helicopter was once stationed at Dow Air Force Base in Bangor. Hillers are frequently used for crop spraying, especially in the South; after Bouchard sold his UH-12E last winter, the new owner equipped it for aerial spraying. Bouchard, who has “had 15 aircraft, everything up to a DC-3,” recently started restoring another Hiller. Then he discovered that “they don’t make any blades for it anymore,” so he stopped that project. However, he has his eyes on a particular observation helicopter … but that is another story.
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
The Grindstone Train Wreck Always better to take it slow and easy
by Charles Francis
T
he evening of July 28, 1911 was a stormy one. It was raining heavily and the winds were strong, approaching gale force. That sets the background for one of the worst train wrecks in the history of Maine railroading. The accident took place in Grindstone, some ten or eleven miles north of Millinocket. The accident was a headon crash. The trains involved were Bangor & Aroostook trains. One was a regular passenger train. The other was an excursion train. The first was on a scheduled Van Buren to Bangor run. The second was a special, originating in Searsport and bound for Caribou. Nine people died in the accident.
Twenty-four were injured. The blame for deaths and injuries were placed on the engineer and conductor of the excursion train. The bulk of the fault would seem to be with the conductor. A close study of the reports that were issued following the accident seem to indicate placing the cause for the accident on the two B & A employees was justified. Is there a lesson in this? That may be a matter of opinion. The engineer of the excursion was a man named Frank Garcelon. The conductor was Herbert Dibblee. Both were from Houlton. The ultimate responsibility for the starting or stopping of a B & A train at this time was in the hands of the con-
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ductor. This means Dibblee. Newspapers of the period quoted Dibblee as saying he asked his engineer, Garcelon, if he could make Grindstone before the regular got away from that station, and that the engineer had replied in the affirmative. That’s the beginning. There is much more. The August 3, 1911 headline of the Bangor Daily News read “CONDUCTOR DIBBLEE TOOK A DESPERATE CHANCE AND LOST.” It seems Dibblee admitted he had broken the rules in running by a switch outside of Millinocket. He admitted he should have pulled the excursion train over to wait for the Bangor-bound train to pass. Dibblee also admitted disobeying rules
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11
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com by not stopping the train and sending out brakemen with lanterns and flares when he realized there was the distinct possibility of a collision. The story of the Grindstone train wreck made national news and stayed there for an extended period of time. The reason for this was the excursion train. The excursion was a school outing. The outing was that of the Presque Isle High School band and their families. Band members and families had spent a day at the seashore. In the first decades of the twentieth century the B & A operated an amusement park on Penobscot Bay in Searsport. The park, Penobscot Amusement Park, was adjacent to the B & A’s Kidder Point docking facility. It was especially popular with the Aroostook County families who lived far from the ocean. There were boat rentals, rides and a restaurant with fifty cent meals. Follow-up stories picked up on the fact that some Presque Isle young people had never before seen the Atlantic.
That there could have been a worse place for a train wreck than Grindstone would be hard to imagine. Today Grindstone is a dot on the map, sitting beside the East Branch of the Penobscot. Personally I find Grindstone attractive. In fact, I love it. I love Grindstone Falls. It’s an easy drive up Route 11 from Medway. I love the peace and serenity of the drive from Medway to Stacyville. There is any number of beautiful spots to explore along the river. This, of course, is far from the situation the night of the wreck. Few people live in Grindstone. In 1911 there were around forty people there. Tradition says its name comes from stones found in the area which were used to sharpen axes. In 1911 the road to Grindstone was little better than a wagon trace. The night of the wreck it was mud and impassable. The most important structure in the community was the train station. As such, it was probably the worst on the B & A line.
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Telegraph and telephone connections were intermittent at best. There were no facilities catering to the public. The little community had no doctor. A doctor had been travelling on the excursion train. However, he had no medical supplies with him. Eventually doctors came in by train from Houlton and Millinocket and elsewhere. Injured were sheltered as best as possible in damaged cars. There was no electricity. The Grindstone train wreck was investigated by both the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Maine and the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The ICC had two inspectors. The report of the ICC inspectors includes the following: “The accident occurred at 9:10 p.m., at approximately two-fifths of a mile from the south switch at Grindstone station on an 8-degreee curve where the line of vision was very limited. Conductor Dibblee testified that at 9:09 p.m., he realized (continued on page 12)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 11) that No. 8 was leaving Grindstone but made no effort to stop his train; neither did he make any preparation to flag No. 8. His excuse was that he hoped No. 8 would see them and stop. He stationed himself in the door of the baggage car in order to watch No. 8’s approach, and when he saw their headlight, leaped to the ground.” It is doubtful that any statement could be more damning as to where the responsibility for the accident lay. Not included in the above ICC statement is the fact that both Engineer Garcelon and Conductor Dibblee knew they had a one- minute window to avoid a collision with the Bangor- bound train. To be sure of avoiding collision the excursion train should have pulled to a siding to wait for the other train to pass. The Bangor- bound train had the right-of-way. The question is why didn’t the excursion train take the appropriate precautions? There has been
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conjecture on this question. Why the foolish decision? It doesn’t really matter in the long run. The tragedy happened. Garcelon and Dibblee hurried when they shouldn’t have. Maybe it was because they wanted to get home as quickly as possible. We want to find something important in tragedies like the Grindstone train wreck. It’s human nature to try to draw meaningful conclusions from awful events. We are supposed to study history so as to avoid the mistakes of the past in the present and future. Is this possible? People keep on hurrying and erring. Addendum: Engineer Garcelon was killed in the accident. Conductor Dibblee disappeared from the record. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section
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T&S Market Bruce Wallace, Owner
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Water works and pumping station in Houlton. This image is one of a collection of glass plate negatives showing the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. Item #5420 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
Dunbar Equipment “Quality used construction equipment from large to small”
Dunbar Construction Bill Dunbar: Owner
207-532-5980
Littleton, Maine
538-9877 • 694-0540
Email: director@greaterhoulton.com
~ Seed Potatoes ~ ~ Processing ~ ~ Table Stock ~
532-6714 3 Sugar Loaf Street
Lisa Findlater
RPH/Pharmacist
• General Contractor • Excavation • Septic Systems • Slabs
Southern Aroostook Trade Show • Midnight Madness 4th of July Parade and Agricultural Fair Wings and Wheels Fly-in / Cruise-in Potato Feast Days • Riverfront Harvest Festival and lots more!
SHIRETOWN Pharmacy Your local pharmacy
Houlton
fax: 207-532-5981 101 Military Street • Houlton, Maine 04730
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Houlton’s Founding Father Aroostook’s Joseph Houlton
by Dale Marie Potter-Clark
I
n 1963 my grandfather Potter led my parents, sister and I north through the Haynesville Woods and potato fields to Fort Fairfield and Limestone. There we saw the places he had roamed as a youth and I developed pride in my Aroostook County heritage. I married into the Nason and Cowperthwaite families of Littleton, Monticello and Houlton and my sense of roots in “the County” became deeper. Researching for this article deepened my respect for this area and its founders even more. The impetus for the establishment of Houlton occurred in 1799. That year Joseph Houlton and his brotherin-law Aaron Putnam of New Salem, Massachusetts, along with eleven oth-
er men, received a land grant of six square miles in the northern reaches of Maine. A Massachusetts legislative act was passed June, 1801 saying the grant would become void unless six families settled there within five years. So, Houlton was appointed agent by his fellow proprietors and charged with having it surveyed. He immediately recruited the surveyor Holland, who accompanied Houlton towards the Canadian border, one-hundred miles northeast of Bangor, through the rugged forest. To put their expedition in perspective: New Salem is 30 miles west of Fitchburg, Massachusetts; some parts of central Maine were barely developed in 1804, to say nothing of the far north-
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ern reaches; there were no roads north of Bangor; the only people living that far north were the Penobscot, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy natives. Houlton historian Will H. Smith wrote: “No Anglo Saxon settlement, of any consequence, existed anywhere within its (Maine) borders, away from the coast line. It was all a wild, unknown region, still in the possession of the Indians, except the Acadian refugee settlement of Madawaska.” Houlton accomplished the mission and he presented a plan to his fellow proprietors in November 1801, which they approved. Three years later Houlton accompanied Aaron Putnam and Oliver Taylor of Hadley, Massachusetts
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15
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com back north with sights set on moving their families there. The challenges they encountered along the way were nearly insurmountable. Houlton thought he could remember the way, but he knew the route was convoluted, so to be safe they enlisted an Indian guide in Bangor. From Bangor they would go up the Penobscot and Mattawamkeag Rivers to Baskahegan Stream and Lake to a point near present-day Danforth, then portage to Grand Lake. From the north end of Grand Lake they would portage to Eel River, down Eel River to the St. John, and up that river to Woodstock, New Brunswick where English Loyalists had formed a settlement in 1786. The guide took them as far as the portage near Grand Lake, pointed them in the right direction then bowed out. Houlton assured his companions he could find the way to “the promised land.” So, they forged ahead without a pilot or compass. (continued on page 16)
This example of how an early log cabin was built is located at the Lumberman’s Museum in Patten. (Potter-Clark photo)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 15) The men mistakenly landed on the lake’s eastern shore and immediately got lost. They tramped for days with depleted food supplies and were tattered from brambles. They became exhausted from climbing over blow downs and wading through swamps. Their flesh became inflamed and sore from black flies and mosquito bites. The “promised land” must have taken on a whole new meaning — until what seemed like a miracle occurred. The weary wanderers finally reached the banks of the St. John River and saw human footprints – blessed evidence of civilization. Unbeknown to them, they were still thirty-five miles south of Woodstock. They followed the river north until they reached a cabin owned by one Mr. Harper. His missus was home alone and welcomed them in. She knew just what to feed the starving men that set well in their stomachs, and after a few days of rest they hit the trail
again. Upon reaching Woodstock they walked twelve miles west, over the U.S. and Canadian border, to inspect their future homeland for the first time. They were pleased by what they saw — a giant growth of trees, the Meduxnekeag River, adequate flowage for water power, and the potential for fertile fields. Upon their return to Massachusetts they made favorable reports to family and friends. In 1805, Joseph Houlton’s son Samuel and two other single men, along with Aaron Putnam and family, came via a different route – by sea from Boston to the St. John River, then upriver to Woodstock. That route was used by the earliest settlers from then on, except during the War of 1812. The young men traveled on to present-day Houlton to fell the first trees, and a settlement began. Joseph Houlton returned in 1807
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with his wife Sarah, a married son James and daughter Sarah (Mrs. Samuel Cook). All had families in tow. Maine historian Clarence Day wrote: “…They arrived at Woodstock after a safe and speedy passage by water from Boston. Leaving the daughters at Woodstock, the others, assisted by kind friends, cut a bridle path to Houlton… They came to a thicket of cedar where they left their horses and walked the last two miles...” Day went on to describe Joseph Houlton as “…a tower of strength in the little hamlet during the struggles and hardships of the first twenty years. He was a man of energy and ability…” A community soon began to emerge. In 1808, Massachusetts Gov. James Sullivan appointed Joseph Houlton the Registrar of Deeds; Houlton made space for a school in his own home, and a teacher was hired; he also built a saw mill and grist mill on Cook Brook about 1810; and in 1811 the First Con-
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gregational Church was formed. After the War of 1812 an influx of colonists arrived, and log cabins began to give way to frame houses when the first one was raised in 1813. In 1816-17 Houlton built a mansion where he also kept a tavern. Town historian Leigh Cummings says it was called “Houlton Hall” and included a ballroom where large gatherings were held. One such event occurred in 1817 before the building was finished. A party of sixty officials and workmen (from the U.S. and Great Britain) came to the area to establish the U.S. and Canadian boundary line. Houlton hosted the “Line Men’s Ball” on Independence Day, said to have been a grand affair that lasted throughout the day and into the evening. In 1828, as the U.S./ Canadian border dispute escalated, the U.S. Government bought 25 acres from Joseph Houlton and built Hancock Barracks
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on “Garrison Hill” behind his mansion. Houlton and the townspeople were grateful for that sense of protection from British invasion. Construction on Military Road also started that year — the first to connect Houlton to other parts of Maine. Finally, on March 8, 1831, Houlton became incorporated and the first town meeting was held a month later. Joseph Houlton had lived to see his chosen homeland secure and thriving. On Sunday August 12th, 1832 Houlton sat in a chair by his window and proudly watched a line of soldiers march by. Moments later he quietly drew his last breath. The community members who revered him organized a military funeral, and soldiers fired a final salute as if an officer had been carried to his grave. Joseph Houlton lived to be seventy-six years of age. He was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section
Shallie’s Place Mars Hill • Styles • Perms • Cuts • Colors Men • Women • Children 207-429-8124
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Early view of Main Street in Houlton. Item # LB2007.1.101048 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Millinocket fire engine - the town of Millinocket purchased the early 1908 solid-rubber-tired Knox chemical and hose fire truck through the Portland Company. Knox was a leading name in motorized fire apparatus during the early years of the 20th century. Item # 8679 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
LOG HAULING C-T-L PROCESSING ROAD CONSTRUCTION
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NORTH WOODS REAL ESTATE “Serving Maine and the Katahdin Region since 1984” Licensed Forester on Staff
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20
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Early view of Shiretown Motel in Houlton. Item # LB2010.9.119377 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Peter Qualey Broker
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V
~ VNA Celebrating 45 Years ~
isiting Nurses of Aroostook (VNA) is celebrating 45 years of home health services! In 1969, Clayton Harrington was serving as the administrator of Cary Memorial Hospital and was the driving force behind the establishment of the Aroostook Home Care Agency, Inc. (AHCA). He worked with Dr. Dean Fisher, Maine Department of Human Services Commissioner, who supported the concept of home health care and recommended a $10,000 grant to initiate the program in central Aroostook. The founding board members included Charles and Maxine Eber and Mrs. Ralph Brown from Presque Isle; Reginald Ireland from Westfield; Louise McGee from Fort Fairfield; Sue Pines from Limestone; Earl Carlson
from Easton; Robert Mockler and Philip H. Harmon from Caribou; and Mrs. Laurel Thompson from Washburn. Edward Jackson, executive director for Aroostook Health Services Department, Inc., helped launch AHCA. At its first organizational meeting on May 1, 1969, Mr. Jackson explained that the agency’s creation was intended to “free up central Aroostook hospital beds and help physicians and patients by broadening the types of patient care available.” Velma McCormack, RN, was hired as the first Director of Nursing. During the next several years AHCA grew rapidly, expanding services to Fort Kent and Madawaska in 1970 and to Houlton in 1971. In 1984, an all-volunteer hospice program was initiated in central Aroos-
took. The program eventually expanded to all parts of the County. In 1991, the hospice program received Medicare certification allowing for reimbursement of services. In 1989, AHCA’s name was changed to Visiting Nurses of Aroostook and the hospice program gained its own identity with the name, Hospice of Aroostook, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Visiting Nurses of Aroostook merged into Eastern Maine HomeCare in 2005. Last year our staff cared for nearly 1,000 patients. They made 15,773 patient visits, driving nearly 500,000 miles to care for them. You can learn more about their services in Aroostook County by visiting www.easternmainehomecare.org.
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22
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Early view of Main Street in Mars Hill. Item # LB2007.1.101353 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Aroostook Milling Co.
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cell: 207-694-2546 39 Bangor Street • Houlton, ME www.jmclaughlinconstruction.com HUBER ENGINEERED WOOD, LLC
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29 B&A Railroad bridge over the Aroostook River in Presque Isle. Item # LB2007.1.109349 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Cold Friday
Temps can plummet quickly in The County by Charles Francis
H
ave you heard the story of Cold Friday? It’s part myth, part fact. It’s the tale of a very cold day, perhaps the coldest day ever in Aroostook County. The tale of Cold Friday may have inadvertently served to provide background for the play Almost, Maine. Almost, Maine was written by John Cariani who grew up in Presque Isle. Maybe Cariani knew the story of Cold Friday, maybe he didn’t. It doesn’t matter. He captures a good deal of the sense of the Cold Friday tale. That’s because the play is about northern Maine, and since Cariani grew up in Presque Isle, that means Aroostook.
Almost, Maine takes place on a cold night in the middle of winter. Though the town of Almost is a fictive creation, it could ‘almost’ be any small Aroostook town, maybe a town like Bridgewater or neighboring Blaine or another. On this particular winter night the
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northern lights are out. Gory, a character in the play, sees them and says “…did you know this? – the northern lights are really the torches that the recently departed carry with them so they can find their way to heaven, and, see, it takes three days for a soul to make its way home, to heaven, and this is Friday!” Maybe Cariani’s reference to this particular cold Friday with its northern lights display is mere coincidence. Clearly, however, it’s an especially cold Friday, just maybe reminiscent of the infamous Cold Friday of myth and fact. As the poet says “The northern lights have seen strange sights.” What
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Gory prepares to see is indeed strange. She says “…you see, I will see them, the northern lights, because they’re him: He’ll be carrying one of the torches. And see, I didn’t leave things well with him, so I was just hoping I could come here and say goodbye to him…” John Cariani has captured something of the strangeness of one of those very, very cold Aroostook winter nights. It’s a time when the unexpected occurs. But was anything as unexpected and strange as what happened on February 7, 1861, the day that still stands as Cold Friday? Aroostook County records call February 7, 1861, “Cold Friday.” When I say records I mean local history. Think here of a folk tale being repeated and repeated. It’s repeated so much that local historians and writers enter it as fact in their books, articles and essays. For example, Annie Rideout thought enough of the story of Cold Friday to
include it in her History of Bridgewater, Maine. Cold Friday is so named because of the extreme cold that hit that day. This leads us to the age-old question: “How cold was it?” Rideout hedges her answer by suggestion, that back then most small town dwellers of the County didn’t have thermometers, so it’s hard to say just how cold it was. She goes on to say there are stories of cattle freezing in barns. She adds “But then barns were not as warm as those of today.” It seems clear that Rideout was basing her comments on oral tradition. She says there are stories that the weather was so cold that “men could not stay out of doors but for a short time without becoming numb with cold.” In short, the temperature would have been extreme enough to have made record books. It should be noted that History of Bridgewater, Maine was published in 1953. Annie Rideout wrote some 100
years after Cold Friday. That’s a fair period of time for anecdotal evidence to be filtered through tellers’ memories. One cannot help but wonder if the Cold Friday stories are more than a tad exaggerated. Even if there are no Aroostook County records – or at least any for Bridgewater – as to exactly how cold it was on February 7, 1861 there are some elsewhere. Fredericton, New Brunswick had a temperature bottoming out around -40°F. The temperature free-fall was 70°F in one day. Two days later the mercury soared to 55°F. Hanover, New Hampshire plunged from 37 degrees at 1 PM on the 7th to 32 degrees below zero at 7 AM on the 8th, and West Cummington, Massachusetts plummeted 80 degrees to -32 degrees. Boston recorded a plunge from 46 degrees to -14 degrees. On the 11th the temperature was back up to 60 degrees. A comment needs to be made at (continued on page 26)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 25) this time as to official weather record keeping in Maine. The first scientific approach to weather observation in northern and eastern Maine was done at the Maine Experimental Station at Orono. Up to that time, weather reporting was essentially a matter of anecdotes and half-remembered events. Up to that time weather records in the northern part of the state contained little, if anything, in the way of hard data. The Maine Experimental Station at Orono began collecting weather data in 1869. Part of the reason for this had to do with collecting facts on weather change and temperature fluctuation as they related to crop damage. Agricultural specialists recorded the damage done to crops, especially the more rapidly growing cash crops in the state like oats and apples. Maine Experimental Station records show days with temperatures equivalent to those recorded for Cold Friday
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in New Brunswick, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. According to those records “the most disastrous winter in the history of Maine [was] that of 190607…” The worst week of ‘the worst winter ever’ occurred during a single week in the middle of January, 1907. The two lowest temperatures were barely seven days apart. On January 15, it hit minus forty degrees. On January 22, it hit minus thirty-five degrees. Moreover, the lows occurred quite abruptly. The second low reflected a drop of sixty degrees from just before sunrise to 2:00 P.M. Given what we know about temperature drops for northern Maine of a later time period and comparing them with the known drops for Cold Friday, it seems that our particular February 7 may just have been a record breaker. The night of Cold Friday probably had its northern lights, lights like those Glory waits for in the play Almost, Maine.
John Cariani says Almost, Maine is a composite of Presque Isle, Portage and Ashland. Playbills for Cariani’s work read “On a cold, clear, moonless Friday night in the middle of winter, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine.” The play has been called a “Yankee version” of A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Shakespeare never set a work under the northern lights, though. John Cariani has. It’s the tale of a cold Friday, one that just maybe has roots in the Cold Friday of February, 7 1861.
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Horse-drawn sleds and plows on Sweden Street in Caribou during winter. Item #1163 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Cars and marchers pass by businesses and observers in a parade in Presque Isle (the cinema marquee reads “In Technicolor, Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen) Item # 197 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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Early view of Madawaska. Item # LB2007.1.107897 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Fort Kent’s Mattie Pinette
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Honored, Recognized, Remembered
attie Pinette was born in New Canada in 1903. At the age of ninety-six she was recognized as the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s oldest living alumni. The recognition came in the form of the school’s Gold Cane. There are many ways an individual can be remembered. An individual can live on memories, with the written word, and as a role model. Recognition is a form of remembering. An individual’s actions and accomplishments can be recognized with awards and commendations. Mattie Pinette was recognized and is remembered in a great variety of ways. The University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Gold Cane is just one way Mattie Pinette has been honored,
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recognized and remembered. If you look up Mattie Pinette in one of the many ways an individual’s life is preserved in this, the information age, you will find that she was General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s personal secretary during the planning of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. You will find that she was brought up in the Fort Kent area. You will find her described as “always concerned about people.” You will find her name associated with names like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and George C. Marshall. And you will find more. For example, Mattie was the recipient of the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre. Mattie Pinette touched the lives of many, many people. I happen to know
of one such individual. His name is Paul Nelson. He is a distant relative. Paul Nelson served with the Army in World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He also served as General Eisenhower’s personal assistant. Paul Nelson married Erika Kremser in Frankfurt, Germany. Erika had to leave Germany in a certain amount of time. Mattie Pinette saw to it that General Eisenhower obtained a personal pass for Paul so that he was discharged two months early. This meant Paul and Erika could come back to the United States together. Once back home, they settled in Albion on the Nelson family farm and raised a family. The statement that Mattie was “always concerned about people” is most definitely true.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Mattie Pinette was a small-town, country girl. She was born Methaide A. Pinette in the St. John Valley. She spoke fluent French. That fluency was a decided advantage as Mattie rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. It had much to do with the fact she was assigned to the staff of Major General John Lewis, head of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) mission in France. Mattie’s background serves as an example of what other young women with similar backgrounds can accomplish. Historian George Hall speaks to this point in an article he wrote of Mattie for the Franco-American Women’s Institute. Hall is Mattie’s nephew and chief biographer. Mattie is cited in various biographies of Dwight David Eisenhower. The earliest work is Kenneth S. Davis’ 1945 Soldier of Democracy: A Biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Possibly because of Davis, Mattie is
often simply identified as a graduate of the University of Maine. There is no qualification as to campus or specific institution. Mattie was a 1920 graduate of the Madawaska Training School. She graduated before the Madawaska Training School became the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Mattie went on to study at George Washington University and American University in Washington. Mattie Pinette accomplished a great deal in her life. In considering these accomplishments her roots must be considered. What was unusual in her early formative years. For one thing there is the Madawaska Training School. The Madawaska Training School, when Mattie was a student, was one of the most unique institutions of higher education in North America. The school which opened in 1878, was designed in part to serve the Frenchspeaking residents of the St. John Valley. This was at a time when use
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of the French language was an established fact among a large section of the population of the Valley. One of the functions of the Madawaska Training School was to train English-speaking teachers for the common schools of the region. The result of this effort was that young French-speaking people of the Valley were taught English. Mattie, although she did not train to be a teacher, was one of them. Mattie was in the secretarial program. From the Madawaska Training School Mattie went on to the nation’s capitol. In 1923, she secured a position with the Bureau of Weights and Measures. She was working with the Bureau of Aeronautics when that agency investigated the Hindenburg disaster. In 1942, Mattie enlisted in the Army. The Army means the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Following her Army training Mattie was assigned to Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) in Algeria. Algeria was a (continued on page 32)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 31) French-speaking possession of France. This is another example of Mattie’s fluency in French playing a part in her career. When Mattie was travelling to Algeria the British troop ship on which she was a passenger, the Strathalan was torpedoed by a German submarine. Mattie and a number of other WACs spent ten hours floating around in a lifeboat before being rescued. Mattie’s first job was a WAC was with the psychological warfare department. She was also assigned to assist U.S. delegation at the Casablanca Conference. There is a famous picture of Mattie seated next to Winston Churchill. It was taken when she was General Eisenhower’s personal secretary. The description gives Mattie’s residence as Guilford. From age seven on, Mattie Pinette was brought up by an aunt and uncle,
Catherine Delia Pinette and Ulderic “Willie” Dumont, of Fort Kent. Mattie’s father had been a farmer in New Canada. He gave up around 1910 and moved the rest of the family to Guilford. This latter point is the concluding one about Mattie’s early years. It serves to further emphasize that no matter how unconventional one’s early years are, they may still rise to undreamed of success. That is exactly what Mattie Pinette did. Mattie Pinette resigned from the Army in 1946. She then secured a position as a personnel officer with the Atomic Energy Commission. She retired in 1964. She received the University of Maine at Fort Kent‘s Gold Cane the year she died.
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Early view of a starch factory in Presque Isle. Item # LB2007.1.109361 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
The Legacy Of Clifford G. McIntire Perham native was a significant political figure by Charles Francis
I
n 2005 the offices of Senator Olympia Snow and Senator Susan Collins announced that Maine would receive some 7 million dollars in federal funds for agricultural research. The funds came to Maine via the Hatch Act and the McIntire-Stennis Act. Nationwide allocations from the two acts came to more than $180 million. Those from the McIntire-Stennis Act totaled a bit over $22 million. Since its implementation in 1962 the McIntire-Stennis Act has provided funding for research programs of a forestry-related nature for the nation in general, and Maine in particular. For
example, some of the funds from the 2005 McIntire-Stennis appropriation went to the West Virginia Agriculture and Forest Experiment Station and the University of Missouri School of National Resources. In Maine, McIntire-Stennis allocated $780,000 for forestry-related research at the University of Maine. Since 1962 the McIntire-Stennis Act, which has decided Maine and Aroostook County ties, has been an important adjunct to the state’s forest-related industries. This is quite understandable given that much of Maine’s economy is forest-based.
The Stennis of the McIntire-Stennis Act refers to the late Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, one of the two creators of the Act. The McIntire of the Act was Congressman Clifford G. McIntire. Today historians identify Clifford McIntire as the chief author of the Act which, in part, bears his name. For this and other reasons, Perham-born McIntire was and still is one of the most significant political figures in Aroostook County, Maine and American history. In recognition of Congressman McIntire’s services to Maine and the nation, there is a permanent display of McIntire’s life and work at the Uni-
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35
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com versity of Maine. The display is in the McIntire Maine Event Room at the University’s Buchanan Alumni House. In a large sense Clifford McIntire typifies what it means to have been born in Aroostook County. What this means is that he had his feet firmly planted in Aroostook soil. In other words, while Clifford McIntire demonstrated over the years that he was both an accomplished administrator as well as an astute politician, he was first and foremost a farmer. In fact, it is probably safe to say that the McIntire-Stennis Act, McIntire’s magnum opus, would not be had McIntire not had close ties to the soil of Aroostook County. The McIntire-Stennis Act is much more than an Act relating to the nation’s forests, forestry practices and forestry education and research. It is wrapped up part and parcel with one of the most important of America’s traditions — the land grant colleges and universities created by the Morrill Land Grant Act.
Clifford Guy McIntire, the man who is largely responsible for the McIntire-Stennis Act, and his twin brother Smith were born in Perham on May 4, 1904. The McIntire twins grew up working on the family farm and attending Perham grade schools and high school in neighboring Washburn. They then went on to the University of Maine. Because of responsibilities on the family farm as well as for financial reasons, Clifford and Smith McIntire staggered the years of their college attendance. This explains why Clifford graduated in 1930 and Smith in 1932. Clifford McIntire’s education prepared him for a career in agriculture as well as a variety of administrative positions. He farmed in Perham and served as supervisor and manager of the Farm Credit Administration headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts. In addition, he was an administrator with Maine Potato Growers, Inc. in Presque Isle.
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In 1951 McIntire was elected to fill out the remainder of the recently deceased Frank Fellows’ term of office in the United States House of Representatives. He continued to serve in the House until 1965 when he made an unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate. He went on to serve on the American Farm Bureau, the National Resources Department, the Task Force on Rural Development and the Public Land Law Review Commission. Regardless of his contributions to all these areas of endeavor, there is no question that the McIntire-Stennis Act is his crowning achievement. That Clifford McIntire should be interested in the education provided by Land Grant institutions in the United States comes as no surprise, given that he was a graduate of one. The Morrill Land Grant Act that laid the foundations for institutions like the University of Maine was signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862. (continued on page 36)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 35) According to the original Morrill Act, Land Grant colleges were to teach agriculture and mechanical arts (not to the exclusion of classical studies), among other things. The impetus to the Act was to provide working class Americans with the opportunity to acquire a college education. The federal government allocated public lands in the west to land grant institutions. Sale of the land was to provide start-up funding. Over the years the federal govern-
ment passed additional legislation to aid in funding Land Grant colleges and universities. The McIntire-Stennis Act as written by Clifford McIntire falls into this federal commitment to higher public education. It is because of the Act that Clifford McIntire is numbered among the great Americans of all time. The McIntire Maine Event Room at the University of Maine, then, is a fitting tribute to Clifford McIntire. Not only does it honor this Perham-born man
who did much for the forestry industry, it also honors a man who did much for public higher education in the United States.
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Early view at a saw mill in Mapleton. Item # LB2007.1.101340 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Early view of lower village in Fort Fairfield. Item # LB2007.1.100800 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Memories Of Long Ago Depression years required sacrifice and hard work by Gladys G. Whittier It was a gorgeous morning and as the sun rose higher in the sky, it surely was going to be a warm one. We were in a deep sleep, dreaming of wonderful thoughts when a voice called “rise and shine, it is beautiful out today.” We knew by now the hour had come for us to jump out of bed with no more time for snuggling under the blankets. I often wondered why when the early mornings arrived, the bed always felt so cozy and you could just relax and stay there for the biggest part of the day. After our breakfast was over we all knew what our jobs were before we even got started. Mum always said she never knew what each one was going
to do as we changed the schedule so often. But much to her surprise, our work was always completed. Just then Papa came into the kitchen and said it was an absolutely lovely day and he thought he should be up on the lot cutting wood for the year. After making the final decision, Mum got busy making a nice lunch for his dinner. When my sister Dorothy and I heard the conversation, we asked Mum to fix an extra lunch because we wanted to go with Papa. He was out getting the necessary equipment he needed so he could leave right away. We both hurried to get a few things so we would be ready when he came to the house for his lunch. As soon as he saw what we were up to, he
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said that it was going to be a long day and we would get tired before it was time to come home. We both said at the same time, “oh no, we won’t, going up to the woods will be a lot of fun.” So nothing more was said, we got in the car with him and were on our way to a day’s outing. What a wonderful memory. During the summers, Papa made many trips to the lot cutting big trees down. Dorothy and I went many times roaming around through the trees hearing the squirrels making loud noises to let us know we were invading their territory. Finally the day came that Papa finished cutting the trees down. It was time to hire another man to help use the (continued on page 40)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 39) cross-cut saw to cut the logs in shorter lengths to make a big load to haul home. It took many days to finish the project, but with good help in no time at all it was brought home without any mishaps. Papa said that it was a good deed done…but the next step was to split each one in 16 inches so it would fit in the stove. Between his spare times, he would cut as much as he had time for and in that way it would dry fairly well before putting it inside the shed. Our job was to put it in the building when it was ready and by the end of August, we had it all stacked to the ceiling. This was our supply for the winter and into the next summer. At this time Papa started the process all over again. Nowa-days, very few people cut wood. Oil or gas is usually the source for heating. No hard work involved. It was in the early 1930s, and wood and coal were the only sources of heat one had for the cold winters. Being
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before and did know where they came from. Finally he said, “I am just hired help. You will have to go knock on the door.” All of us were frightened…we hid in another room so we would not be seen. Mum answered the door and
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raised in a large family, our mother spent many long hours around the cook stove burning wood to prepare meals every day. Also, cakes and cookies were baked for each meal along with homemade bread every other day. We did not have any electricity where we lived, so cooling fans were out of the question. Many, many days it was exceptionally hot and humid. During these times the meals were hurried along so as to let the fire go out for a few hours to try to cool the kitchen. Sometimes cold lunches were our favorites and were much quicker to fix for everyone. I remember one time when Papa was chopping wood on a hot day, only stopping every once in a while to rest. He looked up only to see two black people coming towards him. “Sir, would you be so kind to give us some bread? We walked a long ways and we are very hungry.” He was kind of startled at first, as he had never seen any black people
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41
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com being a little nervous herself, she asked them where they came from. All they said was “we hitch-hiked on the train” but they never knew where they got off. She knew they smelled the aroma of bread that had just been taken out of the oven. She gave each one a loaf of bread, some butter and a few cookies. Then she told them to go and never come back and also never to tell anyone where they got food. We watched them as they went on their way enjoying the lunch. Perhaps they hopped another train to a faraway land. Today, all nationalities work together and no one thinks anything about it, each sharing each other’s views. Today as I remember those times long ago, it was a privilege to be kind enough to give something to those two hungry black men. They did not come to do any harm, but only for the lovely bread our mother baked. May this be a nice remembrance of how folks lived in the good old days.
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Early view of school buildings in Caribou. Item # LB2007.1.104753 from theEastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Area map of Caribou. Item # LB2007.1.112921 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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The Aroostook War Podcast Podcast revisits disputed territory in early 1800s by Brian Swartz
M
uch has been written about the so-called “Bloodless Aroostook War.” Now much has been said — and said well — about that same historic event in a “Born Yesterday” podcast released in 2014. Joey Brunelle currently lives in San Francisco, where “I code websites for a living.” A native of Kennebunk and a Kennebunk High School graduate, he developed an interest in history — of Maine and elsewhere — in the sixth grade, “when we first learned about ancient Greece and ancient Rome. “I actually remember the moment I first thought, ‘Hey, this stuff is interesting!’” he recalled. “It was like my eyes
were opened to this whole new mysterious world I hadn’t known existed. It was awesome.” Brunelle majored in art history and archeology at Brown University and graduated from there in 2007. He held “a few summer jobs in Kennebunkport knick-knack shops,” and “I’ve been a freelance web designer and developer ever since. “But I do other things, too, like the podcast, and like helping a friend make environmental documentaries,” Brunelle said. Like so many Maine college graduates, he wondered what life would be like elsewhere. “After college I
wanted to live somewhere outside my New England comfort zone and somewhere where I could find work, and San Francisco checked both those boxes,” Brunelle commented. Since moving to San Francisco, he has retained his passion for history. The “Bloodless Aroostook War” podcast does not reflect a particular interest in military history, which “surprisingly enough … doesn’t do a whole lot for me,” Brunelle said. “I really like looking more at the folkways of history, how people lived, what they ate, where they went on vacation, what dirty jokes they told, that kind of stuff,” he explained. “We hear (continued on page 44)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 43 so much about the Alexanders and the Napoleons, but we hear so little about the day-to-day dramas.” Brunelle first read about the “Bloodless Aroostook War” on “Wikipedia,” and “it all spiraled out of control from there.” He “read a fantastic book called The Aroostook War of 1839 by a Canadian named Gary Campbell, and that formed the backbone of my research,” he said. “I actually emailed Gary to get his input on some things. He was really helpful,” Brunelle said. In June 2013 he created the website www.bornyesterdaypodcast.com to tell stories about history. “I’ve always been a huge fan of podcasting, and I had been threatening my friends for years that I would make my own history podcasts,” Brunelle said. “So I found I had some spare time, and I just did it. And it kept rolling and rolling and rolling.” His first podcast, titled “Modern Syria: The Cross and The Crescent,”
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came out in mid-July 2013. “The Underground History of the Gay Bar” followed two weeks later, and the third podcast, “The Rise of the Aztecs,” came out in mid-August. Episode 15, “The Aroostook War: When Little Maine Almost Started a Big War,” was released in early May 2014. As with his other podcasts, Brunelle put a lot of work into “The Aroostook War.” “The researching probably took 20 or 25 hours of work, then writing the script from my notes took another 20 hours,” he said. “Recording and editing and setting it to music took another 5-10 hours, so this was a pretty big investment of time.” “The Aroostook War” podcast opens in New Brunswick on July 4, 1827 as John Baker and his friends celebrated Independence Day by erecting an American flag. On July 5 the Americans signed a document outlining “their
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rights as American citizens on what they considered to be American soil.” Brunelle describes that interpretation as “a generous reading of “ the document, which he says “was mostly some scribbles with some signatures.” George Morehouse, a British magistrate, soon arrived and demanded that Baker “hand over the document.” Baker refused. Delivering his podcast in a pleasantto-hear voice and comfortable alliteration, Brunelle explains to listeners that Maine “is in the far northeast corner of the United States and is the largest state in New England.” He explains how the failure of Great Britain and United States to clearly establish a border between Maine (then part of Massachusetts) and New Brunswick (then part of Quebec) at the end of the American Revolution led to future problems. The determined border, based on the St. Croix River and “a series of hills … that in reality did not exist at all,” meant
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that the border “couldn’t be found, no matter how hard you searched for it,” Brunelle says in his podcast. Sending settlers into the “Disputed Territory” (a British term) after the war, British authorities tried to claim sovereignty over the muddled border by placing farmers’ boots on the ground. The St. John River was the gateway for many settlers, including Loyalists fleeing the fledgling United States. In Brunelle’s eyes, the effort was at least partially successful; “by the turn of the century, the St. John and the northern half of the Disputed Territory was aligned with loyal British subjects with guns. It would be pretty difficult for the U.S. to dislodge them, no matter what the treaty said.” After establishing the geopolitical background, Brunelle explains that no American settlers lived in the Disputed Territory “until after the War of 1812.” He cites the British seizure of eastern Maine with the goal of creating a Brit-
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ish colony called “New Ireland.” Maine “filed for a divorce” from Massachusetts after the war, and Mainers claimed the “Disputed Territory” as “all of Maine.” Americans started moving into the “Aroostook Territory” (a Maine term), and Maine, Massachusetts, and New Brunswick officials started issuing permits to harvest trees in the region. Maine sent land agents to Madawaska in 1825; John Baker raised his American flag two years later and got himself thrown into a British cell. International negotiations failed to gain Senate support for a final border, and in the 1830s British authorities rounded up Maine land agents doing business in the Aroostook Territory. Appealing to their constituents’ sense of outrage at British perfidy, Maine politicians “fanned those flames for all they were worth with the end goal of capturing the [Aroostook] territory.” Brunelle tells the story with the ap-
• Do you enjoy brian swartz’s stories adapted from “Maine At War”? To read more, log onto:
maineatwar.bangordailynews.com
(continued on page 46)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 45) propriate detail and an eye to humor; he pokes fun in a tongue-and-cheek manner at the faux outrage of Maine politicians seeking to provoke a war over Aroostook. A 200-man posse dispatched from Bangor to Aroostook in midwinter led “to what might be the first and only horse-drawn sleigh charge in history and only a single shot being fired, which injured the horse,” Brunelle notes. “The Aroostook War” is a delightfully detailed digital telling of the cumulative series of events leading to the creation of Maine’s eastern and northern borders. Be sure to listen to the section on songs written specifically about the war. Garnering 3,000 listeners in just its first month, “The Aroostook War” podcast will appeal to everyone interested in Maine history. To listen to the podcast, log onto www.bornyesterdaypodcast.com/#episode15 or find the episode “through iTunes in the History section,” Brunelle said.
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Early scene at a mill in Fort Kent. Item # LB2007.1.100833 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
tommy’s service gas • oil • tire repair logging supplies 207-834-5685 242 Market Street fort kent, ME
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
The French Connection Out of Canada: “Vive les Acadiens”
by Jeffrey Bradley
T
he Great Expulsion, or Debacle, endured by the Acadians, occurred during the Seven Years’ War that pitted Protestant Britain against Catholic France for dominance of North America. In Canada, the conflict had the unfortunate effect of uprooting an entire culture from its ancestral homeland. Despite acknowledging British sovereignty following the takeover of Nova Scotia in 1713, coexistence between French Acadians and their British overlords remained tense. The Acadian penchant for spurning loyalty pledges irked the British, and when they further balked at taking up arms against their warring compa-
triots, insisting instead on neutrality, Britain turned to deportation. Governor Charles Lawrence, a British hard-liner, under pretext of defending the realm, rounded up thousands of Acadians and in 1755 expelled them. Absent their property and livestock — confiscated to offset the costs of diasporas — many set sail penniless and bereft for the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic Seaboard that lay south. The aim of breaking the exiles into small enough groups to be subsumed by the larger English-speaking society, also stipulated that those causing the most trouble be sent the furthest away. Louisiana, not part of this exodus, became a later destination of
mostly French-descended émigrés. This initial dispersal saw Acadians relocate to northern Maine and the French-controlled regions of the St. Lawrence Seaway, wilderness areas of the Canadian Maritimes, and scattered settlements in and around Quebec. Many of those who fled were later apprehended and deported, mostly to Europe from where they eventually sojourned to French-held Louisiana. The fortunate few that settled the St. John Valley in Madawaska Territory, today’s Maine, forged a robust cultural identity based on the land, religion and family. Still speaking “Valley French,” this region, filled with picturesque
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49
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com towns such as Grand Isle, Van Buren and St. Agatha, successfully merged old-world charm and modern appeal into a durable sense of community. Today, Aroostook honors its early pioneers with a famous re-enactment every August in the town of Madawaska, of the first Acadian Festival celebrating their distinctive heritage in one of Maine’s biggest, most boisterous cultural events. Much worse befell the nearly thousand castaways that disembarked in Annapolis later in 1755. Maryland had a deserved reputation for religious tolerance and should have afforded safe haven. But the nearby Ohio River Valley settlements held by New France posed a serious threat, and ensured a less-than welcome reception for the weary influx descending the gangplank that dull November day. Responsibility for their welfare left colonial administrators filled with resentments and in
no mood for curbing the frenzied anti-French sentiment whipped up by the press. Instead, many Acadians found it expedient to continue journeying to Chesapeake locations, including Baltimore. Escaping the blatant hostility meant clustering in isolated and impoverished enclaves in the port towns, a circumstance British officials found troubling. Little by way of aid was offered, and even less was accepted; the abrupt en masse appearance of the haggard outcasts flummoxed officialdom to the point of adopting a “hands off” policy of benign neglect. As cold-hearted and indifferent as it seems, from the standpoint of the colonists, the enormity of this wretched arrival came more as a confounding shock than a humanitarian dilemma. Put another way, Baltimore town consisted of 1,000 inhabitants, and 900 more persons, all of them foreigners, had suddenly appeared in their midst.
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Maryland Acadians grappled as best they could with these intolerable prospects, but languished. Abject, remorseful and stricken by deadly diseases, they received more chastisement than charity from ill-disposed townsfolk, and what meager help arrived came mostly by way of the Irish Catholics. This once-proud and fiercely independent people now lived a beggared existence, cadging handouts or day work from grudging, suspicious neighbors, or toiling as field hands on the plantations. Although living conditions slightly improved, surmounting the rank ostracism, or the difficulties inherent in breaking free of poverty, stayed beyond reach. The fortunes of war further dashed refugee hopes for a Right of Return with the defeat of French arms, nor were any reprieves forthcoming. Many Acadians, however, had begun settling Louisiana in the preceding decade, and (continued on page 50) NOT SURE WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR WOODLOT? Take Advantage of Reduced Property Taxes by enrolling in Maine Tree Growth Tax Law.
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
(continued from page 49) by 1775 almost all of Maryland Acadians had booked passage to this newfound Creole Promised Land. Settling thankfully again among French-speaking communities, they established a swampy but rollicking homeland that eventually evolved into Cajun — wordplay on “Acadian”— culture. And however they left, most Marylanders heaved a sigh of relief at their departure. Those that stayed settled mostly around Lombard Street in the environs of Frenchtown, where they put their considerable maritime skills to use as sailors, stevedores, even merchants. A few managed to marry prominently and prosper. Some even fought in the Revolutionary War. Still, by the 1830s, Acadian influence had all but vanished, and so had Frenchtown. It’s risky to make historical assumptions, especially concerning the manner cultures celebrate their history through time. Yet evidence suggests that great traumas have a deleterious effect on observing festivals, even those with deep roots in the past. Le Grande Derangement ranks among these upheavals, and the animosity and deprivation suffered by Acadians in Baltimore undoubtedly impaired their ability to continue honoring French carnival— which is why today Mardi Gras is celebrated not on Charles Street in Baltimore, but on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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Horace Bailey and Henry Withee and an unidentified man pose at the end of a 9-day paddle from Kineo to Fort Kent along the Allagash. Item # 14066 from the collections of theMaine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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Along The Aroostook Trail Highway began as a military road in 1832 by Charles Francis
B
ack in 1870 John Carpenter left Aroostook County bound for Bangor. It took him a day’s stage ride to reach Mattawamkeag Point. A day later he was in Old Town. That part of the trip was by boat, via the Penobscot. The final leg of Carpenter’s trip was by rail. We don’t know John Carpenter’s exact starting point in the County. Though he called Patten home, he could have been in Houlton or even a bit to the north. To a certain extent, this has to do with Carpenter’s occupation. It also has to do with road conditions and stage service. John Carpenter was a surveyor. Carpenter made his living surveying to the east and west of the trail that would eventually connect Bangor and the St. John River community of Van Buren. In 1870 regular stage service was just beginning to be offered north of Houlton. The most common form of transportation was four- and six-horse drawn freight wagons. The north of Houlton stage service was something of a hit or miss affair. It depended on road conditions, passenger demand and
local entrepreneurs. Some of John Carpenter’s survey work may have served as a basis for what, for a time, was popularly known as the Aroostook Trail — at least that is what some publicity-minded state officials with a sense of the past liked to call the most important roadway in the County. In the 1920s a Maine Publicity Bureau guidebook described the Aroostook Trail as once having known little more than the “soft padding of the moccasins of the Maine Indian.” In the second decade of the twentieth century, however, it was “...a splendid state highway... [running] from Bangor through all the larger towns to Van Buren.” The accolade went on to say that from the Aroostook Trail “practically every town in the county can be reached by fine gravel roads.” Today Houlton is an easy two-hour drive from Bangor on I-95. It takes about the same amount of time to travel from Houlton to Van Buren. Not all that long ago you could also make the trip on the Bangor and Aroostook. The railroad as first surveyed more or less paralleled the Aroostook Trail of an-
cient times. Like many state roads the Aroostook Trail highway was laid out in close proximity to old Native American travel-ways. The Aroostook Trail was a part of a larger system of Indian trails that extended further down east. One trail into the Aroostook region was known as the Maliseet Trail. Another was used by the Mohawk when they raided from their upstate New York lands into what is now New Brunswick. For the purist, the Aroostook Trail could only refer to that part of the “splendid state highway” running from Houlton to Van Buren. The purist would argue that the Trail took its name from the County’s principal river, the Aroostook. Aroostook is usually translated as “good water.” “Good water” relates to boat or canoe passage. In other words, the Aroostook Trail was firstly a waterway. In prehistoric times the trail was a system of rivers, streams and portages stretching from the St. John to the Penobscot and thence to what would become Bangor. What would be the Aroostook Trail of the first decades of the twentieth century, the historic (continued on page 52)
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(continued from page 51) Aroostook Trail, had its beginnings as the Military Road. The Military Road was constructed in 1832. It extended from Macwahoc to the Hancock Barracks in Houlton. Soldiers under the command of Major Newman Clarke built it to fulfill a twofold purpose. The road was viewed as part of a defense system and as a trade stimulant. The rest of the trail, from Houlton to Van Buren, was a project of the State of Maine. The Aroostook Trail highway took the line of least resistance as it progressed towards Van Buren and up the Aroostook Valley. The southern end of the valley is gently rolling hills. The higher elevations are found along the border with New Brunswick, on the east. On the west, in the area around Smyrna and Ludlow, the land rises as a plateau. The latter region has the Littleton Esker, long ridges of gravel, enclosing kettle holes and ponds. The
esker is one of the largest in the world. To the east is a strip of limestone some 100 miles long and thirty wide. This rich, fertile area is where potatoes are grown. It was also the site of the earliest lumbering. As timber was cut here, lumbering moved to the densely forested central and northwestern portions of the County. The highest elevations in the County can be seen as one progresses northward up the valley toward the Aroostook River itself. Included among these are Bald Mountain in Bridgewater, Mars Hill Mountain, Haystack Mountain in Castle Hill and Quoggy Joe in Fort Fairfield. The first trails of the Aroostook Valley proved the best routes for roads to follow. In like manner they were the natural location for rail lines. That is why both the state and the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad chose to build where they did, along the same transportation arteries utilized by the re-
gion’s first inhabitants. The designation Aroostook Trail has long been out of use with highway mapmakers and state and local publicity agencies. In a somewhat similar manner, the Bangor & Aroostook no longer carries passengers to and from the Country and lumber and potatoes from the County. That does not mean that the trail, whose history dates back to the earliest Native Americans, is now a detail of the past. In fact, the Aroostook Trail would seem to have been reborn. The Aroostook Trail’s new life is that of a multiuse recreation trail — the Bangor-Aroostook Trail — sometimes simply referred to as BAT. BAT is some fifty-eight miles of rail trail where snowmobiles and ATVs share the right-of-way with hikers, skiers and bicyclists. It is a part of a much larger rail trail system covering much of the North American continent.
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Those purists, the ones who considered the Aroostook Trail a construct relating only to Aroostook County, would appreciate the irony that BAT’s southernmost extremity is Houlton. In like manner its northernmost is Van Buren. As for the trail itself, it is doubtful that John Carpenter would know where he was should he venture along it. Much of BAT is well-groomed. What isn’t particularly well cared for is still a far cry from the trails that once only knew the pad of moccasin-clad feet. Perhaps, though, Carpenter would recognize a landmark or two. Certainly he would be at home among woods and bogs that remain much the same as they were some 150 or so years ago when Carpenter was surveying the region.
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Early view of Main Street in Fort Kent. Item # LB2007.1.106050 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Early view of Fish River Bridge in Fort Kent. Item # LB2007.1.106050 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.orhg
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Houlton’s Dr. John G. Potter What made the man?
by Dale Marie Potter-Clark
T
his story begins when the northern Maine patriarch James Potter was born in Whitefield, Maine and migrated to Perry where he married Mary Goulding in 1828. All eight of their children were born there. At age 56 James moved his family further north to Drew Plantation where he lived out his days on “Potter Hill.” George E. was their fourth child. He married Abigail Trott in 1853 and had four children who were ages 1, 2, 5 and 7 when Abigail died in 1862. The Civil War was well underway and one month after his wife’s death George enlisted, as did his younger brother James II. George was in the Eastern Branch of The First Maine Heavy Artillery, which endured more casualties in one day of
combat, and suffered a higher number of officer casualties than any other Union regiment. George experienced survival in a way he never thought possible. James II died in battle in 1864 on the banks of the Potomac, but George returned to Drew Plantation in 1865. He soon after married Jane Morgan, an Irish immigrant, and their family grew to include Lillian, Harry and James III. Then, another major change occurred in George’s life but this time by choice. When or why George felt called to the ministry is unknown. Perhaps he promised a life of service to God because he survived the war and was safely reunited with his children. Whatever the reason, George became a minister
about 1870 and moved his family to Limestone where another son — John Garfield Potter — was born in 1879. John and his siblings revered their father’s Civil War service, and Rev. George’s dedication to the church enhanced his children’s religious convictions. They developed compassion for the downtrodden from learning of their mother’s struggles as an Irish immigrant. These values manifested in their depth of character as adults, which was especially evident in the youngest children. Lillian married a grandson of Peter Lowell, an upstanding Limestone founder. Nothing more or less was expected of a daughter in those days than she marry well. James attended Drew Theological Seminary and became a (continued on page 56)
John G. Potter with his closest siblings James, Lillian and Harry (ccourtesy of Roxana Farden)
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(continued from page 55) Methodist clergy. Harry was a career military man who served during WWI and the Spanish-American War, for which he received a distinguished service medal. John also led an exemplary life. An interview with John’s granddaughter Roxana Farden of Oswego, New York revealed some interesting and endearing stories. John G. Potter received a secondary education at Ricker Classical Institute,then graduated from Bowdoin Medical School in Brunswick. He returned to “The County” in 1909 and joined the staff at Aroostook County Hospital in Houlton. There he met a young nurse named Evelyn Haskell from Hodgdon, and they married in June, 1910. They purchased a home at 10 Kelleran Street near the Ricker campus – their alma mater. They loved that school, said Farden, and supported it in various ways. Dr. Potter was a trustee at Ricker for many years and served as
~ Dr. John G. Potter and his wife Evelyn ~ (courtesy of Roxana Farden)
president of their board for nearly a decade. According to Farden, Potter Hall was named in his honor. The Potter’s house provided ample space for his private practice, and Evelyn became his assistant. They were not afraid to confront sensitive issues and held a venereal disease clinic once a week. But they made it clear to friends and family they should not come near on those evenings. Dr. Potter also served on the city Board of Health and was school physician. All the while they were building friendships, supporting causes and joining benevolent organizations. They came to be admired by townspeople, who affectionately called him “Dr. John.” In April 1917 the United States entered WWI and the Potters agreed they should both enlist. They soon discovered that married women were not allowed, but Dr. John still signed-up. He received the rank of Captain in the Med-
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ical Corps and in 1918 was dispatched to Langres, Haute-Marne, France at Base Hospital #53. There he exponentially gained experience in surgery and anesthesia. He also became skillful at treating pneumonia, which served him and his patients well throughout his career. He was released from military duty in July, 1919 and returned home to resume his practice. The Potters only child, Phyllis, was born in 1921. They loved children and wanted more, so when a young friend died a few years later they adopted her son Richard Ramsey and embraced him as their own. After that their home buzzed with activity. Dr. John ventured home for lunch daily — usually smelling like ether. Phyllis came to like that odor because she associated it with her father. The children often challenged Dr. John to a game of volleyball after lunch which he always accepted with glee. He was a good sport and well -known for his cheerfulness. Phyllis and her father grew very close over the years. When she got old enough she even drove him to house calls so they could enjoy extra time together. The family rarely got through the evening meal without an interruption, but they made the most of it. Dr. John spoke French and German fluently and knew some Greek and Latin, too. At meal times they conversed in the language of his choosing. They recited poems and Bible passages at the dinner table and the children’s heads became full of memorized verses. When Phyllis was 91 years old there was a Memorial Day luncheon in her nursing home. She spontaneously began to recite In Flanders’s Field and the group fell silent. At the end everyone applauded and she said, “Would you like to hear it in German?” Dr. John delivered many babies over the years and was often asked for advice on what to name them. If it was a girl he would say “Evelyn is a lovely name.” At one time, said Farden, there
Capt. John Potter, M.D. on the right, with members of his WWI medical unit in Langres, Haute-Marne, France at Base Hospital #53. (courtesy of Roxana Farden)
were eleven young girls named Evelyn in Houlton. There were many recurring situations with John that irked Evelyn. She worked diligently to create flower gardens in their yard, but when there were guests he escorted them outside to show off “his gardens.” In spite of that small irritation and the stressful life style of a country doctor’s family they were harmonious and loving of each other. Such was the case when Phyllis went off to Colby College in September, 1939. When she arrived home for Thanksgiving that November a hearse was parked in their driveway. She became stricken when she realized why! The next day a local headline read: All Houlton Mourns the Passing of Dr. Potter — Esteemed Citizen and Friend. The funeral was held at Military Street Baptist Church. A newspaper
related “…the church was filled to capacity with admirers of that Christian, friendly and benevolent gentleman...” Four ministers officiated – all close friends of Dr. Potter. Speakers included the Ricker Classical Institute principal, and two Salvation Army Majors. The Masons held a special service. Seats were reserved for representatives from the American Legion, Baptist deacons, nurses and physicians from Aroostook and Madigan Hospitals, Ricker trustees and teachers, Boy Scouts, Odd Fellows, Red Cross and Rotary Club. There were ten honorary pall bearers. Dr. Potter was laid to rest at Evergreen Cemetery in Houlton where a military stone marks his grave.
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~ Epilogue for Dr. John G. Potter ~ by Dale Marie Potter-Clark
Clearly Dr. Potter’s passing left a painful and momentous void in Houlton. No one knew that better than his wife Evelyn. After the funeral their daughter Phyllis returned to Colby while Evelyn and Richard tried to readjust. Their home became painful rather than joyful as it once had been. A year passed and Evelyn sold the house. She pulled Phyllis out of Colby, and the three of them headed for California. That was upsetting to the children but Evelyn felt she had to get away from her memories in order to cope. After some time they returned to the east coast and stopped in Wellsville, New York to visit relatives. They were welcomed in and never left New York. Phyllis married and had three children. She lived near her daughter Roxana during her final years and she loved to share stories and pictures of her beloved father. Evelyn died in 1968, Richard in 1999 and Phyllis in 2012. They were the last of the Dr. John G. Potter family to have lived in Houlton, Maine.
Potter Hall (rear) was named in honor of Dr. John G. Potter of Houlton. According to town historian Leigh Cummings, Potter Hall was remodeled and the top story of the building and the bell tower were removed. After that the roof was flat. In this picture the bell tower is still intact. Potter Hall was the administrative building, held the cafeteria, admissions and office of the president. Classes were held in Potter Hall until the school started to fail in the 1960s. (courtesy of Roxana Farden)
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DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS Business
Page
A&A Custom Slaughterhouse ..................................16 A&L Construction Inc. .............................................17 A.N. Deringer .............................................................15 Acott’s Custom Paint & Graphics ...........................14 Alan Clair Building Contractor ...............................35 Albert Fitzpatrick ......................................................13 Albie’s Lounge & Martini Bar ................................28 Allagash Gardner Homestead ..................................51 Aroostook Foam Insulation ......................................25 Aroostook Hospitality Inn ........................................23 Aroostook Milling Co. .............................................22 Aroostook Monuments ..............................................18 Ashland 1-Stop ...........................................................38 Ashland Food Mart, Inc. ...........................................39 Avondale Kitchens .....................................................22 Ayotte’s Construction, LLC ....................................26 Babin Construction ....................................................46 Bacon Auto & Truck Care .......................................41 Bald Eagle ...................................................................52 Barnes Law Office / Bloomer & Russell ......................6 Barresi Financial, Inc. .............................................36 Bear Paw Inn ..............................................................17 Ben’s Trading Post, LLC ..........................................24 Bento’s Grocery, Diner & Sports Bar .......................9 Bouchard Country Store ..........................................31 Bouchard Family Farm .............................................31 Bread of Life Bulk Food & Specialty Store .............33 Brooks Equipment .....................................................20 Buck Construction, Inc. .............................................37 C&J Service Center ..................................................40 C&R Towing ...............................................................38 Campbell’s Service Center ........................................7 Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce ...................41 Caribou Automotive Repair Service .......................41 Caribou Inn & Convention Center ........................28 Caribou Theatres ........................................................42 Caron & Son Paving ..................................................30 Caron Builders ...........................................................31 Cary Brown Trucking & Excavating ........................10 Cary Medical Center .................................................26 Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce ...........33 Chanel’s Service .........................................................43 Clifford L. Rhome, CPA, PA ......................................37 Clukey’s Auto Supply ..................................................4 Colin Bartlett & Sons, Inc. .......................................5 County Abatement, Inc. ...............................................4 County Denture Center ............................................37 County Electric ..........................................................40 County Home Inspections ..........................................49 County Soil & Septic Design .....................................34 County Super Spuds ..................................................16 Countyqwik Print .....................................................27 CQP Office Solutions .................................................27 Crandall’s Hardware ...................................................8 Crosby GC Home Builders ........................................19 Crown Park Inn ........................................................27 Cunningham Brothers, Inc. ......................................10 Cutting Edge Lawn-Yard Care ...............................11 Daigle & Houghton......................................................30 Dana’s Auto Sales ....................................................36 Davis Clothing & Footwear ......................................45 DDR Rubbish Removal .............................................38 Dennis Cyr ..................................................................49 Desjardins Logging ....................................................51 Dolly’s Restaurant .....................................................45 Donahue’s Maintenance & Masonry ......................16 Doris’ Cafe .................................................................48 Dow Theater Co. .......................................................42 Duane Thompson’s Masonry .....................................23 Dunbar Construction .................................................13 Dunbar Equipment ....................................................13 Eastern Maine HomeCare ..........................................21 F.A. Peabody Company................................................4 First Choice Construction ........................................49 For Paws Grooming & More.....................................26 Forest Diversity Services Inc. .................................49 Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce ....................38 Frankie’s Lounge & Martini Bar .............................28 Fred’s Used Auto Parts .............................................34 Gary Babin’s Groceries & Meats ...............................46 Gateway Inn ..................................................................8 Gerald Pelletier, Inc. ..................................................19 Gerard Raymond .......................................................45 Gervais Fence .............................................................39 Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home ................................38
Business
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Gina L. Nadeau, EA ...................................................7 GJ Auto Body .............................................................42 Grave’s Shop ‘N Save Superstore ...........................35 Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce ...............47 Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce ..............13 Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce ........44 Griffeth Ford ..............................................................27 H.C. Haynes, Inc. .........................................................9 Haines Manufacturing Co., Inc. ...............................35 Hanington Bros., Inc. ................................................10 Heritage Trail Storage & Rental .............................49 Hillside Apartments ...................................................44 Hillside IGA ...................................................................5 Hogan Tire ..................................................................15 Home Town Fuels, Inc. ..............................................26 Houlton Higher Education Center ...........................15 Huber Engineered Wood, LLC .................................22 Industrial Street Storage .........................................36 Inn of Acadia ...............................................................29 Irish Setter Pub ..........................................................35 Irving Forest Products ...............................................47 J. McLaughlin Construction LLC ...........................22 Jepson Financial Advisors, PA ...................................40 Jerry’s Shurfine ........................................................12 JJ’s Firewood ...............................................................9 Joe’s Country Store ...................................................49 Kajais Redemption ....................................................51 Katahdin Health Care ...............................................7 Katahdin Valley Real Estate .....................................20 Kerry Golding Construction ....................................14 Key Realty ..................................................................35 Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices .........................40 Knight’s Grocer .........................................................10 Knot II Bragg Farm ...................................................42 LaJoie Growers, LLC ...............................................42 Lake Road Grocery ...................................................51 Lancaster Morgan & Duncan Graves Funeral Homes.40 Langille Construction, Inc. .......................................29 Leisure Gardens .........................................................34 Leisure Village ............................................................34 Levasseur’s True Value Hardware ..............................7 Limestone Chamber of Commerce ...........................39 Long Lake Camps & Lodge ......................................29 Long Lake Motor Inn ..............................................46 Long Lake Sporting Club Restaurant ......................46 Louisiana Pacific Corp. .............................................20 Lou’s Auto Service ....................................................44 M. Rafford Construction ...........................................25 M.L. Pelletier Trucking, Inc. ...................................50 Macannamac Camps .................................................19 Madawaska Pharmacy, LLC ...................................29 Maine Historical Society .............................................3 Mark’s Towing Service & Auto Repair ....................43 Mars Hill IGA ...............................................................5 Martin Acadian Homestead ....................................43 Martin Builders ..........................................................30 Martin’s General Store .............................................30 Matheson Tri-Gas ......................................................25 McCain Foods .............................................................22 McGillan, Inc. Earthwork Contractor ...................39 McGlinn’s Plumbing & Heating .............................33 McGraw’s Welding ....................................................11 McNeal’s Trucking Co. ..............................................27 Mill Bridge Restaurant ..............................................47 Miller’s Discount .......................................................47 Millinocket House of Pizza .........................................7 Mitch’s Heating .........................................................46 Mockler Funeral Home ............................................39 Monticello Country Store ..........................................16 Mooseshack Restaurant & Bar ................................31 Nadeau’s Trucking, LLC ...........................................49 Napoli’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria ....................41 New England Mechanical .........................................20 Nickerson Construction Inc. .....................................12 North Country Auto ....................................................6 North Maine Woods ...................................................37 North Woods Custom Home Builder .....................49 North Woods Real Estate ..........................................19 Northeast Applicators, LLC ....................................3 Northeast Propane ......................................................40 Northeastern Supply Co. ..........................................40 Northern Business Products .....................................33 Northern Door Inn ....................................................32 Northern Lights Motel ..............................................25 Northern Maine Community College .....................18
Business
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Northern Prosthetics & Orthotics ..........................23 Northern Timber Trucking .......................................48 Northern Welding & Repair .....................................41 Orion Timberlands, LLC..........................................38 Overlook Motel & Lakeside Cabins .......................52 Patrick E. Hunt, P.A. .................................................11 Pat’s Pizza ...................................................................24 Patten Drug Co. .........................................................11 Pelletier Florist ..........................................................31 Penobscot Marine Museum .......................back cover Percy’s Auto Sales ......................................................36 Pete Bernier Custom Carpentry ..............................45 Peter Qualey, Broker ..................................................20 Pineridge Scents Candle & Sign Co. ......................11 Pines Health Services ................................................26 Plourde Masonry ........................................................48 Portage Lakeside Cabins ..........................................38 Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center .....................28 Quality Construction .................................................23 Quigley’s Building Supply ..........................................48 Quint Construction .....................................................12 Randy Brooker General Contractor .........................26 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. ..............19 Rendezvous Restaurant .............................................39 Riverside Inn Restaurant ..........................................34 RMJ Cash Plus ........................................................24 Robert Charette Home Improvements ....................18 Robert Pelletier General Contractor ........................30 Rockwell Properties ..................................................20 Rozco ..........................................................................45 S. Paradis & Son Garage ...........................................45 Sandra’s Kitchen & Pizza To Go .............................46 Saucier’s Grocery .....................................................44 Scootic In Restaurant .................................................6 Scovil Apartments .....................................................16 Scovil Building Supply, Inc. .....................................16 Service First Automotive .........................................37 Shallie’s Place .............................................................17 Shaw Financial Services ............................................17 Shiretown Pharmacy ..................................................13 Sleepy Hollow Storage ...............................................35 Snow Runner Kennels ...............................................49 Soucy’s Auto Repair & Auto Electronics ................14 St. John Valley Pharmacy ..........................................48 St. John Valley Realty Co. ...........................................48 Stairs Welding, RL, Inc. .............................................14 Star City IGA ................................................................5 Stardust Motel ............................................................14 STEaD Timberlands, LLC .........................................10 Stewart’s Pressure Washing Services ......................12 Storage Solutions ........................................................33 Sturdi-Bilt / Storage Buildings, LLC ..........................6 Sweet Seniors Guest House ........................................7 T&S Market ..............................................................12 T.A. Service Center ....................................................36 The Braden Theater ...................................................42 The Bear Den Family Restaurant & Pub ...............10 The County Federal Credit Union ..............................5 The Forum ..................................................................36 The Pioneer Place, USA ..............................................12 The Pizza Box ............................................................34 The Store on Sugar Shack Road ...............................50 The Upper Room Accommodations .........................11 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor ......................19 Tidd’s Sport Shop .....................................................20 Tommy’s Service .......................................................47 Town of Madawaska ................................................29 Town of Mars Hill ......................................................17 Triple M Trucking, Inc. ............................................50 Trophy Hunter Guiding & Outfitting ........................4 Tulsa, Inc. ....................................................................44 Twisted Knickers ........................................................33 Umcolcus Sporting Camps .........................................5 United Country McPhail Realty ..............................20 United Insurance ........................................................24 University of Maine Fort Kent .................................31 Village Acadien ...........................................................43 Vintage Maine Images .................................................3 Visiting Nurses of Aroostook ....................................21 White Oak, Inc. ...........................................................49 Whited Ford Auto & Truck Center ..........................23 Willard S. Hanington & Son, Inc. ..............................4 Winn Equipment & Parts ............................................9 Winn Service Center ...................................................9 York’s of Houlton .......................................................15
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~ Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties ~
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