Aroo18 final by Discover Maine Magazine

2018

Maine’s History Magazine

FREE

Volume 27 | Issue1 |

15,000 Circulation

~ Aroostook & Northern Penobscot ~

Madawaska’s Acadian Revival Is A Beautiful Thing The St. John Valley’s cultural resurgence

When A Hunt Is A Hunt

For love of the game

Civil War Veteran Brought Home To Hodgdon Jewett Williams’ ashes found in a dusty Oregon shed

www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Inside This Edition

Maine’s History Magazine 3 It Makes No Never Mind James Nalley 4 When A Hunt Is A Hunt For love of the game Pat Cassier 10 “On Parle Francais” Promoting French in the St. John Valley Paul Gutman

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Publisher & Editor Jim Burch

Layout & Design Liana Merdan

Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield

14 The Acadians Come To Maine The back settlements of Madawaska and Van Buren Brian Swartz

Advertising & Sales

20 Peter Keegan The sage of the St. John Valley Charles Francis

Liana Merdan

26 Madawaska’s Acadian Revival Is A Beautiful Thing The St. John Valley’s cultural resurgence Brian Swartz 34 Presque Isle’s Jack Sepkoski Paleontologist par excellence Charles Francis 38 Civil War Veteran Brought Home To Hodgdon Jewett Williams’ ashes found in a dusty Oregon shed Brian Swartz 42 A History Of Maine Caribou Great herds once thrived here John Murray 52 Honoring Sherman Heroes Of The Past A “Maine At War” exclusive Brian Swartz 56 At The Forks Of The Mattawamkeag Honoring Alvin Haynes Charles Francis

Dennis Burch Tim Maxfield

Office Manager

Field Representatives Jim Caron Dale Hanington

Contributing Writers Pat Cassier Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca Paul Gutman John Murray James Nalley Brian Swartz Published Annually by CreMark, Inc. 10 Exchange Street, Suite 208 Portland, Maine 04101 Ph (207) 874-7720 info@discovermainemagazine.com www.discovermainemagazine.com Discover Maine Magazine is distributed to town offices, chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, banks, credit unions, auto & truck establishments, hospitals, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine.

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Front Cover Photo:

Chemical #1 fire truck in Fort Fairfield. Item #LB2007.1.100816 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Aroostook & Northern Penobscot edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine. Photos are also provided from our collaboration with the Maine Historical Society and the Penobscot Marine Museum.

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It Makes No Never Mind by James Nalley

hen Irish immigrants settled into northern Maine’s Aroostook County in the early 1700s, it was apparent that the long warm days, cool nights, and optimal soil conditions were perfect for the growth of high-quality potatoes. By the 1950s, Maine had become the top potato producer in the country, with Aroostook County offering most of the bounty. As writer John Steinbeck stated in 1960, “I saw mountains of potatoes – oceans – more potatoes than you would think the world’s population could consume in a hundred years.” In some ways, this is still true to this day. Based on my travels in the area, it is not unusual to see potato fields dominating the landscape, trucks overflowing with potatoes (and spilling a few with each turn), and roadside stands offering up to 50 pounds for around $10, a figure that would make any grocery store manager cringe. To better understand the production process of this crop, it is important to remember one aspect: the farmers have only three weeks to harvest the potatoes and get them into storage before the ground freezes. Moreover, considering that the Maine

Potato Board estimates that more than 1 billion pounds of spuds are produced each year, it is imperative that the work is done quickly and efficiently. In this regard, farmers generally hire teenagers to help them harvest the spuds. To the surprise of many “out-of-staters,” some Aroostook County schools even close for a week (also known as “Potato Recess” or “Harvest Break”) to increase the number of helping hands in the fields. This, of course, differs from the 1940s, when the schools did not open at all until the potatoes were harvested. At that time, it was not unusual to see fields filled with mud-covered child laborers working from dawn until dusk. Currently, such help is provided by working-age teenagers who willingly earn their wages for one reason or another. For example, according to one teenager in the Bangor Daily News, “I am racking potatoes and really enjoying it. Last year, I earned more than $1,000, and I learned how to work with different people and the value of money at the same time.” In a larger perspective, County Super Spuds, one of many potato farms, sends 20 percent of its harvest to Easton, where the potatoes are processed and sold to whole-

salers, such as Sysco, and various restaurants, including TGI Fridays. The other 80 percent are sent to plants owned by Frito Lay and Cape Cod, both of which transform them into delicious potato chips. So, before you run out to buy some large fries or Fritos, let me close with the following: One day, a potato farmer named John was approached by a member of the Maine Department of Labor, who claimed that he was not paying proper wages to his workers. “I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent. “Well,” replied John, “There’s my farm hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week, plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 a week, plus free room and board. Then, there’s the half-wit who works 18 hours a day and does 90% of the work. He makes $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of whiskey every Saturday.” “That’s the guy I want to talk to…the half-wit,” says the agent. “Thatwould be me, sir,” replied John.

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

When A Hunt Is A Hunt For love of the game by Pat Cassier

s a young man, I started hunting in Maine at the age of seventeen. Now, pushing 58 years, I have spent every fall in the north woods except for a tour of duty with the military. Being of primarily French-Canadian ancestry, the eldest of three sons, we were raised into adulthood by our dear mother with the help of her French family. With all the free time I had in my early years, I used to watch my French uncles come and go into the woods each fall in pursuit of the whitetails. Their homes, with wood fires blazing, were rich with stories of the hunts. The camaraderie and chatter of my mother’s French/Canadian clan (my cousins, aunts and uncles) stuck in my

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mind forever. My aunts were outstanding cooks. I can never forget my Aunt Jean’s apple pie, pork pie and roast raccoon. Nor can I forget my Aunt Mildred’s home-baked rolls, or my Aunt Clara’s gourmet table that covered every edible item known to us. These girls home-canned every item in the garden for consumption during the winter. My uncles were hunters, fishermen, shellfish harvesters, and trappers and they planted huge gardens. Whether it was hunting or fishing, unfortunately no wildlife escaped their wrath. When they could, they caught every trout in the brook. Wildlife conservation was not even thought about in those days. Such was the manner they were raised

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by their own parents in southern Quebec before the Canadian immigration to the United States in the early 1900s to seek a better wage scale and easier lifestyle. My first hunt came and went at the age of fourteen. It wasn’t until I was seventeen years old when I bagged my first deer in New Hampshire, a nice 150 lb. doe, dressed weight. I was so proud that I hung the deer for 9 days before we cut it up. Boy was that venison good. We had gathered after the six o’clock mass on Sunday morning at my Uncle Joe Morrissette’s barn. About seven cousins and uncles were there. As was customary with our group, Hobby White, an old fox hunter, set about to

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com organize the drive. Hobby always said, “where a fox will cross a road or opening, a deer will do the same.” Upon that first drive that morning, we jumped four deer. Uncle Nelson was the first to score on a “skipper” – a small one. I was a driver barking at the top of my lungs when I heard Uncle Nelson shoot. Then a few seconds later, crashing directly in front of me, a large doe, intent on escape, tried to pass me by at less than fifteen yards. With my Uncle Ed’s old double-barrel 12-gauge, I fired one shot which promptly split a red maple in two parts with the balance of the shot having just enough power to enter the backbone of the deer and bring her down. Was I lucky! With the second shot, I dispatched her promptly. Hobby was the first on the scene. He commented on her large size. I was so proud and forever “hooked” into the fraternity of deer hunters. Since that day in 1958, I have gone on many a hunting trip with an assort-

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ment of individuals. I can recall hundreds of stories. For sure the pinnacle of all our hunts was the annual fall excursion of my French uncles and cousins into the north Maine woods for a week at deer camp. Now the real fun

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would begin. The north Maine woods were so unlike the small woods patches in southern New Hampshire that our hunting style had to be different. There in the big woods, it was usually one on one. (cont. on page 6)

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(cont. from page 5) That is, each had to match his hunting progress against the wild instincts of the deer. Usually each morning we would strike out for a half-day hunt. We would come back for lunch then finish the day in the woods. Rarely a day would pass without seeing deer. The only problem I had was I could not seem to connect on those moving targets. At that early age of seventeen, I could not seem to find them standing, either. However, for the most part, our groups were immensely successful. SUCCESS, in those days, was defined as scoring on 65-pound skippers and 90-pound does. Rarely was a 200-pound buck taken. The science of rubs, scrapes, the rut, early and late stands was not well known by our group. However, the camaraderie was there in full. Evening stories, great meals, French songs and family clan permeated the atmosphere of the hunting camp. I was in total “awe” when the older genera-

tion told of their daily exploits relating to the bagging of a deer. Leaving hunting camp at the end of the week was always the saddest day of the year. We always looked forward to the next year with the greatest of expectations. As the years rolled by, the thinning of the forests by the logging companies had an adverse impact on the deer populations of the north Maine woods. The clear cutting of the fir, spruce and cedar brought the deer populations to their lowest of levels. Over a decade or two the state reacted to public pressure for more responsible harvesting of the forest and the struggle is still ongoing. This was the advent of “THE BUCK LAW” in a variety of forms over the last decade or so. With the advent of this law, we had to change our hunting methods to be more selective. Since the deer population in the north Maine woods was so low, we were not shooting many bucks. We had to learn how

to hunt for what bucks there were or get skunked. At first some of us got discouraged, some quit altogether, others found greener pastures. For those of us who persisted in the Maine north woods, the TRUE MEANING OF A HUNT CAME TO US. Unlike earlier years, when driving deer was the norm, we now hunted only for bucks, one on one, using what skills we had learned in trying to bag a 200-pound buck with a nice rack. Harvesting one of these Maine bucks (an old smasher) requires a lot of foot work, that is, if you do it right. I have travelled, worked and hunted in Maine for over forty years. As such, I have conversed with Maine natives on countless occasions. The most effective way to score on an old smasher is during the rut when Mother Nature causes the biggest of bucks to lose their sense of security in pursuit of a doe in estrous. I personally have

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heard more stories of these bucks being harvested from a road-side shot when they are crossing a road, field or clear cut. Unfortunately, this involves a lot of driving around. The question is “is this hunting?” And so, the methods we use today inspire a challenge, and rewards one with an appreciation of the woods, and its denizens. Great memories of the hunting camp and the comradeship of deer hunting companions will never be forgotten. Unlike the days of yesteryear, when only a week’s absence from work was taken for the annual Maine hunt, nowadays we make both pre-season and post-season scouting trips. This is in addition to having to spend more time in the woods to harvest a Maine buck. We pay attention to rubs, scrapes, rut times, deer trails (if you can find any), as well as tree stands, ground blinds and a full day afield. Our camp comrade-

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ship starts at 5 pm and goes on throughout dinner until we expire at 8 or 9 pm. At 4:30 the next day, the alarm goes off way too early. We are glad the state of Maine closes the woods to hunting on Sunday, as it gives us a well-needed day of rest. Since 1988 our success rate on bucks is about 65% — but most of these are not 200 pounders. Still, when you consider the deer kill in northeastern Maine in the unorganized territory averages way less than one per square mile, we must “earn” our bucks!!! My most rewarding big buck experience came because of memory. During 1992, my hunting companion, Cooke Eames, and I were hunting new territory along Gulliver Brook in an unorganized township. We decided to cross the stream. Cooke hunted north along the stream and I hunted due east through an impenetrable cutoff in the phase of regeneration. Cooke’s experience was more pleasant than mine.

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When we met later in the day, Cooke related to me a story about a rather large deer that he had a glimpse of earlier in the morning along the second knoll between the dead water and the cutoff. Cooke remarked that the deer had a large rear end with a lot of white on it. I never forgot those comments. In those late eighties we were not too successful, so in the early nineties we relocated our annual fall hunt to northwestern Maine for the next two years. During those two years there, we were very successful in bagging 8 large bucks, but all with small racks. The consensus was clear among us. We would return to our old hunting grounds in northeast Maine where, if we did bag a buck, it usually had a nice rack. And so it was as I crossed that same stream, Gulliver Brook, in 1995, that I recalled Cooke’s story of a large deer with a rather whitish rump. I scouted up along the dead water of Gulliver (cont. on page 8)

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(cont. from page 7) Brook, passing the first knoll without even seeing any deer sign. Using an age-old deer trail under a canopy of mature fir and spruce, I kept looking about for knoll number two. To my left was a long dead water. To my right was an immense clear-cut and directly ahead was a massive cedar swamp. The sunlight was pouring into the edges of the mature fir and spruce creating a tremendous regeneration of new growth of fir, spruce and hemlock. The new growth was about two to four feet high. There was a gentle rise in the land to my right. Was this knoll number two? I was stopped, studying this gentle rise in elevation, when I noticed a horizontal object with some white splashes on it. This object was motionless as I tried to make its shape. Sure enough, it was a deer, half hidden by the regenerated growth and a few fallen dead fir trees. My eyes quickly scanned the deer, made out the contour of the rear end

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and promptly looked for horns. I took an easy step to my left while raising my scoped .308 Winchester at the same time. Peering through the two-power scope, I confirmed what I saw with my naked eye, a full-sized curved antler. This old smasher was as busy as a stone statue studying this invader of his home turf. Without further delay, I sent a well-placed shot into his neck area, downing him for keeps. Rather quickly, I approached the buck to dispatch him with a final shot when on the other side of this gentle rise of land, a doe jumped up and loped off. There is no doubt in my mind that this old smasher would have been long gone, but he chose instead to sit tight as long as he had his ladylove with him. Such was his undoing. When I took my first close look at the buck, I was amazed to see that he was dappled white over large sections of his body and a large buck at that!!! The doe that

was with him could not see me from the other side of the knoll. This buck had seen me from the top of that knoll, had risen from his bed and was pondering his next move when I saw him. Shortly after I tagged the buck, I returned to my car to obtain my canoe. After a short haul up through the stream, I hit the dead water and canoed up to the spot where the dead water came closest to the downed buck. We then hauled the buck to the dead water for an easy canoe trip downstream to the crossing. At the checking station, we received a certified weight of 208 pounds, fully eviscerated. Later the state of Maine aged the deer at a fully mature 6 ½ years. Was this the same buck that Cooke saw three years earlier?? We’ll never know for sure. One can only say that “I remembered.” That’s “WHEN A HUNT IS A HUNT.” * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

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cois and Acadian roots. (Note: It is not impossible to find people with Irish and Scottish names in the Valley who speak French. A friend of mine, who speaks French fluently and is originally from the border town of Madawaska, has the last name of McHenry) Not only are the people of the Valley proud of their roots, but many can also prove that their ancestors were in the region before the official birth of the United States. (Many kept good records) The fact that these people had been in the region for hundreds of years and were therefore long-standing American citizens was not much respected by the state government fifty years ago, but it was conveniently used in Augusta as an

excuse to Anglicize the St. John Valley residents as quickly as possible. It was not simply a question of teaching Valley residents English in an effort to make them bilingual. It was a question of punishing them for speaking their mother tongue, in an attempt to shame them into becoming assimilated. The process was cruel, and it almost worked. French was forbidden, even on the playground! The one situation in which the local schools allowed students to express themselves in French was in French class, but French class was generally an insulting waste of time, because the language of these students and their families had always known was taught

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com as a foreign language. As such, teachers whose French was often minimal at best took it upon themselves to rid their students of their regional accent and vocabulary. English Only did not apply in French class, but the classes were still an insult, because the rule enforced was Parisian French Only. In some families today, parents have deliberately avoided teaching their children French to protect them from negative school experiences. Two of my dearest friends, who are practically family to me, illustrate this well. The young man’s story doesn’t illustrate the point as well as that of his wife, because his family had exposed him to the language at home when he was younger and he can understand and speak some simple French. He’s far from fluent, but he’s had some exposure. His wife and her siblings, who were raised in Eagle Lake and whose parents are fluently bilingual, were taught no French

whatsoever. Fortunately, school officials, parents, and other community members have acknowledged the errors of Augusta’s ways during the 1950s, and an attempt is being made (rather successfully) to nurse the French language as spoken in the St. John Valley back to good health. Popular prejudices still have a hold on some families who fear that using French in school will prevent their children from learning English well. This fear has been largely put to rest, however, and many children in Van Buren and Madawaska are now being schooled in both English and French. As recently as ten years ago, children and adolescents from these towns spoke French to their parents and to their grandparents, but not to their peers. This is changing now, and I suspect that much of the change had taken place because teachers, administrators,

and peers have placed as much importance as individual families have on the maintenance and promotion of the French language and Acadian culture. Thanks to the use of French in school, students can no longer use the excuse “Our friends don’t speak it, so why should we?” Even more encouraging is the fact that many students no longer feel tempted to use this logic. They are pleased to have been placed into a bilingual program that not only doesn’t punish the use of either language, but actively encourages the use of both. Educators and community member in general have begun seeing the French language as a linguistic and cultural bridge between Northern Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick, Western Europe, and parts of Asia and Africa. As a result, many parents have opted for French Immersion programs, designed to promote and increase their children’s ability not only to speak (cont. on page 12)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 11) and understand, but also read and write French. Children are taught their school subjects in French, and some have pen pals their age in Canada, with whom they correspond in French. Pupils learn about their neighbors, and as they might say, “On aime ça, nous autres!” English has not been discarded in favor of French, despite a common criticism among those who do not favor immersion programs or Bilingual Education. Quite the opposite, good English is encouraged in St. John Valley schools. It’s just that now, fluency in French is being encouraged along with that same fluency in English. Despite former resistance, many people are now seeing for themselves that this can (and does) work. English Only, a movement inspired by the claim that the United States has room for only one language, is no longer widely seen as a viable option in the

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Valley. After all, sooner or later, the St. John Valley will not have just the rest of Maine (or even the rest of the country) to face. It will have to face the rest of the world as well, and English alone will not be enough. Much time is being spent talking about the extension of I-95 as a way to bring Northern Maine out of isolation. It’s a good idea, if it decreases the gap between the people of Northern Maine and those around us, but fluency in our two main local languages will also help.

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

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TULSA, INC.

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The Acadians Come To Maine The back settlements of Madawaska and Van Buren by Brian Swartz Two hundred years ago in the St. John Valley, the concept of rectangle versus square depended on whether one naturally spoke French or English. Although European colonists would have eventually populated the upper St. John Valley, Acadians got there first. Following up their 1755 capture of Fort Beauséjour in the opening maneuvers of the French and Indian War, British authorities exiled Acadians to the American colonies, Louisiana, and elsewhere. Evading capture, other Acadians relocated amidst the Quebecois settlements on the St. Lawrence. Yet other Acadians traveled up the St. John River and founded Saint Anne De Pays Bas.

English-speaking settlers showed little interest in developing the St. John Valley until the American Revolution sent some 10,000 Loyalists fleeing to British-held Canada. Suddenly the St. John became a natural highway for land-seeking, English-speaking refugees. But Acadians were in the way. “If you go to Fredericton today, just before Fredericton there is a small village called Saint Anne (De Pays Bas),” Madawaska businessman David Morin described what happened next. “It was a French village. “The English people (Loyalists) in that area weren’t none too happy, apparently. They said, ‘We don’t want

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you here. We want you away. Get away from us,’” he said. “From what I understand,” the Acadians living around Saint Anne replied, “‘Okay, we’re going to leave. We’re going to go beyond the Great Falls, which is Grand Falls (today), and we are never going to leave again from there. That’s going to be our mark,’” Morin said. According to Morin, “to this day, if you go to Grand Falls, it is bilingual, English and French,“ and “everything on the Acadian side (upriver) is French. Everything past Grand Falls (downriver), it’s all English. “So apparently there is some truth to that. The French evidently settled

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Grand Falls and up this way,” he said. Abandoning Saint Ann, the Acadians transported their families and belongings upriver by canoe in 1785. Landing on the south bank of the St. John, the Acadians raised a cross in gratitude to God for their safe arrival. They settled the land by apportioning it similarly to how lots were laid out along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Guy Dubay, a retired educator and an author and Acadian genealogist and historian, has studied how cultures affected the settling of the St. John Valley. Along both shores of the river, the Acadians laid out long and narrow rectangular lots running from the river banks to the hardwood ridges rising beyond the St. John. The rectangles gave settlers access to both the rich bottom land — “there is where you produce your oats and hay,” Dubay explained — and the hardwood-covered ridges, from which settlers cut firewood to heat

their homes in the cold winters. “Coming in first, the Acadians chose the best” lots, built homes, and started farming the land, said Dubay. Later arriving Quebecois bought river-front lots not yet claimed by Acadian families. These original lots were the “first tier” of settlement, according to Dubay. The population growth caused by natural increase (many families had at least 10 children) and Quebecois immigration gradually spurred the sale of lots away from the river. Beyond the first-tier lots in Madawaska and on the British side of the St. John River, plus along upper Long Lake in Maine, land was sold in rectangular lots similar to those initially sold along the river. Two waves of such land purchases in Madawaska became the “second tier” and “third tier” of settlement. Located “back” from the St. John, these areas became known as the “back settlements.”

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According to Dave Morin, the “back settlements (in Madawaska) were everything away from the center of town, the outlying areas. I come from the Lavertu Settlement.” He attended Madawaska schools, where “there were people that didn’t want to hang around with you because we were from the back settlements. It’s like being from the other side of the tracks. “If you came from the back settlements, you were one of those guys” not accepted socially, “not privileged so much,” he said. “But every once in a while, an English (speaking) guy my age … there were some people who treated everybody equally and fairly.” Downriver in Van Buren, Acadians also settled long, narrow lots extending inland from the St. John. Dubay’s great-grandfather, Bellamy Violette, purchased one such lot and “set up a grist mill on Violette Brook in Van Bu(cont. on page 16)

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 15) ren,” Dubay noted. “(With) a grist mill, you become” a “commercial enterpriser. You’re selling flour to your neighbors who brought the wheat” to be ground at the mill in exchange for a certain amount of flour given to Bellamy Violette as payment, Dubay said. Then Violette would sell the flour to other people. The Acadians settled along the river at Van Buren, but only the first tier of settlement there was similar to upriver Madawaska, Dubay said, pointing to an early map of Van Buren. “Then the Americans are here,” and the Maine concept of land development reached northern Aroostook County. English-speaking Mainers tended to think “square” rather than “rectangle” in terms of laying out lots. Maine surveyors laid out square townships measuring 6 miles on a side; this shape dominated the Maine map as the 19th century passed into history.

English-speaking settlers showed little interest in developing the St. John Valley until the American Revolution sent some 10,000 Loyalists fleeing to British-held Canada.

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Dubay’s grandfather (Bellamy’s son) settled a back lot under a law that “if you will pay road labor and settlement duties, which included building a house, the state of Maine will grant you (the land),” Dubay said. Other Violette brothers settled on farms “behind” the first-tier properties in Van Buren, “so you’re expanding in the 1870s and 1880s to the rear lots,” more square in shape than rectangular, Dubay said. The term “settlement” still appears on County maps. Hodgdon has the Jackins Settlement, Cary the Wilcox Settlement, Bridgewater the Snow Settlement, and St. Francis the Back Settlement. Discover Maine * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.

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Hydraulic Jack Repairs & Sales “Small engine repair” Bob & Mark Cyr, proprietors “Supporting St. John Valley history since 1995”

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Cyr Block and Masonic building in Limestone. Item # LB2007.1.101482 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

• • • •

Giberson-Dorsey

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Early view of the rectory in Frenchville. Item # LB2007.1.114361 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Main Street in Fort Kent, ca. 1946. Photo courtesy of the Acadian Archives, collection 422.

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Peter Keegan The sage of the St. John Valley by Charles Francis

renchville, in the St. John Valley, was once known as Dionne Plantation. Later it was known as Dickeyville. Frenchville is a highly appropriate name given the nationality of the community’s residents at the time of the final name adoption. We are talking about the 1860s and 1870s here. It should be noted that there are those who feel Dionne would be just as appropriate a name as Frenchville. Dionne Plantation took its name from Father Henri Dionne. Father Dionne built St. Luce Church, one of the oldest Catholic churches in the St. John Valley, as well as one of the oldest in the state. The church was built in 1843-1844. It burned in May 1889

after its steeple was struck by lightning. The church that replaced the one built at the instigation of Father Dionne also burned. Church history is not our subject here, though. Nor is our subject the history of the early names of Frenchville, which also include that of Chautauqua or Chataucoin. Our chief concern is Peter Keegan, the man known as “the Sage of the St. John Valley” and to a lesser extent his rivalry with William Dickey. That rivalry had a lot to do with the naming of Frenchville. A sage is an extremely wise man, one possessed of wisdom and foresight. He is often thought of as grave and solemn. He is prudent and revered for his judgement. One thinks of the wisdom

of Solomon in the latter instance. Peter Keegan, “the Sage of the St. John Valley” may have been all of these or just some. That is a matter of opinion. Clinton Vannah thought Peter Keegan was a big fish. William Dickey was also a big fish. You can’t have two big fish in a small pond, and the immediate environs of Frenchville around 1870 were a decidedly small pond, politically speaking. Peter Keegan was elected to the Maine Legislature from Van Buren. William Dickey was elected from Fort Kent. In 1869 William Dickey was a greater political power than Peter Keegan. Dickeyville was incorporated February 23, 1869. A couple of years

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com later Peter Keegan was the greater power. Frenchville became a Maine town on January, 26, 1871. This is getting ahead of our story, though. A brief aside must be made at this point. Both Peter Keegan and William Dickey were devoted to the overall good of the communities of the St. John Valley. The construction of the first International Bridge connecting Van Buren and St. Leonard, New Brunswick, in part, owes much to the work of Keegan. In turn, the creation of the Madawaska Training School, now the University of Maine at Fort Kent, in part, owes much to the efforts of Dickey. This point being made, it must also be noted that Peter Keegan was elected to the Maine Legislature as both a Republican and a Democrat. Various members of the Dickey family were both Republican and Democrat as well. For example, Cyrus Dickey, a son of William, switched from Republican to

Democrat. In 1869 a Maine legislative committee encouraged the plantations of the former Madawaska Territory to incorporate as towns. William Dickey was a member of the committee. Dickeyville, Fort Kent, Madawaska and Grand Isle all became incorporated towns. Then Peter Keegan became a power in the Maine Legislature and Dickeyville became Frenchville. Since the latter name stuck we might assume Peter Keegan had a better grasp of local sentiment than William Dickey, that Keegan was the wiser man. The point here is that calling Peter Keegan “the Sage of the St. John Valley” may have some justification. So what kind of a man was Peter Keegan? Clinton Vannah wrote an essay on Peter Keegan. The essay appeared in National Magazine shortly after 1912. Vannah chose “The Sage of the St. John Valley” as his title.

Clinton Vannah’s essay was a wonderful description of Peter Keegan. The description may just be the best part of the essay. It runs, in part, as follows: I saw him once on the train coming down from Fort Kent on a broiling August morning in 1912. He appeared to know everybody, swapped stories with the drummers in the smoker, came out scathlesis [unscathed] from an encounter of wits with a brother lawyer, chatted in soft patois with the Acadians of the valley who swarmed in the car, all the while radiating good humor and driving away thoughts of the stifling heat with an infectious laugh. It is said of him that he knows most of the children of the valley by name, a stupendous accomplishment surely… Vannah goes on to say that later in the day Keegan gave up two hours to (cont. on page 22)

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(cont. from page 21) help a stranger with a problem. Clinton Vannah describes Peter Keegan as the child of an Irish immigrant father and French speaking mother. He says Keegan worked his way through college and law school. His first election to the Maine Legislature came as a Democrat. Vannah’s point here is that the election came at a time when “Democrats were as scarce in Aroostook as hen’s eggs in January.” In other words, Keegan shouldn’t have won. This is an error. Peter Keegan first ran as a Republican. The misrepresentation takes away from Keegan’s real accomplishment. The district that Peter Keegan represented was unique in several ways. Its population was widely scattered over what was still primarily virgin wilderness. Not only were there few schools, but transportation and communication between settlements was almost nonexistent except for the few months of

summer and early fall. In addition, the predominantly Roman Catholic, French speaking inhabitants — as late as the 1920s there were only 150 English-speaking Van Buren residents out of a population of 5,000 — were staunch Republicans. Nevertheless, Peter Keegan was elected to the Maine Legislature not once but for seven consecutive terms and later for several more as a Democrat. Perhaps the chief reason for Keegan’s success as a politician was his affability and genuine friendly nature. It is this nature that comes out in the piece by Clinton Vannah. The Clinton Vannah essay on Peter Keegan has enjoyed something of a life of its own. Though the National Magazine is long gone and forgotten, Vannah’s piece in it has been picked up on again and again. This includes some of its inaccuracies, the most notable calling Keegan a Democrat the first time he

ran for the Maine Legislature. Several recent writers have referenced the latter point without checking its validity. This, however, is beside the point. Instead, there is a question. Does Peter Keegan indeed deserve Clinton Vannah’s accolade “Sage of the St. John Valley?”

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Flood waters along the St. John River in 1947. Photo courtesy of the Acadian Archives, collection 422.

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Early view of Madawaska. Item # LB2007.1.107886 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

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Madawaska’s Acadian Revival Is A Beautiful Thing The St. John Valley’s cultural resurgence by Brian Swartz

he cultural and linguistic revival taking place in Madawaska and elsewhere in the upper St. John Valley focuses on the Acadians, who lived in this region long before Maine became a state. Seeking to colonize its North American territories, the French government encouraged emigration. Seigneurs (aristocrats) recruited farmers and tradesmen and paid their passage to settle specific lands granted the seigneurs by the French king. “My ancestor, (carpenter) Robert Levesque,” emigrated in the 1640s, noted journalist Don Levesque. “He came with the lord,

the landowner.” Many Frenchmen like Robert Levesque emigrated to Quebec. Others settled in the region known as l’Acadie (Acadia), then stretching from Castine in Maine north and east to modern New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Drawn from various French provinces (such as Aquitaine, Brittany, Îlede-France, Normandy, and Poitou), the colonists gradually became Acadians. Madawaska businessman Dave Morin defines an Acadian as “someone from France who landed in the land of Aca-

dia. He became an Acadian because now he is living in Acadia.” Mingling with and sometimes marrying native Micmacs, Acadians developed an agricultural economy and a culture based on French Catholicism and language. A century passed. The English and French wars raging on the Continent spread to North America. British troops occupied Acadia, and Acadians lived uneasily under foreign rule until the French and Indian War broke out in 1754. For decades the British government had demanded loyalty oaths from the (cont. on page 28)

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(cont. from page 26) France-leaning Acadians who, fearing that such oaths would require a Protestant conversion, responded, “Non.” After capturing Fort Beauséjour in 1755, British troops started exiling thousands of Acadians from their homes. Le Grand Dérangement (the Great Expulsion or deportation) dispersed Acadians to France, England’s American colonies, and Spanish Louisiana. But some Acadians evaded capture and exile. Although his name is Quebecois in origin, Don Levesque also traces his ancestry to l'Acadie. Five generations of his ancestors were born in Port Royal (Nova Scotia) until the British kicked the Acadians out. Suddenly his Acadian ancestors showed up at Kamouraska on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. “I’ve found out that they did not get deported; they escaped,” Levesque said. “A lot of them escaped through the forest with the help

of the Micmac in that area. There are stories of (the exiles) eating tree bark in the winter, (of) people starving.” Acadian genealogist and St. John Valley historian Guy Dubay has researched the migration from colonial l’Acadie to its modern heartland, encompassing northern Aroostook County, northwestern New Brunswick, and southeastern Quebec (the Témiscouata region). While many Acadians escaped to Quebec, others crossed the Bay of Fundy to settle on the St. John River around Saint Anne De Pays Bas; some Acadians eventually relocated there from Quebec. Then came the American Revolution, and “10,000 (British) loyalists move here,” Dubay said. Told in no uncertain terms to clear out, the Acadians moved upriver beyond the Great Falls (now Grand Falls). In 1785, Acadians landed on the river’s south bank in the region known

as Madawaska and erected a cross to thank God for their safe arrival. Their descendants are still there. Don Levesque describes modern l’Acadie as the region extending from Hamlin and Connor, “where people grew up speaking French,” upriver “past Fort Kent and Allagash. We are a number of towns like pearls along a river that is 75 miles long.” Joined by emigrating Quebecois, the Acadians created a distinctively Acadian way of life based on culture, religion, and language. Except for official government functions (such as granting land titles), the British colonial government essentially left the Acadians alone. Then the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty set the Maine-Canada border at the St. John River from Hamlin to St. Francis and on the St Francis River north of the latter town. Acadians living south of the St. John suddenly be-

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came American citizens and residents of English-dominated Maine. Acadians continued intermarrying and conducting business and social life across the new border. The succeeding generations became involved in provincial and state politics; some descendants of l’Acadie-born Jean Baptiste Cyr (1710-1792) won election to the Maine Legislature, and one was appointed the American ambassador to Rwanda by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Acadians worked hard on their farms, in the forests, and in the Valley’s wood-products mills. “We rely a lot on natural resources,” said Lise Ouellette, the chairperson of the Core Leadership Team of the Acadia of the Land and Forests. As the 20th century progressed, Acadians moved into different business sectors, sent their children to college, and became business and civic leaders.

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French-speaking Acadians gradually moved into management at the Fraser Paper (now Twin Rivers) mill in Madawaska; Maine Acadian farmers and loggers embraced mechanization. Modern l’Acadie spreads across two countries, two provinces, and one state. French dominates on the Canadian side of l’Acadie, but while united with their Canadian counterparts by Catholicism and culture, Maine Acadians have experienced a transition unique to them since the 1950s. “The ability to speak French is not as prominent as it was 30 to 40 years ago. It has diminished,” said Dennis Paradis, a third-generation co-owner of Paradis Family Shop ’n Save, with stores in Fort Kent, Madawaska, and Brewer. He is fluent in French. “My first language was French, and all I knew how to speak was mostly French when I started kindergarten,” said Suzie Paradis, Dennis’s wife and

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the Madawaska community development director. She was born in the States to Canadian parents; Dennis was born in Maine. At least two factors drove the loss of the French language (verbal and written) in Maine’s l’Acadie, where since the late 20th century many children have grown up speaking little, if any, French. The English-dominant American culture, especially in entertainment programming and school textbooks, drove English into almost every aspect of life. And there was prejudice, epitomized by the Maine Legislature’s 1958 decision to ban the speaking of French in Maine schools from the Valley to Lewiston and elsewhere. One Monday morning, Acadian children who “never spoke a word of English, only French, arrive at school” to find their native language banned and themselves punished for speaking (cont. on page 30)

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(cont. from page 29) it, recalled Priscilla Cannan. “I remember when I went to school, you were punished, (had to) sit in the corner if you spoke French. They would hit you with a ruler,” said Jackie Soucy. “They would tap you on the knuckles, and they would make you write a hundred lines, ‘I will not speak French in school,’” said Cannan. She and Soucy are members of the Acadian Heritage Committee. Though tossed out in 1972, the law saw the Acadian children in Maine “denied their language and humiliated,” Cannan said. “They lost the pride of their language. “So this is the product. These are their children,” she said, referring to the younger Maine Acadians not fluent or literate in French. “That generation that got punished at school did not encourage their kids to speak French or did not speak French to them. That’s what was lost.” Maine Acadians almost lost their

heritage. Cannan remembered the Canadian professor who told a University of Maine at Fort Kent crowd decades ago, “‘It takes 30 years to lose a culture and a language.’” Older Maine Acadians stepped to the plate. Twenty-seven years after that professorial prophecy, Le Club Francaise de la Vallee Ste. Jean was formed “to get French back up” in the schools and society, Soucy said. French is taught in Madawaska, where Le Club Francaise recently began an after-school French activity group. Dependent on taxpayer funding, French classes in the Valley schools helped spur a greater appreciation of Acadian culture. That cultural resurgence is evident in many ways. Emblazoned with the yellow star of the Virgin Mary, the blue, white, and red Acadian flag hangs from buildings and flagpoles. Held yearly in Madawaska, the Acadian Festival

celebrates culture, music, cuisine, and history. Acadians annually honor their patron saint, Our Lady of the Assumption, on August 15th (the saint’s day) with a Mass, bell ringing, and the joyously cacophonous Tintamarre (“noise parade”). Acadian Mainers and Canadians are cooperating to spur regional economic development. “We are three small regions” when viewed separately, said Lise Ouellette. “When we get together, we’re an interesting region of 100,000 people.” Held in the St. John Valley, the 2014 Acadian World Congress had as one result the commitment to rebuild weakened links between Maine and Canadian Acadia. “We’re really one community, and if we can strengthen those links, everybody will benefit,” Ouellette said. Increased tourism would profit all of l’Acadie. Dennis Paradis praised the

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Presque Isle’s Jack Sepkoski Paleontologist par excellence by Charles Francis

ack Sepkoski knew a lot about the past, the very distant past, the past of twenty-six million years ago and more. Jack Sepkoski knew a lot about fossils and the fossil record. That’s why the title of this piece calls him a paleontologist. It would be just as proper or perhaps more so to refer to Sepkoski as a paleobiologist. That’s what Stephen Jay Gould called him. Strictly speaking, Sepkoski’s field was paleobiology. Jack Sepkoski was J. John Sepkoski Jr.. He died in 1999. He was just fifty at the time of his passing. His passing was recognized by a cross-section of academic institutions, including Harvard University, where Sepkoski

did graduate work, and the University of Chicago where he did much of his research. NASA and the Smithsonian mourned his passing. Very broadly speaking, Jack Sepkoski’s area of study was the fossil record and the diversity of life on Earth. Sepkoski’s particular niche in this field is what is referred to as the “extinction event.” An event is much more than something like the man-created extinction of the Dodo or Passenger Pigeon. It’s a massive decline in all of the earth’s lifeforms. For example, we all know that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. That’s just a part of that particular extinction event. A lot

of other species became extinct at that particular time. In other words, extinction event means mass extinction. It also refers to a decline in a speciation, the rate of species diversification, particularly microbial species that make up the bulk of life on earth. What Jack Sepkoski did was to quantify the diversity of the planet’s life forms throughout time. Douglas Erwin, a research paleontologist at the Smithsonian, put it as follows: Sepkoski…”exhaustively documented the ups and downs of life through the last 600 million years. By collecting the data and developing a series of statistical methods to study it, he gave us a new

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com way of understanding the history of life in the oceans.” In the 1980s Sepkoski and University of Chicago colleague David Raup hypothesized the controversial theory that catastrophic extinctions of marine animals may have occurred approximately every twenty-six million years during the past 250 million years of Earth’s history. These regular, almost timetable events included the extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. Previously the extinctions were regarded as having been random. The hypothesis opened the possibility of mass extinctions on land and in the sea as being caused by some force external to Earth. This means a catastrophe like a comet or asteroid impacting earth. Think here a scenario as described in a film like Deep Impact or Armageddon. How does someone like Jack Sepkoski become interested in fossils and the extreme past? Perhaps it’s easiest

explained as a childhood interest that never died out. After all, most of us as children are interested in dinosaurs. Lots of children’s books feature them. And look at the popularity of movies like Jurassic Park. Sepkoski was born in Presque Isle on July 26, 1948. Sepkoski’s former wife Maureen said he “…started collecting dinosaur bones and fossils when he was 10 and had wanted to become a paleontologist since that time.” The love of fossils led Sepkoski to study geology at the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a B.S., magna cum laude, in 1970. He then earned a Ph.D. in geological sciences at Harvard University in 1977. His Ph.D. research was in the field of geology and paleontology of South Dakota’s Black Hills. The Black Hills are famous for their dinosaur fossils. To have a childhood love and to be able to follow up on that love in college and university is not enough to make (cont. on page 36)

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(cont. from page 35) one a major figure in his or her particular area of interest. One needs the single-minded ability to keep on task. Jack Sepkoski clearly had this. Sepkoski taught at the University of Rochester from 1974 to 1978 first as an instructor, then as an assistant professor. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago in 1978. He attained the rank of Associate Professor in 1982 and Professor in 1986. He also served as research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Sepkoski held visiting professorships at the California Institute of Technology in 1986 and at Harvard University in 1990 and 1991. In 1988 Sepkoski was invited to the University of California at Los Angeles as a senior fellow. He also lectured at the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he was elected a foreign member.

In 1983 the Paleontological Society bestowed the Charles Schuchert Award on Sepkoski. In 1983 the Paleontological Society bestowed the Charles Schuchert Award on Sepkoski. He served a term as the society’s president from 1995 to 1996. And he founded the Paleontological Society International Research Program, or PalSIRP, the society’s program for assisting paleontologists in the countries of the former Soviet Union through competitive grants. Sepkoski was co-editor of Paleobiology, a journal regarded as the major journal of his field, from 1983 to 1986, and a member of its editorial board from 1987 to 1989. David Jablonski, a University of

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Chicago colleague described Sepkoski’s death “as a huge loss for paleontology.” Just how great a loss was it? Jack Sepkoski’s work is discussed in the book Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction? by Michael Ruse, published by Harvard University Press. One of the early chapters of the book is on Charles Darwin. One of the last chapters is on Jack Sepkoski. One could take this arrangement as indicating that while Darwin is one of the first words on the subject of evolution, Jack Sepkoski is the last. At least for the time being. Just bear in mind that while Darwin was a biologist Sepkoski was a paleobiologist. As Stephen Jay Gould said, “Paleobiology is a small profession….Jack was one of the leading lights of the profession.” Discover Maine

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Civil War Veteran Brought Home To Hodgdon Jewett Williams’ ashes found in a dusty Oregon shed by Brian Swartz

Civil War veteran from Hodgdon emerged literally from the dustbin of history in 2016 to spark a cross-country saga that ended with a moving funeral in his hometown. Born in Hodgdon to Jared and Rosaline Williams in 1843, Jewett B. Williams was described as a “Farmer” in the 1860 census. Declining to enlist as thousands of Maine men streamed into military service during the Civil War, Williams was drafted on October 12, 1864 and assigned to Company H, 20th Maine Infantry Regiment. He arrived at the regiment’s camp outside Petersburg, fought at Hatcher’s

Run in February 1865, and participated in the Appomattox Campaign that spring. Williams saw his last fight when the 20th Maine helped stop Confederate infantrymen at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Mustering out in Portland on July 16, Williams returned to Hodgdon. Already plagued by sickness he had contracted in the Army, he married Emma A. Miles in Hodgdon in June 1866. Thereafter his life followed a painfully convoluted path eventually leading to the Pacific Northwest. In August 1866 Williams moved out of the home he shared with the pregnant Emma; he

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abandoned her and their son, James, and moved to the Upper Midwest by September 1870. The Maine Supreme Court granted Emma Williams a divorce in 1871. Primarily employed in physical labor, Jewett Williams married his second wife, Nora Casey in Minnesota. She bore him six children (a son, Franklin, died at age 19 months), and for a while the family lived in Brainerd, Minnesota. The 1892 St. Paul city directory described Nora as a “widow,” yet within a short time she and the children moved with Williams to Washington State. Sunday Church Services! Sunday School 9:45am Worship 11:00am 12 Court St. • Houlton 532-2322

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com He could not maintain a long-lasting relationship with women, and unfortunately no clinical analysis exists of his inability to be a successful husband and father. During his westward movement, Williams also lived in Michigan and Colorado. The 1900 census found him self-employed as a carpenter; he also earned money by renting the available rooms in his house to boarders. Nora apparently lived 9 miles distant. An Oregon resident by 1919, Williams was admitted to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon on Sunday, April 14, 1922. He died there of “cerebral arteriosclerosis” on Monday, July 17, 1922. His official death certificate described Williams as a laborer, a widower, and a resident of Portland, Oregon. After Williams was cremated, his ashes were placed in a copper urn that vanished into a hospital shed, along with the urns of approximately another

3,600 cremated OSH patients. Hospital staffers discovered the urns after checking the locked shed in 2004. While state officials worked to find survivors who might claim the cremains, an Oregon researcher placed the decedents’ names in an online database. In 2015, Maine author and Civil War historian Tom Desjardin found the name of Jewett Williams on that database. The discovery precipitated a poignant volunteer effort to return Williams’ cremains to Maine. The Patriot Guard Riders volunteered to transport the cremains across country; when Maine state officials agreed to bury Williams at the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta, Oregon officials released his cremains. Williams was started east from Salem, Oregon on Monday, August 1, 2016. The next eight weeks made history as a Maine Civil War veteran who had

been dead for 94 years traveled through 19 states. In almost all those states, his cremains were transferred into the custody of that state’s Patriot Guard Riders in emotional ceremonies, including one at Appomattox Court House and another at Gettysburg. Seven Patriot Guard Riders from Maine escorted Williams from Appomattox Court House to Togus VA Hospital in Chelsea, arriving there on Monday, August 22. From Oregon onward, Maine state officials had indicated that Williams would be buried in Togus National Cemetery on September 17. Only during a “welcome home” ceremony held at the Togus VA Hospital on August 22 did state officials reveal that with the discovery of two elderly fourth cousins of Williams still living in Hodgdon, he would be buried there instead. Considered controversial by many (cont. on page 40)

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(cont. from page 39) people anticipating a funeral with full military honors at Togus, the state’s decision stood. Hodgdon residents spruced up the Hodgdon Cemetery, installed a new cemetery sign, and organized a September 24 funeral for Williams. As a steady northwesterly breeze herded scattered white clouds across the blue sky, Maine Patriot Guard Riders and other motorcyclists rumbled north on Interstate 95 from Augusta to Houlton while escorting the Wreaths Across America Suburban carrying Williams’ cremains. Exiting the interstate at Houlton shortly before 1 p.m., September 24, the convoy proceeded under police escort to the Hodgdon United Methodist Church in Hodgdon Mills. As a horse-drawn carriage transported several of Williams’ distant relatives and the cremains from the church to the nearby cemetery, Civil War re-enactors

from the 20th Maine Infantry, members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and supporters carrying American flags walked a few hundred yards up the Walker Road and turned into the cemetery. There, beginning at 2 p.m., Pvt. Jewett B. Williams of Hodgdon and the 20th Maine Infantry was honored with music, a ministerial eulogy, an 1873 Grand Army of the Republic burial service done by the Sons of Union Veterans, and a wreath-laying. And Williams received the full military honors that were his due. The Civil War re-enactors fired a three-volley salute, as did the honor guard members from Chester L. Briggs Post No. 47, American Legion. A Legion bugler played “Taps,” and two folded American flags were presented to Williams’ fourth cousins, seated in the front row inside a large tent. Afterwards, Jewett Williams was

Dr. Durwin Libby, D.M.D.

buried next to the graves of his parents and his infant sister, dead so young that she went unnamed. Lost in a dusty Oregon shed for 94 years, Jewett Williams had finally arrived home 151 years after helping end the Civil War.

• Do you enjoy brian swartz’s stories? If So, check out his blog, Maine At War, on the Bangor Daily News website:

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

A History Of Maine Caribou Great herds once thrived here

by John Murray

n 1877 the forests of Aroostook County were inhabited by large herds of caribou that numbered in the thousands. The dense local population of these caribou resulted in the town of Caribou being named after the majestic animal on this date. There are several subspecies of caribou throughout North America, and the species that inhabited Maine was the woodland caribou. Woodland caribou are large animals — the antlered males can attain a weight of 650 pounds, and are technically the same species as the reindeer in Europe. As the years passed by with time, the town of Caribou prospered and grew into a city. Today Caribou is home to nearly eight thousand people,

and is the most northeastern city in the country. If all of these eight thousand people ventured into the surrounding forest today with hopes of sighting a caribou, none would be able to accomplish the task. Caribou do not exist anymore in the state of Maine. Hunting caribou in Maine was heavily promoted, and was a large money maker for guides and sporting camps in the mid-1800s. Wealthy big game hunters traveled from everywhere to pursue the caribou in the forests of northern Maine. The initial lack of game laws resulted in a dramatic overharvesting of the caribou. The state of Maine realized that the population of caribou was in serious decline, and it prompted the

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need to make drastic changes to game laws in order to protect those that remained. It became illegal to hunt caribou in Maine by 1899. The taste of caribou meat was too tempting to stop the poachers from continuing the illegal harvest, though, and the population of the remaining caribou sharply continued to spiral downward. Wildlife biologists now recognize that the decline of the caribou was a combination of different problems. As first suspected, overhunting was first and foremost on the list. Unfortunately, being a herd animal genetically programmed to protect other members of the herd resulted in making it easy for a hunter to shoot numerous caribou.

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com When a caribou had fallen after being struck by a bullet, the other caribou would run in a circle around the mortally wounded animal instead of fleeing away from the danger. This behavior made the other members of the herd easy targets for hunters, and some unscrupulous hunters took advantage of this trait. Caribou can live to be sixteen years of age, and this results in the animal not reaching breeding age until it is nearly 2 years old. Unlike whitetail deer that can breed when a year old, and have twins or triplets, female caribou only produce one calf. The population of the caribou herd could not keep pace with the years of unregulated hunting. Animals were being harvested before being able to successfully breed, which further reduced the population of the herd. Logging was also linked to the decline of the caribou. The caribou of Maine were inhabitants of the ancient

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boreal forests, and their preferred food source was arboreal lichens growing in those forests. These lichens are slow growing, and it takes many years to generate enough plant matter that can support a population of woodland car-

ibou. When vast tracts of forest trees were cut down, large numbers of caribou migrated northward into Canada in search of habitat that supported the growth of arboreal lichens. The migra(cont. on page 44) Celebrating Over 75 Years

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 43) tion was being witnessed at the time, but because the caribou typically preformed a seasonal migratory move in many areas, people figured that the caribou would return to the territory that was previously inhabited. Once the caribou ventured into Canada, however they did not return. Logging of old growth forests also prompted new growth of other vegetation, which would draw the whitetail deer into previously uninhabited sections of northern Maine. Whitetail deer sharing habitat with caribou was a new occurrence, and would introduce a parasite known as a brain worm into the caribou herd. Usually harmless to the whitetail deer, the brain worm proved to be deadly for the caribou herd. This brain worm is called Parelaphostrongylus tenuis and naturally lives in whitetail deer. The Maine caribou fell victim to all of the combining factors which were

causing the decline in the size of the herd. Unverified sightings of small groups of caribou continued for a few years, with sightings occurring from Mt. Katahdin and North. The last official sighting of caribou in Maine occurred in 1908. The public outcry for the plight of the extinct Maine caribou began to spread by the 1960s. Environmental groups took action, and in 1963 a caribou restoration project was started. The state procured 23 caribou from Newfoundland, marked their fur with red dye to aid in tracking them, and released the caribou into Baxter State Park in December of 1963. These caribou were observed and monitored for a few years until the small herd disappeared. Disappearance was suspected to be linked to possible illegal poaching, disease, animal predation, and natural migration back to Canada. The released Newfoundland caribou were

never seen again after that. This initial caribou restoration project was a noble attempt, but some experts considered it poorly executed. Plans were outlined for a refined caribou restoration project. Another caribou restoration project began in 1986. Researchers were able to attain 22 caribou from Newfoundland, and for two years these animals were raised in captivity at the University of Maine in Orono. Successful breeding occurred during this time. Radio collars were attached to the adult and young caribou to monitor their whereabouts before they were released two years later. A total of 32 caribou were ultimately released in the wild near Baxter State Park. By 1990, the Maine Caribou Project released their findings to the public about the status of the released herd of caribou. A total of 25 caribou were listed as deceased. Twelve of those deceased caribou were determined to

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have been killed by coyotes and black bears. The predation by black bears was a surprising find to the researchers. The predation by coyotes was not surprising — the eastern coyote is a larger species, and specimens have been found which have wolf DNA. One caribou was killed in a rock slide. Four caribou calves had been born in the wild after being released, and all of these calves died from animal predation or unknown causes. A female caribou was radio tracked as it crossed the border nearly seventy miles into Canada. It was suspected that the lone female was pregnant and had separated from the herd to have her calf. The fate of the remaining caribou released in Baxter State Park was unsure. It was speculated that perhaps only three were still alive, and all the remaining caribou had all lost their attached radio collars. After releasing the results of the restoration project, the

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Maine Caribou Project announced that the study was being discontinued due to lack of funding and the poor success rate for surviving caribou. At this time, there are currently no other plans to do another caribou restoration project. Alaska is the only state that has a natural caribou population. Only one other state in the lower forty-eight have released a population of caribou — northern Idaho — and whitetail deer do not exist there to potentially spread disease. The caribou restoration attempt in Idaho was successful, but just barely. There is an estimated one dozen caribou in Idaho. The caribou is spoken of in Inuit mythology. “At one time, there was no caribou on the earth. But, there was a man who wished for caribou, so this man cut a hole deep into the earth, and up from this hole came caribou, many caribou. The caribou came out of the hole until the earth was covered with

them. When the man thought there was enough of caribou for the earth, he closed up the hole.” It is estimated that more than a hundred thousand woodland caribou thrived throughout Canada and Maine during the middle of the 1800s. Today’s woodland caribou population in Canada is believed to be approximately thirty four thousand, and woodland caribou were designated as a threatened species in 2002.

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Old Time Log Cabins Early Maysville settlers cleared the land by Charles Francis

eats of the axeman of old are legend. He comes to a township, one barely settled or not settled at all. He selects his lot, clears his land, builds a log cabin. It’s as simple as that. Perhaps it is a lot where rock maples grow tall. Land like that is said to be good for planting, especially corn. There is a spring. Maybe a view of hills and a valley. Our axeman is stout, a well built, muscular man. Perhaps he has served in the war and thus inured to hardship. He is a resolute worker, that’s why, in but a a few weeks’ time, he has several acres of trees felled in addition to his log house constructed.

With the cabin built, the acres cleared and some seeds in, the wife comes. Or perhaps it’s wife and young children. It doesn’t really matter, a first child or another is on the way. And, again, it’s the axe, a few more strokes and a cradle is made. We’ve all heard the above tale, or one similar. The great men of the country all came from log cabins: Presidents and captains of industry and poets. The log cabin symbols all that America was and is. It’s part of our birthright. But it’s a western thing... isn’t it? An abode of the frontier, not New England, not Maine and certainly not Aroostook County. However, if you know your

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history of the “County” you know the Aroostook was once just as much a frontier as anywhere beyond the Appalachians... and beyond that. You know that Aroostook had its pioneers and they built log cabins. That was how two Maysville men, Elisha Parkhurst and Columbus Hayford, got started. Both men started with next to nothing and rose to prosperity. Both Parkhurst and Hayford started by building their log cabin and clearing a few acres. Parkhurst and Hayford followed the established pattern. They planted corn. They cut down more trees, living on corn meal and (cont. on page 48)

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The Aroostook State Normal School, a facility that was used for training teachers in Presque Isle. Item # 6572 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 46) what other food gun and fishing pole furnished. When the time a third year rolled around, they started on the money crops: wheat, oats and potatoes. By the fourth year they were on their way to living comfortably. With prosperity came a frame house. Parkhurst and Hayford were now old settlers. The log cabin of days gone by and the men who then built them have been written about often and most usually in general terms such as those above. What descriptions like this leave one with is an impression, a sense of a thing and of a person. What follows is an attempt to make the log cabin as it once was in the Aroostook region real. It is also an attempt to make Elisha Parkhurst and Columbus Hayford, two men who built and lived in log cabins to start, a bit more specific. Bear in mind that Parkhurst and Hayford were prosperous farmers in the Aroostook

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County of the 1880s. The log house of the Aroostook settler generally consisted of one room below, which served for kitchen, dining-room and sleeping. Above this, accessed by a ladder, was a second room where the children slept and where ears of corn were often piled after husking. The roof of the log house was usually made from strips of hemlock bark or pine or cedar. The doors were of hewed plank, swinging on wooden hinges and fastened by a large wooden latch on the inside. A stout hemp cord was attached to the latch and ran through a hole to the outside. At night the string was drawn in, preventing anyone on the outside from opening the door. A stout hardwood bar could be fixed across the door to make it further secure. It was the boast of some, however, that the latch strings to their doors were always out.

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Glass windows were rare. Oiled paper took the place of glass. Pieces of wood, hewed to the right dimensions, were placed in slides to cover the paper at night or in stormy and cold weather. The foundations for chimneys were of stone cemented with clay. Second floor walls were constructed of split sticks laid cob fashion with the spaces between filled with clay or mud. The floor when not of hewed plank was the bare ground made smooth and hard by the constant tread of feet and kept neat and clean by the housewife’s broom made from twigs of ash pounded into strings. Fireplaces were built to take large chunks of wood. Flat stones were placed on each side for the back log and the forestick, between which the fire was made. Chairs, bottomed with basket stuff, for the older members of the family and visitors, and wooden stools for the younger ones furnished the

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seats. Over the fireplace hung a rifle, essential for hunting. Within the fireplace hung a crane to hold the pots and kettles in which food was cooked by boiling. Nearby, on the wall, there were shelves for the tin, pewter and wooden ware. Now for the men who built the log houses, specifically Elisha Parkhurst and Columbus Hayford. Elisha Parkhurst and his wife walked to the Maysville area of Presque Isle from Unity over the old Military Road. When they arrived they had little more that the clothes on their backs. Parkhurst first made a living as an itinerant peddler selling tinware, needles and suchlike to farm wives in exchange for furs and pelts, which he sold for cash. When he had accumulated a small amount of money he made a down payment on the 160 acre unimproved land of Augustus Allen. For five years he cleared five acres a year. He then sold the farm

and bought another much larger one. By the 1880s Parkhurst was one of the most successful farmers in Aroostook County. His farm was called “the best in Aroostook County.” Elisha Parkhurst was the kind of man who was dead set against mortgages. So was Columbus Hayford. With this in mind, consider that Hayford came to Maysville with exactly $5.60 in his pocket. This was about 1860. Columbus Hayford first got a job earning sixteen dollars a month. When he had sixty dollars saved, he bought the claim to a state lot of fourteen acres from someone who had taken the timber from it. All he had left to pay was the state fee. That fall, he stumped out and cleared eight of the fourteen acres. By that time, he had run out of money. That winter he worked in the woods, earning eighty dollars. With that money, he purchased a team of oxen. He

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then went and cleared the rest of his lot and planted wheat and oats. From the sale of his wheat and oats Hayford earned $430. He then took his oxen and went to work on the roads for the land agent. With what he made from the sale of his crop and doing road work, he paid off the state. He then put up a barn. Within three years he had sold his fourteen acres for $600 and bought a 300-acre farm in Maysville. Elisha Parkhurst and Columbus Hayford were independent sorts. That’s why for them and others like them a mortgage on a farm was “worse than Canada thistles or burr weed, and far harder to eradicate.” That’s why they started out with axes, clearing their own land and building that symbol of the American spirit, the log cabin.

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

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A parade in Presque Isle. Item # 197 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

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645 Mapleton Rd. • Mapleton, ME

COFFIN’S

Ashland Food Mart, Inc. 256 Presque Isle Road • Ashland

435-6451

~ Open 7 Days A Week ~ Leon & Sheila Buckingham

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5 Libby Rd. • Blaine, ME

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cell: 551-8985 cell: 227-2810

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

Honoring Sherman Heroes Of The Past A “Maine At War” exclusive by Brian Swartz

s Confederate monuments vanish elsewhere in the United States, most Mainers remain unaware that some 150 Union monuments are sprinkled across the Pine Tree State. With their “out of sight” locations, most such monuments are also “out of mind.” But not in Sherman, the southern Aroostook County town where directional signs point Civil War buffs directly to the monument dedicated on July 4, 1883. In fact, Sherman could be the only place in Maine with such “monumental” signs.

The Civil War was tough on Sherman, first settled in 1833 and incorporated as a town on January 28, 1862. The war was 10½ months old by then, and many Sherman men had already left to defend the Union. And there weren’t that many men who could do so. When the war started in mid-April 1861, 486 people lived in Sherman. That number included 130 registered voters, all men who worked on the farms and in the woods and, if fortunate, in a local grist or saw mill. Four hundred and eighty-six people: There are city blocks in modern Port-

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land that could house as many people today. Before the war ended, 113 Sherman men joined the American military; 102 local men enlisted, and the draft took another 11 men. Given that a few recruits were under age, the equivalent of 87 percent of Sherman’s registered voters (and 23 percent of the town’s 1861 population) helped save the country. Many Sherman men joined Company B, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment and participated in the April 1862 attack on Fort Pulaski near Savannah and later fought in Virginia. Their wartime expe-

Bowers Funeral Home

Est. 1900

Traditional Funerals and Cremations ~ Now selling monuments ~ Anthony V. Bowers, CFSP

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10 Water Street Houlton, ME 04730

207-532-3333

64 Sherman Street Island Falls, ME 04747

1-800-532-4333

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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com riences affected the survivors all their lives. Thirty-four Sherman men died during the war, and Company B graves ultimately stretched up the East Coast to No. 2 Cemetery on the Golden Ridge Road. Some Company B veterans would not join their comrades in death for many years. Born in 1837, William Gilchrist lived until 1924. Elisha Heath Jr., born in February 1843, lived until February 1905. Alonzo Heath, a veteran of the 4th Maine Infantry Regiment, lived until 1914. All three men might have been present when the town dedicated its Civil War monument in 1883. Far fewer graves occupied the sloping hillside of No. 2 Cemetery then than today, and the marble monument rose about two stories above the ground. Somewhere in time since then, the monument lost approximately the upper half of its monolithic shaft.

According to its road-facing inscriptional shield, the monument was “sacred to the memory of our citizen soldiers who died in defense of their country in the war of 1861-5.” The names of 37 men are engraved on the monument’s other three sides. Thirty-six names were engraved when the monument was set in place in early summer 1883; the name of Private Calvin S. Perkins of the 32nd Maine Infantry was obviously added at a later date. Set on rough stone bases, two metal cannons were later sited obliquely in front of the monument to face outward, approximately to the northwest and southwest. Many other Maine cities and towns erected Civil War monuments in the post-war decades. Some, like Brewer’s and Presque Isle’s and two of Portland’s, went up in local cemeteries. Others went up at key road junctions; Gray’s mustachioed Union vet-

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eran guards the traffic-heavy intersection of routes 4, 26, 100, 115, and 202, and a flint-eyed Union infantryman stands watch at the Y-shaped juncture of routes 2 and 6 in Lincoln. And just about all of the monuments, even Franklin Simmons’ Our Lady of Victories dominating Monument Square in Portland, went forgotten as the 20th century and other bloody wars passed into American history. So familiar a local landmark that its purpose does not occur to 21st-century minds, Our Lady of Victories overlooks busy passersby who give the monument little thought. But Shermanites did not forget their Civil War monument. A recent project saw a brick patio built around the monument and three chain-linked granite posts set at the patio’s front. A granite bench was set at a rear corner of the patio. Painted black, two cannons still (cont. on page 54)

48 Customs Loop • Houlton, Maine 04730

207-532-9431 1-800-448-8108

www.anderinger.com

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 53) guard the approaches to No. 2 Cemetery. Their muzzles marked “Revere Copper Co.,” these smoothbore guns are actual Civil War “veterans,” both cast in the same foundry in 1864. One is No. 427, which weighs 1,238 pounds. The other cannon, No. 432, comes in three pounds lighter. Located less than two miles in a straight line from Interstate 95, the Sherman Civil War monument remains known primarily to local residents. However, visitors seeking this wellkept monument can easily find it. Take Exit 264 of I-95 and turn east on Main Street (Route 156). A short distance from the off ramps stands a blue-and-white directional sign telling visitors that “Civil War Monument and Cannons” are 1.6 miles away. Follow the arrow to scenic Sherman village, where another sign points up the Golden Ridge Road to “Civil War Monument and Cannons,” now only

KEITH MITCHELL & SONS TRUCKING

~ Sherman Civil War monument ~ 0.4 miles away. Head up this road, which passes farm country before intersecting Route 2 up at, where else, Golden Ridge. I have photographed Civil War monuments from one end of Maine to the other, and I have not seen similar signs elsewhere in our beautiful state.

McCaﬀerty Appliance Repair Servicing most brands and models Brian E. McCaﬀerty Appliance Repairman

* Now offering part sales for the DIYers *

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

We‛re ! Bigger

Jerry’s Shurfine

To Serve You Better! Full line of Groceries, Fresh Meats, Produce, In-Store Bakery, Cold Beverages, Beer & Wine, Frozen Foods, Ice, Live Lobsters, Live Bait (Seasonal), Fishing Supplies, Hardware Agency Liquor Store • Beer Cave

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207-365-6006

133 Gallison Road • Sherman, ME 04776

To this day, Sherman residents remain proud of their veterans, even from the long ago Civil War, and direct visitors to where those veterans are honored.

207.290.5604 • Lee, Maine 04455

Airtight Cookstoves & Heating Stoves

Route 2, Island Falls, Maine

Lane’s Tree Service

The Pioneer Place, U.S.A. Country General Store

Farm & Home Supplies • Fencing Supplies LP Gas Lamps & Refrigerators • Quality Footwear Sock,s • Gloves • Bulk Foods & Spices Hard-to-Find Items

Old Fashioned Service & Down to Earth Prices

Licensed and insured tree removal service Torry Lane torryjlane@gmail.com

2539 U.S. Route 2 • Smyrna, ME

207-694-2370

207-757-8984

353 Oakfield Smyrna Rd. • Oakfield, ME

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

The Vassalboro Manufacturing Co. in Enfield, ca. 1899. Item # 1056 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com

Millard & Cheryl Hatch

Oil & Earthworks Co., LLC

Seboeis Plantation

Located near ITS 82 / 83 South Branch Lake

Whitney’s Outﬁtters Guns • Hunting • Fishing • Camping

Heating Oil • Kerosene • Diesel Fuel Sales Propane • Wood Pellets • Gravel • Excavation

732-3413 • sobme.com 70 LaGrange Rd. • Howland

www.whitneysoutﬁtters.com

Daniel E. Downs President

207-794-2914 We Now Have CRUSHED ROCK

MON.- THUR. 11AM-9PM FRI. & SAT. 11AM-10PM SUN. 12 NOON-9PM

Luncheon Specials MON. THRU SAT. 11AM-4PM SUNDAY BUFFET - 12 NOON - 3PM

~ COCKTAIL LOUNGE ~ ~ TAKE-OUT SERVICE ~ ~ CALL FOR RESERVATIONS ~

Welcome Snowmobilers & Ice Fishermen We have live bait! COME IN & GET WARM BY THE FIRE

274 West Broadway • Lincoln, ME 207-403-8000

Elwood Downs Incorporated

60 MAIN ST. LINCOLN 794-3001

ICE SHACK CAFE

618 Main Street Lincoln, ME 04457 ehdowns@ne.twcbc.com Cell: 290-0338

Open January thru April Saturdays & Sundays 8am-2pm

207-732-3636

Colonial Health Care

Progressive Rehab Services in a Caring Environment

Skilled Nursing Services • Assisted Living Out-Patient Rehab Therapy • Respite Care Long Term Care Services

207-794-6534

36 Workman Terrace • Lincoln, Maine

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

At The Forks Of The Mattawamkeag

by Charles Francis

Honoring Alvin Haynes

n 1861 Alvin Haynes wrote a letter of recommendation for his brother-in-law, nineteen-year old David Chesley of Lincoln. The letter was addressed to Colonel George F. Shepley of the 12th Maine Infantry. Of Chesley, Haynes said “any place you want to put him in, you can put confidence in him.” Haynes’s recommendation was heeded. Upon his formal enlistment in the 12th Maine, Chesley was made sergeant. Not long after this he was promoted to lieutenant. Alvin Haynes concluded his brief note to Colonel Shepley saying, “and was I not quite so old I would be with you, should England make a fuss I think I shall be young enough at any rate.” Haynes was sixty at the time.

Alvin Haynes’s letter to George Shepley carried weight. Though the two were not close friends they knew and respected each other. Alvin Haynes held or had held various elected positions in Maine. He had been appointed to several significant federal government positions. In addition, Haynes was a successful Penobscot County businessman, having operated, among other enterprises, a hotel at the forks of the Mattawamkeag. Northern Penobscot County owes a debt to Alvin Haynes. A fair number of towns there owe their incorporation to his specific efforts. Haynes was one of the surveyors employed in establishing the monument line that separates

Maine and New Brunswick. He was also involved in delineating a good number of the surveys that established the boundaries of many of the towns of northern Penobscot County. Some of this work was done in the 1820s when Haynes was operating a store at Forksville at the forks of the Mattawamkeag. Haynes continued it when he moved to Mattawamkeag Point at the juncture of the Mattawamkeag and Penobscot rivers. It is Haynes’s survey work that explains in part why the name Haynes is well-known as a place name in eastern Maine. This is beyond the fact that Haynesville is named for him. There is a Haynes Brook, a Haynes Road and a Haynes Cemetery, to begin the list. Alvin Haynes’s first significant em-

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8 Main Street East Millinocket

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AHCA Bronze Recipient Five-Star Nursing Home Rating

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ployment came as assistant to his father Aaron Haynes. The elder Haynes was one of the first mail carriers responsible for transporting the mail between Bangor and Houlton. This was in the 1820s. The first mail service to the Aroostook region from Bangor can only be described as innovative, as employing a variety of methods. Back then there was but one mail a week. Much of the route was through almost unbroken wilderness. Some of the route could only be covered on foot. At other times boats and horses and wagons were used. Alvin Haynes carried the mail to Howland in a wagon. There he was met by his father with a boat to continue on to Scow’s Landing. Scow’s Landing was about two miles beyond Mattawamkeag Point. Mail carriers maintained a permanent camp at Mattawamkeag Point. It was here that carriers from Houlton met those from Bangor for mail exchange. From Scow’s Landing, Houlton car-

riers carried the mail through the woods to the falls in what is now Kingman. From there, passage was by boat to the forks of the Mattawamkeag. From here travel was through the woods on horseback to Houlton. At one time or another Alvin Haynes carried the mail on every section of the route, and he did it with enough regularity to completely familiarize himself with the locale. When the Military Road was completed connecting Bangor and Houlton, Alvin Haynes drove the first mail stage on it. These experiences gave Haynes unprecedented knowledge of what was then one of the least known regions of eastern Maine. It also made him more than something of an expert on problems involved in getting mail to its intended destination. Alvin Haynes was born in Dresden in 1801. While he was a child the Haynes family moved to Bangor and then to a farm in the wilds of what would become Edinburg on the banks

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(cont. on page 58)

H.C. Haynes, Inc.

Family Owned & Operated Since 1963

“Where Friends Meet” ~ Great Food & Family Atmosphere ~ 270 Main Street Mattawamkeag, ME

Daily Specials!

Open 11am-10pm Downtown Millinocket

of the Penobsot. The Haynes family were the second in the area. Alvin grew up here and eventually married the community belle, Albra Record, his first of three wives. Note: Those who have an interest in Revolutionary War history might find the name Haynes familiar. Aaron Haynes was a captain in Arnold’s famous expedition to Quebec. Around 1835 Haynes moved to Bangor and began working as an agent for a number of stage lines, including that of Colonel James Thomas. Thomas was owner of the line that connected Bangor, Houlton and Augusta. Subsequently, Haynes became Thomas’s partner. While living in Bangor, Haynes served on the City Council and as an Alderman. It was the Haynes / Thomas partnership that built the hotel at the forks of the Mattawamkeag. The store Haynes operated at the forks was a separate

207-736-3020

Chips • Pulpwood Real Estate

736-3412 • 40 Route 168 • Winn, ME

Aroostook & Northern Penobscot

(cont. from page 57) enterprise. It was at this time the name Forksville was dropped in favor of Haynesville. The name change speaks to Alvin Haynes’s growing stature and influence in upper Penobscot County. Following his association with James Thomas, Haynes was appointed a United States mail agent and investigator. It was an exceptionally important position, one that is sometimes described as similar to that of a Secret Service Agent of today. At various times Haynes’s responsibilities required him to travel throughout all of New England and even further, into the South and West. On occasion, he was sent to Canada to help facilitate mail service to and from the United States. From 1845 to 1850 Haynes served as United States Deputy Marshal for Maine. His immediate superior was future congressman Virgil D. Parris. Following this service, he moved to Mattawamkeag. He now served sev-

eral terms as the upper Penobscot region’s County Commissioner. It was an office which put him in a position to implement the development of roads to newly settled areas. In 1856 and 1857 the State Land Survey office engaged in a concentrated effort to establish township boundaries in the northern Penobscot and southern Aroostook regions. Much of the work done at this time can be credited to Haynes’s influence. George Haynes, Alvin’s son, was responsible for much of that work. The younger Haynes learned surveying working with his father. In 1863 Haynes made his last move, this time to Winn. Though he again served in a variety of municipal offices, his health was declining. One of his favorite pastimes was fishing. There was no place he liked better for this pursuit than the forks of the Mattawamkeag. * Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.

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Hanington Bros., Inc.

A Full Service Logging Company

STEaD Timberlands, LLC A Full Service Land Management Company

488 US Rt. 2 Macwahoc Plt., ME 04451

201 Houlton Road Danforth, ME 04424

207-765-2681

Dr. Mark Kaplan, DO

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Dr. Jared Kohlbacher, DPM Matt Cowan, PAC Dawn McGinnis, FNP David Goodrich, LCSW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open Monday-Friday ~ Walk-Ins Welcome ~ Call For An Appointment:

207-448-2347

DiscoverMaineMagazine.com

DIRECTORY OF ADVERTISERS

Business

Page

A&L Construction Inc. ......................................................49 A.N. Deringer, Inc. .............................................................53 Acadia Federal Credit Union ...........................................21 Access Auto ....................................................................56 Alan Clair Building Contractor ..........................................48 Albert Fitzpatrick ............................................................52 Alete Salon & Spa ..........................................................15 Allagash Roof Rakes ......................................................23 Anderson’s Store ............................................................46 April R. Caron - RE/MAX Central Realtor ...........................45 Aroostook Band of Micmacs ..........................................32 Aroostook County Tourism ..............................................32 Aroostook Foam Insulation .............................................35 Aroostook Hospitality Inn ................................................35 Aroostook Real Estate ...................................................23 Aroostook Roofing and Carpentry .....................................6 Ashland Food Mart, Inc. ..................................................50 B&M Hydraulic Jack & Small Engine Repair .....................16 Babin Construction, Inc. ....................................................7 Barresi Financial, Inc. .....................................................48 Bates Fuel, Inc. ..............................................................52 Bear Paw Inn ..................................................................37 Bechard’s Pub & Grille ...................................................13 Bert Albert & Son Contractor ............................................6 BKB Construction ...........................................................51 Bouchard Country Store .................................................26 Bouchard Family Farm ..................................................26 Bouchard’s Seamless Gutters ..........................................4 Bowers Funeral Home ....................................................52 Brandon Berube Carpentry .............................................34 Bread of Life Bulk Food & Specialty Store .......................49 Buck Construction, Inc. ...................................................50 Busy Hands Craft Shop ....................................................16 Caribou Vet Center ..........................................................45 Carl’s Appliance Repair & Pellet Stove Service................5 Caron’s Paving & Sealing ...............................................22 Caron’s Redemption Center ...........................................12 Cary Brown Trucking & Excavating ................................41 Cary Medical Center .......................................................33 Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce ....................47 Central Building Supplies, Inc. ........................................15 Chez Helen .....................................................................14 City Jewelry & Loan .......................................................45 Clay GMC Chevrolet of Lincoln ........................................40 Coffin’s General Store .....................................................50 Colin Bartlett & Sons, Inc. ...............................................4 Colonial Health Care ......................................................55 Complete Construction ...................................................51 Country Village Estates LLC ..........................................29 County Abatement Inc. .....................................................4 County Electric ...............................................................32 County Home Inspections & Renovations ........................10 County Soil & Septic Design .............................................12 Countyqwikprint ..............................................................31 Crandall’s Hardware .......................................................56 Crossroad Cabins .............................................................3 Crossroads Motel & Restaurant .....................................57 Crosswinds Residential Care .........................................20 Cummings Health Care Facility, Inc. ...............................40 Curtis Waterfront Rentals ................................................21 Cushman & Sons Inc. .....................................................36 Daigle & Houghton ...........................................................25 David Paradis Carpentry ..................................................9 Dead River Company - Ashland ...............................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Caribou ................................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Fort Kent ..............................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Houlton ................................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Madawaska ........................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Mars Hill ..............................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Presque Isle .........................23 & 35 Dead River Company - Van Buren ...........................23 & 35 Dennis Computer .............................................................53 Desjardins Logging ..........................................................5 Devoe Construction Inc. ..................................................18 Dick’s Towing LLC ...........................................................50 Dodo’s Market ...............................................................45 Doris’ Cafe .........................................................................9 Dr. Durwin Libby, DMD ...................................................40 Dubois Contracting .........................................................23 Dubois’ Garage ................................................................11 East Grand Health Center ...............................................58 Ed Pelletier & Sons Co. .................................................28 Elwood Downs Incorporated ...........................................55 Esta’s Soaps .....................................................................5 F.A. Peabody Company ..................................................38 Farms Bakery & Coffee Shop .........................................43 First Choice Market & Deli .............................................32 First Settlers Lodge .........................................................42 Forest Diversity Services Inc. .........................................20 Fort Kent Power Sports ..................................................26 Freightliner of Maine Inc. ...................................................4 Friendly Valley Lodging ...................................................22 Gary Babin’s Groceries & Meats .......................................7 Gary’s Upholstery & Son & Grandson ..............................29 Gateway Mechanical Plumbing & Heating .....................13

Business

Page

Gerald Pelletier Inc. .......................................................40 Gervais Fence ................................................................17 Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home ......................................17 Gil’s Lock ‘n Key ...............................................................16 GJ Auto Body .................................................................43 GP Carpentry ..................................................................20 Graves Shop ‘n Save Superstore ....................................47 Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce ..............9 Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce .........................53 Greater Van Buren Chamber of Commerce ..................12 Greenlaw Electric, LLC ...................................................29 Ground Perfection Specialists Inc. ..................................46 Ground Tek Inc. ...............................................................10 H&R Block .......................................................................31 H&S Garage & Auto Sales ..............................................28 H.C. Haynes, Inc. ...........................................................57 Haines Manufacturing Co., Inc. ........................................47 Hampton Inn by Hilton - Presque Isle .............................34 Hanington Bros., Inc. ......................................................58 Heritage Trail Storage ......................................................10 High View Rehabilitation & Nursing Center ....................29 Hillside Apartments .........................................................15 HoganTire - Houlton / Lincoln / Presque Isle / Caribou ...........53 Huber Engineered Wood, LLC ......................................33 Ice Shack Cafe ................................................................55 In-Home Care Personal Care Services ............................41 Inn of Acadia ............................................................27 & 30 Irish Setter Pub ...............................................................48 Irving Forest Products .....................................................11 J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC ....................................37 J.R.S. Firewood ..................................................................8 JBBC, Inc. Building Contractor ..........................................11 Jepson Financial Advisors, PA .......................................44 Jerry’s Shurfine ..............................................................54 Joe’s Country Store .........................................................12 John’s Shurfine Food Store ..............................................8 Kajais Redemption ...........................................................5 Katahdin Health Care ......................................................56 Kats Beauty Parlor ............................................................7 Keith Mitchell & Sons Trucking .......................................54 Ken L. Electric, Inc. ...........................................................7 Key Realty .......................................................................47 Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices ...................................43 LafayetteTravel.com......................................................25 Lake Road Grocery ...........................................................5 Lane’s Tree Service .........................................................54 Langille Construction, Inc. ...............................................32 Lawrence Lord & Sons Inc. Well Drilling ..........................42 Lee Theriault & Sons .........................................................8 Leisure Gardens & Leisure Village ..................................36 Leo & Sons Citgo ..............................................................44 Levesque Business Solutions ..........................................24 Limestone Maine Chamber of Commerce ......................17 Lincoln Powersports ........................................................56 Long Lake Motor Inn .......................................................21 Longlake Construction ....................................................13 Louisiana Pacific Corp. ..................................................38 M. Rafford Construction ...................................................36 Madtown Clothing ...........................................................24 Main Street Auto Repair .................................................15 Maine Forest Service .......................................................22 Maine Cedar Specialty Products .....................................52 Maine Historical Society ....................................................3 Maine Biomass Exports, Inc. ...........................................19 Maine’s Outdoor Learning Center ...................................54 Mark’s Towing ..................................................................43 Marquis Michaud Well Drilling ...........................................5 Mars Hill Pharmacy .........................................................51 Martin Acadian Homestead ............................................14 Martin Builders ................................................................21 Martin’s General Store ....................................................21 Martin’s Point Health Care - TRICARE ..........................31 McCafferty Appliance Repair ..........................................54 McCain Foods ................................................................33 McCluskey’s RV Center ..................................................50 McGlinnn’s Plumbing & Heating ....................................46 Michaud Furniture .............................................................7 Micmac Fish Farm ............................................................32 Mike’s Quik Stop & Deli .....................................................32 Mill Bridge Restaurant .....................................................10 Mockler Funeral Home ...................................................44 Morin Sealing ...................................................................22 Nadeau Logging, Inc. ......................................................10 Nadeau Yard Care ............................................................8 Nadeau/Pelletier Sewer Services ......................................6 Nickerson Construction Inc. ............................................52 NorState Federal Credit Union .........................................14 North Country Auto ...........................................................3 Northern Computers, Inc. .................................................27 North Woods Real Estate ...............................................42 Northeastern Adventures Guide Services ........................12 Northeast Applicators LLC ................................................4 NorthEast Building Services ............................................40 Northeast Propane ..........................................................43 Northern Computer, Inc. ..................................................27

Business

Page

Northern Dispatch Energy ...............................................37 Northern Door Inn ............................................................24 Northern Lights Motel ......................................................37 Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery Corporation ............45 One Stop ..........................................................................46 Orchids Restaurant ..........................................................28 Ouellette Cleaning Service ..............................................10 Ouellette’s Garage ...........................................................14 Overlook Motel & Lakeside Cottages .............................18 P&E Distributors ..............................................................13 Paradis Shop ‘n Save Supermarkets ................................28 Pat’s Pizza Presque Isle ..................................................34 Pelletier Florist Greenhouses & Garden Center ...............22 Penobscot Marine Museum ...............................back cover Percy’s Auto Sales ...........................................................46 Perham Logging Corp. ....................................................44 Piper’s Carpentry General Contractor .............................33 Presque Isle Pharmacy ....................................................46 Presque Isle Snowmobile Club, Inc. ...............................33 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. ........................41 R.F. Chamberland Inc. .......................................................7 R.L. Todd & Son, Inc. Electrical Contractors ......................44 Reliant Repair .................................................................37 Rendezvous Restaurant ..................................................17 Ridgewood Estates ..........................................................20 River’s Edge Motel ..........................................................41 Riverside Inn Restaurant .................................................47 RLC Electric ....................................................................45 RMJ Cash Plus ................................................................48 Robert Pelletier Building Contractor ...............................24 Robert’s Jewelry ..............................................................15 Rob’s Auto Repairs & Salvage .........................................16 Roger Ayotte Electric, Inc. .............................................15 Rozco ...............................................................................20 Russell-Clowes Insurance Agency, Inc. ..........................17 S. Paradis & Son Garage ...................................................6 S.O.B. Oil & Earthworks Co., LLC ......................................55 Salmon Brook Valley Maple Syrup ..................................44 Sandra’s Kitchen & Pizza To Go ........................................7 Saucier’s Collision Work ...................................................6 Saucier’s Roll-off Containers .............................................6 Savage Paint & Body .......................................................39 Scootic In restaurant .......................................................57 Scovil Apartments ............................................................51 Scovil Building Supply, Inc. ...............................................51 Service First Automotive ..................................................50 Shaw Financial Services .................................................51 Shear Delight Full Service Salon ...................................47 Sleeping Bear Campground & Lodging ..........................39 Sleepy Hollow Storage ....................................................48 Sonny’s Gun Shop ...........................................................45 St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce & Tourism ...........16 St. John Valley Pharmacy .................................................23 St. John Valley Realty Co. .................................................11 St. Joseph’s Memory Care, Inc. ......................................20 Stardust Motel .................................................................38 Stay Lafayette ..................................................................25 STEaD Timberlands, LLC .................................................58 Stewart’s Wrecker Service ..............................................19 Storage Solutions .............................................................49 Sturdi-Bilt Storage Buildings LLC ....................................39 Succeedhere.org ..............................................................27 Sullivan’s Wrecker Service .............................................39 Sweet Seniors Guest House ............................................39 T Bert & Son Construction ................................................22 TA Service Center ..........................................................49 Tang’s Place Chinese & American Cuisine ......................26 Tech N Trenz .......................................................................9 The Brass Lantern Bed & Breakfast ...............................10 The Forum .......................................................................49 The Homestead Lodge & Buffalo Ride-In Restaurant .....35 The Pioneer Place, USA Country General Store .............54 The Salvation Army Thrift Store .......................................38 The Swamp Buck Restaurant & Lounge ............................8 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor ..................................41 Tidd’s Sport Shop ............................................................38 Timothy D. Rioux, O.D. ...................................................25 Town of Enfield ................................................................56 Town of Frenchville ..........................................................19 Town of Madawaska ........................................................26 Town of Mars Hill ..............................................................4 Trombley Industries ........................................................31 Tulsa, Inc. .........................................................................13 Turner Sanitation LLC .....................................................29 Valley Rentals .................................................................12 Vinny’s / NCI-Sales ..........................................................27 VintageMaineImages.com ..........................................3 Voyageur Lounge & Restaurant ......................................30 Wardwell’s Service, Inc. ..................................................44 Ware’s Power Equipment ................................................56 Wayne’s Body Shop & Service Center ...........................13 Whitney’s Outfitters .........................................................55 Wing Wah Restaurant ......................................................55 York’s of Houlton ..............................................................52

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