2023 Southern & Coastal Maine

3 It Makes No Never Mind James Nalley

4 Atlantic Bluefin Superstar There are giants down there in the canyons

7 Maine Milkweed Goes To War Schoolchildren working for a noble cause

10 Ogunquit’s J. Scott Smart Radio’s great detective

14 The Saco War Trail Indians on the warpath

20 The Genealogy Corner Tracing French-Canadian ancestry

23 The Career Of Olive Fremstad Opera star with a Bridgton connection

28 The Nurse Who Cared For Portland Soldiers A “Maine at War” exclusive

Swartz

32 Portland’s Francis Ford Ambitious and prolific actor-director

Nalley

36 The Images Of Winslow Homer Prout’s Neck’s favorite son

Francis

40 History Of The Bowdoinham Plant Sale A library built through community effort

44 The Prolific William Zorach Famed artist and his Bath connection

Nalley

48 Grandma’s Houseboat A Boothbay Harbor summer to remember

Whitepine

52 Portland’s James Alden Jr.

Celebrated Civil War blockade captain

56 Maine’s Last Five-Masted Schooner Launched from Newcastle

Swartz

Publisher Jim Burch

Editor Dennis Burch

Design & Layout

Liana Merdan

Field Representative

Don Plante

Contributing Writers

Helen Anderson

Jeffrey Bradley

Charles Francis

John Murray

James Nalley

Brian Swartz

Barbara Whitepine

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SUBSCRIPTION FORMS ON PAGE 43 & 58

Front Cover Photo: Goodall Matting Co. float in Kennebunk Old Home Week Parade, ca. 1907

Item # 17745 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

All photos in Discover Maine’s Southern & Coastal Maine edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine.

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

It Makes No Never Mind

by James Nalley

For anyone who has researched things to do in Maine in October, the number one activity will always be viewing the fall foliage. In fact, if you go to www.mainefoliage.com, the state is divided into zones, with Southern Maine being Zone 1. There, it lists driving and hiking tours, along with weekly Maine foliage reports, all for the purpose of seeing the beautiful fall hues. However, for those who want to experience something extra in the region, there are several events to consider.

First, there is the Freeport Fall Festival. This three-day festival is held annually at the Freeport L.L. Bean (its flagship store) and the Freeport Village Station on the first weekend in October. It includes more than 175 of the best New England artists, craft makers, and local food producers. There is also three days of live music, with free activities for kids, ranging from “make n’ take crafts” to scavenger hunts. See www. visitfreeport.com/freeport-fall-festival/ for details.

Second, near the Maine-New Hampshire border, there is the annual Fryeburg Fair, Maine’s largest agricultural fair. This fair runs from October 1-8, and hosts more than 3,000 animals, including prize-winning horses, dairy and beef cattle, etc. There is also plen-

ty of food, family fun, and events such as the 4X4 pulling competition and the Grand Parade. It has built a reputation over its 172-year history. In fact, the event attracts more than 225,000 visitors annually. See www.fryeburgfair. org. for details.

Finally, head to Portland (Maine’s largest city) and attend a celebration of food and drink at the Harvest on the Harbor. This year, this “culinary escape” will be held from October 26-28. Its most popular events include: Meet Your (Craft Spirit) Maker!, an all-inclusive cocktail party with the Maine Distillers Guild; Maine OysterFest, where, in addition to slurping some of the best oysters, you can meet the growers, enjoy drinks, and live music; and the Maine Lobster Chef of the Year Competition, where you can visit nine lobster stations and meet the chefs from each competing restaurant. See www. harvestontheharbor.com for details.

Finally, for something more adventurous, there is whale watching. With the season extending into October, there are several options to choose from: Cap’n Fish’s Whale Watch, which offers three boats that depart from Boothbay Harbor (www.boothbayboattrips. com); Odyssey Whale Watch, with 4-hour tours that depart from Portland (www.odysseywhalewatch.com);

and First Chance Whale Watch, with 4-hour tours out of Kennebunk (www. firstchancewhalewatch.com).

At this point, let me close with the following jest: Two hunters are walking in the woods in October, when they find a 10-ft diameter hole that is too deep to see the bottom. “A sinkhole?” one hunter asks. The other shrugs. The first hunter finds a stick and drops it down the hole, hoping to hear it hit the bottom. After a moment, they hear nothing. “Something heavier,” said the second hunter, who finds a football-sized rock and drops it down. After a moment, they hear nothing. Then, the second hunter walks away and comes back with a cinderblock. This would surely make a noise as it hits the bottom. After he throws the cinder block, a loud noise comes up from behind them. They dodge out of the way as a brown goat sprints past them and dives straight into the hole. Shocked, both hunters find the owner of the land and explain how they threw the stick and the rock, and said, “Then, this goat came barreling past us and dove straight into the hole!” The owner was puzzled. “Was it a brown goat?” she asked. The hunters nodded. “That’s impossible,” she said, “I had him tied to a cinderblock!”

Atlantic Bluefin Superstar

There are giants down there in the canyons

by Jeffrey Bradley

Bluefin is the heavyweight of tuna. Prized for having immense proportions, amazing speed, and prodigious fighting ability, the Atlantic bluefin ranks right beside the great white shark and billfish in terms of raw power. Beyond angling appeal, they prowl the stormy North Atlantic in ravenous hordes that can plunge to forbidding depths in search of elusive prey. A preeminent sportfish, bluefin has left fishermen in awe down through ages past. Still, its commercial value has nearly been its undoing.

Females release up to 40 million eggs with most of that tasty fry joining the free-floating plankton that gets eat-

en. Mature adults need fear only whales with teeth, pelagic sharks, and man. Schools of several thousands organize themselves by size but amassing in such numbers leaves bluefin vulnerable to commercial fishing. Sustainably trap netting them has long given way to harvesting by fishing fleets that use huge purse seines and spotter planes. In a quest for protein following the war Japan perfected industrial long-line fishing, which wastefully uses thousands of baited hooks and the even more indiscriminate method of drift-netting. De-

structive practices such as these wreak havoc oceanwide on tuna populations and other species by scooping up whole generations of fish. Their migratory patterns also put them at risk. Usually found in open ocean they may spawn in coastal waters where national fishing fleets can sidestep regulations aimed at protecting future stocks or show even less regard in observing international jurisdictions.

Man and bluefin have an ancient lineage; the fish has appeared as Stone Age wall art and figured prominently on Roman, Greek and Celtic coins. Their bones have been dug from Indian middens, and the Japanese have chased

them for 5,000 years. “The king of all fish”, Ernest Hemingway described them, and even their scientific name Thunnus thynnus means “tuna of tunas.” Known as tunny or horse mackerel in the long ago, bluefin was once considered worthless except as cat food and fertilizer. Now, thanks to sushi, it’s the most expensive fish in the sea.

Little is known of their transoceanic migrations, although the penchant for high-speed roaming and rapid growth has been documented by tagging. One 14-pounder caught and released in 1997 weighed nearly 1,200 pounds when retaken 16 years later and had logged an astounding spurt of 1,600 nautical miles in under 10 days.

Giant bluefin is found in the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mediterranean Sea. The Pacific variety is considered a subspecies. Rhomboid, robust, and possessed of a “pineal window” in its conical head that allows for steering by means of the sun, clever bluefin also

use temperature gradients and seaborne currents to help guide their endless way. And, they are noted for the gape of their mouths.

Some individuals surpass the 8-foot 600-pound average by coming in at more than a ton. The largest taken off Maine by rod and reel measured 12 feet in length and tipped the scales at 1,497 pounds. One recorded contest that pitted six men taking turns to fight an 800-pounder lasted for 62 hours! Their rapid growth rate allows them to live for 50 plus years.

The streamlined teardrop shape features eyeballs flush with the body, fins that can retract for increasing speed or raise up again in maneuvering after prey, and bright yellow caudal finlets that create a turbulence in the same way that dimples do on a golf ball to cut down on drag. Unlike other species, bluefin keep their body stiff while sculling powerfully back and forth with the sickle-like tail. Although these wary

(cont. on page 6)

(cont. from page 5)

predators are patterned to blend with the background and are hard to see at a distance, speed as a defense is essential. While relying mostly on smell and touch because of poor eyesight, they are also able to detect various shades of gray in the murk. And that iconic shape of pointy snout, prominent dorsal fins, and rounded belly tapering toward the back hides an energy dynamo. Two tendons that run the length of the body afford tremendous strength and place it among the world’s fastest swimmers. These speedsters can accelerate faster than a Porsche to hit speeds of 55mph and can cruise all day at 40 mph in covering 150 miles. The handsome gold-flecked gunmetal blue upper body and silvery grey belly is built for endurance too, thanks to a unique circulatory system that maximizes oxygen uptake and keeps the fish warm-blooded — its secret for moving torpedo-like over long distances and able to tolerate the

cold artic oceans or warm tropic seas that give it an edge in feeding.

But it comes with a price: bluefin are obliged to eat constantly in order to travel as fast as possible — about their own body length every second — and

keep oxygenated water flowing over their gills to stay on course and foraging for food.

A favorite haunt is where warmand cold-water currents collide to up-

well nutrients nearer the surface and attract massive shoals of herring and mackerel. Here the bluefin pause in their headlong flight to form a swirling gyre before shearing into those unfortunate bait-balls. The attack is savage. Suddenly the featureless void erupts in a frenzy of bomb-shaped giants with flanks of battered chrome and a streak of electric blue rocketing through the distorted sunlight. Flashing and rolling in disciplined ranks, close-packed yet apart, they cleave along at 25 knots in a purposeful, thrumming rhythm. Exploding into a swift ballet, they maneuver, slash and careen, magnificent creatures that burst through the water to harry their prey, then turn, wheel, and are gone. All that remains are a few glittery fish scales left slowly adrift in the roiled wake of the vanishing tuna. And suddenly the sea is empty again.

Maine Milkweed Goes To War Schoolchildren working for a noble cause

by John Murray

World War II was a time of great sacrifice and contribution. To manufacture and maintain the items required for the machinery of war, many components were needed, and the citizens of the nation responded to help during this time of need. Scrap metal and tires were deemed critical items, and were collected and assembled into military components. Along with those critical items, another item would be deemed important for the war effort, and this item was a plant called milkweed.

This native milkweed plant scientifically known as Asclepias is common and numerous throughout the state, with three different species found

throughout the region. Depending on the species, some milkweed plants prefer well-drained soil, and others readily thrive in moist locations. In Maine milkweed plants are common in pastures, meadowlands, ditches and alongside ponds. In total, there are approx-

imately one hundred species of this wild perennial plant in North America. Vastly ignored by the majority of people who considered this plant to be just another unassuming weed, this common plant would be propelled into the front lines of a global war after a physician realized its unique value as a lifesaving material.

Before the involvement in World War II began, the United States military previously utilized a silky fibrous plant material called kapok, which originated from the ceiba tree found in the East Indies. This silky cottony fiber material generated from the pods of the ceiba tree is buoyant and was placed inside life preservers used by the navy (cont. on page 8)

(cont. from page 7)

and other branches of the military. After Japan entered the war and the East Indies region was occupied by Japan’s military, the supply of kapok was completely cut off to the United States.

Scientists and botanists were tasked with finding a replacement for kapok, and after a period of exhaustive research, success was achieved by physician and inventor Dr. Boris Berkman of Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Berkman determined that the floss contained within the pods of milkweed plants was a viable replacement for kapok. After studying and researching the plant, Dr. Berkman would come to the conclusion that the floss within a milkweed pod had not only similar buoyancy and water repellant tendencies, but it was considerably superior and would perform even better than kapok inside floating life preservers.

Dr. Berkman submitted his research about milkweed floss to a congressional agriculture committee in 1942, and the federal government would recognize the merits of milkweed floss as a useable material. Resulting life preserver tests done by the U.S. Navy concluded that approximately a pound of milkweed floss was capable of maintaining floatation for a 150-pound man for nearly two days.

Although promising test results confirmed the need for milkweed floss, procuring large amounts of floss would be problematic. When the milkweed

plant ends its growth cycle in the early fall, they develop pods that are filled with a light fiber floss which is connected to tiny seeds. After these pods are dried and cracked open, the light airy floss carrying the seeds dispels into the breeze, and new plant growth starts in near proximity during the following spring season. Rather than rely on nature to naturally propagate the milkweed plant, the feasibility of commercial farms was briefly considered to grow large tracts of milkweed. The urgency of the war did not permit the luxury of extra time to cultivate milkweed on farms, so wild plants had to be harvested by hand.

A dilemma was soon realized of not having sufficient numbers of people to harvest milkweed pods. With many people either being in the military or working in factories to supply the war effort, school age children were actively recruited to harvest the plant. This recruitment took place in Maine and twenty four other states in the country where milkweed was commonly found. A federal recruitment campaign was formulated with slogans such as “Don’t let our sailors sink,” and harvesting milkweed pods was encouraged in classrooms and 4H clubs.

The recruited pickers were supplied with gunny sacks or large bags, and harvesting milkweed pods was done in earnest during the early fall season. The intended initial goal was to acquire

enough material to fill one hundred thousand life preservers, and this would require roughly two million pounds of pods. Harvest season would normally not exceed four weeks in duration and the pods were picked in earnest while still fresh, before they reached the point of cracking and dispelling the coveted internal floss material. Any cracked pods were left on the stems of the milkweed plant, and these dispelled seeds would once again prorogate the area with new plant growth.

Harvesting was usually done while the children were enroute to school or 4H group meetings, and children were strongly encouraged to fill two sacks or bags with pods during every outing. Another federal government slogan – “Two bags save one life” was instituted to reinforce the concept of an ample pod harvest. Recognizing the importance of the pod harvest, children thoroughly made a concentrated effort to collect many milkweed pods.

When the children arrived at the school or group buildings with their harvested pods, the pods were collected by the teachers or group leaders, and pods harvested in Maine were then transported to a temporary storage facility in nearby New Hampshire. From this location, the pods were then shipped by train to a central processing plant where the seeds would be separated from the floss material. This plant was located in Petosky, Michigan, and

ultimately twelve million pounds of pods would be processed at this location during World War II. After the initial processing to separate the seeds from the floss, the floss material was sent to various manufacturing plants where the material was stuffed into life preservers. The life preservers using the floss were tremendously effective, and many sailors and downed aviators were saved.

With the conclusion of the global war, the milkweed pod harvest wasn’t required anymore for amplified production of life preservers, and the central processing plant in Michigan would shut down before another practical use could be generated for the milkweed floss. Today the milkweed floss is experiencing a revival with well received results, and this floss is being used once again, this time in pillows and insulated clothing. The floss is perfect for pillows because it is considered

hypoallergic, and the insulation factor of clothing that uses the natural milkweed floss is deemed superior to other similar insulating products.

The children that worked hard to harvest the milkweed pods did an honorable service for our nation in a time of need and sacrifice. This diligence will

always be appreciated from a grateful nation and members of the military. For the military service personnel that originated from Maine, it would have been a comforting thought to realize that a part of Maine was with them when they donned that life preserver.

Ogunquit’s J. Scott Smart Radio’s great detective

by James Nalley

In general, character actors are tasked with making films, radio programs, and stage shows more interesting, especially if the main characters are somewhat straitlaced or bland. Although these characters might not have the “looks” of main actors at first glance, their presence, talent, and eccentricity can make their careers equally successful. One such example was an American radio, film, and stage actor, who, later in his life, had a fond connection with Ogunquit.

J. Scott Smart (originally John Kenley Tener Smart) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 27, 1902. After his family moved to Buffalo, New York, Smart attended Lafayette High School and graduated in 1922. According to the article The Life and Career of J. Scott Smart by Elizabeth McLeod, “Smart discovered his taste for show business through music. Starting out as a drummer in local stage bands, he quickly realized that the actors on the stage had more fun and earned more money than the anonymous musicians sawing away in the pit.” He then joined a theatrical stock company in Buffalo to learn the basics of acting and traveled up and down the eastern seaboard before settling in New York in 1929.

At that time, since work on Broadway was extremely limited, Smart ended up working for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). This was where he caught his first major break. As stated by McLeod, they were “going on air with a weekly adaptation of the popular New York Herald Tribune comic strip ‘Mr. and Mrs.’ and 27-year-old Smart had just the right voice to portray the dour, middle-aged ‘Mr.’ of the duo.”

Paired with actress Jane Houston, the

radio show was a major success, and it established Smart as an important comic actor.

After the program ended in 1931, Smart moved on to the “Dutch Masters Cigar Program,” where he hosted the show as the Dutch tobacconist Peter Zorn. Smart’s ability to portray any type of character was his strongpoint. For example, when Time magazine presented “The March of Time,” Smart portrayed dozens of world leaders and important personalities. Moreover, after the Great Depression significantly affected Broadway productions, comedian Fred Allen (one of the most popular humorists in the Golden Age of American Radio) began presenting a weekly comic revue on CBS. He then hired Smart as a key member of his supporting cast. According to McLeod, “Smart began playing any sort of character that Allen would toss his way,” including “blustering business executives, pimply faced office boys, minstrel-dialect

porters, and German-spouting medical men.”

Naturally, Allen continued to hire Smart over the next five years. For instance, Smart became a part of The Mighty Allen Art Players, which had some of the most talented individuals in the industry. As stated by McLeod, Smart frequently appeared as “know-nothing politicians, obstinate bureaucrats, and other debased authority figures. Smart bowed to no one in his ability to portray overconfidence, arrogance, and venality.”

In 1937, Smart left the group to seek his fortune in Hollywood. However, since he was a somewhat short, overweight man, with a waxed moustache, he was limited to “interesting fat-man character parts” in various films. After tiring from such work, Smart returned to New York, where he was rehired as a voice actor for The Mighty Allen Art Players and for Allen’s Alley, the latter of which was a weekly series of humorous interviews with comical characters. Again, Smart shined as he rotated through the various characters.

Interestingly, Smart never seemed to remain in one place or position for too long. According to the 1936 article titled, Radio’s Jack of All Trades, in the Oakland Tribune, Smart reported that he once held 30 jobs in three years, including “selling shoe polish, heaving coal on a boat, being a fire chief in a factory, drawing cartoons for a newspaper, and designing ads for an advertising agency.” When Fred Allen had health issues and was forced to pause his radio shows, Smart immediately left to pursue stage acting. As stated by McLeod, “It was there he decided to leave behind his comic past and try for a career as a straight dramatic ac-

tor, adopting the dignified new name of ‘J. Scott Smart.’ But as it turned out, ‘straight dramatic’ meant ‘hard-boiled private eye.’”

Meanwhile, Dashiell Hammett, the famed American writer of detective fiction (such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) pondered the following question: If the public enjoyed The Thin Man so much, then why not offer them “The Fat Man”? In this case, according to McLeod, he suggested an “overweight operative for the Continental Detective Agency.” This “Continental Op” became Brad Bunyon, a.k.a. “The Fat Man,” and J. Scott Smart, “with his hefty build and voice, was the perfect actor to play him.” The show, which aired on ABC Radio from 1946 to 1951, was a success, after which Smart became synonymous with the role.

In 1951, Smart played the portly detective in the film version of The Fat Man directed by William Castle, who

later stated that it “was potboiler of little merit, except that I was able to cast Rock Hudson…and to use Emmett Kelly, the Ringling Brothers clown, as the villain.” Similarly, McLeod mentioned that “Despite his excellent performance, his visual image seemed more comical than the tone of the film demanded, and a televised Fat Man was not to be.”

To make matters worse, Dashiell Hammett’s name was one of the 151 actors, writers, musicians, and broadcast journalists listed in Red Channels, the 1950 pamphlet-style book that purported that such individuals were under Communist manipulation. This put an end to any collaborations with Hammett, and it effectively ended J. Scott Smart’s radio career.

Subsequently, Smart left both Hollywood and New York, and retired to his long-time summer home in Ogunquit. According to McLeod, “It was in

Ogunquit that he turned his talents in a bold new direction — giving up acting in favor of his other passions, painting, and sculpture. In this pleasant seaside environment, he flourished as a fine artist through the 1950s” and, with his wife, Mary-Leigh, became an established part of the local arts community.

On January 15, 1960, Smart died from pancreatic cancer and was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. He was 57 years of age. As for his legacy, artist Beverly Hallam and Mary-Leigh Smart, upon their passing in 2013 and 2017, respectively, ensured that Surf Point (Smart’s 46-acre oceanfront property) be transformed into a residency for visual artists and writers. The pilot program launched, with three-week sessions, in the fall of 2019.

The Saco War Trail Indians on

the warpath

by Charles Francis

The earliest means for getting around what would become the State of Maine were the trails that were used by the Indians. From the time of the first aboriginal explorers of Maine (the Red Paint People) Maine Indians developed and refined an incredibly complete network of routes that allowed them to get almost anywhere in the state and adjacent territory they frequented. These early trails were so well adapted to the surrounding terrain that many of the state’s roads, like the Maine Turnpike, follow them today.

For the most part, the Abnaki, who ranged from the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic, and from eastern Massachusetts to the Canadian Maritime

Provinces, utilized streams, rivers, and lakes to travel. When this system of waterways and “carries” was unavailable they developed trails. Most long trails actually combined water travel as well as footpaths. One of the most famous or infamous Indian trails in Maine was that used by the Saco or Sokokis Indians when they went on the warpath. This trail went from present-day Saco all the way to Fryeburg. The Sokokis Indians used it in attacking settlements ranging the entire length of the southern Maine coast as well as those of the settlers who dared to venture inland. Actually, the trail was part of a larger system of interconnecting trails. The Pequawket Trail, which ran from Port-

land to Fryeburg, was a part of it. So too were the Ossipee and the Mohawk, both of which entered Maine from New Hampshire and headed downeast. In addition, there were shorter trails connecting such present-day places as Sanford and Berwick and Portland and Scarborough and Kittery. By utilizing this system of trails, the Sokokis and their allies were able to wreak havoc among the English settlements of Maine. The development of these trails or warpaths is an important part of the history of the State of Maine, for they would pose a threat to all of Maine until the English victory in the French and Indian War.

The origins of the trail from Saco to

Fryeburg, like those of all Indian trails in Maine, is lost in time. It was not a road built by intent, but simply one that always existed. The first moccasin-covered feet that started out following the Saco River simply sought out the easiest path to follow. Probably they followed an animal trail as it is natural to choose a route that someone or something has used before. Moving up the river, the terrain becomes more difficult. There are low hills and mountains. Then, too, there are bogs and swamps in the region around present-day Hiram. The easiest way to travel here would have been by watercraft. It is doubtful that the first travelers did so, though. It would have been easier to find a longer but less muddy way. Then there might be a dry spell. Thus, short cuts would come into existence so that the trail would divide only to join again.

Old trails, like the war trail used by the Sokokis to reach the first settlements of Maine, change throughout the

ages. They change as new groups come into an area, as old enemies become allies, or as trading patterns change.

As trade between the Indians of the coast and those of the rivers of Maine grew, new trails went out from the Saco River to The Forks, the Penobscot and beyond to the St. Lawrence River. Shells used as wampum from the Maine coast began to find their way inland to the head of the St. Lawrence, and even as far as the Rocky Mountains. In this manner, the trail along the Saco became part of a network linking most of North America. Then Europeans came to the New World, and the English and French began their struggle to dominate the continent. With this, what had been essentially a trail for trading became a warpath.

The first major inland settlement of the French was on the St. Lawrence at Quebec, while that of the English was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Both saw Maine as a region worth influ-

encing due to its wealth of timber and furs. For the English, this meant trading posts and settlements. For the French, this meant developing friendly relations with the native population. The clash between the two would begin on the Saco River with King Philip’s War and end with the destruction of the Indians as a fighting force and the defeat of Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham outside of Quebec.

After the French had established themselves in Quebec and succeeded in Christianizing the local Indians, they began their forays into Maine by utilizing the Indian trails. They sent Jesuit and other priests to minister to the Indians. Missionaries went to Castine and other coastal locations. At the same time, the English were beginning to establish trading posts at the mouth of the Saco and the present site of Augusta. The trading post at Saco brought them into contact with the Sokokis, who were probably the most warlike of (cont. on page 16)

(cont. from page 15)

the Abnaki. Then in 1675 King Philip’s War, the first real Indian war, occurred.

While King Philip’s War actually began in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a series of totally unrelated events brought the conflict to Maine. Squando, the war chief of the Sokokis, was the most militant Indian leader of the period. When drunken English sailors threw his infant into the Saco to see if Indians could swim from birth, Squando went on the warpath. Saco was attacked on September 18, 1675. Two days later Scarborough was attacked. The surviving colonists fled to Jewel Island in Casco Bay but the Sokokis also followed them there. Finally, a peace treaty was negotiated in 1678. However, other Indian attacks would soon occur.

Bands of Indians, primarily from the village of St. Francis on the St. Lawrence River, accompanied by a few French soldiers, regularly traveled

from Quebec to The Forks. From here they took various trails to attack the coastal settlements of the English.

In 1690 a force of some five hundred French and St. Francis-led Indians attacked the part of Falmouth that is now Portland. The attackers drove all the settlers into Fort Loyal and proceeded to burn their homes. When those in the fort were granted quarter by the French officers, they surrendered. However, as soon as the gates were opened, the French abandoned those inside to the Indians. The survivors, most of whom were women and children, were taken captive and marched up the Sokokis warpaths to The Forks and then on to Quebec.

Again and again, this scenario was repeated as towns like Wells, Berwick, and York were attacked by Indians traveling over the now dreaded trail. In 1724 Jeremiah Moulton led an attack on Narantsouak, an Indian village

on the Kennebec. The attack was in retaliation for one on York. The entire village was destroyed along with its priest, Father Rasle.

Then, in 1725 a professional Indian fighter by the name of Lovewell lead an attack on the Sokokis. Lovewell was determined to end the threat posed by the Sokokis forever and they knew it. The Sokokis fled up the Saco war trail as far as Fryeburg, with Lovewell hot on their heels. The Sokokis made their stand at Fryeburg. It was their last fight, however, as Lovewell and his men slew so many that they ceased to exist as a tribe. The few who survived escaped to New Hampshire. This left the St. Francis Indians as the only major remaining threat to the coast of Maine. This threat was removed by Rogers’ Rangers in 1759, during the French and Indian War.

By the middle of the 1700s the English colonists had begun producing a (cont. on page 18)

(cont. from page 16)

new breed of professional Indian fighter. Jeremiah Moulton was one. So was Robert Rogers. It had been Rogers who was primarily responsible for the taking of the French forts of Crown Point and Ticonderoga. However, Rogers knew that until the Abnaki stronghold of St. Francis was destroyed, attacks could be made by utilizing the trails that led into Maine. With the coming of the French and Indian War in the late 1750s, Rogers was made a major and put in command of some eight hundred colonial Indian fighters. (The total under his command would at times vary.) In 1759 Rogers was ordered to attack St. Francis.

The attack was made on a cold winter night. And it was a success. By the time the surprised St. Francis villagers knew what had happened, the bulk of the men were either killed, wounded near to death, or captured. One of the

grisly things that Rogers and his men found were some three hundred English scalps hung over the doorways of the villagers’ homes. Most of them had undoubtedly come from Maine. From this time on, no more war parties came down the Saco warpath.

In 1853 Henry David Thoreau, traveling over one of the old Indian trails in the Moosehead region, met an Indian by the name of Tahmunt Swasen. Thoreau referred to him as a St. Francis Indian, who “appeared to be a speculator in moose-hides,” which were used to make moccasins. Perhaps these moccasins, as did earlier ones, helped to create new Indian trails like the old Saco war trail.

A MUST READ!!!

Written

the new book Maine At War, Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg tells the story of Maine’s involvement in the first 18 months of the Civil War, as experienced by Maine men and women who answered the call to defend and preserve the United States. Maine At War Volume 1 draws on diaries, letters, regimental histories, newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts, and the Official Records to bring the war to life in a storytelling manner that captures the time and period.

Released by Epic Saga Publishing. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers: 492 pages, 313 photos and illustrations. $30.00

by Maine at War blogger and Discover Maine contributor Brian Swartz,

The Samuel Clark Lumber and Real Estate Co. float in the 1907 Kennebunk

The Genealogy Corner

Tracing French-Canadian ancestry

by Charles Francis

Precourt, Larochelle and Emond are all common surnames in the Biddeford area, where great numbers of French Canadians from the Province of Quebec began making their homes in the mid-1800s. George Precourt was a much-loved and respected physician in the early 1900s, as was Joseph Larochelle. At the turn of the twentieth century a good many Biddeford residents turned to the Emonds, Jean and later his son, Frank, when a family member passed away. In the early 1900s the Emonds name stood for the best in funeral services.

The Precourt, Larochelle and Emond surnames all have their ori-

gins in Quebec. So, too, do the family names of countless other Mainers. Rough estimates indicate that some 400,000 Mainers are of French-Canadian descent. That means that over one third of all Maine residents can identify themselves as either of Québécois or Acadian descent. For the most part, those of Acadian descent are found in northern Maine in Aroostook County. Those who trace their lineage to Quebec are found all over the state, but especially in the Waterville, Lewiston and Biddeford areas.

The search for one’s French-Canadian roots, like all family history research, has become an increasingly

popular pastime in the last few decades. To a certain extent it is easier to trace Acadian ancestry than Québécois. One of the reasons for this is the fact that there are fewer individuals of Acadian descent. But, sheer numbers are not the only reason tracing Québécois family trees presents unique problems.

While it is relatively easy to trace French-Canadian ancestors in Maine, once you take the next step to go further back to their place of origin in Quebec, problems arise. For one thing, the first settlers to Maine from Quebec often simply listed their birthplace as Quebec. Most Québécois are descended from the earliest settlers of New France.

This means that Quebec has a smaller number of French surnames than other areas of Canada. It also means you can find Precourt, Larochelle, Emonds and other French-Canadian names in abundance most anywhere in the Province of Quebec. George Precourt and Joseph Larochelle are examples of this fact.

It is quite easy to find George Precourt’s records in Maine and the United States in general. He studied medicine at Bowdoin College and a New York City hospital. He served in the 103rd Artillery as a doctor during World War I. He spent his childhood in Saco, and attended school there. His parents were Joseph and Lucy (Parent) Precourt.

It is with the father, Joseph Precourt, that the research problems begin to materialize. Maine records only give Joseph Precourt’s place of birth as Quebec. There are thousands of Precourts in Quebec. Backing this up is the fact that George Precourt married Hilda Precourt. Maine records list no family connection between the two, but one

could have existed back in early Quebec history.

Dr Joseph Larochelle’s immediate family history illustrates another example of problems one might encounter. His obituary simply states that he was born in Quebec, and that his parents were Herode and Claire Jean Larochelle. However, he did post-graduate work in medicine at Harvard. His medical degree was earned at Laval University in Quebec. Laval University may have a specific place of birth recorded for him.

In the case of the Emonds family, there is a specific place of origin in Quebec. Frank Edmond was born in Biddeford. Maine records list his father Jean’s birthplace as St. Lawrence Isle, Province of Quebec. The next step in looking up the Emonds’ family history is accessing records for St Lawrence Isle.

Genealogical research of families with Quebec origins is not easy. For one thing, there is no central repository (cont. on page 22)

(cont. from page 21)

for records. Instead, they are scattered in locations across the province. Then there is the issue of language. Many of French-Canadian descent do not speak French. If you send a request for records to Quebec in English, it is possible it won’t even be answered. Or, if there is a response, it is quite likely to be written in French. Regardless, you are better off writing a letter in good English rather than in poor French!

There is another option to consider. One of the best resources for family records in Quebec is the local parish church. The Catholic Church began recording birth, marriage and death records in 1622. If you know where your family came from, as in the case of the Emonds coming from St Lawrence Isle, write to the local parish. Remember,though, that the parish priest probably receives a number of requests for family records. It is not uncommon for a large parish to receive as many as

100 requests a year. In addition, many churches have limited funds. It is a good idea to include return postage and a self-addressed envelope. A small donation to the parish may help to speed the process, too.

Without question, the best way to research family history is to travel to the family’s place of origin. For most French-Canadians, this means a trip to Quebec, an easy feat for most living in Maine. The problem is deciding where to go. If you can’t travel, there is a standard work on French family history, the seven-volume Dictionary of French Canadian Families (Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes). The book covers the period up to about 1890. It has recently been reprinted and is available through inter-library loan.

There are a large number of diverse genealogical societies in Quebec. Unfortunately, there is no single body that ties them all together. In addition,

few can be accessed easily. There is a close-to-home way to find which ones are easiest to contact. The Family History Center at 29 Ocean House Road in Cape Elizabeth has information readily available. Their phone number is (207) 767-5000, and hours are Wednesday and Thursday, 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A personal visit there is well worth the trip.

Tracing one’s family roots is one of the most rewarding pastimes there is. Genealogy is the fastest-growing hobby in the country. Perhaps what makes tracing French-Canadian roots doubly rewarding is the fact that those ancestors are so close to our Maine homes. By researching for just a few days, it is quite easy to retrace the steps that our French-Canadian ancestors took along their journey to Maine.

The Career Of Olive Fremstad Opera star with a Bridgton connection

by James Nalley

Between 1903 and 1914, a Swedish-American opera singer, who sang both the mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges, appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) in New York City. With such a versatile vocal range, she specialized in Wagnerian roles (operas written by the German composer Richard Wagner). In fact, as a dramatic soprano, she appeared on the Met’s stage 351 times, most frequently in Wagner’s Tannhauser, Parsifal, and Lohengrin. However, later in her career, she experienced difficulties with the top notes of the dramatic soprano range and was replaced by younger upcoming singers. After she was forced to retire, she attempted teaching, but her patience

Your Romantic Escape

for anything less than perfection proved to be slim.

Olive Fremstad was the stage name of Anna Olivia Rundquist, who was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 14, 1871. She received her early musical training in Christiania, Norway, and her progress on the piano was so rapid that she was considered a child prodigy. At the age of 12, Olive and her parents moved to the United States, where they settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For reasons unknown, Olive was then adopted by a Scandinavian-American couple living in Minnesota. Subsequently, Olive took on the surname of Fremstad. (cont. on page 24)

(cont. from page 23)

In 1890, Fremstad began her vocal training in New York City with renowned vocal teacher Frederick Bristol, after her singing was noticed in church choirs. She then honed her vocal skills with German operatic dramatic soprano Lilli Lehmann in Berlin, Germany. However, according to Andrea Suhm-Binder in Great Singers (2012), “This association came to an abrupt end when Lehmann got wind of her husband’s romantic interest in the young American singer.” In 1895, Fremstad made her operatic debut as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Cologne Opera in 1895. Over the next three seasons, she sang in Cologne, Vienna, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Munich, and Bayreuth, all major stages in the opera scene.

Despite her acclaim in Europe, it was the Met in New York where Fremstad truly joined the ranks of the leg-

endary singers of the “Golden Age.” In 1903, she made her debut as Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre. What set her apart from other singers was not only her vocal skills, but her natural stage presence. As stated by Suhm-Binder, “Her prowess as a singing actress was apparently so awe-inspiring that we may, these many decades later, be considering her on par with the likes of Maria Callas, based on critical and contemporary accounts of her performances.”

Interestingly, Fremstad’s most sensational role was the lead in George Bizet’s Carmen in Munich, which she played for three seasons. However, American audiences never warmed to her interpretation, but much rather preferred her Wagnerian dramatic roles. Her last performance in this role was in San Francisco in 1906, the night before the city was nearly destroyed by

What’s going on in there?

the earthquake and subsequent fire. She sang the role opposite Enrico Caruso (she and Caruso escaped the disaster unharmed).

As a person, Fremstad seemed to have difficulty transitioning between the stage and everyday life. According to Suhm-Binder, “Olive Fremstad was truly a prima donna. She lived for her art alone, sulked in a gloomy world occupied by herself only when not on stage, avoiding her public and rarely the press.” In this regard, Fremstad once told the press, “I spring into life when the curtain rises, and when it falls, I might as well die…The world I exist in between performances is a strange one, alien, dark, and confused.” Meanwhile, from 1913 on, Fremstad retreated to her summer home in Bridgton. There, she generally kept to herself, practiced her roles, and avoided the public/press.

By the close of the 1913-1914 sea-

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son, Fremstad had been struggling to hit her high notes onstage and made matters worse by attempting to distract her audiences through a “series of histrionics.” Subsequently, her manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza allowed her contract to expire because he had grown tired to her grandiose manner, frequent cancellations, high salary, and an increasingly limited repertoire. To make matters worse, she was slowly replaced by upcoming (and more affordable) singers. For example, as stated by Mary Cushing in The Rainbow Bridge, A Biography of Olive Fremstad (1954), “After she gave a recital in New York in January 1920, she asked Gatti-Casazza if he was still interested in her services.” By that time, she had learned a new role, Leonora, in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. However, “that role at the Met now belonged to the youthful Rosa Ponselle. Gatti-Casazza made no re-

sponse to her inquiry, and Olive Fremstad never sang in public again.”

In 1920, Fremstad officially retired and attempted teaching. However, with her need for constant perfection, eccentric style, and little patience, it did not last long. For instance, one of her “lessons” involved the close examination of a dissected human head preserved in a jar. According to Suhm-Binder, “She was mystified when her few students fled in horror, unwilling to study the human larynx in such a setting. She also used this head as a tool for determining whether prospective students had the ‘mettle’ for an opera career.” For Fremstad herself, this approach was not unusual. In fact, when studying for the role of Salome by Richard Strauss, she visited the New York City morgue to determine if ”she should stagger under the weight of the head of John the Baptist. On stage, she then staggered a lot.”

Unsurprisingly, Fremstad professed to having no interest in romantic relationships. However, she was married twice, with both marriages ending in divorce in a short amount of time. On April 21, 1951, Fremstad died in Irvington, New York, at the age of 80. She was buried alongside her parents in a family plot in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Today, although few recordings of Fremstad exist, she is better remembered for her commanding stage presence and being one of the world’s best Wagnerians during the “Golden Age.” In this regard, New York critic Algernon St. John Brennan wrote: “She was always an epic sort of creature…If she were to come on the scene wearing an old dressing-gown and reading The Ladies Home Journal, you will still rise in your seat and exclaim, ‘Ha, now something important is going to happen!’”

The Tuttle House in Yarmouth, ca. 1900, built by Burrill and Susannah Tuttle in 1778. Item # 18002 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and

The Nurse Who Cared For Portland Soldiers A “Maine at War” exclusive

by Brian Swartz

AMassachusetts transplant to Portland cared for sick and wounded Maine soldiers long after a woman-hating surgeon fired her as a nurse during the Civil War.

Born July 20, 1819 to Samuel Brigham Goddard and Hannah (Skiff) Goddard in Mansfield, Connecticut, Abba Goddard moved to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1834 when her father took a textile-mill job there. She became an author writing under her own name and various pen names, such as A. A. G. Years later the Portland Daily Press occasionally published her wartime

letters signed “A. A. G.,” and readers immediately knew her identity.

Goddard moved to Portland in the mid-1850s. She circulated among the city’s educated and literary-minded residents and developed friendships with some local men who joined the 10th Maine Infantry Regiment, which mustered at Portland in October 1861 and shipped out to the war.

With official permission, Goddard joined five other women accompanying the 10th Maine as nurses. Strongwilled and keen-eyed, she took her work seriously and did not always bite

her tongue when dealing with men who wanted no women working in an army hospital.

One such man was was the 10th Maine’s surgeon, Dr. Daniel O. Perry of Portland. Forty years old when he mustered, he stood 6 feet tall and had blue eyes and brown hair. Apparently, his dark complexion matched his temperament.

Sergeant Major John Mead Gould remembered him as “a mean, selfish man, and I don’t believe from what I hear and see that he is anything of a Doctor.” Perry focused on getting rid

of the six women nurses. “He spends most of his time and energy in spiteing Mrs. Goddard,” said Gould, who varied his “Miss” and “Mrs.” references to her. The disputes with Perry got so bad that Goddard submitted her resignation to Col. George Beal in early February 1862, but he “and the Officers will not listen to the resignation and the prospect is I think that she will stay,” Gould observed. “Eventually Dr. Perry will have to leave. He is cold blooded and very unpopular,” Gould said. “Miss Goddard is the life of the hospital.”

But Perry went after Goddard and on March 5 “finally succeeded in getting her discharged ordered,” Gould reported. The discharge indicated that “two female nurses … insist upon their remaining, greatly to the annoyance of the Surgeons,” so Goddard packed her luggage.

On March 7 the 10th Maine’s “band played a farewell to Mrs. Goddard and Miss Merrill,” the other woman nurse, Gould noted. “I feel like shooting Perry

every time I think of him.” Yet Goddard did not go far. The army transferred the 10th Maine to Harpers Ferry on late March 1862, and Goddard hired on as a housekeeper for Quartermaster William S. Dodge. The 10th Maine ultimately moved on, and Goddard stayed behind to be hired by the army in summer 1862 as matron of Clayton General Hospital, the name given to Lockwood House, a two-story brick house converted into an army hospital.

Goddard was there when the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry surrendered to Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on September 15. She interacted with occupying Southerners and prevented them from enslaving the seven black civilians whom she employed. Goddard was ecstatic when the 10th Maine turned up among Union troops moving into the area around Harpers Ferry later that month.

Later that year she returned to Portland but caught an outbound train in January 1863 to carry food and sup-

plies to the 10th Maine Infantry, then camped at Fairfax Station in northern Virginia. Portland Daily Press eagerly awaited her report. Rather than proceed directly to the 10th Maine, Goddard “visited hospitals in New York, Baltimore, Harper’s Ferry, Frederick [Maryland], and Washington,” D.C. “In all I found and conversed with 150 Maine soldiers, sick and wounded. “To 87 [soldiers] I gave from 25 to 30 cents each,” she said. “For “a man with a wounded leg or arm … a quarter of a dollar is a fortune.” To the other soldiers she gave “postage stamps, papers, envelopes, &c, &c., making dull eyes brighten and pallid lips smile at this token of home remembrance,” Goddard said. While at Harpers Ferry she bought “a barrel of Boston crackers and sundry other luxuries for our sick” there.

Goddard stopped by the 25th Maine Infantry Regiment at Washington, D.C. on January 14. “A fine manly set of fellows they are. I was proud of them,” she said. As usual, Goddard found soldiers from home; “the Portland boys are fine specimens of young Americans,” she surmised.

Goddard reached the 10th Maine’s camp on January 15. She bragged about how easily visitors could find the camps of Maine regiments; “our sturdy backwoodsmen know how to hew wood and pile it, and their quarters show their handicraft.

“Like a garrulous mother, I always love to praise our boys; so you must pardon my State pride,” she said.

Old friends welcomed her. Surgeon Perry was long gone, having resigned the previous October, and no one prevented her from entering the regiment’s hospital that evening to give each Maine soldier a Maine apple. “You are welcome!” sick men exclaimed. “You are the first woman we have seen since we moved from Berlin [Maryland]! God bless you!”

The 10th Maine mustered out in spring 1863, and Abba Goddard went

(cont. from page 29)

about her business. She was always remembered by the regiment’s surviving veterans. Even long after she died in Charleston, Massachusetts in November 1873, she “has the love of all the men,” Gould said.

Portland’s Francis Ford

Ambitious and prolific actor-director

by James Nalley

When tensions between Spain and the United States grew in the late 1890s (leading to the relatively short Spanish-American War), a Portland-born man eagerly enlisted in the U.S. Army. However, the Army quickly discovered that he was only 15 years of age and promptly sent him home. Eventually, he drifted into the film industry in New York and became an actor, screenwriter, and director. As an actor, he appeared in more than 400 films, alongside Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and John Wayne in The Quiet Man (1952).

Francis Ford (originally Francis Joseph Feeney) was born in Portland on

August 14, 1881. He was the son of Irish immigrants who had moved to the state approximately three years earlier. His father, John Feeney, opened a saloon at 42 Center Street, which used a false front to pose as a grocery store. John eventually opened four similar establishments in the area. Following his short stint in the U.S. Army, Francis left home and ended up in New York City, where he found work in the film industry under renowned directors David Horsley and Al Christie. It was during that time that he adopted the stage name of Ford, based on the automobile.

After working for the Star Film Company’s San Antonio (Texas) opera-

tion, Ford began his Hollywood career in 1912, working for Thomas Ince (the Father of the Western), and eventually directing and appearing in many silent film Westerns. According to the book Print the Legend (2015) by Scott Eyman, “However, it quickly became clear that Ince was routinely taking credit for Ford’s work, so Ford moved to the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in early 1913. There, he produced the serial Lucille Love, Girl of Mystery (1913), the first of many popular serials starring his frequent collaborator, Grace Cunard. Interestingly, he and Cunard made so many films together that the public assumed that they were married to each other, even though they were simply lovers.

Meanwhile, largely as an act of competition, Ford’s younger brother, John Feeney, followed his brother to Hollywood. There, he performed random jobs, changed his name to John

Ford, and eventually surpassed his elder brother’s reputation as a film director. In fact, over his 50-year career, he became known for Westerns, including Stagecoach (1939), and adaptations of classic novels such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He was also the recipient of six Academy Awards, including a record four wins for Best Director.

As for their sibling rivalry, Garry Wills, in the book John Wayne’s America (1997) stated, “John kept Francis as part of his stock company, partly so he could humiliate him by giving him small, meaningless roles, and yelling at him on set. The younger Ford could not handle feelings of indebtedness.”

In this regard, when Francis was the head of Universal’s shorts and serials department, he assigned John, who was working odd jobs around the studio, to Harry Carey’s unit. Then, “when Universal boss Carl Laemmle gave Carey his own unit, Carey took John along as

his director.” Needless to say, the Ford brothers were, at their best, critical of one another.

In 1915, Ford’s serial The Broken Coin was expanded from 15 to 22 episodes by popular demand, which was most likely the height of his career. Two years later, Ford briefly opened his own studio on Sunset Boulevard: 101 Bison. Meanwhile, he continued to mentor his younger brother, frequently collaborating as writers, directors, and actors in each other’s projects. However, as stated by Joseph McBride in the book Searching for John Ford (2011), by the end of 1917, it had “become clear that John’s star was on the rise, while Francis’s directorial style only remained suitable for serials.” Francis’s final directorial credit was for The Call of the Heart (1928).

In 1929, Ford focused exclusively on acting. In his various roles, he provided convincing portrayals of (cont. on page 34)

(cont. from page 33)

ruthless men of authority. However, he remained somewhat flexible and appeared in numerous Westerns, light comedies, and dramas. Among his more than 400 films in which he acted, he was in nine Best Picture nominees: The Front Page (1931), The Informer (1935), A Star is Born (1937), In Old Chicago (1938), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The OxBow Incident (1942), Wilson (1944), and The Quiet Man (1952).

On September 5, 1953, Ford died after a battle with cancer. He was 72 years of age. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. As for his legacy, none of his inexpensively produced films survive today. However, he will always be credited for his numerous appearances in film and for introducing and mentoring his brother John, who is still regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of the 20th century.

The Images Of Winslow Homer

Prout’s Neck’s favorite son

by Charles Francis

In May of 1998 a painting entitled Lost on the Grand Banks changed hands. While neither the seller nor the buyer would comment on the price of the painting, reliable sources in the art world reported that the painting sold for thirty million dollars. The buyer was none other than Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation. The price Gates paid for the painting was the highest ever for any example of American art.

Lost on the Grand Banks was painted by Winslow Homer in 1885, just one year after he had made his permanent home on Prout’s Neck on Saco Bay. The painting, which measures thirty-two

by fifty inches, depicts two fishermen peering over the side of their dory. The images of the painting are quite clear. Lowering clouds and rising chop indicate that a serious storm is coming. The fact that the dory stands by itself in the scene with no larger vessel in evidence as well as the painting’s title tells an all-too-familiar and realistic story of Maine fishermen about to be lost at sea. It was a story that Winslow Homer undoubtedly heard in many variations during the nearly twenty-six years he spent at Prout’s Neck creating the images that have come to be associated with Maine.

It is said that great art, be it in the

field of letters, painting, or music, only arises in times of great trial and tribulation. If this is so then Winslow Homer is its proof. Homer, who is considered the greatest American realist of all time made his first mark in the world of art during the Civil War when he produced a series of works on the Union soldier for Harper’s Weekly. These works, which were forerunners of what Homer would produce in Maine and include the famous Prisoners from the Front, are considered the most accurate and realistic depictions of the life of the everyday soldier during the country’s most cataclysmic historical period.

As the Civil War was revolutioniz(cont. on page 38)

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(cont. from page 36) ing American arts and letters, it was also changing the fundamental structure and nature of the country and, of course, Maine. The war moved the country into the age of industrialization, and while Maine did not industrialize to the extent that other eastern states did, it too began to take on a look that would be recognizable to anyone today. In the years that came after the War Between the States, Maine became “Vacationland.” And it was this change that was indirectly responsible for Winslow Homer coming to Prout’s Neck, where he produced his greatest work.

Winslow Homer came to Prout’s Neck in 1884 when he was forty-eight years old. The impetus for his move came from his brother Arthur who had begun buying up waterfront property on Saco Bay to establish a summer resort. While Homer was never attracted to the resort life of Saco Bay, he did find something there that attracted him — the age-old struggle of man against

the sea and nature as captured in Lost on the Grand Banks.

Winslow Homer was born in Boston in 1836 and grew up in Cambridge. While he had little formal training as an artist, his family, who were quite affluent, encouraged his interest in sketching and painting as well as his love of the outdoors.

After working for a brief time in Boston as an illustrator, Homer secured a position with Harper’s Weekly in New York in 1859. With the outbreak of the Civil War the magazine sent him to Washington as a correspondent, where he was attached to the Army of the Potomac. It was during this period that he produced his pictorial record of the conflict from the viewpoint of the soldiers in the ranks. It was work that formed the base of the realism that was to follow and flower in Maine.

Through the 1860s and 1870s Homer experimented with various tech-

niques in oil and watercolor, working in France, where he was exposed to the impressionists, and in New York City, where he was associated with some of the members of the Hudson River Valley School. In 1880 and 1881 he lived in the little English fishing village of Cullercoats on the North Sea. It was at this time that his work began to take on the harsher tones and moods of the sea that would be the hallmark of the work he would do at Prout’s Neck.

When Homer first moved to Prout’s Neck the area was well off the beaten track, which was what had appealed to him as an artist and as an outdoorsman. In addition, the people who lived there still made their living from the sea as their ancestors had done for generations. This was exactly the sort of inspiration Homer was looking for as he painted waves crashing on High Head or depicted local fishermen as heroic figures struggling against the forces of

nature.

Prout’s Neck, of course, did not stay isolated. As the area developed into a summer tourist resort, thanks in part to Arthur Homer, Winslow Homer withdrew more and more into his isolated studio on the shore of Saco Bay. Here, using the coast of Maine and its residents as his subjects, he produced some of the most important works in American realism.

Winslow Homer made Prout’s Neck his permanent residence for the most productive years of his life. Except for the months of the dead of winter, which he spent in the Caribbean or Florida, he spent his time painting the seascapes and fishermen that most people have come to associate with Maine.

Winslow Homer died at Prout’s Neck in 1910. Today the scenes America’s greatest realist created are, for many, the image that they hold of Maine.

History Of The Bowdoinham Plant Sale

A library built through community effort

by Helen Anderson

Fifty years ago, the Bowdoinham

Public Library looked far different than it does today. The library housed books in a single room of a former pool hall, and an individual heating unit warmed the stained linoleum floors with a gallant but inconsistent effort. Battleship gray shelving lined the room, reminiscent of World War II, and the local Bath Iron Workers who provided the paint compounded the building’s coldness.

As a lover of books and libraries, Leslie Anderson became involved in the one-room library on the main hill

in Bowdoinham soon after her move to the small town located on the Cathance River. In November of 1969, she assumed the role of library secretary, which involved sending out mailed notices for the annual library budgeting meeting. According to Anderson this meant discussing how to best spend the annual amount that the town budget allotted. Much to the dismay of the library director, as the mother of a oneyear-old with another on the way, she was unable to find the time to assemble her mailings, and instead phoned those in the community whom she deemed

interested in the library budget. This included her contemporary local mothers. To the surprise of the director, Anderson was able to bring in ten other young mothers to discuss not only the budget, but also how best to support the library holistically.

At this meeting and over ongoing cups of coffee at play groups, the local mothers’ conversations involved a recurring topic: the environment of the Bowdoinham Public Library needed to be more welcoming. Anderson and her cohorts were invested in instilling a love of books and reading in their chil-

dren - and in turn they were invested in the library. As it stood in the early 1970s, the intermittently cold, drab room did not encourage young minds.

The mothers turned first to the battleship gray shelving. While historically significant, the color made for an uninviting environment. A paint job may have also seemed slightly more feasible than an expansion, floor replacement, or heater installation. While more attainable, the paint job did not come without an obstacle: the cost of paint.

Billie Oakes, a Bowdoinham mother of three daughters and a son, suggested an answer to their fiscal blight: a plant sale. At the time, Anderson recalled that despite prolific vegetable gardens, there were no local greenhouses that sold floral plants. Instead, people ordered perennials from catalogs. Oakes recognized the opportunity and knew that it had the potential to answer the local mothers’ problem; people wanted

(cont. on page 42)

Pictured above is John Anderson, Leslie’s son, helping with the first plant sale at age three. (courtesy of Helen Anderson)

(cont. from page 41)

plants and the mothers needed funds for paint.

In early 1973, the Bowdoinham mothers found themselves with an answer for a first step in the flourishing of the local library — but also knew that an idea is only an idea — they still needed to execute, which was not without challenge. They needed a location, and more importantly, they needed plants to sell.

People in the community caught wind of their efforts and support for the sale grew enthusiastically. This included the generosity of Dot Dickenson, the owner of Dickenson’s, a local general store. The store had an open-air deck, fashioned with 1970s fashioned beaded plant hangers, perfect for a plant selling location.

With a location secured, the mothers still needed plants to sell, which led to Anderson and her cohorts infamous

plant-obtaining-campaigns. Even in its early years, the mothers were blessed with the generosity of the Bowdoinham community. Locals donated oaks from their back pastures, prolific ForgetMe-Nots in their garden beds, and unblooming Leslie Blue that they did not know how to grow. In addition to accepting donations, the mothers foraged plants from the fertile Maine woods and fields around their homes — and the driving medians on the highway towards Freeport. Anderson specifically recalls her children ducking down in the car to shield themselves from passersby as their mother dug for Cuckoo Flower on the side of the road.

Through these various efforts, the mothers of Bowdoinham were able to cultivate their first sale in May of 1974 on the deck of Dickenson’s. Despite their wilting freshly dug lilacs, they raised $75 at Dickenson’s, and just over

$131 in total when Anderson brought the remaining plants to her house and continued the sale out of her barn apron. Together, Anderson and Oakes set out with their $131 and bought as many gallons of bright yellow and orange paint as they could. The mothers painted the tops and uprights of the bookshelves, immediately brightening the one-room library.

With the success of their first campaign, they could have stopped after their sale in 1973. They raised the money they needed to provide an inviting environment for their children at the library. Instead, they recognized that the sale not only had the potential to further improve the library, but Anderson also remarked how, “Everyone got involved and everyone loved it. It was a true community celebration.” Thankfully, soon after the first library plant sale, Betsy and David Steen and their

sons Rob and Tad moved to town. If not for the new additions to the community, and the entire extended Steen family, including Betsy’s parents, Dee and Jack Stapler, and sister Sarah Stapler, there might never have been another plant sale, let alone forty-nine more. Betsy established a holding bed where every year perennials were grown for each succeeding plant sale, allowing the mothers to grow more and raise more money. The Steen family have been the heart and soul of every one of the sales, according to Anderson.

With the paint job done, the mothers shifted their focus from the library infrastructure to simply funding the purchase of more child-friendly books. Outside of the annual sale, the volunteers brought the library to life by conducting quarterly as opposed to yearly meetings. This allowed Anderson and other mothers to gather their children at

the library, where generations of Bowdoinham children discovered a love of reading.

To celebrate the fiftieth and final year of the Bowdoinham Plant Sale, the town of Bowdoinham gathered in the town center in May of 2023 to celebrate whom they deemed the “Founding Mothers.” The mothers — now grandmothers — were also recognized for their service by the State of Maine. In their final year, they raised a record amount, all of which went to the Bowdoinham Public Library. The town’s past, current, and future readers will be forever thankful for the hours of digging, plant identification, and painting that they committed.

Creative, internationally-influenced takes on local favorites in a remodeled early 20th century school house.

The Prolific William Zorach

Famed artist and his Bath connection

by James Nalley

In the second decade of the 20th century, a Lithuanian-born painter, like many his colleagues, was fascinated with Fauvism (an art movement that emphasized bold colors over realistic values) and Cubism (an art movement that emphasized whole structures of objects over realistic values). However, 10 years of such experimentation had exhausted his enthusiasm. In 1922, he gave up painting for sculpture. Using his family members, as well as the family pets, he became highly successful, receiving many commissions, including the controversial nude Spirit of the Dance at Radio City Music Hall in New York. In this regard, after being hastily

removed from public view, he exhibited a clay model, which was so well-received by critics and the general public that the original aluminum sculpture was returned. Later in his life, he moved

to Bath, Maine, where he remained active as an artist until his death.

Zorach Gorfinkel was born on February 28, 1887, in Jurbarkas, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). In 1894, he, his parents, and nine siblings emigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, the family changed their name to “Finkelstein.” However, in school, the teacher changed his name from Zorach to “William.” He eventually chose the name “William Zorach.”

For the next 14 years, Zorach remained in Ohio, where he honed his artistic skills. For example, from 1905 to 1907, Zorach apprenticed with a li-

thographer and studied painting with Henry Keller at the Cleveland School of Art. In 1908, Zorach moved to New York City, where he enrolled in the National Academy of Design. According to the article “A Finding Aid to the Zorach Family Papers” (2011) by Jayna Hanson in the Archives of American Art, “In December 1910, Zorach went to Paris, France, intending to pursue a career as an academic painter. However, Marguerite Thompson, another art student (and his future wife), introduced him to avant-garde paintings in the salons of Paris.”

After returning to the United States, the couple adopted his original given name, Zorach, as the surname. As stated by Hanson, “Zorach and his wife continued to experiment with different media. In 1913, works by the couple were included in the now-famous Armory Show, which introduced their works to both the general public as well as art

critics and collectors.” In fact, “they are credited as being among the premiere artists to introduce European modernist styles to American modernism.” However, as stated earlier, Zorach became tired of avant-garde experimentation and gave up painting for sculpture.

Regarding his personal life, the couple’s son, Tessim, was born in 1915, while their daughter (and future artist), Dahlov Ipcar, was born in 1917. While the family primarily spent their winters in New York, they divided their summers between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Specifically, they spent several summers at the Cornish Art Colony in Plainfield, New Hampshire, as well as the Provincetown Printers Art Colony in Massachusetts. In 1923, the family purchased a small farm on Georgetown Island, Maine, where they lived, worked, and entertained their guests.

In 1929, to support his family and (cont. on page 46)

Plaster cast for Spirit of the Sea (Courtesy of the Smithsonian Art Museum)

(cont. from page 45)

his art, Zorach started teaching sculpture at the Art Students League of New York. He would do this for the next 33 years. As for the school itself, from the 19th century to the present, it has counted among its attendees and instructors many important artists who have gone on to influence various schools/movements in the art world. It is also notable for never having degree programs or grades.

Meanwhile, Zorach remained highly successful, receiving numerous commissions from across the country. Among his most important ones is the nude Spirit of the Dance. According to the article “The Saga of Spirit of the Sea” (2013) by Rick Beckjord for the Art Students League of New York, “In 1930, Zorach was asked to submit drawings for a work to grace the lobby of what was to be Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Center. It was

during the Depression, so only $850 was available, enough for a 36-inch figure.” However, after Zorach created the model, he soon realized that it was far too small for the intended space. “He then cast it in aluminum (to save money) and scaled it up to over six feet for free, just to give the project a fitting piece.” As stated earlier, although it caused considerable controversy (due to its nudity), it was so well-received by art critics and the general public that it was promptly returned for public view. Interestingly, approximately 30 years later, the Bath Garden Club in Maine approached Zorach for advice on creating a fountain to enhance a small pond in the city park. As stated by Beckfjord, “On reflection, Zorach offered to design and make a figurative fountain, the centerpiece of which was Spirit of the Sea. He would donate his time and talent if funds for casting and

other costs could be raised. Between his sculpting and a good many bake sales and raffles, the project came to fruition and stands (recently refurbished) in Library Square Park today.”

Zorach remained active as an artist for the rest of his life. On November 15, 1966, Zorach died at his home in Bath. He was 79 years of age. He was buried at Gracelawn Memorial Park in Auburn. As for his legacy, aside from Spirit of the Dance and Spirit of the Sea, Zorach’s works can be found in numerous private, corporate, and public collections across the country, including: the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Art, and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

The 102’ wooden dragger FOUR at Sample’s Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor. Item # LB1992.301.270 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Grandma’s Houseboat A Boothbay Harbor summer to remember

by Barbara Whitepine

There was an old houseboat in Maine. Years ago it had been pulled up on the east shore of Boothbay Harbor near the footbridge. Although it would never again float on the sea, for many summers it made a cozy cottage for Grandma and Aunt Evelyn.

One summer Grandma’s three grandchildren came to stay at the Houseboat for six weeks while their parents were away. Peter and Heidi were seven-yearold twins, and Steffi was four. Since the Houseboat had only three small rooms, it was crowded that summer.

Aunt Evelyn shared her captain’s cabin with Grandma. This bedroom

was once the bow of the boat and now rested permanently facing west. From the glass-paneled door you could watch harbor boats come and go and admire sunsets that lit up the harbor skyline and turned the water pink.

The kitchen, or ship’s galley, was up three stairs at the back end or stern of the Houseboat. A tiny back hall, a small water closet, and a porch outside the kitchen had been added after the Houseboat was hauled up on land.

Grandma planted a garden of lupine in front of the porch, and Aunt Evelyn added a flower box of bright geraniums and petunias for the porch railing. Sea breezes kept the Houseboat cool

at night, and a large cherry tree grew like an umbrella over the roof to keep it cool in the day.

Peter, Heidi and Steffi slept below deck on collapsible cots. This lower middle room served as living room in the day and bedroom at night. Below the window sills, the Houseboat walls sloped inward as they followed the shape of the boat’s hull. The floors were never leveled after the boat was dragged onto land, so as you walked from room to room, you tipped and tilted as if you were still on floating shipboard.

Because there were no doors inside the Houseboat, sounds and smells min-

gled as if you were living in one large room rather than three small ones.

Grandma got up before anyone else in the morning. The children would wake to the smell of hot coffee, the sound of sizzling bacon, or the scream of seagulls as they scrapped over breakfast. After breakfast the children took turns helping Grandma. When it came to Steffi’s turn she’d complain, “Grandma, I don’t like to do dishes! I’m only four years old. I’m too little to do dishes.” Grandma didn’t give in. She replied, “I never liked to do dishes either when I was little, but big or small, everyone must help get the day’s work done.” A reward of a shiny dime helped Steffi endure her chore.

On weekdays Grandma drove Peter and Heidi to YMCA Day Camp in East Boothbay. The road to the camp was hilly and curvy. The three children waited with excitement until they came close to Rollercoaster Hill. Then they’d

cry out together, “Go fast, Grandma, we’re almost there!” Grandma would always join the fun, speeding up so they’d fly over the top of the hill with a breath-taking belly bump that sent them off their seats as they came down the other steep side.

While the twins were at camp, Grandma helped Aunt Evelyn in her gift shop. Aunt Evelyn’s gift shop, “The Sea Chest,” was located on the water’s edge in Mill Cove. Steffi entertained herself there, playing for hours alone on the rocks and shore. She found crabs and starfish under the seaweed at low tide, watched gulls hunt for food, and built villages out of driftwood and pebbles. When it was very hot Grandma kept watch while Steffi waded and splashed in the shallow water.

One day when there was no camp, Peter joined Steffi in her waterfront games. All went well while he showed her how to skim flat rocks across the

water and how to launch driftwood boats. But when he discovered an overland water pipe they got into trouble. The pipe was nearly concealed by overhanging trees along the roadside. Peter helped Steffi mount the pipe so they could pretend to ride horseback. They slid merrily along the pipe until they reached a connecting joint. As they tried to ride across this joint, it suddenly gave way. The connection broke and water burst out of the pipe into the air, all over the children and the rocks below. Peter ran to tell Aunt Evelyn, who phoned the Water Company, which soon arrived to shut off the water and repair the break.

Arriving home at the Houseboat after a hot summer day, Grandma would cut big wedges of watermelon for the children to eat while she started supper. Peter, Heidi, and Steffi would take their melon down to the water’s edge, sit on rocks, and have seed-spitting contests (cont. on page 50)

(cont. from page 49)

into the ocean. There they’d play, waiting to wave to the “Balmy Days” as she tooted her return sail from Monhegan Island.

Grandma was a wonderful cook. A supper of buttery, browned, broiled swordfish was one of the children’s favorite meals. In good weather suppers were served outdoors on tables and chairs made from giant wire spools covered with red-checked oilcloth. Leftovers were fed to the seagulls, who never needed to be called more than once.

Grandma’s friend, Mr. Day, was a retired lobsterman who lived nearby with his daughter. Mr. Day no longer owned a motorboat, but he kept a few traps in the harbor that he continued to tend from his rowboat. About once a week he’d come to the back door of the Houseboat to ask Grandma if she’d like some lobsters. He sold them to friends and neighbors for 25 cents each. After Grandma steamed and shelled the lobsters, such a tantalizing aroma would fill the galley while Grandma simmered a pot of delicious fresh-from-the-sea lobster stew!

On weekends the daily routine at the Houseboat was broken. Grandma and the girls would often walk across the footbridge on Saturday mornings to go food shopping at the “First Nash” in the harbor. Peter preferred to stay home at the Houseboat while Aunt Evelyn read the newspaper in a sun chair on the

front lawn. Basking in his chosen solitude, Peter combed the pebble beach for treasures or watched the workers at the boatyard next door.

When Heidi and Steffi came home from the harbor, they’d often play on the rocks with their traveling companions, Gabriella and George. Gabriella was Heidi’s doll from Oma in Germany. George was Steffi’s stocking-stuffed monkey from Great Grandma in Massachusetts. These two make-believe friends went on many trips with the girls, but none as well-remembered as the summer they spent at Grandma’s Houseboat.

At bedtime everyone took turns taking sponge baths at the kitchen sink using water heated in the teakettle on

the stove. After the lights were turned out, everyone lay in the dark listening to each other’s stories of the day. The children often fell asleep listening to sounds wafting across the water from Boothbay Harbor, maybe by music from Yacht Club dances or Band Concerts on the Library lawn, or by the rattling clatter of knocked-down duck pins at the harborside bowling alley.

On foggy nights the Burnt Island Coast Guard Station bell tolled the last wakeful child to sleep. And if the wind blew in from the sea, it carried with it the added deep, slow beat of the Cuckolds Lighthouse foghorn. After the last goodnight was said and Grandma called out, “Go to sleep, Steffi” a few more times, it was finally quiet.

The Mason C. Carter Bridge in Boothbay Harbor, ca. 1976. Item # LB2005.24.10317 from the Boutilier Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

Portland’s James Alden Jr. Celebrated Civil War blockade captain

by James Nalley

During the U.S. Civil War, naval blockades had become an important but dangerous strategy. Specifically, the Union attempted to prevent any goods, troops, and weap-

ons from entering the southern states. At that time, a Portland-born man was one of the U.S. Navy’s most stalwart captains and commanded three different warships on blockade duty. Despite his valiant actions during the heat of battle, some of his split-second decisions still drew criticism from military leaders and historians.

James Alden Jr. was born in Portland on March 31, 1810. He was the direct descendant of John Alden (a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower). At the age of 18, he was appointed as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, after which he spent the first years of his naval career at the Naval Station in Boston. In 1834, Alden became a “passed midshipman” (a 19th-century term for a midshipman who passed the lieutenant’s exam and was eligible for promotion to lieutenant as soon as there was a vacancy) and was assigned to the U.S. Exploring Expedition under Lt. Charles Wilkes. This was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands, which was particularly important in the growth of science and oceanography. However, their travels met some resistance from the natives. For example, on July 26, 1840, Alden saw action at Malolo in the Fiji Islands,

in a punitive expedition against a tribe that had murdered Lt. Joseph Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry (the nephew of expedition leader Lt. Charles Wilkes).

Alden was eventually assigned to the U.S.S Constitution, after which he circumnavigated the globe under Captain John Percival. Then, in 1846, he served in the Home Squadron during the Mexican-American War, in which he was assigned to protect coastal commerce, aid ships in distress, suppress piracy, and conduct coastal surveys.

From the summer of 1849 to late winter 1851, Alden successively commanded the Coast Survey steamers John Mason and Walker in survey duty along the eastern seaboard of the United States. He then traveled to San Francisco, where he took over as commander of the Coast Survey schooner Ewing and surveyed the coastline down to San Diego. In 1852, he assumed command of the Coast Survey steamer Active. In this regard, the National Park Service (NPS) stated, “As commander of the U.S. survey ship Active, Alden completed hydrographic surveys for much of the West Coast for the U.S. Coast Survey up to 1860.”

On September 1, 1855, Alden was promoted to the rank of commander.

Subsequently, Native-American disturbances in the Washington Territory in January 1856 forced the Active to join the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Decatur and the steamer U.S.S. Massachusetts to reassure the settlers in the region by their presence. In 1859, he was also directly involved in the Pig War crisis, as the Active served as a messenger ship throughout the incident and helped quiet a potentially dangerous situation on San Juan Island between the United States and the United Kingdom.

According to the NPS, “his nephew, James Madison Alden, painted the only known image of San Juan Village while serving aboard his uncle’s ship as a junior officer.”

After the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, all of Alden’s naval expertise would be put to the test. First, he was given command of the steamer U.S.S. South Carolina, in which he partic-

ipated in the relief of Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida. It was one of the few forts in the South that remained in Union hands throughout the entire war. Second, Alden commanded the steam sloop U.S.S. Richmond during the engagements with Confederate batteries at Chalmette, Louisiana, and in the battle at Port Hudson, Louisiana. Third, in January 1863, Alden was promoted to captain and assumed command of the steam sloop U.S.S. Brooklyn. He then led the ship in action at Fort Gaines (Dauphin Island, Alabama) and Fort Morgan (Mobile Bay, Alabama). As stated by the NPS, “Alden was one of the U.S. Navy’s most stalwart captains during the Civil War. As commander of the U.S.S. Brooklyn, he led Admiral David Farragut’s battle line into Mobile Bay. When Alden stopped under heavy fire to locate and clear mines, one of which had sunk the ironclad U.S.S. Te-

cumseh with all hands save two, Farragut, aboard the U.S.S. Hartford, is said to have shouted ‘Damn the torpedoes, four bells! (or full speed ahead).’”

However, during the heat of battle, Alden has drawn criticism for some of his decisions. For instance, according to the NPS, “Alden was ridiculed for backing off from the mines and imperiling the battle line, after which he maintained that it was the only prudent course at the moment.” Moreover, “he has been criticized for not taking the U.S.S. Merrimack out of the Gosport Naval Yard in April 1861 when the yard was about to be overrun by Confederate forces.” Interestingly, “engineering crews had miraculously reassembled the ship’s engines in a matter of days, but Alden would not take the ship without the permission of the yard commander. The ship had to be scuttled, but the hulk was raised by the Confederates

(cont. from page 53) and converted into the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia, which fought the U.S.S. Monitor to a draw in the world’s first battle between ironclad warships.”

After the war, Alden was promoted to commodore in 1866, after which he successively commanded the steam sloop U.S.S. Susquehanna and the steam frigate U.S.S. Minnesota. In 1869, he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation and promoted to rear admiral in June 1871. He returned to sea that year, with orders to command the naval force in the European Squadron. He remained in command of the European Fleet until he was relieved by Rear Admiral A. Ludlow Case in France in 1873. With his final duty completed, Alden sailed back to the United States on his former ship, the Brooklyn, and retired.

On February 6, 1877, Alden died in San Francisco. He was 66 years of age. He was returned to Portland, where he was buried on February 24. As for his legacy, the U.S.S. Alden was a U.S. Navy Clemson-class destroyer that served during World War II. It was the only ship in the U.S. Navy to have been named after him. The Alden was awarded three battle stars for her service during the war.

James Alden Jr.

(Courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command)

Maine’s Last Five-Masted Schooner Launched

by Brian Swartz

Located on the Damariscotta River in Newcastle and owned by Richard Diebold of Boston, the Newcastle Shipbuilding Company built the last five-masted schooner launched on the Maine coast.

The heyday of sailing ships had long passed when Newcastle Shipbuilding launched the Mary E. Diebold in 1920. She was the last of three elegantly-lined commercial ships to go down the Newcastle Shipbuilding ways not that long ago.

The company produced a few ships after the Great War. A fife-and-drum band merrily played at the May 31, 1919 launching of the Virginia Dare (which hung up on the ways), and the two hundred and six-foot Dolly Madison “made her plunge into the waters of the Damariscotta” River on Tuesday, April 6, 1920, the Lincoln County News reported.

Richard Diebold laid the keel of the five-masted, two hundred and twentythree-foot schooner Mary E. Diebold later that April. Designed to carry “approximately twenty-five hundred tons dead weight,” the ship was 42.8 feet wide and 22.6 feet high, from keel to deck. The schooner was rated to carry

from Newcastle

fourteen hundred and twenty-five net tons.

Libbeus Wardwell was the master builder.

The schooner featured “the Delco system of electric lighting” and the latest “in the way of electric appliances for safety and comfort,” noted a Lincoln County News reporter. Richard Diebold and the Maritime Corporation owned the ship, slated to be skippered on her maiden voyage by Captain W.H. Davis of Georgetown.

Local residents watched the schooner take shape. “Work has been pushed right along” because “generous bonuses were offered [the workmen] if she was finished before winter,” said the reporter. Much work took place elsewhere; over in Boothbay Harbor, Lewis Dunton used “about seventy-eight hundred yards of canvas” to make the sails.

Maritime inspectors from “both the American Bureau and the French Bureau Veritas” thoroughly combed the ship from stem to stern and gave the ship “the highest rating,” important for insurance purposes, the Lincoln County News reported.

Working through the holidays (including that Thanksgiving), the work-

men finished the schooner ahead of schedule, and Richard Diebold launched “the third and possibly the last of the fine fleet” constructed at his shipyard on Saturday, November 27, 1920. Before the ship slid down the ways, Janet MacLeod Sturgis slung a champagne bottle against the bow to christen the vessel.

Taking advantage of “the extremely high tide and the accuracy of arrangements,” Diebold launched the schooner “very early, before 11 o’clock and a very large number of people arrived too late,” the Lincoln County News reporter observed. The Mary E. Diebold “went overboard,” and her keel felt water for the first time.

The reporter believed that “this vessel is regarded as one of the very best wooden vessels ever built” and that its “gracefulness and beauty surpasses any recently-built vessel.”

The schooner lay moored at the Curtis wharf as workmen installed the topmasts and rigging. With an ebb tide running strong early on Sunday, December 5th, the Mary E. Diebold “broke away from her moorings” and, carried by the tide, “was swept aground” on the west bank of the Damariscotta River, the

Lincoln County News reported.

“In her break for liberty, the big schooner carried away a considerable portion of the old wharf and made several hours of hard work for the men in charge, before she was brought back an unwilling captive,” the paper noted. The Diebold “escaped injury to her own usefulness or beauty.”

Workmen continued outfitting the Diebold at her mooring, now presenting “a pleasing view as she rested lightly on the water just below the [Main Street] bridge,” according to the paper. “The schooner has been put in the pink of condition within and without, below and above,” and the Mary E. Diebold “will attract attention and favorable comment wherever she is sighted, whether scudding the foam or lying in her berth,” a reporter waxed eloquent about the five-master, the last of its kind.

At 7:16 a.m. on a Wednesday, the Boston tug Doan eased away from the Newcastle shore. A cable connecting the Doan and the Mary E. Diebold

tightened, and the schooner “without ceremony proceeded” south along the Damariscotta River “and thence to the sea, bound for Boston.”

From the tug’s bridge, Captain J.D. Sproul of Bristol served as pilot until the ships reached open water. There the Doan slipped the cable, and Captain Elliott and his crew stood outbound for Bean Town.

Perhaps sensing a page turning in the Newcastle history book, people watched to see if Newcastle Shipbuilding would start work on another vessel. Unfortunately “the announcement cannot be made that a keel was stretched as soon as the other left the shore,” the Lincoln County News noted.

Newcastle Shipbuilding did build another ship, the one hundred and twenty-seven-foot fishing vessel Lark, launched at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, 1922. Taking “to the water like the duck she resembles rather the lark for which she is named,” the Lark slid “into the waters of the Damariscotta River,” accepted a tow “into the chan-

nel” by a motorboat, and went downriver Thursday morning towed by the Boston tug Neptune

“She resembles a pleasure boat rather than a fisherman,” commented a reporter, noting that the Lark would be fitted out “as a fisherman” at Gloucester, Massachusetts. “This handsome schooner ... was the last of several fine boats built in the Newcastle yard and there seems no prospect of another being undertaken in the near future.”

The Mary E. Diebold survived only sixteen years. The MacNichol Packing Company of Eastport bought the schooner in 1935 for use in “the Quoddy fleet” as a sardine carrier, the Lincoln County News reported in July of 1936.

Well past her prime, the Diebold left the sea forever that summer, “dismantled, her timbers salvaged, and her large cabin ... taken from Diebold intact” and converted into “a fine dwelling ... set upon a promontory in a beautiful spot overlooking Cobscook Bay,” came the news from Downeast Maine.

Schooner-4 VIRGINIA DARE with a crowd gathered for launching in Newcastle. Item # LB2013.21.134 from the Coffin Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

In Memory of Charles Francis October 1, 1942 - June 10, 2023

Charles "Charlie" Laurance Humphrey Francis, age 80, of Lower Wolfville passed away June 10, 2023, in the Valley Hospice, Kentville. Born October 1, 1942, in Portland, Maine, USA; he was the son of the late Henry Russell Francis and Marguerita (Woods) Francis.

Charlie was first and always a teacher. He grew up in the Unitarian Church. He was also a voracious reader in the fields of science, theology, literary critique, and popular history. Genealogy was a strong interest. He became a regular contributing writer for Discover Maine Magazine, sharing articles on the popular history of Maine for over 20-years until his death.

Charlie earned degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, where he obtained a degree in Canadian Studies; and University of Maine at Orono, where he earned a Master of Science Degree in Education. After his studies, Charles taught first in Mars Hill, Maine, USA. He then continued teaching at NYA in Yarmouth, Maine, USA, and at Searsport District High School where he taught history and English, was involved in curriculum development and coached cross-country.

Following retirement in 1990, Charlie moved to Monroe, Maine, USA, where he served as Chair of the Selection Board. In the early to mid-1990s, he served aboard the light ship “Nantucket”. His interest in the history of his community was shown in his leadership in restoring the Civil War statue in Monroe. His fascination with Canadian history led him to Halifax and his Howe family connection.

Charlie fell in love with his wife’s country and became a proud and fervent citizen of Canada in 2002. Together they were the owners of his “Shangri-la” near Annapolis Royal. He delighted in living in the heart of Canada's birthplace. Nature and the environment were his sources of spiritual connection. Gardening, daily runs, which in later years became daily walks, fed his joy.

Charlie is lovingly remembered by his wife, Mary Lou Rockwell of Wolfville; daughter, Sarah Francis of Gray, Maine, USA; grandchildren, Curtis Austin and Margaret (Maggie) Austin of Gray, Maine, USA; special first cousin, Jack Woods, Peapack, New Jersey, USA; and Jetta the Cat of Wolfville. Cremation has taken place and in accordance with Charlie’s wishes, there will be no service. Memorial donations may be made to the Valley Hospice in Kentville or The Lodge That Gives in Halifax (1-888-939-3333). Arrangements have been entrusted to Serenity Funeral Home, 34 Coldbrook Village Park Dr., Coldbrook, NS, B4R 1B9 (902679-2822).

Courtesy of Serenity Funeral Home

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DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS

390 Main Street Restaurant & Tavern...............................................35

Affordable Well Drilling Excavation & Forestry..................................16

Amore on the Lake............................................................................23

Archie's Strike & Spare......................................................................21

Azul Tequila Mexican Restaurant & Bar...........................................38

Bargain Fuels......................................................................................5

Bark Avenue Boarding and Grooming LLC........................................20

Bart Flanagan Tree Service, LLC........................................................42

Bay Haven Lobster Pound & Restaurant..........................................22

Best Western Plus - Rumford Falls...................................................14

Biddeford & Saco Chamber of Commerce.........................................20

Black Mountain of Maine..................................................................15

Blaze Craft Beer & Wood Fired Flavors...............................................19

Broadway Gardens Greenhouses & Garden Center...........................38

Brookside Food & Drink....................................................................33

Bruno's Restaurant & Tavern............................................................31

Busted Knuckle Tires & Repair.........................................................56

C&J Chimney & Stove Service, LLC.....................................................5

Cabot Mill Antiques..........................................................................41

Cahill Tire Inc. ..................................................................................45

Cameron's Lobster House.................................................................42

Cantrell Seafood................................................................................40

Cape Neddick Lobster Pound............................................................17

Cedar Mountain Cupolas...................................................................22

Chase Farm Bakery............................................................................46

Clayton's Café & Bakery.....................................................................9

Coastal Car Wash & Detail Center....................................................49

Coastal Maintenance Painting..........................................................48

Coastal Motors..................................................................................51

Cole Harrison Insurance....................................................................19

Copeland's Garage............................................................................51

Cornelia C. Viek, CPA.........................................................................54

Corsetti's - Westbrook........................................................................33

Creamer & Sons Landwork, Inc. ......................................................46

D&R Paving & Sealcoating.................................................................6

Dale Rand Printing............................................................................25

Damariscotta NAPA...........................................................................49

Dayton Country Store.........................................................................6

Design Architectural Heating............................................................15

Dirigo Waste Oil................................................................................16

Doherty's North Freeport Store........................................................53

Driscoll's Excavation & Tree Service.................................................41

Dyer Septic Service & Excavation.....................................................25

Ed's Grove Discount Warehouse........................................................20

El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant...........................................................38

Fairground Café.................................................................................40

Five Fields Farm..................................................................................5

Float Harder Relaxation Center..........................................................29

Flux Restaurant & Bar.......................................................................40

Freeport Antiques and Heirlooms Showcase....................................12

Free Range Fish & Lobster................................................................30

G&G Cash Fuels.................................................................................40

Ginza Town........................................................................................31

Gray Family Vision Center..................................................................24

Greg's Used Cars & Service................................................................46

Grimaldi Concrete Floors & Countertops...........................................15

Haggett Hill Kennels.........................................................................54

Hammond Lumber Company............................................................31 Hampton

Harborside

Hatch

Hawkes'

Linda

Linda

Linda

Maine

Maritime Energy................................................................................51

Mel's Raspberry Patch.......................................................................21

Metcalf's Submarine Sandwiches.....................................................49

Mi Sen Thai Noodle Bar.....................................................................26

Midcoast Collision.............................................................................49

Morning Glory Natural Foods............................................................42

Morse's Sauerkraut..............................................................................4

Muddy Rudder...................................................................................26

N.C. Wyeth Research Foundation and Reading Libraries...................12

Nathan's Wellness Pharmacy & Apothecary.....................................48

Native Maine’ah................................................................................11

Noyes Real Estate Agency.................................................................17

Ogunquit Beach Lobster House.........................................................12 Oxford

Portland Plastic Pipe.........................................................................52

Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.......................................52

Profenno's Restaurant & Pub............................................................33

Quick Turn Auto Repair & Towing....................................................48

R.W. Glidden Auto Paint & Body Specialists....................................50

Reilly Well Drilling.............................................................................49

Richard Wing & Son Logging Inc. ...................................................24

Richard's Restaurant.........................................................................42

Richardson Monument Co., Inc. .......................................................35

Risbara Bros. .....................................................................................36

Route 26 Antiques & Flea Market......................................................15

Rufus Porter Museum of Art and Ingenuity.....................................23

S.A. McLean, Inc. ..............................................................................21

Samuel's Bar & Grill...........................................................................27

Seth McCoy's Excavating.....................................................................7

Sky High Tree Service.........................................................................20

St. Pierre Concrete Services..............................................................40

Stephan Pelletier & Sons Drywall.....................................................20

Steve Brann Building.........................................................................39

Storer Lumber....................................................................................55

Swags Window Decorating................................................................17

Tangeré Massage Therapy and Wellness............................................6

Thai Garden Restaurant....................................................................36

The Chimney Doctor..........................................................................53

The Great Impasta............................................................................41

The Harbor’s Choice Laundry & Dry Cleaning...................................49

The John & Janice Real Estate Team.................................................35

The Lodge At Kennebunk.................................................................18

The Milk Room Store..........................................................................6

The Old House Parts Co. ...................................................................19

The Park Danforth.............................................................................34

The School House 1913.....................................................................43

Tim's Heating & Cooling...................................................................46

Tony's Donut Shop............................................................................27

Tully's Beer and Wine.......................................................................18

Vintage Maine Images........................................................................5

V.I.P Eyes...........................................................................................33

Wadsworth Woodlands Inc. .............................................................22

Warren Auto Barn.............................................................................50

Western Maine Screen Doors............................................................16

Willie's Towing....................................................................................8

Wilson Funeral Home.........................................................................5

Wilson's Drug Store..........................................................................54

Woodsome's Feeds & Needs...............................................................6

Yankee Yardworks.............................................................................39