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Volume 25 | Issue 1 | 2016
Maine’s History Magazine
15,000 Circulation
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties
Houlton’s Charles West
A true Maine woodsman
Aroostook’s Underground Railroad
Runaway slaves found sanction in Fort Fairfield
Sanctuary
Sacred places abound in the St. John River Valley
~ Proud to be celebrating our 25th year! ~ www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
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Inside This Edition
Maine’s History Magazine 3
I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley
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Defense of “Old Woman” Excerpt from Old Maine Woman Glenna Johnson Smith
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The Bombing Of The Vanceboro Bridge A 1915 act of terrorism James Nalley
10 Patten’s Lou Rogers A woman destined for big things James Nalley 13 Houlton’s Charles West A true Maine woodsman Charles Francis 16 Central Aroostook’s Entertainment Epicenter Presque Isle has always been a magnet Kimberly R. Smith, Presque Isle Historical Society 20 Enfield Soldier Let Confederates Look Him Over A Maine at War exclusive Brian Swartz 23 H.D. Hartt’s General Store A Monticello landmark Wanda Curtis 27 OTT Communications History of a local rural phone company 28 Aroostook’s Underground Railroad Runaway slaves found sanction in Fort Fairfield Edith Miller 35 Presque Isle’s Dr. Storer Boone Long-time local doctor and snowmobile enthusiast Kimberly R. Smith, Presque Isle Historical Society 40 M adawaska’s J. Normand Martin Local artist designed a Bangor icon Brian Swartz 45 Sanctuary Sacred places abound in the St. John River Valley Jeffrey Bradley 48 The Fort Kent Railroad Station One of Maine’s beloved historic sites Roger Gordon 50 Long Lake Dam An amazing manmade feature Jeffrey Bradley
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
Publisher & Editor Jim Burch
Layout & Design Liana Merdan
Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield
Advertising & Sales Barry Buck Dennis Burch Chris Girouard Tim Maxfield Zackary Rouda
Office Manager Liana Merdan
Field Representatives George Tatro
Contributing Writers
Jeffrey Bradley Wanda Curtis Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca Roger Gordon Edith Miller James Nalley Glenna Johnson Smith Kimberly R. Smith Brian Swartz
Published Annually by CreMark, Inc. 10 Exchange Street, Suite 208 Portland, Maine 04101 Ph (207) 874-7720 info@discovermainemagazine.com www.discovermainemagazine.com Discover Maine Magazine is distributed to town offices, chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations, barber shops, beauty salons, newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, hardware stores, lumber companies, motels, restaurants and other locations throughout this part of Maine. NO PART of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from CreMark, Inc. | Copyright © 2016, CreMark, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION FORM ON PAGE 49
Front Cover Photo: Exchange St., Ashland, ME, item# LB2007.1.10034 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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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
It Makes No Never Mind by James Nalley
A
roostook County, referred to as the “Crown of Maine” by the tourist industry, is the largest county by total area in Maine. In addition, it is the largest county (by land area) east of the Rocky Mountains. So, with this immense size comes plenty of outdoor activities ranging from hiking and fishing to hunting deer, bear and moose, the latter of which are some of the largest in the lower 48 states. Approximately 150 years ago, the benefits of the county’s size and its northern location made it a major route on the “Underground Railroad.” In fact, from the front door of the Friends Quaker Church along U.S. Route 1A in Fort Fairfield, it is just a two-mile walk to the Canadian border. This border was the ultimate goal for many escaped slaves searching for freedom. If one recalls the history lectures in school, then it is well-known that the northern states in the union were “free” and former slaves from the southern states could cross the border into a northern state and begin a relatively normal life. However, according to Professor John Zaborney at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, “the fugitive slave
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law was enacted as compromise legislation in 1850.” Under this act, slave owners were allowed to pursue runaway slaves in the north, capture them, and bring them back south, regardless of when they had escaped. In other words, as Zaborney states, “runaways who had been living in the north were no longer safe.” After the act, newspapers were filled with notices soliciting information regarding certain escaped slaves and offering substantial rewards for their return. This caught the attention of many professional bounty hunters (also known as “slave catchers”) who pursued their “prizes” as far as the Canadian border. Due to the dangerous and sometimes life-threatening risk of discovery, information regarding routes and safe havens were passed on by word-of-mouth. The routes were purposely indirect in order to confuse any pursuers, and the escapees consisted of only several slaves at a time. They would stop at “stations” during the day and travel under the cloak of night. These stations were located in the basements of homes, barns, caves, and under the floorboards of churches. Upon their arrival “station masters” (sympathetic strangers) would allow them to sleep and eat before they made
their way to Canada, which was referred to as the “Promised Land” (although such a title is arguable today). Regarding such stations, in the aforementioned Fort Fairfield church, a hiding place was in fact discovered underneath its floorboards. Well, again, my short time with you has come to an end. Thus, I will close with the following jest regarding northern Yankees: A teacher, a construction worker, and a Yankee show up at the “Pearly Gates” after which St. Peter informs them that, in order to get to Heaven, each of them would have to answer one question. Then, St. Peter turns to the teacher and asks, “What was the name of the ship that hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage?” The teacher replies, “The Titanic!” St. Peter lets her through the gates. St. Peter then turns to the construction worker. Knowing that Heaven did not need another handyman, he deliberately makes the question more difficult. He asks, “How many people died on the Titanic?” The construction worker replies, “1,228!” Looking surprised, St. Peter lets him enter. Then, St. Peter turns to the Yankee and asks, “Name them.”
In these pages you will see businesses from Maine’s Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties which take great pride in serving the public, and business owners and employees who also take pride in being Mainers. A complete index of these advertisers is located on the inside back cover of this issue. Without their support, we could not produce this publication each year. Please support them!
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Defense Of “Old Woman” Excerpt from Old Maine Woman by Glenna Johnson Smith (published by Islandport Press)
through the years. The young coach says to his player, “You threw that ball like an old woman.” The young husband admits to his wife, “I cried like an old woman at that movie.” A businessman says to his partner, “Don’t be an old woman. Take a risk.” And when a young woman hears that her grandmother is going to marry an old friend, she says, “It’s just for companionship, of course. They’re old people. But honestly, sometimes they’re so cute you’d almost think they’re in love!” And the commercials don’t help. Good old women are fat and say “Mamma Mia!” as they stir the spa-
This is an excerpt from the book Old Maine Woman by Glenna Johnson Smith, published by Islandport Press. Old Maine Woman is a nostalgic look at growing up on the Maine coast and growing old under the big sky and among the rolling fields of her beloved Aroostook County. In this segment from Part III of the book, learn why Glenna considers “Old Woman” an endearing title that she’s proud to hold. I like the sound of the words “old woman.” They’re strong words — earthy, honest. I’m grateful I’ve survived long enough to be able to label myself by them. And yet, from many sources they’ve received a bad rap
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com ghetti sauce. And the less-than-admirable ones (by far the majority) are absent-minded and silly or petty and crabby. None of them know their way around the modern world; they learn about fast foods and laundry detergents from young-women-in-the-know. And then there are the well-intentioned people who always put the adjective “poor” before “old woman.” “Poor old woman, she rattles around all alone in that big house.” It never occurs to them that she may be happily reading all the books and visiting all the friends she didn’t have time for in her busy years. She’s not necessarily sitting by the window like Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, waiting for someone to bring her a cookie. Some people consider the words “old woman” so insulting that they refuse to use them, substituting “elderly lady,” which reminds me of furs, pearls, and lavender toilet water, or “senior citizen,” which is a term too recently 3-Season Cozy Wilderness Hideaway Secluded Cabins Housekeeping & American Plan
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coined to be trustworthy. I prefer my “old woman” pictures of weather-beaten faces, gnarled knuckles, and ancient, faded, baggy-elbowed sweaters for going to the clothesline, the hen pen, the woodpile, and the berry patch. Oh, I’ll admit that in the 1920s most of the old women in my family felt they were all used up by the time
they were forty-five. “I can’t walk to the shore with you, dear — I’m an old woman,” Great-Aunt Annie would say. But it wasn’t old age that kept her from walking — it was probably all those days, after her daughter took over the heavy work, of sitting and mending and all those sugar-covered doughnuts and filled molasses cookies. We are able to take better care of ourselves today. We haven’t had to ruin our health with our ancestors’ backbreaking household drudgery and poor eating and exercise habits. We don’t retire to the rocking chair, wrapped in a shawl, and weep over the baby shoes of our forty- or fifty-year-old children. Oh, I love my rocking chairs and my memories of my children growing up as much as they did. But life goes on, too precious to waste. I know old women who do volunteer work in daycare centers, hospitals, homeless shelters, and libraries, and (continued on page 6)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
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(continued from page 5) who play the piano for church. Old women take long walks, with time to see sunsets and sunrises. Some of us dig in the earth and raise things. Some of us see the world new through the eyes of a young grandchild. We may paint a picture, write a poem, sew a quilt, knit some mittens. Old women can be found on cross-country ski trails, on golf courses, at community swimming pools, and in weight rooms. After age sixty-five we take free college courses and high school night courses where we study all kinds of things: religion and philosophy, woodworking, drawing, conversational French, rug-hooking, and English literature. And through all these later days we retain the values, the experience, the self-control, the acceptance — and yes, the ability to love — learned from the traumas of youth and middle age. I’ll admit that being an old woman (or, I assume, an old man) requires a sense of humor and a quiet bravery in
the face of worrisome aches and pains, in the need to tolerate wrinkles where firm, smooth skin used to be, in the acceptance of the decrease of strength and energy, the gradual loss of teeth, hair, hearing, eyesight, memory, and the ability to digest green apples. And yet I suspect that many of us can say hello to the mirror and admit that we live more comfortably with this less-than-perfect old face and body than we did with our teenaged or our twenty-year-old selves. Perhaps we can be more kind now to the person in the mirror and to others, too. Perhaps we no longer demand the impossible of our time and energy. So come on, young whippersnappers! Listen to the words “old woman” (or “old man”). They don’t sound so bad, do they? With a little luck and by the grace of God, you’ll be one of us someday. Old Maine Woman can be purchased at local bookstores or online at www. islandportpress.com.
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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The Bombing Of The Vanceboro Bridge A 1915 act of terrorism
O
n Jan. 30, 1915, a man wearing workman’s clothing and carrying a heavy suitcase arrived at the Vanceboro train station in Maine. The weather was bitterly cold and the ground was covered with a blanket of snow. Despite the conditions, this man made his way to the Vanceboro Bridge, which was a relatively short but vital span that connected the United States with Canada. After hiding the suitcase in a pile of wood, he made a careful and quiet inspection of the iron structure. Satisfied, he reclaimed his luggage and checked into the Exchange Hotel. Three days later at 1:10 a.m., an explosion twisted portions of the bridge and blew out many windows in both Vanceboro and St. Croix, exposing many residents to the freezing temperatures. Originally
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a covert and strategic plot to destroy the supply line between the two countries, this man did not prepare for two formidable forces against the plan: small town suspicion and the Maine winter. Approximately one month earlier, on Dec. 26, 1914, a meeting was arranged at the Arietta Hotel in New York by a German military attaché known as Franz Von Papen. Convinced that Canada would aid in transporting both supplies and troops through the then neutral United States, he was in search of saboteurs to destroy Canadian railways. Attending this meeting was a German reserve army lieutenant, Werner Horn, who showed Von Papen immediate enthusiasm for the project. As stated in the 2004 book Fighting Germany’s Spies by French Strother,
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“Von Papen explained to Horn that the bombing would be seen as an act of courage and valor in Germany and that no one would be killed in the process.” After Horn was paid $700, he made plans to head to Maine with a suitcase of explosives. During Horn’s inspection of the bridge and its surroundings, problems began after he was spotted by at least three Vanceboro residents who promptly reported him to the U.S. Immigration officer. According to the book Celebrated Spies and Famous Mysteries of the Great War by George Barton, the inspector wanted to know what he was doing in Vanceboro, and Horn told him that he was Olaf Hoorn from Denmark, and was looking to buy a farm in the area. “Asked where he came from, the (continued on page 8)
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(continued from page 7) German said that he had come from New York by way of Boston. Evidently there was nothing he could do in the matter, and the inspector went on his way.” Horn then spent the next two days observing the extremely busy rail line in order to determine the schedule of the trains. On the night of Feb. 1, 1915, Horn checked out of the Exchange Hotel with the claims of catching an evening train. He proceeded to the Canadian side of the bridge and according to Barton, “It was one of the coldest nights of the year, and his fingers tingled as he lugged the heavy load of dynamite toward the bridge.” After he avoided two unexpected trains, Horn, with no intention to cause any loss of life, wondered what he should do. “He had a fifty-minute fuse. The thing to do was to reduce the fuse...He did so.” After the fuse was lit with a cigar, Horn made the first of many mistakes by running back
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to the hotel instead of leaving the area. At 1:10 a.m., the bomb exploded with such force that it blew out many local windows. Fortunately, it caused only minor damage to the structure. After the explosion, Barton writes “The landlord of the hotel hurried to the cellar of his house to ascertain if the boiler had burst. On the way he passed the bathroom, and to his surprise, beheld Werner Horn there running the hot water. ‘What seems to be the difficulty?’ asked the landlord. ‘I freeze my hands,’ replied Horn, holding out his hands for the inspection. (The landlord) opened the window of the bathroom and gave Horn snow to run on his frozen fingers. After that the German asked for his old room…and in spite of the excitement and his frost-bitten fingers, went to sleep.” Within an hour of the explosion, the sheriff of Vanceboro and two Canadian constables arrived on the scene. The landlord informed them of
the German and his suspicious actions, which caused Horn to be immediately detained. After being questioned for several days by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), he signed a confession and revealed the details of his crime. Indicted and charged for crimes in both the United States and Canada, Horn was first sentenced to 18 months at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Georgia for his charge of transporting explosives in the United States. After serving his sentence, he was sent to face Canada’s charges. According to a 1919 article by The New York Times, “The prisoner entered the room smiling, but his expression changed when the Canadian law was read, showing he is liable to life imprisonment.” It certainly did not help that the Canadian officials had a confession by Horn that stated, “Yes, I did it in behalf of my country, as an officer of the German Army, in
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war time.” He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years at the Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick. Two years later, all of the focus had disappeared on this border town in Maine and everything had returned to relative normal. But on July 23, 1921, The New York Times printed a short article that stated, “Werner Horn, who figured in one of the most noted Germany spy cases of the war, has been certified as insane by physicians at the penitentiary in Dorchester, N.B., where he has been serving a ten-year sentence for attempting to blow up the Canadian Pacific Railroad bridge at Vanceboro, Me. He will be released as soon as arrangement can be made for his deportation to Germany.” After all of the drama with very little result, this former proud man from Germany had become yet another casualty in the “Great War.”
Early view of Main Street in Patten, ca. 1920. Item #6579 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
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Patten’s Lou Rogers A woman destined for big things
by James Nalley
I
n a March 1913 article in Cartoons Magazine, a cartoonist named Lou Rogers stated, “If the cartoon has never appealed to women workers, isn’t it because it has never covered a class of interests with direct bearing on them? It seems to be a great moment that national issues are handled from the woman’s standpoint as well as the man’s.” This was one of many wise comments made by a woman from Patten, Maine, who would ultimately be recognized as an outspoken illustrator, author, soapbox orator, radio host, and most importantly, a major voice for the women’s suffrage movement. Born in 1879 as Annie L. Rogers in the lumber town of Patten, Lou Rogers was the fourth of seven children. Her
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child, Lou enjoyed drawing and creating sketches of everything from the natural landscape to her teachers at school. All of the Rogers children attended the Patten Academy that their grandfather, Luther Rogers, helped found in 1848. Eventually, Lou was hired as a teaching assistant at the academy as her siblings went off to school at the University of Maine and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In 1900, Lou chose a career in art and enrolled at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, currently known as the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. According to Lou, her fascination with the city of Boston and her outgoing personality put school studies on the backburner. She dropped
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com out after two semesters. Subsequently, she found an interest in physical culture, which is a health and strength training movement that originated in the 19th century in the United States as well as Europe. She moved to Washington, D.C., and enrolled in a series of physical culture classes. During the coursework, she and a classmate decided to travel to the Western U.S. in order to provide physical culture seminars to random communities. Needless to say, their tour was a financial disaster. This was when she decided to become a cartoonist. With renewed determination, she packed her bags and moved to New York City after which she contacted every newspaper office that she could find. However, as a woman cartoonist, she had difficulty finding work under the name of Annie Rogers. So, she began submitting cartoons as “Lou Rogers” and slowly gained success. In 1908, Lou was hired as a staff artist for Judge Magazine, one of the most popular humor magazines
in the country, and her cartoons were immediately noticed for their quality and detail. By 1912, Lou had become a regular contributor to The Modern Woman and an outspoken advocate of the women’s suffrage movement. Just one year later, Cartoons Magazine profiled Lou as a successful female cartoonist. According to the article: She has what ninety-nine out of a hundred lack, the ability to see the way to get the idea into the picture. And she has forty ideas about everything. So far she is the only woman artist in the world who is seeking her complete artistic destiny in the cartoon. . . She means to win. And she will keep on meaning until she does. Soon after, Woman’s Journal, a major pro-suffrage newspaper, focused on Lou’s contribution to the movement and stated that she was the “only woman artist to devote all of her time to feminism.” By the 1920s, Lou had been promoted as the “World’s Only
Woman Cartoonist,” which was a title that Lou promptly denied since there were several other renowned female cartoonists living in New York such as Edwina Dumm, Cornelia Barns, and Alice Beach Winter. Apparently, Lou’s move to New York City turned out to be the smartest, since the fast-paced atmosphere and liberal thinking suited her talents and goals. Greenwich Village and Times Square, in particular, were locations where supporters of both socialism and the women’s suffrage movement could openly voice their opinions. Lou, wearing her artist’s smock, began appearing on the street corners of these two locations to draw oversized political cartoons on various topics such as labor reform, women’s suffrage, birth control, and socialism, to name a few. In regard to the latter, she openly endorsed the socialist movement and often reflected on matters related to human liberation.
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(continued from page 11) After women were given the right to vote in 1920, Lou focused her efforts from the so-called “chalk talks” on street corners to other ventures. For example, she produced Gimmicks, a widely popular series of children’s stories in Ladies Home Journal in which the stories were accompanied by a then unheard of full-page of illustrations that could be cut out, thus allowing the reader to interact with the storyline. The success of this series inspired Lou to continue writing children’s books. Meanwhile, in 1925, Lou and her husband, artist Howard Smith, purchased an old farm in New Milford, Connecticut, which provided a quiet escape from the hustle of the big city and allowed her to focus on her artwork. In 1928 and 1929, she published two additional children’s books, The Rise of the Red Alders and Ska-Denge, respectively. In the early 1930s, Lou was invited by NBC Radio to become the radio host
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for the weekly program Animal News Club, which included “children’s own stories about their pets, true stories of the animal world, and colorful tales of the zoo and circus.” By early 1950, Lou was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after which her condition quickly deteriorated. On March 11, 1952, Lou Rogers died in Canton, New York and was subsequently buried in Patten Cemetery under the name of Annie Smith. In 1995, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. presented an exhibition titled, “Artful Advocacy: Cartoons of the Women’s Suffrage Movement.” The featured artists included Blanche Ames, Nina Allender, and of course, Lou Rogers.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Houlton’s Charles West A true Maine woodsman
by Charles Francis
C
harles West knew as much about the woods, trails, streams and lakes and ponds of Aroostook County as anyone could know. He knew what he knew because he dedicated much of his life to trapping, hunting, hiking and canoeing and every other sylvan pastime you might choose to name. Of course, whenever you say someone knows as much as anyone can about something there’s always something more to know. Did anyone know as much about the Aroostook woods as Charles West? Well, maybe, at least it seems West would like us to think so. He’d like us to think Walter Mansur was at the very least his woodsman peer. Mansur was West’s favorite companion bar none in
the woods. That’s why West called him “Commodore,” Commodore of the Birch-Bark Fleet, though at other times he was “Cap” for Captain, while West himself was crew or sometimes “Mr. Crew.” The “Commodore” and “Mr. Crew” personae appear in Charles West’s 1892 book Sketches of Camp Life in the Wilds of the Aroostook Woods, Aroostook County, Maine. West’s dates are important in understanding the nature of his book. He was born in 1820, and died in 1903. His work, which is often simply referred to as The Aroostook Woods, was produced towards the end of his life. It is a reminiscence: the thoughts and feelings of a seventy-year-old man looking back on what
had counted as important in his life. Quite clearly, West valued his relationship with Walter Mansur. There is an oddity in this, though. It is an oddity that speaks to the personae of the “Commodore” and “Mr. Crew.” Walter Mansur was for a significant number of years Charles West’s junior. Pictures taken of West and Mansur by Edward White around 1885 clearly show West the older of the two. Pertinent records give Mansur’s birth year as 1845. He died in 1900, two years before West. Charles West loved Aroostook County. He called it “the pride, the Eden of Maine, as beautiful a lake and forest country as the sun ever shone on.” For West, Aroostook forests were (continued on page 14)
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(continued from page 13) “glorious... well watered by lake and stream, river, brook and spring.... almost swarming with noble game and choice fish, the truly, real Elysium of the sportsman.” What kind of man writes words like the above? Well, to begin with, Charles West was something more than the simple sportsman and nature lover he would have the reader take him for. For much of his life he ran a profitable livery stable in Houlton. He was a taxidermist and a hunting and fishing guide. He also ran a trap line. In fact, the latter occupation may have been his true avocation. The introduction to The Aroostook Woods leaves one with the distinct impression that trapping is the book’s central subject: that is, trapping and spending as much time as possible at camp. Charles West uses the word camp in the traditional Maine sense. He uses it in the sense than any native Mainer understands and appreciates. He talks of
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in between. Often as not, the two used a pair of “Madamaski ponies, French all over, young, tough, and wiry, with lots of gimp, intelligent, brimful of fun, as wild as hawks at a yell, or as kind and steady as dogs the next moment when they hear your soothing tone of voice” to get their gear to camp. Camp was West’s Camp Caribou. There is an Edward White picture of Walter Mansur sitting in front of Camp Caribou taken sometime between 1882 and 1885. Camp Caribou takes its name from the animal, not the town. The log camp is decidedly primitive. A deer hangs ready for gutting and cleaning to the front of a peak overhang. There are piles of firewood to the front and under a shed roof to the side of the structure. As to Mansur, he could almost pass for a voyageur, one of those professional canoe men who transported furs by canoe during the fur trade era. His face has the look. He’s wearing a vest and jacket that put him closer to what he
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getting camp ready for the season and all that goes into doing this. For West, the season begins in the fall. Camp season is more than just hunting season, though. It is first and foremost trapping season. West talks of getting away to camp the first or second week of September. The best months for camp are those of September and October, when “the forest is in all its glory, ” and through November and December, “with the frequent light falls of snow.” This is when “exercise and the pure bracing air of the forest has nicely fitted one to meet the coming colder days.” The colder days are, of course, those for trapping. Prior to them much of camp life has been devoted to readying traps and spreading tantalizing bits of food along game trails so as to familiarize “the furry tribe” with the path. West and Mansur ranged the Aroostook woods from Madawaska to the Mattawamkeag River and everywhere
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com really was, though — President of the First National Bank of Houlton, President of the Houlton Water Company and Chief Engineer of the Houlton Fire Department. Only his obviously French chapeau and footwear speak otherwise. The chapters of The Aroostook Woods cover every aspect of woods lore imaginable, at least from the standpoint of the sportsman and the trapper. For the hiker there’s how to avoid getting lost. There are chapters on specific animals, bear and partridge and otter and so on. There’s chapters on hunting and fishing and one on canoeing the Mattawamkeag. There are two chapters on trapping. All-in-all, the book is a paean, a hymn of praise, to the Aroostook woods. The woods even have a medicinal aspect. It’s not what you might think, either. West recommends the clear bracing air of the forests as a cure for tuberculosis. Charles West was not a Henry David Thoreau. This comparison can’t be
made. Where Thoreau was a worldly transcendentalist, West was the practical sportsman. However, West did have a model, Maine’s first great outdoor writer. Every writer has his influences. Charles West’s would have had to have been John S. Springer. West and Springer roamed much of the same territory, though Springer wandered further afield. I think it quite likely that the two met and knew each other, though, to date I have been unable to document my theory. If there is any real difference between West and Springer as regards their attitude toward the woods, it’s in choice of occupation. Where West was a trapper, Springer was a timber cruiser, lumberjack and logger. As far as similarities between the two, the greatest, bar none, is that they both wrote books about camp life. John Springer’s book was Forest Life and Forest Trees. It was published
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before Thoreau commenced the series of essays we know today as his Maine Woods. Today critics recognize Springer’s influence on Thoreau. A consideration of the subtitle of Springer’s work gives a clear indication of Springer’s influence on Charles West. That subtitle is Comprising Winter Camp-Life Among The Loggers and Wild-Wood Adventure With Descriptions of Lumbering Operations on the Various Rivers of Maine and New Brunswick. Anyone who loves the woods and Aroostook County will find Charles West’s The Aroostook Woods worth reading. It’s a wonderfully idealized version of an era now long gone. West’s book is available from sellers like Amazon. Pictures of West and Walter Mansur are part of the collection of the Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum in Houlton. Walter Mansur’s Houlton home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. * Other businesses in this area are featured in the color section.
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Central Aroostook’s Entertainment Epicenter Presque Isle has always been a magnet
by Kimberly R. Smith (Presque Isle Historical Society)
T
he entertainment story in Presque Isle begins in 1880 with the opening of the theatre owned by C. G. Perry on the southeast corner of State (then known as Bridge) and Main Streets. This theatre had a seating capacity of about 800 people. Virtually any social event in the village was held in the opera house including plays, dances, receptions, lectures, boxing matches, recitals, town meetings, school graduations, and even indoor sports. The building was previously known as Johnson’s Hall, as it was located in
the building owned by C. A. Johnson and his Aroostook Lumber Company. In those days, theatres typically used kerosene lamps for lighting and had wooden benches, planks or straight back chairs for seating. Traveling acting or “stock” companies would arrive in town and stay for approximately a week with nightly shows including matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There were no shows on Sundays. Often these traveling companies were never sure if they would make it to town, leaving the theatre owners in the lurch and having to
fill in the schedule – or arriving at the last minute, causing a flurry of handbills being distributed for advertising the shows. Soon after the establishment of the Perry Opera House, the Presque Isle Opera House opened mere yards away on the opposite side of Main Street. This was not the first nor was it the last of the opera houses in Presque Isle. In fact, for a short period, one almost needed a program to keep track of the “players.” In addition to the various incarnations of the Perry Opera House and the Presque Isle Opera House,
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com there were also included The Elite, the Golden Horseshoe, The Dreamland and the Bijou Musical Company. The cost to rent one of the opera “halls” was relatively inexpensive at $5.00. The Perry Opera House was destroyed by fire on April 23, 1900. This was a great loss to the area as it was the largest theatre north of Bangor and the town had relied heavily on the space. Within a few months, a temporary bandstand had been built on the site for Presque Isle band concerts. The fire did not keep C.G. Perry down for long, though. He immediately made plans to rebuild. However, the problem at the time was that construction materials were scarce and costly. Perry also had difficulty finding a builder, as they worried about his ability to cover the steep material costs. Finally, George McArthur, a builder from St. John’s, New Brunswick, agreed to take on the job. Excavation began on August 4, 1902.
The plans called for a brick building measuring 125 feet X 60 feet, two stories in height, with space for five stores on the ground floor and the opera house on the second floor. In addition, there would be 14 hotel rooms and two bathrooms on the second floor (as the hotel next door burned down with the opera house). A.R. Gould’s lumber yard supplied 700,000 bricks for the building. It was, however, still an uphill battle. In March of 1903, the staging collapsed badly, injuring three workers. The Perry Opera House officially reopened on June 9, 1903. At the time, it was called Perry’s New Theatre. The new opera house had seating for 600 on the main floor, and sat an additional 200 around the three-sided balcony.The main floor measured 55 feet X 60 feet, and the stage 24 feet X 32 feet with a 32 foot curtain drop. There were three dressing rooms elevated above the stage which could be reached by stairs.
The opera house featured electric lights and stage lights operated by a switchboard. In April of 1905, downtown Presque Isle suffered a devastating fire known as “the Great Fire.” The Great Fire consumed many downtown buildings including Perry’s main competitor, the Presque Isle Opera House. Luckily, this time, the Perry Opera House was not affected. In 1905 it began to show “moving” pictures. Tragedy struck again in March of 1907 when owner C.G. Perry passed away from a fever. The Perry Opera House, however, remained active. It was temporarily taken over by the “Dreamland Theater,” which closed just months later in June. The building went up for auction on May 4, 1908. The Dreamland Theater then became “The Big Nickel.” The Nickel never saw the popularity of the Perry Opera House and simply seemed to fade away. The Hone family who owned and (continued on page 18)
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(continued from page 17) operated Presque Isle Opera House were similarly plagued by fires and rebuilt several times. Around this time, the family rented the Perry Theatre, operating it simply as “The Opera House,” showing moving pictures, plays, and “illustrated” songs. In July of 1913, the Perry Opera House showed its first “colored” films, and a new electrical sign with 140 lights built by local electrician Roy Steward was added. John E. Hayden leased the Perry Building in July of 1916 and hired a well-known local amateur actor and businessman, Harry R. Pipes, as manager of the Perry Theatre. Hayden renovated the building, renamed it “The Strand,” and opened for business on August 16, 1916. Hayden’s theatre venture lasted only three months. On July 12, 1917, a Canadian by the name of Lee Ferguson moved into the Perry Theatre to show moving pictures. Ferguson eventually leaves the theatre
Perry Opera House (left) and Presque Isle House Hotel (right) looking south along Main Street. Photo courtesy of the Presque Isle Historical Society.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com game in Presque Isle in order to join the Canadian Army in its World War I endeavors. The final performance on the stage of the Perry Theatre was held on August 31, 1935. It was Jimmie Hodges’ musical revue, Miami Nights. In September of 1935, the Perry was leased to J.W. Bridgman & Son of Dover, New Hampshire. Bridgman planned to refit the theater for sound. It re-opened on October 10 as the State Theatre. Once again, disaster struck the ill-fated Perry Building as it was gutted by fire on January 20, 1945. A group of local businessmen formed a corporation called “Community Real Estate Corp” and planned to build a theater, assembly hall, and business center on the site of the Perry/State Theatre. It was never built. The W.T. Grant store was later built on the site of the Perry Theatre. Today, the “W.T. Grant” building is the home of Bemis & Rossignol, Attorneys-at-Law.
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Enfield Soldier Let Confederates Look Him Over by Brian Swartz
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far from the point on the front where the mine was exploded in July” to literally blow a hole in the Confederate siege lines and ultimately to create the declivity soon called The Crater. Here the 11th Maine boys defended a Union siege line. Brady and his Co. D comrades settled into a three-day rotation: one day spent “on the picket line in our front” and two days spent sheltering in camp behind the Union line, he remembered. After sunset on Thursday, September 15 (described by Brady as “a bright moonlight night”), the Co. D soldiers relieved the 1st Maryland Infantry soldiers who had garrisoned the picket line for the previous 24 hours. Led by 2nd Lt. Albert Maxfield of Windham, “our men crept forward, each squad
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21
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com well informed of its assigned position, and all suddenly hurried for their positions, getting under cover as speedily as possible,” Brady recalled. To reach the picket posts, the Maine men kept low while crossing and descending a hill. Alert Confederate pickets listened and watched — and suddenly fired as Marylanders “moved up the hill somewhat carelessly” with “their [metal] plates and cups clanking noisily and themselves visible in the bright moonlight,” Brady noticed. Assigned to “the extreme left picket hole” along Co. D’s line, Sgt. Abner Bassett from Taunton, Massachussetts was “running towards it” when the Confederate pickets fired, Brady learned a while later. In the hole crouched Maxfield and other soldiers; reaching them, Bassett “thoughtlessly stood erect on its edge while saying, ‘Well, boys, I’m here.’” A Confederate bullet struck Bassett in the throat; he pitched dead into Maxfield’s arms. The lieutenant immediately “sent
word down the line” to Brady (by now a sergeant) to “take Sergeant Bassett’s place in the pit, and, if possible, have the body removed to the main [Union] works,” Brady recalled. He crawled to the hole while Maxfield “moved down the line to his position near the right of the company.” Then Maxfield asked for a volunteer to get a stretcher for removing Bassett’s body. A Springfield resident, Pvt. Prince Dunifer, crawled up the hill to the main siege line. He got the stretcher, but could not safely return. “The night was so bright that it was impossible for us to take the body in,” Brady explained. In a “firing mood … all night long,” the trigger-happy Confederate pickets “sent bullets flying at every moving shadow. “We could only lay the body on a rude bed that some one had spaded out of the side of the hole we were cooped in, and wait for the morning,” he recalled. Friday promised to be “a terribly hot
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day”; Bassett must be removed, “and I determined to make the venture,” Brady decided. Several comrades offered to help; Brady “selected Private Benjamin F. Dumphey” of Sebec, “whom I knew to be a cool, steady-nerved man.” Both men removed their belts to shed all military equipment suspended from them. “I then leaped out of the pit, and stood for a half-minute facing the enemy, numbers of whom arose from behind their works and took a look at me,” Brady recalled. “Seeing me unarmed and unequipped, they refrained from taking a shot at the fair mark I offered.” Believing that the Confederate pickets “would not shoot me without giving fair warning,” Brady “called to Dumphey to pass along a rubber blanket, which I laid rubber side down on the dew-wet grass.” After Dumphey climbed from the hole, “the men” in it “passed the body to us, and we laid it on the blanket.”
Brady and Dumphey each “took hold of an upper corner, and quickly slid it over the hill” to the main Union line, “from which a hundred hands were extended to take the body from us,” according to Brady. Then “we hurried back to the pit and, with a hasty salute to the watching enemy, leaped into it, each of us drawing our first long breath since placing ourselves at the mercy of the enemy,” he remembered. Originally buried at Taylor’s Farm near Petersburg, Bassett was later interred in Poplar Grove National Cemetery near the battlefield. He lies in Grave 714. Brady later earned a commission as a lieutenant in the 11th Maine. He survived the war because Confederate fingers did not tighten on rifle triggers on that sad day in September 1864.
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23
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H.D. Hartt’s General Store A Monticello landmark
by Wanda Curtis
O
lcoal Antiques in Monticello is a shop that holds many memories for local people. The old furniture, glassware, and quilts contained within the shop are not the only source of memories, though. The building itself is a historic place. One of the most well-known businesses to ever thrive there was H.D. Hartt’s General Store, owned and operated by the colorful Harry Hartt. Gloria Jewell (Hartt’s daughter) confirmed that Harry owned and operated the old fashioned general store for about 45 years. “Everything was sold in bulk,” said Jewell. “We had barrels of flour and barrels of pickles. They were the big pickles, and you scooped them out with a scoop into pint containers. You pumped molasses out of a barrel. It
was the same with vinegar. Residents would bring in their own jugs.” Hartt’s daughter recounted that he also sold dishes, hardware, shoes, nails, guns, fishing equipment, watches, yard goods, men’s work clothes, spools of thread, liver pills, linaments, groceries, and penny candies. “I used to tend the candy,” shared Jewell. “You could get 4 or 5 pieces of licorice for 1 cent when I was a kid.” According to Hartt’s daughter, the cheese came in big round blocks which would be placed in plastic containers with a piece of cheesecloth on top. She remembers that it was difficult back then to get fresh fruit in the wintertime, but they always managed to get some for the holidays. “We’d always get some fresh fruit, (continued on page 24)
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like apples, around Christmastime,” said Jewell. Mr. Hartt always bought a supply of fresh fish from local people. They kept frozen fish in a box on the porch. Townspeople often bartered at the store for what they needed. “They traded eggs and butter,” explained Jewell. A favorite part of the store for many locals was the old-fashioned soda fountain. “We had a soda fountain,” said Jewell. “It was a big deal back then. They’d have a lunch at the back counter. They’d have a sandwich and a sundae.” As in many of the old general stores, there was also a big old pot belly stove. The men would stand around and “chew the fat,” stated Jewell. Harry Hartt has been credited with bringing general merchandise into the town of Monticello. He made life a lot easier for Monticello residents who found it difficult to travel out of town for what they needed during the win-
tertime. The roads in Monticello didn’t get plowed back then. Most people rode the train if they wanted to travel to Houlton. They also travelled in sleighs pulled by horses. “Not too many people had cars,” shared Jewell. “Many people had a team of horses and a sleigh. They’d wear the big lap robes to keep themselves warm. I remember seeing the lanterns swinging back and forth on the sleighs. Saturday was a big night in town. People would go into town to shop, and sometimes we’d go down to Houlton in the morning and come back at night.” Hartt wasn’t just known for his involvement with the store business. He also served as the town mortician for many years. Jewell explained that her father went to work for the Dunns in Houlton, and that’s where he learned about being a mortician. Then he launched out on his own.
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
“I think he went to work for the Dunns during the big flu epidemic,” said Jewell. “They needed extra help. So he went to work for Mr. Dunn.” The Hartt family lived over the store for many years, and then moved into a big house near the store. Jewell remembers that her father built an addition on the back of the business to store the caskets. Mr. Hartt had four children. His wife, Julia, spent most of her time at home once they were born. She had worked in the store, too, prior to that time. Harry Hartt, who served so many, is no longer around. Memories of him, though, will linger in the minds of local people for years to come.
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OTT Communications
27
History of a local rural phone company
O
TT Communications, a division of Otelco Inc., is actually a family of local rural phone companies serving five states with a rich past steeped in a history of local spirit, resourcefulness, determination, and ingenuity.
When the telecommunication industry took root in the late 1880s, the Bell Telephone Company was concentrating its resources in densely populated, easy to serve locations around the country. It soon became apparent that connecting the more remote rural communities was not a priority for Ma Bell. It was then that the independent telephone industry began to take shape. As farming grew in the rural regions, so did manufacturing and the associated service organizations. In the 1890s, inspired by the publication of a manual that explained to farmers how they could develop their own telephone systems on a mutual or cooperative basis, many small telephone networks emerged throughout rural America.
Farmers and local businessmen leveraged their own funds to build local rural phone systems. At one point there were an estimated 6,000 privately held rural phone companies is existence. Estimates are that about 1,300 local phone companies still operate today. These small providers serve a mere 5% of telephone customers nationwide, but their coverage areas account for 40% of the country’ geography. In 1998 Otelco Inc. was formed to bring together and strengthen these scattered independent phone companies. Ten years later, Otelco formed OTT Communications to operate a family of rural phone companies in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and West Virginia. Although OTT carries on the tradition of providing rural telephone services with an emphasis on personal customer care, it is not your grandmother’s phone company by any means. Today, OTT offers innovative technology and communication solutions for businesses and residences; Hosted PBX telephones; high-speed internet access, and a
full range of cloud-based solutions through Reliable Networks. OTT currently operates more than 500 miles of lit fiber optic technology and is in the process of constructing enhancements to the 3 Ring Binder in Northern Washington and Aroostook Counties. This initiative paves the way for additional connections to and expansion of the 3RB network that carries 10 Gigs from Fort Kent to York. OTT is installing fiber to premise in select locations and conducting feasibility studies to determine the viability of fiber to premise initiatives in additional locations. For more than a century, OTT Communications companies have brought state-of-the-art communications technology to homes and businesses. Although the company constantly strives to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology, OTT’s foundation is its commitment to superior customer care and the local spirit, resourcefulness and ingenuity that drove its establishment more than a century ago.
OTT was providing Internet access via DSL delivery to its customers in parts of Maine.
1876
March 10, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first complete sentence to his assistant Thomas Watson. “Watson, come here: I want you.” After Bell showcased his device at the 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, it became known as the Centennial Telephone Transmitter.
2000
Today 1900 The OTT Communications is the premier provider of Hosted PBX Telephones in Northern New England, owns and operates a 500 mile network of optical fiber, and serves tens of thousands of customers in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The OTT Communications family of rural phone companies was well into construction of telecommunication infrastructure in small farming communities in southern and central Maine.
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
28
Aroostook’s Underground Railroad Runaway slaves found sanction in Fort Fairfield by Edith Miller
W
ho would have thought New Brunswick had a connection with the Underground Railroad? Though in American history classes we did learn that slaves escaped into Canada, the emphasis, I think, was to states that were free of slavery. It was more after the 1850 Compromise Bill, which ordered that runaways in the north must be returned to their “master,” that the slaves had the additional danger of bounty hunters, and abolitionists conducted the runways to Canada. At Camp NeeKauNis, which my family and I attended in 1976, we were told about the slaves crossing the border into Ontario right near the camp. So I was astonished to find out this October that there were 130 Underground Railroad stations in Maine that led the runaways
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to New Brunswick. Friends Church in Maple Grove, Maine (near Fort Fairfield, Maine, and Perth, Andover, New Brunswick), a programmed Meeting, was built in 1859-63 by Quaker settlers who followed Joseph Wingate Haines and Mary Briggs Haines’ arrival in 184. The Haines family was among Quakers who helped conduct escaping slaves to the border. Nothing was recorded, because it was against the law to assist the slaves. Quakers were known for obeying civil law, but if they did assist them they certainly didn’t want to be discovered breaking the law. In fact, it took the law-abiding Friends Society about 100 years even to make a stand against slavery. “Stations” on the Underground Rail-
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com road “conducted” slaves. The James Fitzherbert Tavern in Fort Fairfield was one station. Slaves were hidden in a secret room behind a roll-away door that looked like a wall, then shuttled via Sam Everett Road to Tomlinson Lake in New Brunswick (between Carlingford and Beaconsfield). This route met another one that took slaves from Friends Church and Haines home sanctuaries, across Monson Pond to the border. Once in New Brunswick, they would be met by communities of blacks along the St. John River between Saint John and Fredericton, established in earlier migrations. In 1906 Friends Church was renovated, with a stained glass window, steeple, bell tower, oak pews, and organ. But in 1972, representatives of New England Yearly Meeting was to the sale of the church o the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Its pastor, Reverend Charles Stanton then gave it to Frontier Heritage Historical Society in 1995ad started restoring it. This brings
us to October 2000. On invitation by Frontier Heritage, Michael and I and 25 other Friends and attendees of New Brunswick Monthly Meeting (half are cross-border State o’ Mainers) came to celebrate the restoration of the Friends Church on October 22nd. Harry and Marilyn Roper, from the Houlton-Woodstock Worship Group of New Brunswick Monthly Meeting, have been active in the restoration programme. The great-greatgreat-grandson if J. Wingate and Mary Haines were there to welcome the congregation, which over spilled the pews. Frontier Heritage vice-president Dan Ayoob and Rev. Charles Stanton welcomed us. Harriet Price, the co-founder of Maine Underground Railroad Association, gave a presentation, and Ruth Mraz, coordinator of the Friends Church History Project, gave an overview of the project. The platform on which she spoke, she told us, oral historians believe covered a trap door to a (continued on page 31)
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (continued from page 29)
secret hiding place of the slaves. Marilyn Roper explained Quakerism as the audience would probably be unfamiliar with Quaker history and beliefs, and especially with the conduct of an unprogrammed meeting. This was followed by twenty minutes of silent worship. Out of the silence sprung words of thanksgiving to “the Quaker’s courage and dedication in helping fellow beings”, as “they walked the talk;” and comparing the light shining through the saints in the stained glass to the slaves’ effort in making their way to freedom. No mention of this ministry appeared in the local newspaper report – perhaps it was misunderstood by the reporter. A woman I talked to also seemed to misinterpret the ministry as she was left with the impression that the Quaker light within was like that of the light of the near-death or outof-death experience. As I groped for an explanation amid the hubbub of the crowd, my answer was more dialectical
than definitive. The short worship closed with all joining hands and singing ’Tis a Gift to be Simple, a tradition with New Brunswick Monthly Meeting. The abolitionist song, Follow the Drinking Gourd, was led by Audrey Zimmerman, voice, and Lewis Wirta, guitar, both of the Houlton-Woodstock group. This gourd was the symbol or the Big Dipper constellation and North Star, to direct the saves north. Abolitionist Hymn was led by Harry Roper, French horn, and Dan Foster, piano. After the event, we visited the Haines Maple Grove cemetery, restored by a descendent, then at the nearby Francis Malcolm Science Centre, we saw a Follow the Drinking Gourd show, delightfully interactive and intergenerational, by Larry Berz. Carolyn Thomas, from the black community of East Preston, Nova Scotia, has also been researching the Underground Railroad and Nova Scotia
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(continued on page 32)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
32 (continued from page 31)
blacks. When she met with Maine Underground Railroad Association members, they swapped oral history stories. One story was of a 92-year old in New Brunswick whose great-grandparents had escaped by floating across a river, probably the St. John or St Croiz, in molasses barrels. MURRA c-founder Harriet Price says that, “they cheerfully celebrated the meeting as if each had been digging a tunnel from opposite sides and suddenly broke through!”
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Home • Auto • Motorcycle • Snowmobile • Boat Seasonal & Vacation Homes • Valuable Property Business • Transportation Workers’ Compensation Employee Benefits • Life & Health
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________________
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www.UnitedInsurance.Net
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Caron & Son Paving Free Estimates/Fully Insured
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834-5751
Fort Kent, Maine
Early view of Main Street in Fort Kent. Item # LB2007.1.106050 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Opposite International Bridge • Haven for Snowmobilers Plug-Ins for Trucks Available • Direct Access to Trails Free Wireless Internet • Pets Allowed Clean, Comfortable Rooms • Cable TV with Remote Continental Breakfast Included 356 West Main Street • P.O. Box 327, Fort Kent, Maine 04743
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
34
Does your house get cold in the winter? Find out why! Call Paul for a FREE energy audit today
207-557-3204 Paul Libby - BPI Certified Energy Auditor
prlibby@fairpoint.net Fort Kent, ME
M.L. PELLETIER TRUCKING, INC. Est. 2010
On/Off Highway Trucking, Specializing in the Transportation of Logs
St. Louis Catholic Church in Fort Kent. Item #LB2007.1.100840 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
207-436-5171
1530 St. John Road • St. John, ME
A FAMILY TRADITION FOR OVER 60 YEARS
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Presque Isle’s Dr. Storer Boone Long-time local doctor and snowmobile enthusiast
by Kimberly R. Smith
(Presque Isle Historical Society)
D
r. Storer Woodford Boone was born in 1893 and was the fifth of Dr. Sherman and Mrs. Elizabeth Boone’s six children. His father had moved to Presque Isle from Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1887 to begin his practice. The elder Boone retired in 1932. The other Boone siblings included Annis Mary, who became a wellknown house mother at the University of Maine; Frank, a civil engineer and contractor who built the Caribou Road; Ralph, a dentist who practiced in Caribou; and Margaret. Storer grew up on Dyer Street in Presque Isle next door to Arthur Gould, a well-known and respected business-
man. He attended Academy Training School, was a local baseball star, played in the band, and graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1913. Life was not always golden, though. As a young child, he fell through the ice on the river and was rescued by the family dog who dragged him to safety. Also, after graduation from McGill University in Montreal in 1919, Storer contracted tuberculosis and spent two years in a sanatorium in Saranac, New York. In 1900 America, TB was one of the top three causes of death with 1 in every 4 people contracting the disease. After graduation, Boone married Phebe McGregor, a native of British Columbia and also a McGill graduate.
The Boones settled in Presque Isle, living first on Coburn Avenue before building a stately home on Third Street. Dr. Storer Boone practiced medicine from the office he shared with his father on the 2nd floor of the Boone Block. The building was owned by Dr. Sherman Boone, Fred P. Stevens, and W.S. Thompson. It was designed by Frank Lucius Boone, his brother, and built by N.W. Downing & Sons in 1925. A “block” during that era referred to a building which housed several businesses as opposed to today’s use of the word “block,” which typically refers to a stretch of buildings from one side street to the next. (continued on page 36)
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Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
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(continued from page 35) Boone provided hospital care at Presque Isle Hospital, which would have been in the second public hospital on Second Street and which now serves as City Hall. By the late 1950s when the City outgrew the facility of Second Street and plans were being made for a new hospital on the east end of Academy Street, Dr. Storer Boone was instrumental in raising the funds necessary to build the new facility. A large portion of those funds came from Mr. and Mrs.W.H. Wildes of Dallas, Texas. Mrs. Wildes was the daughter of Arthur Gould. The new hospital, now The Aroostook Medical Center, was dedicated on January 9, 1960. In 1962 the Wildes Foundation was formed by Mr. and Mrs. Wildes “in recognition and appreciation of the services rendered by Storer W. Boone to Presque Isle and the State of Maine in the field of medicine and civic endeavors.” Funds from the Foundation were used to purchase a Picker Cobalt
60 therapy unit, a piece of new cancer fighting equipment, for the hospital. Dr. Boone worked hard and enjoyed his down time as well. In fact, he was one of the earliest owners of a “snowmobile” in Aroostook County. He had a local mechanic, Ansel Adams, replicate a vehicle built by Gould Electric Company. The body of the vehicle was a Model T truck, which was equipped with runners on the front and tracks in the back. The vehicle could travel up to eight miles per hour and had no brakes. The Model T was used because the vehicle had to be narrow enough to fit into the horse and buggy tracks in the snow, as country roads were not often plowed in the winter at that time. Dr. Storer Boone was one of four Maine physicians recognized by the Maine Medical Association for 50 years of service to the medical community at a reception at the Samoset Hotel in Rockland, Maine. He served as the President of the medical staff at the
hospital from 1959 to 1960. In addition, he was one of the first doctors in northern Maine to be elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Boone retired in 1967 after 46 years in medical practice ― the same number of years as his father, Dr. Sherman Boone. Having practiced medicine in one community for over 40 years, several generations in one family often knew Dr. Boone as their physician. On September 19, 1937, Dr. Boone delivered a daughter to Guy and Helen Todd of Easton. For several days, the child went unnamed. Finally, Dr. Boone told the new parents if they did not name her by the following day, he was naming her Elizabeth after his mother, since the child had been born on his mother’s birthday. Dr. Boone stayed in touch with young Elizabeth, often calling her to wish her “Happy Birthday.” In fact, for her wedding gift in 1968, Dr. Boone gave Elizabeth two engraved silver spoons that had belonged to his
Representing Buyers and Sellers Residential • Land • Commercial Recreational
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mother. Elizabeth Todd Shaw proudly displayed these spoons in her home for several years as an example of the close relationship that existed between a family doctor and his patients. The spoons are now in the collections of the Presque Isle Historical Society, donated by Mrs. Shaw as a testament to Dr. Boone’s long-lasting love and concern for his patients. The Boone legacy continued. Storer’s younger son, Alan, followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and became a third generation doctor. Incidentally, he also graduated from McGill University. Alan practiced in Bangor, specializing in hematology, internal medicine, and oncology. His older son, Gary, became a distinguished geologist and professor at Syracuse University. He received his Ph.D. in Geology from Yale in 1959. He also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. Gary is now retired and lives here in Presque Isle.
Congregational church in Fort Fairfield, ca. 1930. Item #10599 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
ASHLAND DINER TIMBERLANDS, LLC
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portage lakeside cabins ~ Open Year Round ~ Housekeeping Cabins • Modern Bathhouse Full Kitchen • Hot Tub • Many EXTRAS Hunting, Fishing, & Snowmobiling from ITS 85 & ITS 90 or Enjoy A Family Vacation
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40th
For information on outdoor recreational opportunities in this region, please feel free to contact us.
A full-service, sustainable natural resource management company.
10A Main St. Ashland, ME
The North Maine Woods organization manages the public use of nearly 4 million acres of public and private forest land in northern Maine, including much of western Aroostook County.
• Agri-Business Trade Fair April 2 & 3
Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce
• Maine Potato Blossom Festival July 9 to 17 • County Bluegrass Festival July 21 to 24 • Labor Day
chamber@fortcc.org Bluegrass Festival
207•472•3802
Sept. 1 to 4
18 Community Center Drive, Fort Fairfield, ME 04742
info@northmainewoods.org
NORTH MAINE WOODS EXPERIENCE THE TRADITION
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Hayes Brothers Carpentry ~ Hammering since the 1900s ~
Free Estimates
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Specializing In:
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Ross: 207-227-4971 • Doil: 207-554-0351 Mike: 207-227-3355 Fort Fairfield, ME
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
38
Early view of the Cyr block in Limestone. Item #LB2010.9.118061 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Fred McGillan, Sr., Fred McGillan, Jr. & Shane McGillan
Giberson-Dorsey
(207) 473-4097
144 Main St., Fort Fairfield, ME
Serving you for 3 generations
Aaron M. Giberson, Director gibersondorseyfuneralhome.com
5 McGillan Drive Fort Fairfield, ME 04742
Funeral Home 472-4731
FREE Estimates Fully Insured Commercially & Residentially Interior & Exterior Carpentry • Landscaping Plowing & Snow Removal Rough Framing and Finish Work
Jacob Beaupre
(207) 554-7249
www.limestonemaine.org • email: chamber@limestonemaine.org
beaupresconstruction@gmail.com Caribou, ME
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207-325-4723 • Cell: 227-5676 Fax: 325-3482 51 Access Hwy • Limestone, ME
Kirkpatrick & Bennett LAW OFFICES Hugh S. Kirkpatrick Patrick R. Bennett ATTORNEYS AT LAW Downtown Mall • Caribou, ME
(207)-498-8711
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Potato harvesting in Limestone. Item #LB2008.19.116696 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
For all your electrical needs. Fully Insured Dependable Service Quality Guaranteed
Brambleberry Market
John P. LaJoie
Owner: Debbie Sutherland
Douglas H. Hunter • John R. Johnston • Jeremy J. Corey
Lancaster Morgan
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•
30 Church Street, Presque Isle, ME • 764-0625
•
207-498-8000
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&
Duncan Graves
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9am-5pm • Sat. 9am-4pm
8 Main Street, Mars Hill, ME • 764-0625
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CITY JEWELRY & LOAN
Vince Anderson II, Owner Custom Body & Paint Work Collision Repair Specialist Glass Installation Free Insurance Appraisals NO JOB TOO BIG!
“We Sell Used & Rebuilt Vehicles”
498-2097
454 Main, Caribou
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
40
Madawaska’s J. Normand Martin Local artist designed a Bangor icon by Brian Swartz
A
graphics artist from Madawaska designed the legendary logger long associated with Bangor. J. Normand Martin, who grew up in “a family of 15,” has been interested in drawing “ever since I was a kid.” People often stopped by the Martin home; “if they were interesting people, I’d do portraits of them,” he recalled. Deciding that he should professionally “learn how to draw,” Martin studied for three years at the School of Practical Art in Boston. “Art school was important to me,” he said. “I really learned a lot there.” Returning to Maine, Martin soon took an artist’s position with Tom Kane Advertising in Hampden. Among his
Caribou, Maine:
Your central location to a winter wonderland.
~ J. Normand Martin & the Paul Bunyan statue ~
caribou
Theatres 2 Shows Each Night Saturday & Sunday Matinees 2pm
Ice-fishing, cross-country and nordic skiing, the bestgroomed snowmobile trails anywhere--you name it and Caribou is the perfectly located destination in Aroostook County
MOCKLER FUNERAL HOME
For information:
“Three Generations of Funeral Service”
Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce www.cariboumaine.net (207) 498-6156
other responsibilities, he created highly detailed portraits of Tom Kane clients and well-known businesspeople and politicians in Maine; these portraits appeared in various New England publications, including Maine newspapers. A committee was formed in Bangor in 1958 to “develop ideas on how to celebrate the city’s 125th birthday” as a city in 1959, Martin recalled. “Different ideas were proposed. Connie Bronson came up with the idea of having a statue of Paul Bunyan done.” Bangor had long claimed the mythical Bunyan as a native son. In the mid-19th century, the Queen City had been the so-called “lumber capital of the world,” annually shipping hundreds (continued on page 42)
66 Sweden Street • Caribou For More Information: (207) 496-FLIK
207-768-5500 408 Main Street • Presque Isle
bradentheater.com www.cariboutheatres.com ~ Dow Theater Co. ~ Celebrating Over 75 Years
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492-9385 24 Reservoir Street • Caribou, Maine
mocklerfuneralhome.com
207-496-3011 Still Locally Owned & Operated
41
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Early view of the Madawaska Co. Mill in Van Buren. Item #LB2007.1.114565 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
BLACKED OUT Window Tint Service STATE CERTIFIED WINDOW TINT INSPECTION STATION
VAN BUREN HARDWARE Vaillancourt Building Supply, Inc.
DAN HAINES
(207) 227-6185 112 LOMBARD RD. • CARIBOU, ME 04736
GARY VAILLANCOURT - Owner
PH: 207.868.2254 • FAX: 207.868.5026 vanburenhardware@yahoo.com 525 Main Street • Van Buren, ME
June 14 - September 15 Memorial Day - October 1
TULSA, INC.
Serving The County for over 40 years!
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34 Main Street • Van Buren
tulsainc.com
$6.00
New Exhibit! Vintage Doll Collection! 5 Miles North of Van Buren on U.S. Route One Van Buren, Maine
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
42
(continued from page 40) of thousands of feet of lumber to ports in the Americas and elsewhere. By far the tallest and most muscular of hardy Maine lumberjacks, Bunyan supposedly helped harvest the virgin forests of northern Maine before shouldering his broad ax and heading for the upper Midwest woods with Babe the Blue Ox. Supposedly Bunyan was born in Bangor on the same day — Feb. 12, 1834 — Maine legislators incorporated Bangor as a city. Bangor boosters funded the Bunyan statue, which initially took shape as a 22-inch scale model sculpted in clay by Martin. The contract for building the ultimately 31-foot statue went to Messmore and Damon Co. of New York City. In September 1958 Martin boarded a Northeast Airlines plane in Bangor and “carried the model of the statue in my lap” all the way to New York. Artisans carefully crafted the statue in sections,
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and Martin monitored its progress. Mostly satisfied with the statue’s transition from scale model to full size, he has always believed that “they made the head a little bit large for that body. “That’s bothered me all these years,” Martin said. “I felt the head was one foot taller than it should be.” The Messmore and Damon artisans had never manufactured such a statue,
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and difficulties did crop up. “They had trouble keeping the chin with all the whiskers pinned to the head,” Martin recalled. Meanwhile, serious discussion took place in Bangor as to where to place the statue; according to Martin, committee members finally selected a site in Bass Park, alongside Main Street with the new Bangor Auditorium as a backdrop. The site, laying about halfway between Buck and Dutton streets, would place Paul Bunyan to “greet” motorists exiting onto Main Street from the new Interstate-395 spur. Messmore and Damon shipped the Bunyan sections to Bangor in early February 1959; the on-site assembly started on Thursday, February 12. “It was snowing that day,” Martin said. “The snow really cut down on the number of people [who] gathered to watch what we were doing.” Despite the curve ball thrown by
One bedroom apartments for income eligible elderly, 62 years or older, or disabled. Private entrance from the outside with a picturesque view of the valley. Monthly rent, including utilities, is 30% of your adjusted income. Cable TV at a low fee. ~ Smoke Free Building ~ St. John Valley Management
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February 4, 5 & 6 Top O’Maine Trade Show April 23 & 24, 2016 ___________________ April 30 - May 1st Acadian Festival Aug. 12-15, August 11th -2016 15th ___________________ Community Yard Sale May 28 & 29, 2016
(207) 728-7000 356 Main St. • P.O. Box 144 Madawaska, ME 04756
GreaterMadawaskaChamber.com
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Mother Nature, the statue “went up all right,” he recalled. The statue arose on a 6-foot, stonefaced concrete base. Designed to withstand 120 mile-per-hour winds, each section was internally reinforced. According to Martin, a 10-inch steel pipe “with thick walls comes up from each boot to meet at the belt. Wood framing extends from the belt buckle to the shoulders.” The two pipes extend 6 feet into the concrete pedestal. “The area around the neck was not sealed when the head was set in place,” Martin said. Wanting to moisture-proof the statue’s interior and knowing that wind-driven Maine rain or snow can get into any crack in a building (or statue), he had the neck and the boots sealed. The completed statue features the smiling Bunyan (clad in the typical clothing that a Maine logger might have worn on the job in the late 19th century or early 20th century) slinging
his broad ax over his right shoulder and clutching the handle of a larger-thanlife-sized (and Maine-invented) peavey with his left hand. He faces the southeast, which, while not the direction to which loggers headed in the 1840s and 1850s, does direct his gaze toward distant Mount Desert Island, the destination of many tourists who stop specifically in Bangor to be photographed with Paul Bunyan. The official dedication of the 3,700-pound statue took place several weeks later. Not long before that ceremony, the 33-year-old Martin dressed up as Bunyan and posed for a photo in front of the statue. In an era when men usually went clean-shaven, Martin even grew a beard for the occasion. “Some people who saw the photo thought I had designed the statue to look like me,” Martin said with a chuckle many years later. “I didn’t.” When Bangor boosters dedicated
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137 Saint Catherine St., Madawaska, ME
207-543-1032
MER & BOYS BODY SHOP COLLISION CENTER ~ Est. 1986 ~
Locally owned & operated by Mike Michaud
Professional, Courteous Service Certified Collision Shop PPG Insurance Estimates Celebrating 30 years of service!
307 Main St. • Frenchville, ME
543-6972 • 487 US Route 1, Frenchville, ME
Mainely Magnetos
Mitch’s Heating
Belanger’s Auto Electric Inc.
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the statue, its predicted lifespan was “indefinitely,” he said. “Yeah, I did expect it to survive, and it’s done very well since then.” Thieves made off with the almost 4-foot-long swing hook of Bunyan’s statue circa 2006. Bangor police discovered the hook behind a nearby West Side house in September 2008. The statue has required some maintenance, including a project undertaken in spring 2009 to touch up the fiberglass, repaint Bunyan from head to toe, and repair the concrete base. The recovered swing hook of Bunyan’s peavey was reattached at the same time. Martin served on the volunteer committee charged with overseeing the 2009 project. He has been inside the statue since 1959; the last time was a few years ago, when “I went inside to check the framework,” he said. “Everything was still solid in there. (continued on page 44)
Steve & Debbie Belanger Steve@MainelyMagnetos.com
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Mitchell Dumond
Home: (207)543-5012 Cell: (207)316-8117 St. Agatha, ME 04772
Aroostook & Northern Penobscot
44
(continued from page 43) “It gets very hot inside there in the summer time,” said Martin, who was paid $137 for his statue-related work in the late 1950s. Although Paul Bunyan was the “largest” such project with which he was involved, Martin worked on many other projects. When the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad agreed to participate in the 1967 Montreal Expo, Martin designed and skillfully built a scale-model B & A train. He made each car, including the locomotives; Martin even installed and wired the electric motors that drove them. The operational train and its attendant display were popular with Maine residents visiting the expo.
Early view of a rectory in St. Agatha. Item #LB2010.8.117311 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
Babin Construction Landscaping • Septics • Excavation Shale • Gravel • Loam • Snow Removal
Fully Insured Josh Babin Proprietor BUS: 207-543-5159 • CELL: 207-436-0178
SANDRA’S KITCHEN & PIZZA TO GO (207) 543-6901 ~ Tanning Now Available ~
GARY BABIN’S GROCERIES & MEATS 2-4 lb. Lobsters To Go Fresh Lobster Rolls
(207) 543-9369
179 Bouchard Rd. • St. Agatha, ME 04772
358 Main Street • Saint Agatha, Maine
DORIS’ CAFE
LEE R.C. THERIAULT, CPA
“The Valley’s Finest Home-Cooked Food”
Hours: Monday-Friday 5AM to 2PM (Serving Breakfast & Lunch) Saturday 5AM to 12 Noon (Serving Breakfast Only) Closed Sunday
Linda Daigle, Proprietor
834-6262 345 Market Street • Fort Kent Mills
St. John Valley Realty Co. 8 East Main Street Fort Kent, Maine
(207) 834-6725
Real Estate • Rents • Management Michael Albert, Broker/Owner stjohnvalleyrealty.com
Certified Public Accountant Tied up in your work? We can help! Use our services to your advantage! • Tax Services • Accounting Services • Payroll Services • Bookkeeping Services Phone: 207-834-5448 • theriaultcpa@fairpoint.net 34 East Main St., Suite 102 • Fort Kent, ME 04743 www.stjohnvalleycpa.com
207-834-2880 Your neighborhood drug store
Charles Ouellette, Owner/Pharmacist 182 Market Street • PO Box 189 Fort Kent, Maine 04743
sjvrx.com
45
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Sanctuary Sacred places abound in the St. John River Valley by Jeffrey Bradley
D
raw a straight line on any map from Van Buren to Allagash. North of it lies the picturesque St John Valley. In a fold of the Appalachians, where the Madawaska and St John rivers meet, amid woodlands, hills and chains of lakes, with bountiful crops rippling in the late summer sun and the ridges ablaze with fall’s first color, lies one of Maine’s most scenic places. The fertile soil produced another kind of crop: people unvexed by city living. Very French, unalterably provincial, exclusively Roman Catholic, these Maine Acadians (which include St. Lawrence Québécois and Madawaska “Brayons”), formed a distinc-
tive ethnic mix steeped in language, faith and culture. Religion has always played a major role, as the symbols of faith in the valley attest; a deep attachment to land and family also defines the people. Times were turbulent as the French and English battled for Canada. When the United States came bumping up against the border, in the shape of Maine, things grew more troublesome still. Fleeing the British, then British Loyalists (themselves chased from the former Thirteen Colonies), and finally partitioned by treaty, the French-Canadians have found refuge in the Madawaska Territory since 1755. Dispossessed, but hardy folk, they made their
way under difficult conditions. A sense of community held them together; an abiding faith helped to sustain them. Before boundaries were set, farming was practiced peaceably along both sides of the river. Following tumult, the St. John River became the international border. Anything north fell to Canada; the rest went to the United States — and effectively turned thousands of French-Canadians into American citizens overnight. Established as a parish by the bishop of Quebec, the territory had soon built mission chapels in Van Buren and Frenchville. As the population grew, new parishes were added, and church(continued on page 46)
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(continued from page 45) es began to pop up all over the Valley. Ecclesiastical decree ceded the parish to the Diocese of Portland in 1870, and today there are four: St. Peter Chanel in Van Buren, Notre-Dame-du-MontCarmel in Madawaska, Our Lady of the Valley in St. Agatha, and St. John Vianney in Fort Kent. Acadian culture is prevalent. The Stella Maris, or Face of Mary, the national yellow star, represents hospitality, and is common throughout the region. A heritage symbol displaying the steadfast resolve that guided a diaspora through the wilderness, later waves of emigres would know that under it meant shelter. Steeples, too, took on a deeper meaning. Like a finger of resurrection, they pointed the way toward heaven. Even belfries meant more than just ringing of bells, but a tintamarre, the boisterous clangor of Acadian vitality. In time, these sacred sites, historic cemeteries, and architecturally signif-
icant churches would come to pepper the Valley. Kinship kept Acadian settlements tightly-knit. Even now, the border is little more than a porous concept when it comes to maintaining social ties. One in three Mainers today consider themselves of French, French-Canadian, or Acadian stock. Religion is a regional fact of life. Statutes of the Madonna and saints are everywhere. Priests were viewed as community leaders, but tensions arose between an Acadian sense of independence and the demands of an unbending faith. Catholicism is deeply ingrained, but is sometimes tinged by local custom. Daily devotions — reciting the rosary, attending mass, Sunday Vespers — and observing the official holidays of Christmas, Easter, and All Saints Day are de rigueur, of course, but like many agricultural communities Acadians hold certain beliefs in the elements. Non-conformity often creeps in. L'eau
de Páques, or Easter Water, for example, is known for purity and sanctity. And dispensing holy water has long been the province of parish priests. Yet Acadians display it offhandedly within their homes. With the apparent power to ward off storms, quantities are sprinkled around at the first rumble of thunder. Any local spring supply will do, if — and this is key — the water is collected before dawn on an Easter Sunday. A priest may or may not be summoned to bless it, but if gathered at sunrise on Easter Sunday, it’s sacred. Marist priests — the ‘Society of Mary’ was a 19th century Roman Catholic evangelizing force — introduced the quaint custom of transplanting crosses. In back settlements, crosses prompted the faithful to worship, and served as talismans protecting the lonely roadsides. Some might be a memorial to a loved one,or convey thanks for a prayerful intercession. Others marked
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the site of a long-gone church or graveyard. One, in Grand Isle, solemnizes the crops ruined by a particularly stormy season. They can also be exemplary, as those opposite the Acadian Village in Van Buren, and beyond the Frenchville post office, display. A rough-cut cross of twisty boughs, put in the ground in 1755, protects St. David’s Church in Madawaska. Nearby, family markers line the way to the sacred white marble cross that commemorates the first Acadian crossing. And in Keegan, an old iron cross pays homage to a vanished log mission, built in 1826 and also considered sacred. Little St. Joseph Church has ministered to generations of Caswell and Hamlin folk since 1884. Benedictions are still invoked for a successful potato harvest. In back of the church, graves bear Valley names of Parent, Ayotte, and Cyr. St. Bruno, in Van Buren, was among the Valley’s original chapels. It merged with St. Rémi in 1991. The stained glass windows are illuminating works of art that bathe the interior with radiant light. With characteristic savoir faire, these panels depict the Virgin Mary and Valley parish saints. The tottering headstones in the cemetery, ornate but weather-worn, have proven a genealogist’s dream. In 1973, the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church was listed on the National Register of His-
toric Places. One of the last surviving 19th century Acadian church buildings, this imposing wooden edifice features steeply pitched gables and clerestory windows. The complex façade comprises three double-door entryways under another gable, bracketed by two square towers that rise to belfries of colonnades supporting a cupola crowned by an angel blowing a trump. The arched windows resemble the ‘murder slits’ (those narrow apertures from which archers let fly) of a medieval castle; each is topped by a wheeled Celtic cross. Baroque but simplistic, this his-
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Early view of St. Louis Catholic Church in Fort Kent. Item #LB2007.1.100840 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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toric pile commands attention within unabashedly rustic surroundings. Now displaying important Acadian artifacts, the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel is a valued historical Valley treasure. The cemetery, still active, has headstones dating from 1870. A special note of appreciation to Father Jacques LaΡοίnte, author,
Of Stars and Steeples: A Divine Arcadian Tour; Joseph Donald Cyr, Founder and Director, Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel; Anne Chamberlin, Arcadian Archives Specialist at UMFK; and Lois Muller, President of the Madawaska Historical Society, for this article.
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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The Fort Kent Railroad Station One of Maine’s beloved historic sites
by Roger Gordon
B
eautiful scenery, exquisite seafood and harsh winters are not the only things for which the state of Maine is known. It also happens to be the home to hundreds of historical sites that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One is the Fort Kent Railroad Station. Located at the northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, the station opened in 1902 as the northern terminus of the Fish River Railroad to build a line from Fort Kent to Ashland. It was later used by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, of which the Fish River Railroad, a construction company, was a subsidiary. The first train came through on December 15. The arrival of the railroad provided the area with much-needed freight service. It marked the beginning of significant growth in the farming, business, and, to a lesser extent, lumbering sectors of the community. “It was a great economic boom for our town,” said Chad Pelletier, president of the Fort Kent Historical Society. “We now had markets in the outside world. We could get products in and then ship them out.” Potatoes were the main selling point, but other products such as hay, grain, pulpwood and game were also shipped over the railroad.
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“There was a passenger line, too,” Pelletier said. “A lot of the early advertisements of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad really touted the sportsman thing like river trips. The passenger line, though, never made a profit. It stopped carrying passengers in 1961, but it continued to carry freight for many more years until trucks surfaced.” The train station was decommissioned in 1979 as the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad moved into a new building close by. Soon after, it was sold for $5,000 to the Historical Society, and its interior was converted into a museum space dedicated to local rail-related history and its influence on the region. The single-story wood frame structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 21, 1989. Two years ago the exterior was restored to the exact colors of the original building, and the terrain was refurbished to what it looked like more than a century ago. The station has a gable-on-hip roof and wide overhanging eaves that are typical features of other Bangor and Aroostook Railroad stations. It has clapboard siding and a concrete foundation. Its east facade has a projecting telegrapher’s bay, large baggage doors to the south and windows and doors for the ticketing area and waiting room to the north. On top of all of that, the rail-
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road is still in business. “We use it to ship lumber from Fort Kent to Ashland,” Pelletier said. “It’s not the same railroad company, though. The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad filed bankruptcy around the late 1990s. The tracks belong to the state of Maine, the Department of Transportation. The state purchased them a couple years ago. The railroad is leased to a subsidiary of Irving.” The train station and museum are just two attractions on site. Others are a home that was built in the 1840s, a replica of a local schoolhouse that has educational material about the history of education in Fort Kent and a restored barn that includes a small stable. “We also own the adjoining building to the train station, the freight shed,”
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Pelletier said, “which we use as a general museum that includes a library of books, newspaper articles, archives, photographs, things like that. Most people who visit are more interested in their family history because they have Fort Kent connections. In fact, we had an older gentleman from Baltimore visit. As a young man he arrived at the train station as a passenger in the 1940s. He wanted to relive his childhood.” The Fort Kent Railroad Station is open Tuesday through Friday from noon-4 p.m. or by appointment from late-June through mid-August. Tours are available, and a handful of trinkets are sold in the museum. For more information, please visit the station’s Facebook page.
* Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
Aroostook Valley Railroad in Presque Isle. Item #LB112669 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Long Lake Dam by Jeffrey Bradley
G
An amazing manmade feature
azing across that old dam site today, it’s hard to imagine any more peaceful place in Maine. Yet, just over a century ago this tranquil terrain was shattered by the roaring clank of iron machinery, the crash of felled forest giants, the incessant whine of ripping buzzsaws. At one time, in fact, all 92 miles of this watery old timber trail now called the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was a chaotic jumble of frenzied activity. Back then, the challenge facing the engineers was getting huge rafts of timber downstream to the waiting mills — a formidable task, given the state of existing technology. Yet, like wizards performing feats of magic, they changed the course of mighty rivers, raised the water levels of enormous lakes, and otherwise threw themselves against the impregnable rampart of trees like an attacking army. Whole forests soon vanished, sent down the raging rivers in a wild melee to make the moneyed coastal men of Maine more wealthy. Sluices, canals, dams and dikes, along with all the accoutrement necessary for performing this herculean backwoods labor sprang into being like mushrooms after a heavy rain. And with this complex complete, with all the interlocked, intricate parts of the waterway put into place, the drive north for ever more timber, and ever faster, could continue apace. And when it was finished, they put down their tools and considered with awe the change they had wrought upon nature. And it was good. Lo! Behold the works of man. One of the more fantastic features of this impressive system appeared on the upper reaches of the Allagash River. The Long Lake Dam, a timber crib structure of imposing dimensions, epitomized the term “Yankee ingenui-
ty.” Crib dams are composed of whatever resources lay closest to hand, the slapping together of local materials, as in this case, the trees, the rocks, and the dirt. Wooden structures are more quickly erected than their counterparts made of more durable stuff. But there are tradeoffs. Pine, for instance, a soft wood, rots easily. Yet it’s easy to work with, there were tons of it for the taking and, cared for properly, it splendidly fit the bill. So the inconceivably huge pine trunks were manhandled into position, a job made doubly dangerous by the swirling winds and icy waters of spring’s spates. Nevertheless, up they went, stacked into place log cabin-wise, in parallel rows. Later, the interstices were filled with rubble and rock, and pilings were driven deep in the river bottom to buttress the dam against the push of the 15 feet of water collecting behind it. Completed in 1911 by the St John Lumber Company, it measured 700 feet from end to end, and had eighteen gates, each of them eight feet wide. Refurbished in 1927 by famed lumberjack “King” Lacroix — he raised it two feet and removed some of the gates for efficiency — the dam was abandoned shortly thereafter. When those great gates opened, the outrush of pouring water was forceful enough to be felt at Van Buren, a hundred miles away. Although costing $50,000, Long Lake Dam certainly earned its keep. By hastening the insatiable drive north for new lumber, and by adding two profitable weeks to the log-driving season, it helped stabilize the entire upper St John basin economy. Whatever remains now, a river runs through it. A foamy tumble of water indicates the few jutting stumps and piles of scattered stones. Beneath the swirl, among the ledges and moss-bound, broken planking, hide brook trout of epic
proportions. A nearby campsite perches atop a hilly embankment used to control the flow of water. In the woodsy margins beyond, outlines of the dump wagons once used to haul gravel are still faintly discernible. Although many miles from Eagle Lake or Allagash Village, this is perhaps the most coveted of the waterway’s remote and rugged places. Wildlife abounds. Despite the early-morning wisps of fog, sunlight fills the patchy glades with brilliant streamers. During the spring run, smelts gather in shoals so dense they roil the river’s surface. A moose, hip-deep in the water and wrapped in shadow, observes the tumult impassively. Overhead, an eagle on extended wing appears against the cobalt sky, while the shrill skreee-ee of the osprey sends a belted kingfisher into chattering flight, a quick blue line sketched down the curve of the river. When autumn frosts emblazon the leaves, the loon’s haunting cry echoes eerily over the stillness. As early as 1921, a proposal was put forward to protect this natural serenity. The Allagash Wilderness Waterway, enacted in 1966, was designed to preserve the site “forever,” a protection later enhanced by including it in the National Wild and Scenic River System.
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Business Page A&L Construction ......................................................16 A.N. Deringer, Inc. .........................................................13 Access Auto ...................................................................7 Alan Clair Building Contractor .......................................16 Albert Fitzpatrick ..........................................................13 Allagash Gardner Homestead ......................................47 Aroosta Cast, Inc. ...........................................................35 Aroostook Auto Tech ....................................................12 Aroostook County Tourism .............................................28 Aroostook Foam Insulation ............................................26 Aroostook Hospitality Inn ............................................25 Aroostook Real Estate ...............................................33 Aroostook Riders ATV Club ..........................................22 Ashland Diner ................................................................37 Ashland Food Mart, Inc. ..............................................36 Avondale Kitchens .......................................................23 Babin Construction .......................................................44 Bald Eagle .....................................................................48 Bates Fuel, Inc. .............................................................12 Bear Paw Inn ................................................................23 Beaupre’s Construction .................................................38 Belanger’s Auto Electric Inc. .........................................43 Ben’s Trading Post, LLC .............................................24 Bill Goetsch, Jr. Flooring Installation ............................23 Blacked Out Window Tint Service .................................41 Boondock’s Grille ..........................................................28 Bouchard Country Store ................................................32 Bouchard Family Farm .................................................32 Brambleberry Market ...................................................39 Buck Construction, Inc. .................................................36 Calvin Hardy Carpentry .................................................10 Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce .........................40 Caribou Cabins ............................................................28 Caribou Inn & Convention Center ..............................29 Caribou Theatres ...........................................................40 Carol’s Creative Painting & Wallpapering .....................30 Caron & Son Driveway Sealing ....................................33 Caron & Son Paving ....................................................33 Cary Brown Trucking & Excavating .................................6 Cary Medical Center ....................................................29 CED-Gilman Electrical Supply ......................................19 Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce ..................15 City Jewelry & Loan ......................................................39 Clay Funeral Home ........................................................6 Clay GMC-Chevrolet of Lincoln ......................................7 Clifford L. Rhome, CPA, PA.............................................35 CNL Auto .....................................................................18 Cold Stream Storage .....................................................8 Colin Bartlett & Sons , Inc. ............................................4 Collin Builders ..............................................................32 Complete Construction .................................................14 Country Village Estates LLC .........................................31 Countryside Retreat, LLC .............................................42 County Abatement, Inc. ................................................4 County Electric .............................................................39 County Environmental Engineering ...............................28 County Super Spuds ....................................................15 Countyqwik Print ..........................................................30 Crandall’s Hardware ......................................................5 Crossroads Motel & Restaurant ....................................6 CS Construction ............................................................25 Cummings Health Care Facility, Inc. ...............................20 Cunningham Brothers, Inc. ............................................8 Daigle & Houghton, Inc. ................................................34 Desjardins Logging .......................................................48 Donahue’s Maintenance & Masonry ............................12 Doris’ Cafe ...................................................................44 Dow Theater Co. ............................................................40 Dr. Durwin Y. Libby, DMD ..............................................20 Duane Thompson’s Masonry ........................................25 Dubois Contracting .......................................................32 East Grand Health Center ...........................................6 Ed Pelletier & Sons Co. .................................................31 Elwood Downs Incorporated ...........................................8 Enfield Citgo & Service Center .......................................8 Eugene J. McLaughlin, Jr. Esq. .....................................25 F.A. Peabody Company .................................................4 First Choice Market & Deli .............................................28 First Settler’s Lodge .......................................................22 Forest Diversity Services Inc. ......................................46 Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce ...........................37 Foss & Sons, Inc. ...........................................................7 Freightliner of Maine Inc. ...............................................11 Gary Babin’s Groceries & Meats ....................................44 Gateway Variety ............................................................26 Gerard Raymond ...........................................................43 Gervais Fence ...............................................................38 Giberson-Dorsey Funeral Home ....................................38 Gina L. Nadeau, EA .......................................................5 GJ Auto Body ................................................................39
Business
Page
Goin’ Postal ..................................................................16 Goslin Electric ..............................................................20 GP Carpentry .................................................................31 Gram Russo’s Italian Restaurant ...................................29 Graves’ Shop ‘N Save Superstore ....................................36 Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce ........................13 Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce ..............42 Greenhouse Restaurant .................................................29 Griffeth Ford ...................................................................30 Ground Perfection Specialists Inc. .............................17 H.C. Haynes, Inc. ............................................................6 Haines Manufacturing Co., Inc. .....................................35 Hampton Inn By Hilton ...................................................17 Hand Me Down Antiques ................................................18 Hayes Brothers Carpentry ..............................................37 Hebert Rexall Pharmacy ................................................30 Hillside Apartments ......................................................42 Hilton Garden Inn Bangor ...............................................21 Hogan Tire .....................................................................11 Hole In Your Bucket Energy Audits ...............................34 Home Town Fuels, Inc. ...................................................28 Huber Engineered Wood, LLC ....................................23 Hy-Grow Organics ........................................................23 Inn of Acadia ..................................................................31 Irish Setter Pub ..............................................................17 Irving Forest Products ...................................................46 J. McLaughlin Construction, LLC ..................................22 J.R.S. Firewood .............................................................45 Jalbert Auto & Salvage .................................................25 Jerry’s Shurfine ..............................................................10 Jewett Foundations ......................................................13 John’s Shurfine Food Store ..........................................45 Johnson Builders ..........................................................23 Kajais Redemption .........................................................48 Katahdin Health Care .......................................................5 Katahdin Valley Motel .....................................................9 Katahdin Valley Real Estate ..........................................21 Keith Mitchell & Sons Trucking .........................................9 Kerry Golding Construction ............................................14 Key Realty .....................................................................36 Keyes Construction .......................................................22 Kirkpatrick & Bennett Law Offices ...................................38 Lake Road Grocery .......................................................48 Lancaster Morgan & Duncan Graves Funeral Homes......39 Langille Construction, Inc. ..........................................30 Lee R.C. Theriault, CPA ................................................44 Legends Restaurant & Lounge .....................................32 Leisure Gardens / Leisure Village ......................................17 Lejack Construction ......................................................21 Levesque Business Solutions .........................................30 Limestone Chamber of Commerce ................................38 Lincoln Hannaford............................................................7 Lincoln Powersports .......................................................7 Littleton Diner ..........................................................14 Littleton Pit Stop LLC ................................................14 Long Lake Sporting Club Restaurant .........................3 Longlake Construction ..............................................42 Louisiana Pacific Corp. .............................................22 M&D Bear Den Family Restaurant & Pub ....................9 M. Rafford Construction ..............................................28 M.L. Pelletier Trucking, Inc. ..............................................34 Macannamac Camps .................................................19 Madawaska Auto Parts ...........................................30 Madawaska Pharmacy, LLC ....................................31 Maine Forest Service .....................................................6 Maine Historical Society .............................................3 Mainely Magnetos ........................................................43 Maine Solar and Wind ................................................32 Martin Acadian Homestead ....................................43 Martin Dow Construction ...........................................11 Martin’s General Store ..............................................32 Martin’s Motel ............................................................42 Matheson Tri-Gas ..........................................................26 McCain Foods ..............................................................24 McGillan, Inc. Earthwork Contractor ...........................38 McGlinn’s Plumbing & Heating ................................16 McLaughlin’s Auto Repair ...............................................5 MCR Electric .............................................................23 Mer & Boys Body Shop Collision Center.........................43 Mike’s Quik Stop & Deli ..............................................28 Mill Bridge Restaurant ...............................................46 Mitch’s Heating ..........................................................43 Mockler Funeral Home ..............................................40 Mooseshack Restaurant & Bar ...............................32 Nadeau Logging, Inc. ...................................................46 Nadeau Trucking, LLC ..................................................47 Nickerson Construction Inc. ......................................13 North Country Auto ....................................................4 North Maine Woods .......................................................37 North Woods Custom Home Builder .........................46
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Page Business Northeast Applicators, LLC ......................................4 Northeast Propane ...................................................40 Northeastern Supply Co. ..........................................40 Northern Door Inn ..................................................33 Northern Lights Motel ................................................24 Northern Timber Trucking ........................................47 One Stop ...................................................................15 Orion Timberlands, LLC ............................................37 OTT Communications ...............................................27 Overlook Motel & Lakeside Cabins ...........................34 Pat’s Pizza ................................................................24 Patten Drug Co. .........................................................9 Peg’s Place ..............................................................11 Penobscot Marine Museum ............................bk cover Percy’s Auto Sales ...................................................36 Peter Qualey, Broker ...............................................21 Pine Tree Store ........................................................20 Portage Lakeside Cabins .........................................37 Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center ........................29 Presque Isle Pharmacy .............................................18 Presque Isle Snowmobile Club, Inc. ...........................24 Quality Construction ..................................................26 Quint Construction ....................................................12 Randy Brooker, General Contractor .........................28 Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. .................19 River Cafe ...................................................................9 River’s Edge Motel ..................................................20 RMJ Cash Plus .......................................................26 Robbie Morin Paving ..............................................45 Robert Pelletier General Contractor .........................34 Robin’s Restaurant ...................................................41 Ron Ledger & Son Logging, Inc. ............................11 Royal Flush Labs .....................................................34 Rozco .......................................................................33 Russell-Clowes Insurance Agency, Inc. ..................39 S. Paradis & Son Garage ......................................43 S.O.B. Oil & Earthworks Co., LLC ...............................8 Sandra’s Kitchen & Pizza To Go ............................44 Savage Paint & Body ................................................21 Scootic In Restaurant ................................................5 Scovil Apartments .....................................................14 Scovil Building Supply, Inc. .......................................14 Service First Automotive ............................................36 Shaun R. Bagley Construction ..................................18 Shaw Financial Services ..........................................15 Shear Delight ............................................................18 Sherman Thriftway Supermarket ................................9 Shooters Billiards .......................................................6 Sleepy Hollow Storage ............................................35 Sonny’s Gun Shop .....................................................39 St. John Valley Pharmacy ........................................44 St. John Valley Realty Co. .........................................44 Stairs Welding R.L.,Inc. ............................................10 Stewart’s Wrecker Service .......................................19 Storage Solutions ......................................................15 T&S Market ..............................................................10 T.A. Service Center ...................................................35 Tate Brook Timber Co., Inc. ......................................7 T-Bones Animal & Pest Control ..................................26 The Braden Theater ..................................................40 The Forum ...............................................................35 The Greater Fort Kent Area Chamber of Commerce..45 The Pioneer Place, USA ...........................................10 The Pizza Box .........................................................35 The Sherman Inn ......................................................22 The Store on Sugar Shack Road ................................46 The Village Camps ...................................................20 Thomas W. Duff Financial Advisor ...........................19 Tidd’s Sport Shop ....................................................22 T-Lib Construction & Cad Design Service ................10 Town of Madawaska ..................................................31 Town of Mars Hill ........................................................15 Traction Heavy Duty Parts ........................................24 Trapiers Steak & Seafood ...........................................8 Tulsa, Inc. ...................................................................41 Twisted Knickers .......................................................18 Umcolcus Sporting Camps .........................................5 United Insurance .....................................................32 University of Maine Fort Kent ...................................33 Vacationland Inn .......................................................19 Vaillancourt Building Supply, Inc. ............................41 Van Buren Hardware .................................................41 Village Acadien .........................................................41 Vintage Maine Images .................................................3 Volumes Book Store ...............................................12 Wash-N-Wag Animal House ....................................31 White Oak Inc., Logging Contractor ...........................47 Whitetail Inn ..............................................................21 Whited Truck & Auto Center ....................................24 York’s of Houlton .......................................................12
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