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Volume 10 | Issue 8 | 2013
Maine’s History Magazine
Southern Maine
Answering The Call Of Duty
The Day Herbie Died Long live the king
Revitalizing Bath Iron Works Bath’s Pete Newell
The USS Zizania story
Discover Maine’s Winter Activities! ~ Pages 45-54 ~
www.DiscoverMaineMagazine.com facebook.com/discovermaine
Southern Maine
Inside This Edition
2 3
I t Makes No Never Mind James Nalley
4
The Circus Is Coming Memories of the carnivals visiting Biddeford Marilyn Bean
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Disease And Filth Killed Maine Soldiers In Winter 1862-63 Adapted from Maine at War Brian Swartz
13 Climbing Jockey Cap Charles Francis 18 The Genealogy Corner In Search of Scots Royalist Ancestors
Charles Francis
22 The Day Herbie Died Long live the king Kenneth Smith 26 Portland’s Casco Bay Steamboat Company History of a Portland transit company James Nalley 30 For The Most Holy Cause Of His Adopted Country Portland’s Michael C. Boyce killed at Gettysburg Matthew Jude Barker 35 Folk Traditions Nautical lingo Charles Francis 40 Revitalizing Bath Iron Works Bath’s Pete Newell Charles Francis 43 The Famous Skidompha Library A history of the Damariscotta landmark Matthew Jude Barker 46 S ledding Into The Past Snowmobile Hall of Famer Earlan B. Campbell Brian Swartz 54 Know Your Skis
Kristina Trygstad-Saari
58 Christmas Lighthouses Decorating Southern Maine lighthouses Brian Swartz 63 Merrymeeting Bay Mast Pirates Charles Francis 66 Answering The Call Of Duty The USS Zizania story Charles Francis 70 Judge Bowman Liked The Name That He Picked For A Maine Town Brian Swartz
Maine’s History Magazine
Western Lakes and Mountains Region
Publisher Jim Burch
Designer & Editor Liana Merdan
Editorial Assistant Kelly Merdan
Advertising & Sales Manager Tim Maxfield
Advertising & Sales Dennis Burch Chris Girouard Tim Maxfield
Office Manager Liana Merdan
Field Representatives George Tatro
Contributing Writers Matthew Jude Barker Marilyn Bean Charles Francis | fundy67@yahoo.ca James Nalley Kristina Trygstad-Saari Kenneth 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, shopping centers, libraries, 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 © 2013, CreMark, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION FORMS ON PAGE 34
Front Cover Photo: Street View in Cornish. Item # 105102 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org All photos in Discover Maine’s Southern Maine edition show Maine as it used to be, and many are from local citizens who love this part of Maine. Photos are also provided from our collaboration with the Maine Historical Society and the Penobscot Marine Museum.
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It Makes No Never Mind by James Nalley
By the time you read this, most (if not all) of the tourists have disappeared and there is that familiar chill in the morning air that reminds you that the beginning of the long winter is near. Now, that might be exciting for those who plan to fine tune their snowmobiles and tighten the laces on their snowshoes, but for others who fondly remember warmer times, I will devote part of this month’s column to the beach. In fact, southern Maine’s coastline is lined with more than 30 miles of white-sand beaches that offer everything from surfing and sailing to kayaking and swimming. Of course, the thought of jumping in the water right now might make you climb under the down comforter or slip on your footed “onesie” pajamas, but if you use your imagination, perhaps it is possible. In regard to this “down-country” edition of “Discover Maine,” perhaps you can also imagine the wealth of historical aspects just yards away from these beaches. Some excellent examples include Kittery (the state’s oldest settlement), Old Orchard Beach (with its century-old pier that was once frequented by Benny Goodman
and Frank Sinatra on their cross-country tours), York (the country’s oldest chartered city) and the sister cities of Biddeford and Saco. By the way, I credit Saco for the title of this column (which has now crossed its first anniversary) since I first heard this saying there when a customer responded to a butcher about what type of meat he wanted. As I mentioned a year ago, it simply means “it doesn’t make a difference,” which could be applied to many situations. However, it is important to note that you can ONLY use this unique phrase in the state of Maine, because taking it over state lines can result in questionable looks and derogatory comments. So, whether you are sitting outside in an attempt to warm up with the last bit of sun, or you have already put on your footed “onesies,” hopefully, this edition will inspire you to read more and maybe learn something that you didn’t know earlier. In honor of my first anniversary of writing this column, I will close with the following witticism about a couple from Portland: Stumpy Grinder and his wife Martha were from Portland, Maine. Every year they went
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to the Portland Fair, and every year Stumpy said, “Ya know Mahtha, I’d like ta get a ride in that theah ahaihplane” and every year Martha would say, “I know Stumpy, but that aihplane ride costs ten dollahs.... and ten dollahs is ten dollahs.” So Stumpy says, “Jeebers Mahtha, I’m 71 yeahs old and if I don’t go this time I may nevah go.” Martha replies “Stumpy, that there aihplane ride is ten dollahs...and ten dollahs is ten dollahs.” So the pilot overhears them and says, “Folks, if you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say ONE word, then I won’t charge you. But if I hear one word, then it’s ten dollars.” They agree and up they go. The pilot does all kinds of twists and turns, rolls and dives, but not a word was heard. He does them again, and still nothing. After landing, he turns to Stumpy and says, “By golly, I did everything I could to get you to holler, but you didn’t.” Then Stumpy replies, “Well, I was gonna say something when Mahtha fell out...but ten dollahs is ten dollahs!”
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The Circus Is Coming! Memories of the carnivals visiting Biddeford by Marilyn Bean
In the early part of the twentieth century, children everywhere would burst with delight upon hearing the news, “The circus is coming!” For weeks before the event, the newspaper would be filled with notices, and the town would be papered with posters touting its wonders: colorful depictions of trapeze artists and animal trainers pictured in their death-defying acts, acrobats and equestrians displaying their skills, clowns with their distinctive make-up, and the highlights of the circus – snarling lions and tigers and gaily caparisoned elephants. Biddeford was not large enough to attract Barnum and Bailey (billed as The Greatest Show on Earth), but was
often visited by Hagenbeck and Wallace. The troupe would arrive by train, and were always greeted by a few spectators, excited at all the hustle and bustle and apparent chaos in the dim light of early morning. Old and young alike would marvel at how the well-trained elephants were utilized to move heavy equipment. Seemingly in no time, however, they would be on their way to a large field on the outskirts of town to set up their tents and prepare for the eagerly awaited parade later in the day. The parade itself was a spectacular event viewed by practically everyone in town. The rousing music of the band preceded their appearance at the head of the entourage, and with their bright-
ly colored uniforms and shining instruments, they were always greeted with enthusiastic applause. Following the band were the aerialists, bowing and waving to the crowds, dozens of clowns either acting up, riding in tiny cars or throwing candy to the children, acrobats performing their feats atop some of the horses, lavishly decorated cages containing wild animals, with the star of the show, Clyde Beatty, (the famous lion-tamer) striding alongside. The elephants, done with their manual labor and handlers, offered young women in sequined costumes. All in all, it was a marvelous sight that whetted one’s appetite for more, which, of course,was the whole intent. (Continued on page 6)
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(Continued from page 4) At the circus ground itself, in addition to the regular shows under the big top, there were large tents where the caged animals could be seen. There were various exhibitions of what then were called “freaks” – midgets, giants, bearded lady and tattooed man, to name a few of the oddities of nature – and of course many games of chance and food stalls on the midway. After a few days the entire circus would re-board the train and move on to the next stop, leaving us all with great recollections of an exotic experience, wondering how anyone could acquire the necessary skills to perform on the high wire, or ride at breakneck speeds on three horses, or enter a cage with six tigers and calm them into performing tricks. And after a while the memory would fade and we would have to wait for the next time the circus would come to town, to fill us once more with admiration and awe. ❦Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
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Disease And Filth Killed Maine Soldiers In Winter 1862-63 Adapted from “Maine at War” by Brian Swartz For the 17th Maine Infantry Regiment, which reported 20 casualties at the Battle of Fredericksburg in mid-December 1862, the real dying started after the battle — and Confederate troops fired nary a shot, according to Private John Haley of Company I and Saco. After Gen. Ambrose Burnside ordered his shattered Army of the Potomac into winter camps, Gen. David Birney spread his regiments (including the 17th Maine) across the fields and woods belonging to Bell-Air, a plantation owned by the pro-Union Abraham Primmer. The 360-acre plantation lay some 1½ miles northeast of Falmouth, Va.
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The Third Corps commander, Gen. George Stoneman, established his headquarters in relative comfort at Bell-Air; he, Birney, and other generals enjoyed warm fires and hot food. Not so the soldiers battered and bloodied at Fredericksburg. After arriving near Bell-Air, “we went into camp and commenced putting up shanties by driving down some stakes and then weaving brush between them,” Haley wrote. Named Camp Pitcher, “no campground could possibly be found that is more conducive to death and destruction,” he recalled. And the dying began in earnest.
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Senior officers had ordered the 17th Maine and other regiments to make a semi-permanent winter camp on poorly drained terrain devoid of clean water and adequate firewood. Runoff from “the mule stables on surrounding hills” drained through the 17th Maine’s camp, according to Haley, and “ the fumes from dead mules” adversely affected soldiers’ health. And the effluvia from those dead mules mingled with the water flowing into the nearby Union camps. “The air is just laden with miasma, and the ground reeks with poison and chills,” Haley noted. (Continued on page 10)
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(Continued from page 9) For the 17th Maine, water was “hardly in sufficient quantity even for drinking purposes,” he wrote. Unable to practice the soldierly cleanliness that should be next to hygienic godliness at Camp Pitcher, men started meeting their God. “A rich vein of typhoid was soon struck and in a few days it was in full blast,” Haley quipped. Christmas Eve 1862 brought “the first death in Company I from sickness” as “Dan Hill of Biddeford concluded he had seen enough and ‘handed in his resignation,’” Haley wrote. “We have lost 24 [men] in 17 days and they [die] of[f] every day,” Pvt. Orsamus Symonds of Company C, 17th Maine, wrote Governor Abner Coburn on Jan. 15, 1863. Symonds was a Casco farmer and mail carrier by trade. “The deaths in camp and hospital is enormous,” Symonds wrote.
“Within one mile of me there is over 50 grave lots with from 5 to 50 graves in each and this is a mere speck compared to around the battlefield.” “Short rations, bog water to drink, malaria inhaled with every breath, homesickness, and, added to all this, an incompetent surgeon,” Haley growled to his diary. “Is it any wonder we are being swept off at the rate of one or two per day? “The muffled drum and death march are more regular than our rations,” he remembered. “Most of us have lost our courage and expectation of reaching home, or even dying on the battlefield — a fate less cruel than dying here by inches.” Haley recalled a visitor who, while seeking the 17th Maine’s campsite, wandered into a New York regiment’s camp. The visitor was informed that as
Sleepy Hollow MO T E L
for the 17th Maine, “‘most of it is up under the big pine yonder’ (our burying ground) ‘and the rest are down in the frog pond,’” Haley told the folks at home. Alternative campsites existed, but the generals’ negligence meant “we stay and die off like sheep while all around us are hills and elevations dry and healthy, with plenty of wood [and] a hope of clean water,” Haley observed. The Maine boys suffered from poor nutrition. “We are on the shortest rations,” often hardtack and salt pork, “the roads being in horrible condition (due to the winter rains) and the Aquia Creek Railroad not in running order yet,” Haley reflected on the Army fare. And on the rain-rutted roads along which Army supply convoys traveled, “the mules are hard put to haul an empty wagon, let alone a loaded one,” he realized.
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Symonds watched his comrades disappear. “It is a sad thing to have so many of our best men die here,” he told Coburn. “It is sickening. We shall all die soon here … verginia’s (sic) soil will cover the men from the North at an astonishing rate. “Apparently we are doomed to stay right in this old swamp till we are dying or dead,” Haley guessed. He was correct; The dying continued into mid-January 1863. “Two more of our men decided to go into ‘eternal bivouac’ under the big tree on the hill,” Haley told his diary, listing the dead as William Powers (January 11) and Jerry Smith (January 17). Orsamus Symonds did not plan on joining them. On Wednesday, January 21, he and three other 17th Maine soldiers slipped through Union pickets and fled north. Symonds skipped home to Casco. He
would not die for nothing in Virginia. Haley stayed and fought. He survived the war. ❦Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
DID YOU KNOW? Buxton was the birthplace of 2 Midwestern Congressmen; Mark H. Dunnell, Minnesota and Alanson M. Kimball, Wisconsin
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Climbing Jockey Cap by Charles Francis Do you know Jockey Cap? It’s well known, even famous. Most think of Jockey Cap as a uniquely situated boulder and that’s it. You reach the summit after a pleasant and less than strenuous hike. The reward is a wonderful 360 degree view ranging from Mt. Washington to Evans Notch and more. It’s a hike that wouldn’t appeal to those looking for a mountaineering challenge. Yet, serious climbers are drawn to Jockey Cap. Jockey Cap has links to Maine history. The trail going up it ends at a monument commemorating Admiral Robert Peary’s expedition to the North Pole. If you look up Jockey Cap in a Maine tourist guide the facts you find relate to the easy trail climb, the granite composition, and the mention of the Peary
memorial. That’s all. There is, however, a good deal more to Jockey Cap. As you drive along Route 302 toward Jockey Cap from the west you see there is no question as to the source of the name. The treeless top really does look like a cap. The metaphor fits. As to the first who thought of it, that remains something of a mystery. The name has been around from the 1830s when writer Ann Stephens produced a short story using the unique formation which she named “Jockey Cap.” Jockey Cap is not a mountain. One writer has described it as a “little mound,” another as a “bald ledge.” It’s some 600 feet high. The round trip hike is about a half mile. That makes Jockey Cap hill size. You can find Jockey Cap referred to as a boulder, some say
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the largest boulder in the world. Some disagree. If it is indeed a boulder left by the glacier, it’s a big one. You can find geological references that state Jockey Cap is a natural granite outcropping. Jockey Cap is most definitely not the original name for the unique formation. Fanny Hardy Eckstrom, Maine’s first great expert on the state’s Native American place names, says the original name was Pegwacket. According to Eckstrom the name was a reference to the hill being a “punched up mountain.” In other words, the first to live in the region saw the formation as forced up out of the ground. It should be noted that today Pegwacket, or Pigwacket as it also appears, is used to identify the general surrounding region. So why are serious climbers drawn to a (Continued on page 14)
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(Continued from page 13) 600 foot hill that is an easy short walk? The reason has to do with glacial deposits at or near the top of Jockey Cap, deposits geologists call drumlins. Drumlins are rocks that have been ground smooth and deposited by glaciers. The one time I hiked Jockey Cap I was close to the top when I saw a climber carefully working his way to the top of one of the largest boulders. He was being watched closely and rather tensely by a young lady I took to be his girlfriend or wife. The climber wasn’t using special equipment of any kind that I could tell. His climb was a matter of seeking out hand and foot holds. What he was doing looked difficult and dangerous. The boulder was high enough that a fall to the granite below would have resulted in a serious injury. The side of the boulder was almost perfectly vertical. Later when I spoke to the climb-
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er, he told me he was wearing what he called “free-climbing” shoes. These climbers were so thin that it was as if he was as if he was barefoot. They provided excellent purchase. The rock climber also told me he and his girlfriend had walked up the trail barefoot. He told me he often rock climbed Jockey Cap’s steep southwestern face the same way. The boulder I discovered the climber ascending was one of the uniquely significant drumlins on Jockey Cap. At least three are named. They are Peary Boulder, Spiritual Boulder, and Molly’s Boulder. Jockey Cap also has a cave, Molly’s Cave. Peary Boulder is, of course, named for the explorer. Robert Peary lived in Fryeburg as a child. Jockey Cap is about half a mile from the village of Fryeburg on the Bridgton Road, the local designation for Route 302. Admiral Peary knew Jockey Cap well, even as
a child. Peary owned a home in Fryeburg as an adult. The Admiral was a surveyor and an excellent graphic artist. One of his sketches shows the White Mountains as seen from Jockey Cap. In 1938 Peary’s wife and daughter erected a bronze monument, Summit Monument, on top of Jockey Cap depicting this drawing. Spiritual Boulder is the boulder I found the climber ascending. Views from particular vantage points at Spiritual Boulder are indeed spiritual. Maybe the rock climber considered his act spiritual. I didn’t see it as anything but dangerous. I think the climber’s girlfriend felt the same. Molly’s Boulder takes its name from Molly Ockett. Molly was a Native American woman who lived in northern New Hampshire and northwestern Maine in the late colonial period. Her Indian name meant “Singing Bird.” (Continued on page 16)
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Your local stop for coffee, gas, home style cooking, groceries, lottery tickets, and much more! www.quinnsjockeycap.com 116 Bridgton Rd/Rte 302 Fryeburg, ME Bob & Allyson Quinn
207-935-2306 AGENCY LIQUOR STORE
Finelines Auto Body Collision & Classics
693-3838
Rt. 302, Naples, ME • Ray Hansen
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www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
brings history to life! We have 3 acres, 12 buildings, ship captain’s house, marine paintings, China Trade porcelain and silk, traditional small water craft, fisheries exhibit, Family Discovery Center, heirloom vegetable garden, one of the largest collections of historic photography in New England and a maritime history research library. Penobscot Marine Museum 40 East Main Street P.O. Box 498 Searsport, Maine 04974 207-548-2529 www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org
Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 14) She was baptized Mary Agatha, which was turned into “Molly Agat” or “Molly Ockett” by Native American speakers. Molly was born sometime before 1744. She was supposed to have been a chief’s daughter. The date of her death is most often given as August 2, 1816. She had a reputation as a skilled healer and wise woman. She often helped the settlers who lived near her. A number of place names in northwestern Maine bear her name. Molly’s Cave, which is on the trail leading to the summit, is named for her. Legend has it she lived there. As the cave has a natural chimney for smoke, it is quite possible any number of people could have stayed there in the distant past. Too often people pass by less-than -imposing points of interest. To pass by the Jockey Cap in such manner is to miss one of the most fascinating places in Maine and New England.
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❦ Other businesses from this area are featured later in the color section.
The Snazzy Pet Bed & Biscuit Ultimate Playcation Destination Luxury Boarding • Daycare Grooming Spa
207-282-9636
757 Limerick Rd. • Arundel, ME
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The Lodge at Kennebunk Open Year Round
Come stay with us for the Holidays
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www.discovermainemagazine.com
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The Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk ca. 1914. Item #101136 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
130 years of trusted service.
Home • Auto • Commercial Life • Marine
NEIL’S MOTORS INC Compare Before You Repair! We Service All Foreign & Domestic Cars and Trucks
www.coleharrison.com Jim Harrison
207-985-3361 • 1-800-287-3361 83 Main St., Kennebunk, Maine
Computerized Diagnostics & Troubleshooting Engines & Transmissions • Major & Minor Repairs Electrical • Brakes • Exhaust • A/C Services Alignments • Fleet Service
282-3156
602 Alfred Street • Biddeford, ME www.neilsmotors.com
A Family Fun Retreat… In Saco, families enjoy nearby beaches, excellent skiing, shopping, and entertainment. All just 16 miles from Portland.
100 guest rooms and suites Free high-speed internet access Fitness center and pool Complimentary breakfast
Hampton Inn saco Industrial Park Road • Saco, Maine 800-HAMPTON • 207-282-7222 • www.HamptonInn.com/hi/saco
Open Mon thru Sat 9-6, Thu 9-8 Gift Cards Available
(207) 282-7479 44 Alfred Street, Biddeford, Maine
www.dadssmokeshop.com
Southern Maine
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The Genealogy Corner In search of Scots Royalist ancestors
by Charles Francis New Englanders are justly proud of their ancestry, and among them those who claim descent from Scots Royalists are sometimes said to be the most pedigree-proud. Eben Kezar Bradeen, a well-known resident of Berwick of the early 1900s – some of whose ancestors were early settlers of the Parsonsfield area – was one of those Scots Royalist descendants who was undeniably proud of his heritage. Eben Bradeen’s family history serves as a good example of some of the problems the family historian may encounter in researching Scots Royalist ancestry. Tracing one’s Scots ancestry in the British Isles is done in the same basic ways that one traces their roots in other Old World countries. The first thing
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that one must do is to identify a particular immigrant ancestor. Then one must determine their place of origin. There is a general caveat to keep in mind as one goes in search of their Scots roots. It is a caveat that seldom pertains to Scots Royalists. The caveat in researching Scots ancestry is that many Americans bearing Scots names may actually be of ScotsIrish descent. This means that one must first trace their ancestry to Ireland before determining if their Scots forebears came from the highlands or lowlands of Bonny Scotland. Fortunately, this is seldom an issue for those descended from Scots Royalists. The particular celebrity that many of Scots Royalists descent claim lies in the
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fact that the Royalists were those who remained true to the tradition of a Scots king of Scotland. Moreover, the Royalists fought for their beliefs, finally losing disastrously at the Battle of Dunbar in 1651. Following the loss a fair number of the Royalists either immigrated to the New World of their own accord or were banished here. Eben Bradeen was descended from one of these Royalists. Eben Bradeen’s ancestry is a particularly fascinating one, not only for its Scots Royalist origins but also for its connections to the early settlement of western Maine. Bradeen’s middle name, Kezar, comes from his mother’s side of the family. Kezar Falls takes its
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com name from George Kezar, who came to Maine in 1768. Eben Kezar Bradeen was a direct descendent of George Kezar. The information I have collected on Eben Bradeen over the years comes from two major resources: Bradeen’s obituary and the Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations, 1650-1775. The latter work is a fascinating one, not only for those interested in researching Scots ancestry but for those with an interest in the history of colonial America. Eben Bradeen’s obituary stands as something of a testament to the fact that he was proud of his family pedigree and the fact that he was descended from a Royalist who fought at the Battle of Dunbar. The Scots Royalists were those Scots who stayed loyal to the House of Stuart after the beheading of Charles I. They supported Charles II, the son of Charles I, as King of Scotland. (Charles II eventually ascended to the throne of En-
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gland.) The forces of Oliver Cromwell marched on Scotland when Charles II laid claim to the Scots throne. The series of battles between the Royalists and Cromwell’s supporters ended with the Battle of Dunbar. At that point many of the Royalists were sent to the New World. One of these was John Bradeen. Eben Bradeen was descended from John Bradeen. John Bradeen settled in Boston. Eben Kezar Bradeen was born in Limington in 1842. His parents were Martin and Sophronia (Kezar) Bradeen. The Bradeen family moved to Berwick while Eben Bradeen was still a child. Eben Bradeen made his living as a mason and building contractor. His specialty was foundation construction. There are buildings in Berwick that rest on Bradeen foundations today. Eben Bradeen’s obituary describes him as a man “who could be depended on and trusted absolutely.” He was [as] “Strong in his friendships as in
his convictions [and] unyielding when he believed himself to be right.” Eben Bradeen died in 1921 of heart disease. The fact that Eben Bradeen’s obituary made reference to his Scots Royalist ancestry is not all that unusual. Obituaries of 100 or so years ago often did. In addition to the work on Scots in America mentioned above, the following are standard works on researching Scots ancestry in general and Scots Royalist ancestry in particular. They should be available through interlibrary loan or in the genealogy section of any large bookstore. Your Scottish Ancestry: A Guide For North Americans Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry (2nd edition) Scots in New England, 1623-1873 is of special interest to Mainers, though harder to come by.
~ 24 Years Experience Do you have a story to tell~ about Maine’s history? Brian’s
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Southern Maine
20
Pondicherry Mill in Bridgton. Item #100301 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Station House Grill
Your Hosts: Bob & Monique Farwell
“Offering you the Best in Fresh Seafood & Choice Meats” • Daily Specials • Open 5-8:30pm - 7 Days
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THE STONE MOUNTAIN HOUSE NIGHTLY LODGING Just Above the Edge of Maine Frame & Gallery
APPRAISAL, INC. 566 Portland Road • Route 302 Bridgton, Maine 04009
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HALL IMPLEMENT CO.
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High School in New Gloucester. Item #101723 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
DitchBrook Custom Woodworking
~ 20 years of successful experience ~ Cabinets ◆ Kitchens ◆ Sunrooms Hardwood Floors ◆ General Remodeling Custom Stairways Custom High Quality Finish Work Brian Duncanson
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Country Village Assisted Living _______________________
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LYN’S SPRING SERVICE, INC. Route 100 Upper Gloucester • 1007 Lewiston Road
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Southern Maine
22
The Day Herbie Died Long live the king
by Kenneth Smith
colossal Elm, was granted a one day reprieve. The largest, long-lived American Elm in New England had survived 217 years and would stand yet one more day. January 19, Tuesday – any tree dead or alive with a girth (D.B.H.) of twenty-five feet, one hundred ten feet tall with a former canopy of thirty feet, deserves special notice. Herbie had been officially pronounced dead, and Whitney Tree Service of Gray would fell the wood warrior. No mean feat, considering Herbie’s mass. With crane, cable and chain saws they would skillfully remove the monster Elm. So it was after a five hour assault the giant Elm was just a shadow of its former self. Most of its limbs previously amputated, crashed to Earth. Each spe-
The year was 1798, a scant 15 years previous a rag-tag group of rebel farmers and shopkeepers had, after eight years of bloody war, defeated the mightiest army on the planet. Thirteen colonies in North America had thrown off the British yoke. Our Republic was born. President Washington was starting his 2nd term in office. Downeast in the Commonwealth province of Maine in the small village of Yarmouth, York County, (the only county in Maine at that time), a tiny American Elm sprout appeared. Now this was not any old Elm, but a tree of destiny. January 18, 2010 a Monday – a Nor’easter snowstorm pounded coastal Maine. In Yarmouth, Herbie, the
(Continued on page 24)
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Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 22) cies of tree, like all God’s creatures, has a given life span. Herbie had used up several. Among the group of hardy townsfolk who witnessed the event were two special people. Next door neighbor Donna Felkes had affectionately named ‘Herbie’. Frank Knight, 101 years of age, was the town’s retired Tree Warden. He had been Herbie’s chief guardian or fifty years, sheparding the colossus through a dozen bouts of Dutch Elm disease. Mr. Knight sprayed, pruned dead branches and even inoculated the trunk. These measures delayed the inevitable demise. National News Network picked up on the story, lamenting Herbie’s fate. He was now a celebrity. Early in the 20th century a merchant vessel loaded with Elm logs sailed for Holland. These logs contained a small Bark Beetle which carried a deadly spore that would eventually wipe out
our magnificent American Elm. This excellent, handsome species had canopied New England towns, cities, farms, countryside and highways for three centuries. Insidious Dutch Elm pathogens strangled the tubes that carried water and nutrients into the upper foliage. Trees would die from the top down. A single scorched branch signaled the Elm’s death knell. Unfortunately no tree species is immune from insect or disease assault. Chestnut Blight, Spruce Budworm, White Pine Weevil and Blister Rust, Beech Scale – Hemlock Hooper, Balsam Wooly Aphid, Gypsy moth, Tent caterpillars are just a few of the threats to Maine forests. Monoculture of trees, naturally or planted artificially, create large stands or groves of specific species. When pests or diseases attack, they spread
like wildfire from one tree to another. There is no simplest solution to this dilemma. The good news is that this Titanic Elm did not die in vain, thanks to ‘Project Herbie’. From his lumber came the manufacture and sale of cutting boards, wooden book marks and commemorative medallions from his lumber. Town Community Service and Estabrooks on Main Street in Yarmouth devoted money of Herbie items to found a tree trust to promote tree planting and preventative treatment for existing town trees. More promising news involves the development of a Dutch Elm resistant strain of Elm. Hopefully in the distant future Elm canopies may again grace and shelter our communities.
Grey Goose
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Have you ever eaten the Cajun cuisine in the Bayou country of Louisiana? The first annual “Mainers to the Bayou” is taking place May 1st, 2014. For more information, contact: Publisher, Jim Burch (207) 874-7720 or publisher@discovermainemagazine.com
Yee Haw!
25
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Lobster boats at a wharf in Portland in August 1958. Item #301298 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Southern Maine
26
Casco Bay Steamboat Company History of Portland transit company by James Nalley On any given day throughout the year, one may look out into the bay off Portland, Maine, and watch numerous sailing vessels heading toward home or out to sea. Among these proud vessels are the ferries of the Casco Bay Lines that have transported passengers since the late 1800s. With a long and impressive history, this transit company has managed to change with the times through periods of war and financial uncertainty. They remain as a proud model for the Portland Bay Area. After the rapid expansion of Portland in the late 1800s, there was a growing need to transport both residents and visitors out to the scenic Casco Bay
Islands. Although there was some sporadic ferry service to the island around 1870, it was not until 1878 when the appropriately named Casco Bay Steamboat Company was established to provide permanent year-round service to the inner bay islands. Naturally, as business grew for the fledgling company, others joined in to take advantage of the financial opportunity. By 1881, the Harpswell Line began offering regular year-round ferry service to the outer bay islands. According to Casco Bay Lines Captain and historian Larry Legere, “Both outfits enjoyed the economic times of the ‘Gilded Age’ until the recession of the 1890s. The cost
of new boat construction made it prudent to merge the two as the Casco Bay and Harpswell Steamboat Company in 1907.” After the United States entered World War I in 1917, the mounting cost of war affected businesses throughout the country, and the ferry lines in Portland were no exception. As stated by Legere, by 1919, the “economic effects of World War I combined with the mounting repair bills for the wooden steamboats caused more than $50,000 in liens to be called in on the vessels. The company staved off the courts until September (of that year) when the boats were finally shut down and the crews laid off.” Fortunately, in the (Continued on page 28)
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~ Maquoit II of the Casco Bay Lines ~
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Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 26) winter of 1919, the company managed to re-emerge with a fleet of just four ships: Aucocisco, Maquoit, Emita, and the Pilgrim. The company was officially renamed the Casco Bay Lines and business proceeded as usual where it welcomed visitors for a much needed break out to the islands. In 1963, after more than four decades of continuous service as a privately-owned ferry company, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) established a special law that granted franchise protection for the Casco Bay Lines. This secured and regulated daily year-round service and granted the “exclusivity for passenger, vehicle, and freight transportation among and between the islands of Casco Bay and the mainland terminal in Portland,” according to Legere. But in 1981, after approximately 100 years of service, the Casco Bay Lines could
not make financial ends meet and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Realizing the vital importance of the ferry line for the region, the non-profit Casco Bay Island Transit District (CBITD) helped to establish an emergency action by the State Legislature, which secured the continuation of ferry service. Through a complicated series of bond debentures, the CBITD purchased the ferry company’s assets and officially took on the overall responsibility of daily service to the islands throughout the year. To maintain relative equality, the CBITD is governed by a board of directors with 10 out of the 12 members elected from the surrounding island communities. The other two members are appointed by the City of Portland and the Maine Department of Transportation. Today, many residents of the island communities completely rely on the ferry to transport them to and from
work every day, and even school students (6th grade and higher) get to and from school the same way. For leisure, the company offers a variety of scenic cruises, private charters and even lobster bakes. The tours depart from Portland and travel to Peaks Island, Little Diamond Island, Great Diamond Island, Diamond Cove, Long Island, Chebeague Island, Cliff Island, and Bailey Island. So, the next time you are in Portland, stare out into the bay and look for the vessels with the signature black, yellow, white, and red, and know that you are watching a piece of history.
For an authentic Japanese experience . . .
Benkay Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant www.sushiman.com
Voted Portland’s Best Sushi Restaurant 13 years in a row! 2 India Street • Next to the Old Port Free parking • 207-773-5555
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653 Congress Street Near the State Theater 207-619-7505
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Fuel boat “Portland Gulf” in Portland Harbor in 1958. Item #301272 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Ben’s Oldport Barber Shop Serving greater Portland for over 55 years Locally owned and operated
Floor sanders & lawn aerators to excavators and aerial lifts
MEN’S HAIRCUTS $15 BOY’S HAIRCUTS $10 BEN BUTLER • 207.798.2594 28 MILK STREET • PORTLAND, ME bentheoldportbarber@yahoo.com
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Maine’s only all-ages, all-natural Soda Bar and Mixology Shop for the home cocktail enthusiast!
207-747-4901 345 Fore Street Portland, Maine
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Southern Maine
30
For The Most Holy Cause Of His Adopted Country Portland’s Michael C. Boyce killed at Gettysburg by Matthew Jude Barker
Over four-hundred Portland men and boys were killed during the Civil War, a terrible conflict that we are presently commemorating the 150th Anniversary of. Of these soldiers and seamen, between ninety and one-hundred were Irish-born or the sons of Irish immigrants. Perhaps the most noted was 1st Lieutenant Michael C. Boyce, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. Michael Charles Boyce was born about 1836 in St. John, New Brunswick, the son of Cornelius “Neil” Boyce and Mary Collins, natives of Killygarvan, County Donegal, Ireland. When he was about ten years old, he migrated to Portland with his family
and resided near a family named O’Kain, also an Irish family from St. John. Michael attended the local schools. On May 2, 1855, Michael enlisted for five years in the United States Army under one Captain Tracy of Portland. The official enlistment papers described him as age twenty-one, a cooper, with gray eyes, dark hair, and a fair complexion. He stood 6 feet, one inches tall. Michael was actually not yet nineteen and thus two years later, on May 18, 1857, he was discharged at Fort Snelling, Montana Territory, by “Civil Authority,” because he was a minor. But this did not deter the young Irish-American, for he reenlisted at Boston on March 23, 1858 and re-
mained in the Regular Army until the Civil War. Michael was married at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Portland on March 16, 1863 to his childhood sweetheart Mary Ann O’Kain, the Irish-Canadian girl he had grown up with. It was a happy day, the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, but the happiness would not last long. Boyce kissed his sweetheart goodbye, no doubt promising her he would be back in a short time, and was deployed back to the front. Three and a half months later, on July 2, 1863, Michael Boyce, by now a 1st Lieutenant, was shot in the left arm and left hip during the Battle of Gettysburg. He succumbed to erysipelas
The Merry Table
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (an acute skin inflammation) on July 28 at the 2nd Division, V Corps Hospital. Boyce’s body was shipped back to Portland, where an impressive Mass of Requiem was held at St. Dominic’s Church. Father Eugene Muller was the officiating priest, George M. Howe played the organ, and Chandler’s Band played stirring and haunting music. Funeral services, perhaps a traditional Irish wake, had been held earlier at his residence on Hanover Street. A detachment of the 17th U. S. Infantry, stationed at Fort Preble, escorted Michael’s casket to the O’Kain lot at Calvary Cemetery in Cape Elizabeth, where he was laid to rest “with military honors.” A local paper called Boyce “a brave and gallant soldier, and greatly respected in the command of which he was a member” (see Portland Advertiser, 10 August 1863). A day after his funeral, another local paper printed a poignant
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letter from one of his fellow officers; a heartfelt missive that tells us a lot about this Portland Irish hero: “Tribute to a Departed Irish Patriot. Portland, Aug. 10, 1863. To the Editor of the Press: We witnessed yesterday, at the Roman Catholic Church, on State Street, the funeral of 1st Lieut. M. C. Boyce, 10th Regt. U. S.A. He entered the army in the year 1855, when a boy of eighteen, and rose step by step, through intelligence, energy and good habits, from the ranks to the position of 1st Lieut. in the regular army. He passed through the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the seven terrible days in which our army was driven from the Peninsula, the 2d Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville without a scratch. At Gettysburg he was an aide-de-camp of Gen. Ayres of our city, and at that bat-
tle received his death wound. Besides family and home friends, many, very many, officers mourn the loss of their gallant and much-loved comrade. All honor to the brave and self-made young Irishman, who, after giving youth and early manhood, when that was not enough, offered up his life to the struggle and most holy cause of his adopted country. A BROTHER OFFICER.” (Portland Daily Press, 11 August 1863, 2.) Michael C. Boyce was only twenty-seven years old. After his death, his widow Mary Ann received $15 a month pension until her remarriage in Portland in 1875 to Dr. John J. Brennan of New York. At some point, her second husband, who had been involved in a local relief committee for another famine in Ireland in 1880, returned to Ireland. Brennan, suffering from some form of severe mental illness, was committed to the Sligo District Lunatic Asylum in (Continued on page 32)
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(Continued from page 31) March 1883 for being “a dangerous lunatic.” He died there six months later. Mary Ann O’Kain Boyce Brennan was again a widow, having suffered the tragic loss of two husbands. Residing on Vaughan Street in Portland’s West End for many years, Mary later reapplied for a pension from her first husband. She finally received this veterans’ widow’s pension in 1901, a monthly stipend she subsisted on until her own death in Boston in April 1921, at the age of eighty-six. Mary was laid to rest beside her first husband in the O’Kain lot in Calvary Cemetery. No photos or sketches are known to exist of 1st Lt. Michael C. Boyce. He and Mary did not have children and although Michael had many siblings, there are no known descendants of this Boyce family today. A distant relative, who resides in Portland, places flowers on his grave each Memorial Day; local veterans place an American flag at the site at the same time.
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The No. 2 Westbrook, Windham & Naples Railway ca. 1899. Item #1212 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
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Folk Traditions Nautical Lingo by Charles Francis Ever use the term “scuttlebutt” or refer to yourself or someone else as feeling “a bit under the weather?” Ever “give something a wide berth,” “steer clear of someone” or describe something as “touch and go?” Sure you have, especially if you have been brought up anywhere within “shouting distance” of any of those seacoast communities that still have ties to the folk traditions of their maritime past. For those that haven’t been fortunate enough to have been brought up or lived along the coast where these colorful expressions are part of everyday speech, all that is necessary to experience these phrases of yesterday is to take a drive down any of the beau-
STEVE BRANN
tiful peninsulas ranging from Harpswell Neck, to Popham or Pemaquid or Friendship. There, in the summer, you will most likely find signs for a church “rummage sale” or in the winter hear someone say “it’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” All of the above terms and lots of similar ones have one thing in common. They are almost all of marine or nautical origin. They come straight from coastal Maine’s maritime folk traditions and the time period when Mainers made their living either by going to sea, at the local shipyard or at the fish house. Even such un-nautical sounding terms that are common most every-
where like “square meal” and “feeling a bit groggy” can be traced to marine folk traditions. “Square meal,” an anatomical term referred to the first hot meal that was served on shipboard after a storm that had made it impossible to keep a fire going in the ship’s gallery stove. When a sailor was “groggy,” he had had too much to drink. Back in the days when the British Navy issued a daily ration of rum one admiral began having it cut with water. The watered rum was called grog because the admiral was known for wearing grogram cloaks. Grogram was a fabric made of silk and wool and good for keeping off chills and damp. The admiral, whose (Continued on page 36)
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(Continued from page 35) name was Vernon, was sometimes called Old Grog behind his back by his men. There are a number of nautical terms or terms of supposed nautical origin about which there are a number of misconceptions. “Booby hatch” is one of these, so too are references to “brass monkey.” On board a ship a “booby hatch” is a hatch which can be shoved aside to allow egress or access. However, its usage also refers to a place to confine the mentally unstable which actually relates to Bedlam, the English prison that was also used for the insane. Mentally ill who became unmanageable were put in the prison’s “booby hatch.” Then there is the term “brass monkey” and all its variations ranging from “monkey gaff” to “monkey block” to “monkey’s paw.” “The Monkey’s Paw” is a famous short story in which 325 Lisbon St. Lisbon, ME 353-4144 802 Sabattus St. Lewiston, ME 333-3214
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the paw has supernatural associations. The heavy weight used to throw a leading line is sometimes referred to as a “monkey paw.” In eighteenth and nineteenth century New England, a “monkey” was a coasting vessel. In the early twentieth century many small boats were powered by engines referred to as “monkeys,” that were similar to “make and break” engines. Then there was the “brass monkey” that supposedly gave rise to the phrase “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” This particular phrase has been critiqued over and over again as a complete fabrication, yet the story of its supposed origin simply continues. Supposedly a “brass monkey” was a pyramid-shaped, iron or brass structure set on deck near a cannon to keep cannon balls in place. As the tale goes, when the cannon balls became cold they shrunk so that they rolled out of
the monkey and around the deck. Thus the phrase “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” The problem with the story is sources on fighting ships from the days of sail state that cannon balls were stored below deck so as not to be a danger in storms. Moreover, had they been on deck they would have been an obstruction to the crew who needed freedom of movement to get around quickly. So, where did the term come from and why does it persist? There is no explanation beyond it becoming an expected art of folk lingo. “Scuttlebutt” as in “what’s the scuttlebutt” refers to a water barrel on a ship. Scuttle means to chop a hole in something. A “scuttlebutt” was a water barrel with a hole chopped in it for easy access. “Under the weather,” a term for feeling poorly, first described a seaman who was stationed where he was constantly exposed to wind and
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spray. “Touch and go” referred to the keel or bottom of a ship briefly touching bottom and then moving on without damage. “Shouting distance” was similar to calling a captain “dog-barking navigator” and was a term of derision. The “dog-barking navigator” had to be within “shouting distance” of the land so that he could hear a dog bark to feel safe. Then there is the phrase “rummage sale.” Rummage sales are among the most popular attractions on the coast of Maine as well as inland. The word rummage comes from the French arrimage, meaning ship’s cargo. Damaged cargo was sold at a “rummage sale.” There are countless other folk traditions all over Maine besides these. Anyone wishing to share some of them with Discover Maine Magazine readers can email them to Fundy59@msn.com.
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Dog sled in Cornish outside The New Lincoln. Item #100440 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Revitalizing Bath Iron Works Bath’s Pete Newell by Charles Francis December 7, 1941 has gone down in history as “a date which will live in infamy.” Those words were uttered by President Roosevelt on December 8, 1941. As any American should know, they refer to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Today a good many historians believe that FDR fully expected that the United States would go to war while he was in office. Backing this belief up is the fact that he President took a number of steps to prepare for the eventuality. In essence, what Roosevelt did was everything in his power to make the U.S. an “Arsenal of Democracy.” Arsenal is, of course, militaristic jargon. An arsenal stockpiles military supplies,
weapons. FDR gave his “Arsenal of Democracy” speech in December of 1940. Some six months earlier the President had Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox send letters to the nation’s major shipyards to the effect that they should gear up for impending Naval contracts. When the Day of Infamy occurred only one shipyard was truly prepared for the demands the U.S. government would place on them — Bath Iron Works. The man largely responsible for BIW’s preparedness was William S. “Pete” Newell. Because of the prompt action taken by Pete Newell with the receipt of Secretary Knox’s letter, BIW was able to
achieve production records of unprecedented proportions. In fact, BIW produced more vessels during the war than any shipyard in the world. Its output even exceeded that of the entire Japanese empire. It is an incredible accomplishment made even more incredible by the fact that in 1925 BIW was a bankrupt company whose production equipment had either been sold off or left to rust away. Today few Mainers know that BIW was once a family-owned company. For the most part, one is considered informed about the workings of the great shipbuilding firm if they know it is owned by General Dynamics. But there was indeed a time when one family, the
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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com Hyde family, owned the bulk of BIW stock. BIW was incorporated in 1884. Its owners were Thomas Hyde, the founder of the company, and his wife, Annie. Except for a brief period in the early 1900s, when BIW formed a trust with Charles Schwaab, the company stayed in Hyde family hands until 1917. That year Thomas and Annie Hyde’s son’s wife and heirs sold their stock in the company for around $3 million. Because of World War I something like 2,000 Mainers were making good wages at BIW at this time. By the early 1920s, however, the glory days of the Great War were over. 1922 saw no ships built at the once vital yard. In 1925 BIW was sold at public auction. Then, two years later, Pete Newell, who had once worked at the yard as a draftsman, stepped into the picture. It was Newell who led the once moribund company to new heights of respectability. He did this first with a
gradual expansion of facilities and by building luxury steel yachts, fishing trawlers, Coast Guard patrol boats and tugs and then by rapid expansion and building warships. The most prestigious of the early vessels built under Newell’s leadership were the 343-foot electric yacht Corsair IV and the J-class sloop Ranger. The former was built for J.P. Morgan and the latter for Harold Vanderbilt. The Ranger was a successful America’s Cup defender. It defeated Britain’s Endeavor in four straight races. In addition, there were Navy contracts. By 1940 BIW had built sixteen destroyers. Then came Secretary of the Navy Knox’s letter. Essentially, Secretary Knox was directing America’s shipyards to take all steps necessary to be able to immediately go into a wartime production mode once Congress declared war. His letter explicitly state that “Speed is of
the essence.” Unfortunately, most U.S. shipyards decided to wait for government contract money to come in for expansion and gearing up. BIW was one of the few exceptions to this. Following receipt of Secretary Knox’s letter Pete Newell purchased adjacent land to BIW from Maine Central Railroad. He then put up two building ways. This meant BIW could have eight ships under construction at the same time. Newell also purchased land in East Brunswick for a prefabrication plant. Ship sections were constructed here and then hauled to the Kennebec. Unlike most of the nation’s shipyards BIW was ready to meet the challenge brought by the events of December 7, 1941. During the war years BIW’s some 12,000 workers delivered twenty-one destroyers a year. The total number of destroyers built between 1941 and 1945 numbered sixty-seven. Incredible as it may seem, this figure represents (Continued on page 42)
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(Continued from page 41) one quarter of all destroyers built in the U.S. during the war. This wasn’t all Newell - directed BIW did, though. Along with the now defunct Todd Shipyard Corp. of South Portland, BIW built thirty 10,000 ton cargo ships for Britain and 244 Liberty ships for the U.S. Few U.S. companies – if any – can equal BIW’s World War II accomplishments. They are accomplishments that owe much to William S. “Pete” Newell’s foresight and vision. His is a remarkable legacy to Maine and the country and the world.
Bath Iron Works ca. 1900. Item #4193 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com Open 7 Days
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The Famous Skidompha Library A history of the Damariscotta landmark by Matthew Jude Barker Of all the libraries in Maine named for a town or city, or a famous citizen of that town or city, none cause one to stop and wonder its origins like Damariscotta’s Skidompha Public Library. It is indeed unique in its origins; perhaps no other library in the state or even in New England has such a memorable name as does Skidompha. In the 1880s, certain members of the Damariscotta Methodist Episcopal Church gathered together to form a small literary society, a social club they called SKIDOMPHA. The name is an acrostic, a combination of letters derived from the names of the original club members: S Stetson, Elsie
K Kelsey, Julie and Addie I Benner, Ida D David, Mrs. James O Osman, Plummer M Merry, Mr. and Mrs. Charles P Pinkham, Mary H Hilton, William Keene Jr. A Ames, Jennie These members began to collect books with a future library in mind. They called themselves the Skidomphans and placed their club dues in a ginger jar to buy books. These books were the beginning of a library which they at first housed over the grocery store of Charles N. Jones. The club itself lasted only eight more years, but the library continued to grow at a furious pace
as local residents and summer visitors made donations of money and books. In 1905 the Skidompha Library was presented to the towns of Damariscotta and Newcastle. In 1922 the Newcastle-Damariscotta Woman’s Club and the Skidompha Club purchased the Dixon House, an 1803 colonial home, for $5000, and turned it into the new Skidompha Public Library. At the time, the library had over 6000 volumes. The library continued to grow throughout the 20th century and by 1997 had over 30,000 volumes, as well as a genealogy and history room, a second-hand bookshop, and a Children’s Room. Also in 1997, plans were initi(Continued on page 44)
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(Continued from page 43) ated to build a new, far larger library, thanks, in part, to a very generous pledge of $550,000 by famed children’s book illustrator Barbara Cooney Porter of Damariscotta. A fund drive was started to raise $1.5 million. This goal was reached by 2000 and now the Skidompha Public Library is one of the most popular libraries along the coast of Maine. The library, with a substantial genealogy and history section, was awarded the “National Medal for Museum and Library Service,” and is located at 184 Main Street, Damariscotta.
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WESTERN MAINE SNOWMOBILE CLUBS: Andover: Snow Valley Sno-Goers Auburn: Perkins Ridge Sno-Travelers Auburn: Andy Valley Sno Gypsies Auburn: Auburn Sno Groomers Baldwin: Baldwin Beltburners Bethel: Bethel Snow Twisters Bridgton: Bridgton Easy Riders Brownfield: Burnt Meadow Snowmobile Club Buckfield: Streaked Mountaineers Carrabassett Valley: J.V. Wing Snowmobile Club Carthage: Webb River Valley Snowmobile Club Chesterville: Chesterville Country Ramblers Cornish: Cornish Sno-Cruisers Snowmobile Club Denmark: Denmark Draggers Dixfield: Poodunck Snowmobile Club Eustis, Stratton: Arnold Trail Snowmobile Club Farmington: Shiretown Riders Fryeburg: Interstate Snogoers Gilead: Wild River Riders Inc. Gray: Gray SnoWolves Greene: Greene Dragons Snowmobile Club Greenwood, Woodstock, Milton: Greenstock Snow Sports Harrison: Harrison Friendly Riders Snowmobile Club Hebron: Bouncing Bogies Hiram: Hiram Hillclimbers Industry: Northern Lites Snowmobile Club Jay: Andy Valley Riders Kingfield: Sno Wanderers Snowmobile Club Lewiston: Hillside Family Riders Snowmobile Club Limerick, Newfield: Route 11 Streakers Livermore: Livermore Trail Blazers Livermore Falls: Jug Hill Riders
Lovell: Kezar Trailbreakers Mexico: Mexico Trail Blazers New Portland: Wire Bridge Sno-Travelers New Sharon: New Sharon Snow Riders New Vineyard: New Vineyard North Snowmobile Club New Vineyard: New Vineyard Trailmasters Newry: Windy Valleys Snowmobile Club Norway: Norway Trackers Oxford: Rock-O-Dundee Riders Peru: Peru Snowmobile Club Phillips, Avon: North Franklin Snowmobile Club Porter, Parsonsfield: Sacopee Valley Snow Drifters Rangeley: Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club Roxbury, Byron: Slippery Sliders Snowmobile Club Rumford: Rumford Polar Bears Sabattus: Sabattus Mountaineers Saco: Saco Pathfinders Sanford, Springvale: Southern Maine Sno-Goers South Paris: Hungry Hollow Hustlers Snowmobile Club South Paris: Snowhoppers Snowmobile Club Stoneham: Stoneham Knight Riders Strong: Narrow Gauge Snowmobile Club Turner: Turner Ridge Riders Upton: State Line Snowmobile Club Waterboro: Ossipee Mountaineers Waterford: Waterford Snow Packers Weld: Weld Winter Wildcats Snowmobile Club West Paris: Mollyockett Sportsmen Club Westbrook: Westbrook Trail Blazes Wilton: Woodland Wanderers Snowmobile Club Windham: Windham Drifters Snowmobile Club
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RANGELEYTOWNANDLAKE.COM
benchmarkmary@myfairpoint.net
Southern Maine
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Sledding Into The Past Snowmobile Hall of Famer Earlan B. Campbell by Brian Swartz Long before snowmobiles zoomed through the Katahdin Region’s multifaceted forests, long before the Interconnecting Trail System flung Trails 83, 85, and 86 outward from Millinocket to connect sledders with Greenville, Kokadjo, Lincoln, Patten, and Sherman Mills, there was Earlan B. Campbell. A transportation visionary who figured there had to be a better way than snowshoeing for ice fishermen and trappers to reach remote ponds and prime hunting terrain during a “deep” Katahdin Region winter, Campbell sensed that snowmobiles might work.
He had dabbled with engine-powered air sleds during his younger days; although these machines worked relatively well on frozen lakes kept snow-free by Maine’s predominantly northwesterly winter winds, Campbell figured that air sleds would bog down in deep powder. In 1958, Campbell signed on with Polaris to sell that company’s Sno-Traveler. A son, Steve Campbell, recalls that his father was the fifth or sixth Polaris snowmobile dealer in the United States; Earlan Campbell was likely the company’s first sled dealer in Maine, too. In
fact, local legend suggests he was the first snowmobile dealer in the Pine Tree State. With their wood skis and cast iron engines, early snowmobiles proved notoriously cantankerous. Retired Millinocket Fire Chief Wayne Campbell, who along with his father participated in an epic winter search for crewmen missing from an Air Force bomber that crashed near Greenville in January 1963, remembers that the technologically primitive Polaris Sno-Traveler “really wouldn’t go well in the
Stop in for a Visit!
(Continued on page 48)
THE BLACK FROG MOOSEHEAD LAKE
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La Fleur’s Restaurant Home of Maine’s Premier Seafood Buffet First Friday of Every Month Available for Banquets, Luncheons & Receptions
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Route 4 • Jay, Maine
461 US Route 2 • Wilton, ME
207-645-2985
FrechettesSkidoo.com
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CENTRAL MAINE SNOWMOBILE CLUBS: Abbot: Big Pine Riders Snowmobile Club Anson, North Anson: Anson-North Anson Snowmobile Club Augusta: Fox Glen Snowmobile Club Augusta: North Augusta Trailblazers Belgrade: Belgrade Draggin’ Masters Bingham, Moscow: Valley Riders Dover-Foxcroft: Piscataquis Valley Snowmobile Club Embden: Embden Travelers Fairfield: Fairfield Country Riders Fayette: Rainbow Riders Snowmobile Club Gardiner: Gardiner Ridge Riders Greenfield: G&G Trailblazers Greenville: Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club Guilford: Four Winds Snowmobile Club Jackman: Border Riders Sportsman’s Club Kokadjo, Frenchtown Twp: Kokadjo Roach Riders Madison: Abnaki Sno-Riders Manchester: Manchester Country Riders Mercer: Mercer Bog Riders Monmouth: Cochnewagan Trailblazers Monson: Narrow Gauge Riders Mount Vernon: Minnehonk Ridge Riders Norridgewock: Norridgewock Sportsmen Association
Northeast Carry: Northeast Carry Sno Riders Oakland: Oakland Snow Goers Parkman: Parkman Trailblazers Pittsfield: Pittsfield Driftbusters Snowmobile Club Pittston Academy Grant Twp: Pittston Farm Poland: Poland Sno Travelers Readfield: Readfield Blizzard Busters Richmond: Richmond Sno-Rovers Rockwood: Blue Ridge Riders Rockwood: Taunton-Raynham Riders Rome: Rome Ruff Riders Shirley: Shirley Bog Trail Busters Sidney: Sidney Trail Riders Club Skowhegan: Skowhegan Sno-Hawks Snowmobile Club Smithfield: Moonshiners, Inc. Solon: Solon Snow Hawks The Forks: Northern Outdoors Snowmobile Club Vassalboro: Kennebec Valley Trail Riders Vienna: Vienna Mountaineers Waterville: Central Maine Snowmobile Club Wayne: Thirty Mile River Snowmobile Club West Forks, Parlin Pond: Coburn Summit Riders West Gardiner: Cobbosseecontee Snowmobile Club Winthrop: Hillandalers Snowmobile Club
Sled into Maine’s Moosehead Region! Spalding, Mellon & Munster Real Estate
BRETON’S STORE Fresh Dough Pizza! •Hot & Cold Beverages •Fresh Sandwiches •Groceries & Ice Cream •Fishing Supplies •Fuel Up Here!
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SNOWMOBILE 24/7 Fuel
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Across from Greenville Junction Wharf Open 7 Days - 6am-9pm
207-695-2862 Winter in Maine, Cold weather, snow, snowmobiling, and Moosehead Lake, all part of a great outdoor heritage.
The Moosehead Region is a sledders paradise and Indian Hill Trading Post the place to find the gear that will let you enjoy it. We sell the best snowmobile clothing from Choko and Hot Chillies to HJC and many more. No matter what your size, style or color we will have something for you. From size 2 chidrens to XXXXL adult we’ve got it. Mon - Sat 8 am - 8 pm Sun 8 am - 6 pm Self-Serve Fuel Island Open 24 hrs. Greenville, ME 04441 Toll Free 1.800.675.4487
Serving the Moosehead Lake Region
(207) 534-7200
207-695-2020 mooseheadmotorsports.com
Rt. 15, PO Box 44 • Rockwood, ME 04478
www.rockwoodmaine.com
Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 46) snow,” especially “in the deep snows of Maine.” Earlan Campbell believed that the Roseau, a Minnesota-based Polaris, could do better. He convinced brothers-in-law Edgar Hetteen and David Johnson, the Polaris owners, to travel to Maine in February 1960 to ride with him for a week out where snowmobilers broke their own trails and a sled driver knew basic mechanical repairs. That ride convinced Hetteen and Johnson to view the Katahdin Region as a proving ground for Polaris snowmobiles. They sent — and sometimes personally delivered — test sleds from winter 1961 to winter 1968. Long-distance rides through wind-drifted snow and dark forests helped Polaris sled designers refine their machines.
Earlan Campbell remained dedicated to snowmobiling. He helped established the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile Club and helped open a clubhouse on Route 157, the state-numbered road that exits Millinocket to the northwest and steers recreationists to Baxter State Park or the Golden Road. Over the years, Campbell and other Northern Timber Cruisers’ members developed an extensive local snowmobile trail system that lures sledders in their thousands to experience the Katahdin Region’s wintry beauty. The snowmobile industry extended Campbell its highest honor posthumously when he was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame, located in St. Germain, Wisconsin. Snowmobile Hall of Fame supporters held their an-
nual meeting in Eagle River, Wisconsin on January 12, 2006 and recognized Campbell and three other veteran sledders: • Darcy Ewing, a sled driver who competed enthusiastically and effectively on the professional snowmobile racing circuit from 1968 until his death during a September 2002 training accident. • 79-year-old Coley Findlay, a veteran Wisconsin sledder who helped organize in 1984 an annual charitable ride that has raised some $1 million for multiple sclerosis research. • Frans Rosenquist, an astonishingly successful professional snowmobile racer whose career spanned the sport’s development from 1967 to 1985. Campbell’s legacy lives on not only in human memory, but in snowsled re-
Good Food...Great Times! Jackman Auto Parts Quality Automotive Products Great Customer Service
207-668-5351 414 Main St., Jackman, ME
SOLON SUPERETTE Pizza • Hot & Cold Sandwiches Cold Cuts • Groceries On ITS 87 Snowmobile & ATV Accessible
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LUCE’S
MAINE-GROWN MEATS ~ W HO L E S A L E - R E T AI L ~ Slaughterhouse • Custom Smoking We specialize in supplying some of Maine’s best restaurants with Maine-grown meats of the finest quality.
207-635-2817 North Anson, Maine
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ality, too. After transporting their prototype Sno-Travelers and other models to Millinocket and putting the machines through their wintertime paces as far north as the Allagash, Edgar Hetteen and David Johnson “really did not want to haul those sleds home,” recalls Wayne Campbell. They conveniently left some sleds with Earlan Campbell; he and his sons Reid, Steve, and Wayne kept the “donated” snowmobiles operational. By the late 1980s, the Campbells realized that other sled drivers enjoyed seeing the vintage snowmobiles. Maine’s vagarious weather barred the family from maintaining a permanent outdoor display, so in 1988 Steve Campbell organized the first benefit supper to raise funds for a new building
— ultimately measuring 60-by-40 feet and encompassing two floors — that would house the sleds. Northern Timber Cruisers’ members helped construct the museum near their clubhouse. Today, the Northern Timber Cruisers Antique Snowmobile Museum displays more than 30 vintage snow sleds. Among the restored machines are: • A 1951 Bombardier B-12 Muskeag, once used by Great Northern Paper Co. crews to patrol utility lines extending along the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Steve Campbell recovered this enclosed sled, which “was in the Penobscot River down in Milford,” Wayne Campbell recalls. • A 1955 Bosak Toboggan, equipped with a 9-horsepower Clinton engine that slides back and forth as the sled
driver shifts gears (three “forward” speeds, plus reverse). The Bosak, the only such found in Maine, was “a pile of rotten wood and rust” when located in Deep River, Ontario, according to Wayne Campbell. A Sanford-based friend restored this sled, he says. • A 1962 Polaris Bull Cat, the actual first prototype of this Polaris line. This machine was tested in the Katahdin Region forests in February 1962. • A 1963 Polaris Sno-Traveler Bull Cat. Earlan Campbell installed a Volkswagen engine in this sled in 1964; the engine produced 36 horsepower, and the Bull Cat featured three forward speeds and reverse. • A 1963 Polaris Sno-Traveler Ranger KE-95, found long abandoned in a field (Continued on page 51)
Enjoy Maine’s North Country
River’s Edge Motel Amanda Campbell, Proprietor
Attractive Rooms • Cable TV • Wi-Fi Beautiful Sunsets & Amazing Wildlife! Pizza & Sub Shop! Directly on ITS 83 ~ Sledders Welcome!
207-746-5162
2166 Medway Rd., Route 157 • Medway, ME
Snowmobile Trail Access Right From Your Cabin to ITS 87! Ice Fishing Right From Your Cabin on Beautiful Lake Wyman!
•6 Beautiful Lakeside Cabins •Fully Equipped and Open Year Round •Each Cabin Has 2 Bedrooms, 1 Loft, Kitchen, Living Room and Full Bath •Sleeps Up to 12
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Trailside Lodging!
Southern Maine
50
AROOSTOOK AREA SNOWMOBILE CLUBS:
Allagash: Moosetown Riders, Inc. Allagash: Allagash Wilderness Waterway Wanderers Ashland: Ashland Snowmobile Club Bangor: Paul Bunyan Snowmobile Club Benedicta: Benedicta Snowgang Bradford: Bradford Snowblazers Brownville: Brownville Snowmobile Club Caribou: Caribou Snowmobile Club Castle Hill: Aroostook River Snowmobile Club Caswell: Pleasant Ridge Riders Chapman: Chapman Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club Danforth, Weston: East Grand Snowmobile Club Eagle Lake: Eagle Lake Winter Riders East Millinocket, Medway: East Branch Sno-Rovers Easton: Easton Trailbreakers Ellsworth: Ellsworth Snowmobile Club Enfield: Cold Stream Sno-Riders Fort Fairfield: Fort Fairfield Snowmobile Club Fort Kent: Fort Kent Snoriders, Inc. Frenchville: Frenchville Snowmobile Club Grand Isle: Cold Mountain Snowmobile Club Hampden: Goodwill Riders Snowmobile Club Hermon: Penobscot Snowmobile Club Howland: Twin Rivers Snowmobile Club Hudson: Pushaw Lake Snowmobile Club Island Falls: Big Valley Sno-Club Lagrange, Alton: LA Sledders Lee: Lee Mogul Pounders Snowmobile Club Levant: Hungry Hollow 76ers Limestone: Limestone Snow Hawks Lincoln: Lincoln Snowhounds Snowmobile Club
Linneus: Linneus Sno-Sports, Inc. Littleton, Houlton, Monticello: Meduxnekeag Ramblers Macwahoc: Eastern Maine Snow Riders Madawaska: Madawaska Snowmobile Club Mars Hill: Central Aroostook Snowmobile Club Mattawamkeag: Mattawamkeag Roadrunners Millinocket: Northern Timber Cruisers Millinocket: Jo-Mary Riders Milo: Devils Sledders, Inc. New Canada: Sly Brook Sno-Riders New Canada: Twin Lakes Sno-Riders, Inc. Oakfield: Smoki Haulers Snowmobile Club OxBow-Masardis: OxBow-Masardis Snowmobile Club Patten: Rockabema Snow Rangers Portage Lake: Portage Lakers Snowmobile Club Presque Isle: Presque Isle Snowmobile Club Sherman: Molunkus Valley Sno-Drifters Springfield: Quad County Snowmobile Club Squa Pan Lake: Walker Siding Snowmobile Club St. Agatha: Red Arrow Snowmobile Club St. Francis: St. Francis Sno-Angels Stockholm, New Sweden, Westmanland: Nordic Lakers, Inc. T1 R8: Twin Pine Snowmobile Club T5 R8: Bowlin Matagamon Snowmobile Club T8 R9: Libby Pinnacle Sno Riders Van Buren: Gateway Snowmobile Club Vanceboro: Vanceboro-Lambert Snowhounds Washburn: Washburn Trail Runners Winn: Dwinal Pond 4 Seasons Club Winterport: Winterport Riverside Riders
Sled into the County!
ITS TRAILS RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR!
Bucks Point Sporting Lodge & Camps Seasonal Activities For All
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Discover Maine 2.5x7.5_Discover Maine 10/4/13 2:40 PM Page 1
www.buckspointsportinglodge.com
Begin your Maine Snowmobiling Adventures on line
www.mesnow.com Maine Snowmobile Association PO Box 80, Augusta ME 04332 207.622.6983 msa@mesnow.com
The Maine Snowmobile Association Guide to Exploring the State’s 14,000 Miles of Snowtrail
51
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com (Continued from page 49) in Canaan, Maine. Long before modern snowmobile manufacturers boasted about equipping their machines with electric start and reverse, this sled sported both features. • A 1965 Boatel Trailmaster, designed with a self-contained auger that saved an ice fisherman lots of time when drilling fishing holes. • A 1968 Yamaha SL351, one of only 300 built as prototypes. • A 1968 Snow Bug, sporting serial number 11 and manufactured in Sudbury, Ontario. • A Whip-It, the only snowmobile ever mass-produced in Maine. The factory was located in Wilton. The Antique Snowmobile Museum is open on the winter weekends when the Northern Timber Cruisers’ clubhouse is open.
Maine skiers in the past. Item #101226 from the D.J. Lindsay Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Step into your Skis! Make Tracks . . .
Great Rates for snowmobile loans Franklin Savings Bank has money to lend for qualified buyers. Come see us!
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EDMUNDS MARKET
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Carter’s Cross country ski shop & centers Call Ahead For Hours!
Lodge & Cabin Rentals in Bethel!
Full Retail Ski Shop in Oxford Large Inventory • Great Deals • Sales • Rentals 85 km Trails in Oxford & Bethel 207-539-4848 • Rt. 26, Oxford, Maine 207-824-3880 • 786 Intervale Rd., Bethel, Maine
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Southern Maine
52
Moosehead Carnival, January 22, 1966. Item #19081 from the Boutilier Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Warm up with a good meal! Welcome Snowmobilers! Open Year Round
Closed Monday & Tuesday Wed.-Sun. 8am-3pm Thu., Fri., Sat. evenings 5p-8p!
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6 Hall Hill Road • Dixfield, ME
River Valley Grill To Heat or Cool & Propane too!
call 1-800-598-3835
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Mon. - Fri. 6am-7pm, Sat. 8am-1pm Closed Sunday. Your hosts: Bob & Kathy Knowles 39 Exchange St., Rumford • 369-0810
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Discover Maine’s Winter Activities! Moosehead Carnival, January 22, 1966. Item #19079 from the Boutilier Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Warm up with a good meal! The
`
Looney Moose Cafe
We specialize in home-cooked specials! Daily Homemade Soups!
Legendary Homemade Corned Beef Hash! 9 Main Street, Eustis, Maine
Four Seasons Restaurant Offering
Steak & Ribs Open Daily 6am-9pm Thank you for dining with us! Timothy & Sandra Bent
668-7778
417 Main Street • Jackman, ME
Open 7 Days A Week 7am-2pm
246-7932 ✴ Free Rentals on Sundays! ✴
Stratton Plaza Hotel & Lounge Home Of Stratton Pizza & Traitor Lounge Home Cooked Meals ~ Pizza ~ Burgers Steak ~ Fish ~ Hot & Cold Sandwiches Drink & Draft Specials
MAINE GUIDE
Arcade ~ Pool Tables ~ Horse Shoe Pits
Store Now Open!
Trailer Parking ~ Camping on Flagstaff Lake
SNOWSHOES & FURNITURE CO. • Wooden Snowshoes • Maine Guide Boot Bindings • Locally Made Maine Gifts • Sporting Goods
First Snowshoe with Reverse!
207-672-4011
Main St. •Bingham, ME WWW.MGSNOWSHOES.COM
Live Entertainment on Weekends NEW ROOMS ATV & Snowmobile Trail Access out back Great Cross Country Skiing! Check out our new Trailside DECK With open Fire Pit! 149 Main Street (Rt. 27) • Stratton
strattonplazahotel.com 207-246-2000
Like Us on Facebook for Updates & Specials!
Southern Maine
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Know Your Skis by Kristina Trygstad-Saari As cross-country skiers and racers, we must tackle more than the physical and mental challenges of the sport. The wide-range of equipment necessary for ski racing presents additional challenges, and it is important that we incorporate equipment testing into our training sessions to overcome these challenges. Early season training provides an excellent opportunity to spend time learning about and familiarizing yourself with your equipment. Dialing in each piece of equipment before you race will help alleviate stress and allow you to maximize your performance on race day. First and foremost, it is important to
start learning about new skis as soon as possible. Regardless of how many pairs you have (maybe one, maybe a whole quiver), there is no better way to learn about a ski than getting it out on snow. Some skiers have designated race skis and training skis, but don’t be too protective of the race skis. As long as snow conditions permit, use your training sessions to learn about all of your skis and know how each pair feels in a variety of conditions. If you have multiple pairs of skate and classic skis, it is helpful to label each pair so they are easy to identify. Keep a notebook with post-training notes about each pair — note the snow conditions, temperature,
wax, how the ski felt, how it compared to another ski, etc. You can incorporate ski testing into your workout by bringing two or three pairs out to the trails and switching skis between intervals or laps of a distance ski. Remember that our technique changes as we change our intensity, so it is worth testing out a ski during a high-intensity session, as well as during an easy distance workout. Testing your skis does not have to be a complicated process — wax a few pairs with the same glide wax, or kick wax if you are classic skiing, take them out to the trails, and go ski. Just remember to take a few notes, so you can look back and compare how a ski performed
Sled in for a visit! thompson’s restaurant
Todd West welcomes you to
JIMMY’S SHOP ‘N SAVE
“Seafood to Sandwiches” At the Gateway to the Maine Forest Since 1929 the Standard of Quality
Banquet Facilities up to 40 people Donuts & Bread Baked Daily • Daily Specials Homemade Soups & Chowders
__________________
346 Main Street, Bingham • 207-672-3820
Convenient to ITS 87 • Custom Fresh Cut Meats • Fresh Produce • All Your Grocery And Snack Needs • Agency Liquor Store MAIN STREET • BINGHAM
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JIMMYSBINGHAM.COM
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Cabins
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207-668-4400
Do You Enjoy Writing? Do You Love Maine? Do You Love History? If so, give us a call.
All rooms recently renovated 94 Main Street Mars Hill, ME 04758
Campground &
107 Heald Stream Rd. Jackman/Moose River mooserivercampground.org
Bear Paw Inn Since 1895
Moose River
Across the street from ITS 81/83
www.mainebearpawinn.com
We Are Always Looking for History writers to Contribute to our Magazine!
Discover Maine Magazine (207) 874-7720 • 1-800-753-8684
55
DiscoverMaineMagazine.com on different days. Learning to wax effectively, both kick and glide, is an ongoing and complicated process for every skier. But the best way to learn about kick wax is to get out and experiment. Challenge yourself and tackle difficult snow conditions on classic skis, instead of opting to skate or use a waxless classic ski. The more you apply and ski on complicated wax, the more comfortable you will be racing in tricky conditions. In order to become comfortable on all of your skis, you may have to take out a pair of skis even if the conditions are not ideal for that particular ski. Test out klister skis and zeros (waxless option) in a variety of conditions, so you do not find yourself unfamiliar with a ski when it comes time to use it in a race. Do not be afraid to miss the wax or pick the wrong ski on a training day—these mistakes will help you train yourself to overcome such challenges in a race. ❦ Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
Ski jumper flying off a wooden structure built for the 1924 Winter Carnival in Portland. The ski jump was built by skier Birger Olsen on the Western Promenade. Item #81 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society/Maine Today Media and www.VintageMaineImages.com
*Bio: Kristina Trygstad-Saari is a former nationally ranked cross-country ski racer from Bozeman, MT. She skied and coached for Dartmouth College and now coaches for the Bridger Ski Foundation. This article is reprinted with permission of The Master Skier Ski Journal.*
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David & Jeannette Andersen 593 Ossipee Trail Limington, ME 04049
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655-7520
Route 302 • Casco, ME
Southern Maine
56
Pownal State School band, ca. 1955. The band was made up of residents of the Pownal State School in New Gloucester. Item #23980 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
Shop THE
Quality Repair at Affordable Prices
• General Repair • 4x4 • Used Cars • Body Work • Painting • State Inspection If we can’t fix it; it ain’t broke Bill Libby - Owner
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1253 Roosevelt Trail • Raymond, ME
n’s Thompso Orchard 6! ed Since 190 Family Own
Xmas Trees • Wreaths • Apple Cider Donuts Pies • Jams • Jellies Full Bakery • Fresh Breads and more
207-926-4738 276 Gloucester Hill Rd. • New Gloucester, ME
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Wilson Funeral Home “When Service Matters”
~ Family Owned Since 1927 ~ Offering Affordable Funeral Memorials and Direct Cremations
Jason C. Wilson
657-3204
24 Shaker Road • Gray, Maine 04039
wilsonfuneralhome.us
When living alone is no longer an option and a nursing home is not the answer our caring hands can help
Gracious Living in a cozy atmosphere Cumberland Foreside
781-2408 Respite Care Available Family Owned and Operated
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The White Cap Quick Lunch on Route 1, Yarmouth. Item #121959 from the Gillison Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org (photo donated by Bob and Judith Bishop in 2013)
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Hardware Inc. Gift Certificates Available
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The best place for quality hardware & rental equipment
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HUGHES CONSTRUCTION CO. INC.
Proudly Serving Maine Residents Since 1975
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FALMOUTH
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781-2120
1-800-499-2120 209 U.S. Route One Falmouth, Maine
Southern Maine
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Christmas Lighthouses Decorating Southern Maine’s lighthouses by Brian Swartz By early December, “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” at some lighthouses located only a short drive from Portland. The transition from utilitarian lighthouse to a Currier & Ives holiday print begins early at Cape Elizabeth’s popular Portland Head Light, definitely the best known Maine lighthouse and arguably the state’s most frequently photographed. Located at Fort Williams Park, the lighthouse perches on a rocky ship-killing shore; the light’s elegant lines and dramatic location draw countless photographers to capture that best image of this 223-year-old Maine landmark. During the holidays a large wreath
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adorns the 80-foot tower and provides that perfect Christmas touch. Fresh snow only enhances the effect; as the low winter sun illuminates the stately lighthouse and its attached light keeper’s cottage, the imagery is outstanding. The light keeper’s cottage is home to the Museum at Portland Head Light, open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., weekends from Columbus Day until a few days before Christmas. With or without its holiday wreath, Portland Head Light often appears on such Christmas-themed objects as holiday cards, ornaments, prints, and puzzles; even look for a snow-covered Portland Head Light to peer from
the December page on a lighthouse or Maine calendar. And a special Christmas Eve will always be associated with Portland Head Light, as a message painted on the nearby rocks reminds visitors year-round. On December 24, 1886, what should have been a holiday disaster occurred right next to the venerable light tower. Originally a New York-built clipper ship, the bark Annie C. Maguire stood into Casco Bay late on Christmas Eve 1886 to escape a coastal storm. Historical sources disagree on the weather; Portland Head Lighthouse keeper Joseph Strout recalled 41 years later that “the wind was howling a gale.” In 1929 he cited calm weather.
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Apparently snow was falling as Strout went to bed while his son, Joshua Strout, stood watch in the light tower. About 11:30 p.m. he spotted the three-masted Maguire driven ashore on the rocks immediately east of the tower; after striking on her starboard side, the ship now listed toward shore. Joshua Strout rousted his father; the Strouts helped rescue all 18 people aboard the Maguire: Captain Daniel O’Niel, his wife, their 12-year-old son, and 15 sailors (once source cites 13 crew members). The Maguire soon broke apart in another winter storm. Years later another Strout son, assistant light keeper John, painted the inscription “Annie Maguire Shipwrecked Here Christmas Eve 1886” on a rock visible from the lighthouse and the adjacent shore. Occasionally retouched with fresh paint, the inscription is still there. (Continued on page 60)
Asmara An Eritrean Restaurant
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Christmas wreath decorates Portland Head Light for the holidays
Mittapheap Sakura INTERNATIONAL MARKET
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Fresh Asian, African, and Latin
MIKE’S AUTO & LIGHT TRUCK SERVICE
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Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 59) Only a few miles from the tall, majestic Portland Head Lighthouse is the “runt” of southern Maine lights: the 26-foot steel caisson officially named Portland Breakwater Light — and unofficially and affectionately known as Bug Light. Located at Bug Light Park inSouth Portland, the black-capped and white-painted light features Corinthian columns and resembles an ancient Greek temple. Usually not decked out for the holidays, this delightful little lighthouse often backdrops the holiday swag that decorates nearby park benches. And when the sun sets on a cold December day, the lights of Portland glimmer and glow across Portland Harbor. Visitors to Bug Light might see Christmas lights (in the traditional holiday colors or long laces of monochromatic blue, red, or blue) adorning individual buildings across the way —
— not to mention looking across Casco Bay and seeing the holiday lights on the nearby islands. Among the prettier Maine lighthouses at Christmas is Cape Neddick Lighthouse (also known as “Nubble Light”) in York. Located on a “nubble” (a rocky islet) just off the cape, the light tower and keeper’s cottage date to 1879. An oil house was added in 1902; other buildings associated with Cape Neddick Light are a boathouse and a storage building. Because its nubble orients northsouth, Cape Neddick Light presents a striking view from Sohier Park, a public park located just across the gut separating the mainland and the nubble. Backdropped by the Atlantic sky, the tower and its affiliated buildings represent a photographer’s dream setting: a quintessential Maine icon
rising from the New England sea. During the holidays onlookers park at Sohier Park and wait for the sun to set. In the daytime, the only indication that Christmastime is approaching is a large wreath mounted on the storage building. Then Cape Neddick Light undergoes a wondrous transformation at sunset. Strings of white lights adorn all the buildings and the fence enclosing the yard between the tower and the keeper’s cottage. Now as striking as anything that Currier & Ives could publish, the lighthouse literally glows as December darkness sweeps over York.
❦ Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section. Walk-ins Welcome
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DID YOU KNOW? A fire in a boatshop on Commercial Street near the foot of High Street on July 4, 1866 almost destroyed the entire city of Portland, but not one life was lost.
Christmas decorations at Cape Neddick Light
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Portland’s Best Brunch Our award-winning brunch menu is served 7 days a week~ 7am - 2pm 774-0005 www.bintliffscafe.com
Bill Jabine CPA Certified Public Accountant 207-219-8017 27 Gorham Rd. Suite 204 Scarborough, ME 04074
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Southern Maine
62
Joyce’s Fried Clams in Freeport. Item #111514 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
WATERMAN’S Interstate Self Storage SERVICE CENTER “Expert Service Since 1981”
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MAINE PELLET SALES LLC “Your source for premium wood pellets” • Okanagan • Crabbe • Maine’s Choice • Black Hills Heat • Available NOW for pick-up or delivery
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Merrymeeting Bay Mast Pirates by Charles Francis In the earliest days of logging the Androscoggin and Kennebec, the two most important rivers emptying into Merrymeeting Bay, the most valuable trees were the giant white pines bearing the King’s Broad Arrow. These forest giants towered 100 and more feet into the air. The importance of these pines and others elsewhere lay in the fact they were used as masts by the Royal Navy. For this reason the King appointed a Surveyor General for all of North America. The job of the Surveyor General was to see to it that all pines suitable for masts made their way across the Atlantic to the shipyards of Britain for use. He or his deputies tramped the woods of the northeast to see that the laws relating to harvesting mast timber were
followed. The also saw to it that mast roads were built into the wilderness. Mast roads were the first real roads into the wilderness in much of Maine. They were hacked through the woods back of the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Cathance and other rivers as straight as a sword cut. Along the mast roads giant logs of a hundred or so feet and weighing God knows how much were trundled by a variety of means to the nearest river. The most common method involved a complicated system of great wheels, axles and oxen. The logs were slung by chains to the axles of wheels that could stand as much as fifteen feet high. Then the great long affair was pulled by a team of oxen. Depending on the size of the load fifty and even
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sixty pair of oxen could be yoked to a load. Procuring masts for the Royal Navy was big business and served as the basis of several of the first fortunes that were made in the northeast. One family that made a fortune from it was the Wentworth family of New Hampshire. The reason why the Wentworths made a fortune from the mast trade was that two of them held the position of Royal Surveyor General for North America. The two were Benning Wentworth and his nephew John Wentworth. The two Wentworths also served as Royal Governors of New Hampshire. In 1700 John Wentworth, in his capacity of Surveyor General, paid a visit to Brunswick. He had learned that there
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Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 63) were a number of mast pirates operating in the Merrymeeting Bay region. Mast pirates were loggers who felt they could find a better use for the pines bearing the King’s Broad Arrow than as masts. The thing was that the great pines earmarked for the Royal Navy had an even greater value as sources of lumber. Lumber from the great trees brought the highest prices in the building trades markets of cities like Boston and New York where the wealthy intent on emulating British aristocracy with their great manor houses were building their own mansion. What the wealthy of these cities wanted were broad, knot and blemish-free pine floors, and mast pines were perfect for this. The pines marked with the King’s Broad Arrow were chosen in part because they were most likely to be knot -free. They were trees that towered skyward branch-free for eighty, ninety and more feet. No branches meant no knots. Knot-free trees made the best masts. They also made the most desirable lumber for the construction. John Wentworth has gone down in history as the most conscientious of the King’s Surveyors General. Robert Albion in his Forests and Sea Power: The Timber Problem of the Royal Navy identifies Wentworth as “the greatest of Surveyors General of His Majesty’s Woods.” As evidence of just how conscientious Wentworth was, he saw to it that those who broke the King’s Law in
regard to mast theft were prosecuted. The man who did his prosecuting was none other than John Adams, future president of the United States. (One of the claims to fame of the Pownalborough Courthouse is that Adams practiced law there on a number of occasions.) In the summer of 1770 John Wentworth learned that settlers living in the Merrymeeting Bay area not far from Brunswick were cutting timber with the King’s Broad Arrow. Now Wentworth had assumed office as Surveyor General (as well as Royal Governor of New Hampshire) in 1767. At the time he was just twenty-six years old and (in part probably because of his age) was determined to do the best of all possible jobs in his two important positions. While in the past Surveyors General had overlooked strict enforcement of mast laws, Wentworth did not. In fact, he had his deputy surveyors carve his initials “JW” right under the King’s Broad Arrow as a warning to incipient mast pirates. Wentworth left Portsmouth by boat as soon as he heard of the problem down east. Specifically, he had learned that sawmills not far from Brunswick were sawing up logs with the King’s Broad Arrow and his initials. Wentworth’s report of what occurred is found in his personal records that are now property of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. His report was written to the Lords of
the Treasury. While Wentworth’s portraits show him to be a typical aristocrat of the times, he was also known as a hunter and fisherman who thought nothing of spending days tramping through the wilderness on his own. Therefore, he was more than willing to go after backwoods miscreants. Wentworth took two men with him, a servant and a deputy. They were unarmed. While he does not specifically identify where he went, it could have been up the Androscoggin or possible the Cathance. At the sawmills, Wentworth called the settlers together and indicated he intended enforcing the law regarding mast theft. When one rough and steady sort boasted that he would make the country “too hot for officers,” Wentworth singled him out. What Wentworth did was to make the man take him further upstream in his canoe. There he found some 500 logs with the King’s Broad Arrow. Wentworth then settled in for the night. The next day the settlers came to him and surrendered claim to the logs. None of the settlers were prosecuted. John Wentworth fled New Hampshire in 1775 short after the battles of Lexington and Concord. Eventually he became Royal Governor of Nova Scotia as well as Surveyor General of the thirteen colonies. Today he is remembered in the land he fled as the father of Dartmouth College.
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729-0378
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Brunswick Canoe Club, ca. 1890. Item #6005 from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and www.VintageMaineImages.com
Formerly the Maineline Motel
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Southern Maine
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Answering The Call Of Duty The USS Zizania Story by Charles Francis
Maine men and women have a tradition of answering our country’s call to duty. Some Maine stalwarts claim that our state’s young men and women flocked to the Stars and Stripes in time of war in percentages well beyond those of other states. Whatever the truth of this, Maine does have a tradition of responsive patriotism. From the country’s first great war, the Revolution, down to the latest international conflict, Mainers have been quick to don military uniforms, whether those uniforms be of the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force or other service. One such Mainer who did just this was named Edwin Francis. Edwin Francis was my cousin. Edwin fudged his real age just a bit to be-
come a crewman on the USS Zizania in 1917. Edwin was seventeen when he walked up the Zizania’s gangplank in 1917.Acually he walked up the gangplank of the USLHS Zizania. The Zizania wasn’t transferred to the Navy until after Edwin signed on as a member of the United States Lighthouse Service (USLHS). The Zizania was a USLHS buoy tender. From 1912 to 1924 she was stationed in Portland. Portland was then designated as a part of the 1st Lighthouse District (LHD). The 1st LHD was much the same as the 1st Naval District. During World War I, the Great War, the Zizania took on additional duties, including patrolling for German
warships and submarines or U-boats and laying mines. Edwin Francis took part in all these duties plus duties attending to the Zizania’s engines. Edwin was – as he would say with pride – “engine.” He was a steam engineer. Edwin Francis’ full name was Robert Edwin Francis. For some reason, which was never clear to me, he preferred to be called Edwin. I didn’t know his first name was Robert until he died in 1974. Cousin Edwin had two reasons for signing up with USLHS. The first had to do with the fact that he came from a seafaring family. The second was his sightings of a German warship in 1914. That warship was the battle cruiser Karlsruhr. (Continued on page 68)
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ISLAND FARM COMPANY Land Craft Services, Island Excavation and General Contracting
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40 Little Yarmouth Island • Harpswell, Maine
LEE’S TIRE & SERVICE Route 196, Topsham • 729-1676 Cooks Corner, Brunswick • 729-4131
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Did You Know? Almost half of the sailing vessels built in America between 1862 and 1902 were built in Bath.
USS Zizania ca. 1889
Marsh River Electrical LLC Installation, maintenance and inspection of electrical wiring systems & equipment
• Residential • Commercial • Generator Installation
Hank De Ruiter, Master Electrician
207-882-4086
deruiter58@comcast.net • Newcastle, Maine
SMART’S BODY SHOP INC Since 1941
Auto Body & Fender Repairs Painting • Insurance Estimates Down Draft Spray Booth w/ Bake Oven
443-4561
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WILSON’S DRUG STORE
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152 MAIN STREET, WISCASSET
Southern Maine
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(Continued from page 66) Edwin Francis was born in Round Pond on August 5, 1900. Back in the first decades of the twentieth century, most Round Pond men made their living from the sea. Some were fishermen and some were deep-water sailors. Edwin Francis’ grandfather was my great-grandfather. Edwin’s father was Manuel Francis. Manuel made his living fishing the waters of Muscungus Bay and beyond. Often he joined with friends and relatives from Cundy’s Harbor, down Bailey Island way. Manuel Francis was the son of Henry Francis. Henry Francis had, for a time, captained his own deep-water sailing ship. Henry made ports as far flung as the Mediterranean and the Orient. Henry was the son of Emmanuel Francis, a Grand Banks fisherman. In short, Edwin Francis was bred to the sea. Edwin Francis was not an educated man in the traditional sense of the word. He always said his schoolhouse was somewhere to the east of Halfway Rock. Halfway Rock is regarded by some as the furthest reaches of Casco Bay. Edwin said his real education came off Halfway Rock when he fished the waters there as a youngster and when the Zizania patrolled there. To put it another way, the sea, not textbooks, was Edwin’s primer. Edwin Francis knew the waters of the Gulf of Maine and he knew the boats that sailed them. That’s why he knew the Karlsruhr for
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what she was, a German cruiser, back in 1914. The sighting of the Karlsruhr is a bit of a footnote in Maine history. She was the first German warship observed in Maine waters at the beginning of the Great War. The record books indicate that Cundy’s Harbor fishermen after deep water cod reported seeing two ocean-going vessels that now-long-ago year. The location was well off Bailey Island’s Land’s End. The report identified the vessels as an ocean liner and a battle cruiser. The cruiser was the smaller of the two, and clearly in pursuit of the larger. The larger craft was subsequently indentified as the Mauritania, the pride of the Cunard line. It was fleeing for its life from the Karlsruhr, which was operating under direct orders of Admiral Von Spee, the commander in control of German naval vessels in the Atlantic, to see to it that no allied shipping be spared, and this included ocean liners. The Mauritania would make its way safely to British waters. The Karlsruhr would subsequently disappear from the face of the earth under mysterious circumstances, having done no damage to allied shipping. It should not at all be surprising that simple Maine fishermen – even teenagers like Edwin Francis – were able to identify vessels like ocean liners and battle cruisers. After all, Bath Iron
Work routinely sent such vessels down the broad Kennebec. Edwin Francis was typical of the men who signed on to the tenders of the USLHS. He came from a background of being brought up on fishing boats. He knew his way around boats and their engines. That’s why he became an engineer. The Zizania was a relatively new vessel when Edwin joined her crew. Built in 1888, she was 161’ long with a beam of 27’. She was powered by two double-expansion stream engines. Unlike many USLHS vessels that had a stern paddle wheel, the Zizania had twin screws. She was a powerful, steelhulled ship. Her name was that of an aquatic flower. All USLHS vessels bore names of flowers. The Zizania’s peacetime duties prior to the Great War related to the placement and care of lighted and radio beacon navigation aids, primarily buoys but also stationary markers on tiny pinnacles of rock jutting from the sea. As Edwin Francis like to tell, he only had one bad scare on the Zizania. It happened when a lookout spotted what he thought to be a U-boat periscope off Sequin. In its haste to leave the vicinity of the possible enemy, the Zizania practically ran up on the island. Aside from patrols off the mid coast region, duty on the Zizania was fairly routine. The most dif-
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ficult of the ship’s assignments related to the precise placement and surveying of mines around Portland Harbor. In the winter of 1917-18, the Zizania’s duties included that of icebreaker. Though not of the paramount importance it was in World War II, Portland Harbor and the waters beyond were of strategic significance in the Great War. The USS Zizania was an important cog in the tactical day-to-day wartime security of Casco Bay and its immediate environs and teenage Edwin Francis played a part in maintaining that security. ❦ Other businesses from this area are featured in the color section.
Did You Know? Sawyer’s Island, once called Ship Island, was where mast ships were loaded with huge white pines for the British Navy. The 102’ wooden dragger FOUR at Sample’s Shipyard in Boothbay. Item # 301270 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
Haggett Hill Kennels Boarding & Grooming for Dogs & Cats Day Care Mon.-Sat. 7am-6pm Sun. 7-9am • 5-8pm
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93 Dodge Rd., Edgecomb
Traditional Chinese & Thai Cuisine Cocktail Lounge Ample Parking Lunch & Dinner Specials Parties & Special Occasions Accommodated Internet Access Available in our Cocktail Lounge
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633-4449
or 633-7044
96 Townsend Ave. • Boothbay Harbor, ME
414 Lakewood Rd, Rt 201 | Madison ME www.ChinaByTheSea.net
Southern Maine
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Judge Bowman Liked The Name He Picked For A Maine Town by Brian Swartz Three counties — Cumberland, Lincoln, and York — existed in Maine until 1790, and Lincoln County, now among the state’s smaller counties at 700 square miles, was the largest county, encompassing some 60 percent of Maine’s future land mass. The Massachusetts General Court created Lincoln County and Cumberland County on June 21, 1760, only nine months after British troops under Major General James Wolfe captured Quebec City and effectively ended the French and Indian War. The resulting peace sparked emigration from Massachusetts to its Maine district, then considered a howling wilderness. York County already sheltered the district’s “civilized” towns, but lacked sufficient resources to govern the lawless region stretching north and east from the Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers. Cumberland County’s northern boundary would lay along those rivers; Massachusetts legislators established Lincoln County to oversee law and order in the vast region stretching between the rivers and the ill-defined border with English Canada. The General
Court then designated Pownalborough as the county seat and appointed officials to govern Lincoln County, largest in Massachussetts. In 1752, Huguenots from France and Germany had settled along the Kennebec River’s eastern shore near where a tributary, the Eastern River, flowed through a fertile valley. The European immigrants named their settlement Frankfort after the German city where Samuel Waldo had advertised for colonists in March 1753. Representing his father, General Samuel Waldo, Samuel sent additional settlers to join the Germans who had immigrated to Maine a year earlier. A desire to assimilate with English Massachusetts — and perhaps political pressure from English neighbors — led the Huguenots to incorporate Frankfort as Pownalborough on February 13, 1760. Among the Massachusetts officials sent there to govern Lincoln County was Jonathan Bowman, born on December 8, 1735 in Dorchester (Norfolk County), Massachusetts to a family with roots in Middlesex County. A tall and austere man, Bowman ar-
rived in Pownalborough sometime in 1760 as the duly appointed Clerk of the Courts and Register of Deeds, important county positions. He was named Clerk of the Common Pleas on May 26, 1761. Along with the county officials came a new courthouse, funded by the Massachusetts General Court and constructed at Fort Shirley, an English outpost built a few years earlier at Frankfort. Now the only surviving Colonial-era courthouse in Maine, the Pownalborough Court House stood three stories high and featured large main doors that opened toward the Kennebec River and a local road called the King’s Highway. Jonathan Bowman frequented the courthouse, where he probably met Boston attorney John Adams in 1765. Riding a horse to which he tied some law books, Adams followed blazed trees that marked a rudimentary trail between Brunswick and Richmond, then crossed the Kennebec River to Pownalborough and argued his case effectively to his client’s satisfaction. The case developed other clientele for the aspiring Adams, who went into Amer-
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ican history books. No such national fame awaited Jonathan Bowman, yet he would issue one decision that marks the Maine map today. He married Mary Emerson Lowell in Pownalborough on April 26, 1770, and she bore him three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Jonathan, was born in Pownalborough on April 17, 1771; he would follow his father’s footsteps into court employment. The youngest son, Thomas, was born on May 20, 1774; after graduating from Harvard College in 1794, he studied law with Augusta attorney James Bridge and gained admittance to the Massachusetts bar in 1797. Jonathan Bowman (Sr.) was named Lincoln County Judge of Probate in 1772. He would hold this position for many years and gain the honorific “judge,” a title that he did not flaunt, yet accepted as his expected duty. After British regulars and Massachusetts minutemen exchanged lead and casualties in April 1775, many Maine towns saw their inhabitants split along Continental and Loyalist lines. In Maine, these lines also involved religious differences, with Congregationalists typically supporting the Colonial cause and Anglicans backing Britain. In Pownalborough, Congregationalist (or Whig) backers included Jonathan Bowman and Lincoln County Sheriff Charles Cushing, another Massachusetts official sent north in 1760. Their
faction vied with the Anglicans — particular with Parson Jacob Bailey — to ensure that local loyalties would support American independence. As happened after the French and Indian War, the post-Revolutionary War peace poured settlers into Maine. Emigrating primarily from crowded Massachusetts, settlers followed the district’s navigable rivers and streams to establish farms, mills, and villages wherever waterpower and fertile ground could be found. Land claims and disputes, marriages, deaths, contested wills, and other legal cases kept Lincoln County Court busy in the 1780s. Jonathan Bowman’s last child, Mary, was born November 22, 1784 in Pownalborough, and she grew up in the spacious home that her parents had built near the Kennebec River. Her father had invested wisely and had created a substantial estate. Judge Jonathan Bowman probably foresaw the political changes coming to Lincoln County. Substantial population growth many miles from Pownalborough increasingly stretched the county government; by the late 19th century, people living far away did not want their legal cases adjudicated in the Lincoln County shiretown. They often sheltered in barns or slept on local floors while awaiting legal hearings at the Pownalborough Court House. Petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for a political solution, peo-
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ple living in the eastern Maine district gained Hancock County and Washington County in 1790. Boston lopped those counties off Lincoln County and added to the humiliation by creating Kennebec County in 1799. Thomas Bowman, Jonathan’s youngest son, became that county’s first Register of Probate. Even after Maine became a state, the Lincoln County dissection would continue. Waldo County split from Lincoln County in 1827, Sagadahoc County departed Lincoln County in 1854, and Knox County bid “adieu” to Lincoln County in 1860. Even before Kennebec County’s 1799 departure, Lincoln County and Pownalborough were changing. Folks living a few miles to the east incorporated New Milford (Alna) on June 25, 1794, and the German settlers and their offspring who had founded Pownalborough re-incorporated their geographically reduced town that same day. They wanted a municipal name that honored their Germanic heritage. “I like the name ‘Dresden,’” Judge Jonathan Bowman commented. His neighbors concurred: “Dresden” it was, and “Dresden” it remains, with “Pownalborough” relegated to a colonial place name. At 33.2 square miles, the modern Dresden is much smaller than Pownalborough, which became Wiscasset in June 1802. (Continued on page 72)
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(Continued from page 71) As for Judge Jonathan Bowman, the man who put Dresden on the Maine map, another decade of life awaited him after Dresden residents celebrated their new town’s creation in June 1794. Lincoln County courts shifted south to Wiscasset that year, and Bowman often traveled along the corridor of modern Route 27 to attend court. The judge died in Dresden on September 4, 1804. He was buried on the family farm.
Did You Know? The oldest Catholic church in Maine, St. Patrick’s, is located in Newcaste. It was built from 1803-1808.
Girl with trotting pony at Waldoboro Days on Aug. 12, 1965. Item# 16290 from the Boutilier Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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High Street in Wiscasset. Item #102983 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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Dragger ATLAS in South Bristol. Item #349 from the Atlantic Fisherman Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org
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4 Seasons Guide Service ............................................................. 74 44 Degrees North, LLC............................................................... 43 A Little Off The Top ................................................................... 37 A.C. Auto Sales & Vintage Volvos ............................................... 9 ACB Plumbing Repair Service .................................................. 62 Across The River Counseling .................................................... 39 Alewives and Ales .......................................................................72 America’s Best Value Inn ............................................................66 Andrew Ames Logging ................................................................. 7 Aroostook County Tourism .........................................................50 Asmara Eritrean Restaurant ........................................................ 59 Babies Love Them ...................................................................... 41 Back Street Grill .......................................................................... 11 Bay Haven Two Lobster Pound Restaurant ............................... 39 Baywood Builders, Inc. ............................................................... 41 Bear Hill True Value ....................................................................74 Bear Paw Inn ............................................................................... 54 Benchmark Appraisal .................................................................. 45 Benkay Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant....................................28 Ben’s Old Port Barber Shop ........................................................29 Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce .......................................9 Big Fish Fence Supply, Inc. ........................................................ 12 Bill Jabine CPA .............................. .......................................... 61 Bill’s Garage .............................................................................. .40 Bintliff’s American Cafe ............................................................. 61 Blanchette Moving & Storage Co. ................................................ 7 Blue Door Primitive Peddler ....................................................... 11 Bob Temple Well Drilling ........................................................... 36 Bob’s Cash Fuel .......................................................................... 52 Bog Tavern ..................................................................................44 Bolt Create Sew Quilt .................................................................39 Boothbay Animal Hospital ..........................................................68 Botto’s Bakery .............................................................................33 Bowdoin Town Store .................................................................... 7 Breton’s Store ..............................................................................47 Brian’s Brake & Muffler ............................................................. 19 Bruce’s Burritos ......................................................................... 23 Bucks Point Sporting Lodge & Camps .......................................50 Bullwinkle’s Family Steakhouse .................................................44 C&J Chimney & Stove Service, LLC .........................................74 Cabot Mill Antiques ....................................................................66 Cahill Tire Inc. ............................................................................38 Cameron’s Lobster House ...........................................................40 cAr Co. ........................................................................................57 Carrabassett Real Estate ..............................................................49 Carter’s Cross Country Ski Shop & Centers ...............................51 Casco Federal Credit Union ..........................................................4 China By The Sea ........................................................................69 Church & Church Drywall ..........................................................13 Cityside Auto Service, LLC ........................................................60 Clark Auto Parts ..........................................................................43 Clayton’s Cafe .............................................................................57 Coastal Hardware Inc. .................................................................57 Coastal Veterinary Care ...............................................................68 Cochran Custom Builders, Inc. .....................................................4 Coggins Road Auto .....................................................................71 Colby’s Auto Center & Tire ........................................................72 Colby’s Towing ...........................................................................43 Cole Harrison Insurance ............................................................. 17 Comfort Inn Brunswick ...............................................................36 Cordell’s Hair Design ..................................................................60 Cornelia C. Viek, CPA .................................................................65 Country Village Assisted Living ............................................... 21 Cumberland County Federal Credit Union .................................24 Dad’s Smoke Shop ......................................................................17 Ditchbrook Custom Woodworking .............................................21 Don’s Auto Body ..........................................................................3 Dow’s Eastern White Shingles & Shakes .....................................3 DSI Door Services, Inc. ..............................................................27 East Lebanon Glass .....................................................................19 Ed Bouchard Electric ..................................................................63 Edmund’s Market ....................................................................... 51 Ed’s Grove Discount Warehouse .................................................11 Fairground Cafe ...........................................................................63 Falmouth Inn ...............................................................................57 Finelines Auto Body ....................................................................14 Five Fields Farm ...........................................................................7 Forks In The Air Mountain Bistro ...............................................52 Four Corners Store ......................................................................39 Four Seasons Restaurant .............................................................53 Franklin Savings Bank ................................................................51 Frechette’s Ski-Doo .....................................................................46 Freeport Beads ............................................................................35 Freeport Cafe ...............................................................................62 Full Circle Artisan’s Gallery & Bead Emporium.........................39 Gediman’s Appliance ....................................................................4 Giant Stairs Seafood Grill ...........................................................37 Giles Rubbish ..............................................................................68 Gilmore’s Seafood .......................................................................38 Gray Family Vision Center .........................................................22 Grey Goose Masonry ..................................................................24 Haggett Hill Kennels .................................................................. 69 Hall Implement Co. .................................................................... 20 Hammond Lumber Company ......................................................27 Hampton Inn Saco .......................................................................17 Handyman Rental ........................................................................29
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Hanna’s ........................................................................................42 Hartford Construction .................................................................72 Hatch Well Drillers ......................................................................73 Hawkes Tree Service ...................................................................38 High Street 88 .............................................................................12 Holiday Inn By The Bay .............................................................23 Hoof ‘N Wood Pet Sitting Services .............................................71 Hour Glass Company ..................................................................32 Houston-Brooks Auctioneers ....................................................... 5 Hughes Construction Co. Inc. .....................................................57 Hydraulic Hose & Assemblies ......................................................3 Ideal Septic Service .....................................................................70 Indian Hill Trading Post ..............................................................47 Integrity Investments, LLC .........................................................22 Interstate Self Storage .................................................................62 Island Farm Company .................................................................66 Italian Heritage Center ................................................................33 J. Edward Knight & Co. ................................................................4 Jackman Auto Parts .....................................................................48 Jackman Power Sports ................................................................48 Jackson’s Hardware .......................................................................9 Jal-Bear Carpentry, Inc. ...............................................................32 Jameson Tavern ...........................................................................63 Jimmy’s Shop ‘N Save ................................................................54 J’s Oyster .....................................................................................31 K&J Heating Inc. ........................................................................22 Kelley Custom Picture Framing & Art Gallery ...........................11 Kis-Com Repair ..........................................................................74 Klassic Klunkers ........................................................................ 41 Knight’s Inn ................................................................................ 65 Kushiya Benkay Japanese Yakitori Grill .....................................28 La Familia Restaurante ...............................................................29 La Fleur’s Restaurant ..................................................................46 Lamoreau Improvements, Inc. ....................................................36 Larrabee Insurance Agency ........................................................ 67 Ledgeview Assisted Living .........................................................56 Lee’s Tire & Service ....................................................................66 Lifetime Auto Care ......................................................................58 Lisbon Community Federal Credit Union ...................................36 Load of Dirt.com .........................................................................21 Log Cabin Labradoodles .............................................................26 Longfellow Books .......................................................................60 Los Tapatios Mexican Restaurant .................................................9 Luce’s Maine Grown Meats ........................................................48 Lyn’s Spring Service, Inc. ...........................................................21 M.D. Mechanical Contractors .....................................................21 Maine Guide Snowshoes & Furniture Co. .................................53 Maine Historical Society ...............................................................5 Maine Lakeside Cabins ...............................................................49 Maine Lightning Protection Inc. .................................................38 Maine Maritime Museum ............................................................40 Maine Pellet Sales, LLC .............................................................62 Maine Snowmobile Association ..................................................50 Mama Bear’s Den ........................................................................48 Mama D’s Cafe ...........................................................................69 Marine Parts Express ...................................................................42 Marsh River Electrical LLC ........................................................67 Mel’s Raspberry Patch ................................................................19 Metcalf’s Submarine Sandwiches ...............................................43 Mike’s Auto & Light Truck Service ............................................59 Mill St. Cafe ................................................................................46 Mittapheap International Market .................................................59 Montuori Painting .......................................................................71 Moose River Campground & Cabins ..........................................54 Moosehead Motorsports ..............................................................47 Moosehead Sled Repair & Rentals .............................................47 Moulton Lumber Co. .................................................................... 3 Muddy Rudder ............................................................................58 Neil’s Motors Inc. ........................................................................17 New England Kitchens ................................................................25 Niboban Camps ...........................................................................45 Nicky’s Hair Salon ......................................................................39 P&C Automotive, Inc. .................................................................55 Packard Appraisal, Inc. ...............................................................20 Pamela C. LaBonte Antiques ......................................................66 Paul’s Barber Shop ....................................................................... 9 Penney Construction ...................................................................14 Penobscot Marine Museum ........................................................ 15 Phil’s Foreign Auto .....................................................................32 Photo Market ...............................................................................28 Photos by Rowley .......................................................................39 Plummer’s Ace Hardware ...........................................................11 Plummer’s Shop ‘N Save ............................................................11 Portland Pirates .............................................................................8 Portland Plastic Pipe ...................................................................61 Primitive Days Home Decor & Gifts ..........................................39 Quick Turn Auto Repair & Towing ............................................42 Quinn’s Jockey Cap Country Store & Motel ..............................14 Ramada Inn .................................................................................16 Ray’s Automotive & Fabrication ................................................44 Red Mill Lumber ........................................................................55 Ricetta’s Brick Oven Ristorante .................................................23 Richard Wing & Son Logging, Inc. ............................................55 Richardson Monument Co., Inc. .................................................32 Risbara Bros. Construction .........................................................33 River Valley Grill ........................................................................52
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River’s Edge Motel .....................................................................49 Robert W. Libby & Sons, Inc. ......................................................5 Rodeway Inn & Suites ................................................................37 Roy’s Tire & Auto Sales .............................................................36 S.A. McLean, Inc. .......................................................................19 Saco River Cigar Lounge ............................................................18 Sacopee Valley Eye Care ............................................................14 Sakura Eclectic ...........................................................................59 Sanford-Springvale Chamber of Commerce ...............................13 Scarborough’s Collision ..............................................................44 Scott Carter Heating & Construction ..........................................20 Seth McCoy’s Excavating ...........................................................12 Seymour Excavating Inc. ............................................................35 Shadowed Birch Kennels ............................................................55 Shea’s Plastering Co., Inc. ..........................................................37 Skidompha Second Hand Book Shop .........................................43 Skip Cahill Tire ...........................................................................70 Sleepy Hollow Motel ..................................................................10 Smart’s Body Shop, Inc. .............................................................67 Snowmobile Maine .....................................................................50 Solon Corner Market ..................................................................49 Solon Superette ...........................................................................48 South Bristol Fisherman’s Co-op ................................................42 Southern Maine Sewer & Drain ..................................................18 Spalding, Mellon & Munster Real Estate ...................................47 Spillover Motel .......................................................................... 45 Springvale Hardware ..................................................................13 Springvale Lock & Safe ..............................................................13 Station House Grill .....................................................................20 Steve Brann .................................................................................35 Stone Hill Creation .....................................................................39 Stone Ridge Restaurant & Lodge ...............................................39 Stone Soup Artisans ....................................................................10 Stratton Pizza ..............................................................................53 Stratton Plaza Hotel & Lounge ...................................................53 Sunrise Grill ................................................................................16 Super 8 Motel ............................................................................. 30 Swiss Time ..................................................................................25 T&D Variety ............................................................................... 41 Terry’s Gifts & More ........................ .........................................39 Texture Hair Designs ..................................................................38 Thai 9 Restaurant ....................................................................... 30 The Birches ..................................................................Back Cover The Black Frog ...........................................................................46 The Brake & Exhaust Center ..................................................... 55 The Front Porch Cafe ..................................................................52 The Good Life Market ................................................................20 The Great Lost Bear ................................................................... 25 The Lodge at Kennebunk ........................................................... 16 The Looney Moose Cafe .............................................................53 The Merry Table Restaurant .......................................................30 The Milk Room Store ................................................................ 10 The Narrows Tavern ...................................................................74 The Paper Patch ..........................................................................60 The Park Danforth ......................................................................27 The River View Resort ............................................................... 51 The Shop .....................................................................................56 The Snazzy Pet Bed & Biscuit ....................................................16 The Solon Hotel ..........................................................................54 The Sterling Inn ..........................................................................49 The Stone Mountain House ........................................................20 The Theater Project .......................................................................5 The Tipsy Butler Bed & Breakfast ..............................................73 The White Elephant Country Store .............................................46 The Wishful Moon ......................................................................35 Thibeault’s Auto Care .................................................................63 Thompson’s Orchard ..................................................................56 Thompson’s Restaurant ..............................................................54 Thornton Oaks ............................................................................64 Tindall’s Country Store & Dam Diner ........................................48 Town & Lake Motel and Cottages ..............................................45 Traitor Lounge ............................................................................ 53 Tranten’s Too Convenience Store ...............................................52 Twin City Lock & Key and Security Solutions ..........................67 Vachon Construction ...................................................................18 Vail’s Tree Service ......................................................................37 Vena’s Fizz House .......................................................................29 Vintage Maine Images ..................................................................5 Visit Aroostook.com ................................................................... 50 VIP Eyes .....................................................................................26 Walter’s Restaurant .................................................................... 26 Waterfront Flea Market ...............................................................64 Waterman’s Service Center .........................................................62 Watson, Neal & York Funeral Home ..........................................14 WellTree, Inc. ...............................................................................6 Whitney Tree Service ..................................................................23 Wicked Good Electric, LLC .......................................................39 Wilson Funeral Home .................................................................56 Wilson’s on Moosehead Lake .....................................................47 Wilson’s Drug Store ....................................................................67 Wiscasset Glass ...........................................................................68 Woodman Jewelers & Gift Store ................................................18 Xtreme Audio ..............................................................................31 Yankee Yardworks .......................................................................35 Yellowfin’s Restaurant ................................................................18
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Southern Maine