History House is Open!

 The Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society is ready to start a full season of scheduled meetings and events once again with:

OPEN HOUSE 

Saturday, June 5, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

and a New Exhibit

1820 – MAINE STATEHOOD

A Local View

This exhibit commemorates Maine’s Bicentennial 

and takes a look at Parsonsfield and Porter 

and what life was like here 200 years ago.

Come tour the house and view all the exhibits

at

 History House

92 Main Street

Kezar Falls Village (Rt. 160)

As not everyone is vaccinated,

please wear a mask.

THE OLD PARSONSFIELD TOWN HOUSE

The Old Parsonsfield Town House is located on the east side of Merrill Hill Road just before it intersects with Middle Road.  It was built in 1832 across from what was then the Congregational Church.  The Church had built a new building closer to the road and they would no longer agree to share the building for town meetings as they had been doing since 1790.   

The 1832 Town House was built by town resident William E. Moulton Jr. – a south-facing Greek Revival structure.  A unique feature of the building is a slanted floor with fixed bench seats which gave everyone a good view of the podium.  It was the town’s first civic building.

The Town House as it looked in 1938.

Parsonsfield’s municipal offices relocated at Kezar Falls Village in 1988, but all residents south of North Road continued to vote at this location until 2012.   In 2012 the Town Offices were moved to the former Fred Morrill School building on North Road and the Old Town House ceased to be used for any Town purposes.

This picture, taken in 2005, looks much the same today but with a small flower garden on the side.  

In 2001 a group of interested citizens called “ROOT” (Restore Our Old Town House), worked to restore the building to its original design and placed it on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.  They were also instrumental in having Historic Preservationist Steven Mallory come out and do a comprehensive assessment of the building. This group has since disbanded and many of the issues identified as a problem at that time have not been addressed.

Today there is concern that this historic building has been unmaintained for 8 – 10 years and that it continues to deteriorate.

The Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society holds an open house here annually the second Saturday in August hosted by Lyn Sudlow.  Anyone interested in the preservation of the Old Parsonsfield Town House and its history can tour the building. Watch for the ad in Your Weekly Shopping Guide at the end of July. 

A FORGOTTEN TRADITION MAY BASKET DAY

May 1st – “May Day” - has traditionally been a time to celebrate a time of renewal, rebirth, a fresh beginning.  It was originally a Pagan holiday to celebrate spring at its peak and the coming of summer and there was a whole day of festivities that included making of May Baskets, dancing around a May Pole and crowning of the “Queen of the May”.  It was particularly popular in the US in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Now, it is considered quaint and barely remembered by most people.  However, May 1st is still celebrated in many countries around the world with their own customs and reasons to celebrate.

Making of May Baskets was one of the most popular traditions, and children of the 1940’s probably still remember making them.  The custom was to make a small basket from various materials, paper plates, small cardboard containers, or creating a cone from construction paper, attaching a handle of some sort, decorating it with paper doilies, colored paper, paint, ribbons, etc. and filling it with small flowers, ferns, and sometimes candy.  It was then hung anonymously on the recipient’s door knob with a knock on the door and a yell, “May basket”.   The person would then run away.  If the recipient caught the giver, he or she was entitled to a kiss.

Although May Baskets are not a common custom anymore, you can find all kinds of directions, patterns, and materials for making them on the internet.  Does this peak your interest?  Maybe you can restart the tradition in your family. Here are some suggestions for making a simple May Basket. Just follow this link. If you want to learn more about Maypoles, here's a link. In the Celtic countries like Ireland and Scotland, May 1st is Beltane and denotes the first day of summer.

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE.

Joseph Denis, The Coin Man

 JOSEPH L. DENIS (1882 – 1959)

The spotlight today is on a man known to his friends and acquaintances in the Kezar Falls area in the 1940’s and 1950’s as “Joe, the Coin Man”.  Joe lived in the sparsely settled hills of Parsonsfield in a little house by the side of the road.  He was an authority on and a collector/seller of coins.

The following brief biography was written by Joe, himself, for the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society. He obviously had a sense of humor and didn’t take himself too seriously.  Yet the last paragraph shows that he was very serious about how he lived his life.  From the bits and pieces we have been able to put together about him, he must have been an interesting man.

When, Where and Why I Was Born

By Joseph L. Denis - 1956

I was born in Three Rivers, Canada on the 17th of September 1882.  I note that a great many prominent men were born on the same date.  My birth may not interest you, but to me it was the greatest beginning I ever had; without it no such person as I would have lived.

I had no control of the place of my birth, if so and it was to be done over, I would be born in Texas.  My mother said I was so ugly that she did not take me out in public for six months and if I had not been the first born she would have thrown me away.  But for 74 years I have so improved in looks that now I am really a handsome man and the mirror is the most interesting piece of furniture on the place.

I think I was born that I might live to serve humanity and God by being considerate of others, wearing a smile of sunshine and happiness, chasing the blues from those I meet, making cheerful the downcast and dying in peace with man and God.

The following article from the Portland Press Herald tells us

Joe Denis Has Lots of Money, But He’s Not a Wealthy Man.

Telegram and Sunday Press Herald – Portland, Maine – December 28, 1952

Seventy year old Joe L. Denis of North Parsonsfield walked a long, long road to reach his coin-lined camp alongside Route 160.  It was a walk that started in jobless depression days and took him by foot from Boston over most of northern New England.  Twice he started from Boston to Waterville, looking for work.  He hiked from the Hub to Brattleboro, VT, and another jaunt after jobs took him to the Dead River country and into New Vineyard.  He farmed at New Vineyard for a while.  Then worked his way to Parsonsfield where he was employed on the Leavitt Plantation for several years.

He now ekes out a lonely bachelor’s life on a $42 monthly old age grant.  His wasn’t always a bachelor’s life, though.  His first wife died long ago.  He has been separated from his second for many years.

Although Joe has a wealth of coins in his valuable collections he looks on himself as a poor man.  The coins, to him, are like, say, a piece of furniture to someone else.  They’re just property.  Not that he wouldn’t be above selling a few for a good offer.  He turns over an infrequent dollar doing just that.  But the occasional visit of another collector to his isolated place couldn’t be called a thriving trade by any man’s estimate.

He limits his collection to U.S. coins, from cents to silver dollars.  His oldest dates from 1793.  None of them are exceptionally valuable.  His best half dollar might be worth $20 to a hungry collector.

Denis is organizer and perennial president of the Kezar Falls Stamp and Coin Club.  He and a generous dozen fellow collectors have kept the club going for about five years.

Denis says the little wood chopping he does these cool days and his coin collecting are the best ways he knows for a lonely oldster like himself to retain a lively interest in life.

Oh, yes; and a little hiking too.  He still takes an occasional walk downtown to Kezar Falls.  Distance: six miles each way.  But not much for a man used to such a stroll.

And Joe Denis sure ought to be that man.

Joe Denis died March 20, 1959 and is buried at the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.

Eradication of the Polio Virus with Widespread Use of the Vaccine

 All the attention to the Covid-19 Pandemic and the widespread administration of vaccines to combat it brings to mind another epidemic that occurred in the 1950’s – Polio (virus poliomyelitis).

Polio is a highly contagious virus that lives in the human throat and intestinal tract. It affects people differently.  Most of those infected were asymptomatic; others had mild symptoms such as sore throat, fever, stomach pain or vomiting.  Yet for some it causes paralysis and sometimes death.

Many aspects of the disease – like its transmission and prevention – took time to figure out.  It is now known that the disease is transmitted primarily via feces but also through airborne droplets from person to person.  Polio takes 6 to 20 days to incubate and remains contagious for up to two weeks after.  It seemed to remain dormant in the winter months with a seasonal surge in the summer.  In the early days it was thought to come from swimming during the hot summer months.  Some blamed Italian immigrants, others pointed to car exhaust, a few believed cats were to blame and some associated it with flies, mosquitoes, dirt and poverty. 

 

The first major polio epidemic in the United States hit Vermont in 1894 with 132 cases.  A larger outbreak struck New York City in 1916, with more than 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths.  As the number of polio cases grew, the paralytic disease changed the way Americans looked at Public Health and disability.  

Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1920, twelve years before he became president.  Although he acknowledged having it, he concealed the extent to which he suffered from polio and the fact that he wore braces to stand and walk.  In 1938, Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and spearheaded the March of Dimes for polio research. 

As the weather warmed up each year, panic over polio intensified.  Late summer was dubbed “polio season”.  Public swimming pools were shut down.  Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease.    The fear was well grounded.  By the 1950’s polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States. 

At the time the 1952 Polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history.  Of nearly 60,000 cases reported that year, thousands were paralyzed and more than 3,000 people died. Most of the victims were children.  Hospitals set up special units with iron lung machines to keep polio victims alive.

The American polio story has a happy ending.  In 1955 Dr. Jonas Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine was deemed “safe, effective and potent” and rates of polio began to drop.  By the 1960’s, an oral polio vaccine, made by Albert Sabin, became available.  In less than 25 years, due to these vaccines, the United States had virtually eliminated polio. 

Some of us are old enough to remember those days in the 1950’s when swimming was discouraged and parents worried.  It was common to see pictures of children in iron lung machines and with crutches and braces.  And we remember receiving the vaccine as school children lined up at school or the church to get our shots or vaccine-laced sugar cubes, in the case of the Sabin vaccine.

In our local area, we were lucky to have few cases.  But one not so lucky was young Sandy Runyon shown in this1955 news clipping in a wheelchair being visited at the Hyde Memorial Rehabilitation Home in Bath, Maine by school children from Cornish.  He was the son of the late Elmer and Claire Runyon of Parsonsfield

 Thanks to the polio vaccine and mass immunization the disease has been eradicated in the Western Hemisphere with the last case reported in Peru in 1991. Polio shots are given routinely to infants as part of their vaccination procedure to ensure that this terrible disease does not return. Global polio eradication efforts began in 1988.  By the end of 2017, polio was endemic in just three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan where immunization efforts were resisted or stopped completely. We all hope that the current Covid-19 vaccines are as successful as the Polio vaccine.  Help make it possible by getting your shots. 

IT’S TOWN MEETING SEASON!

Town Meeting dates to the European settlement of New England, and it persists today in town halls, schools and auditoriums.  According to the New England Historical Society, “Dorchester, Massachusetts claims its early selectmen established the New England Town Meeting.  On Oct. 8, 1633, Dorchester passed an order establishing that form of town government.  Dorchester, however, has since become part of Boston — and the Pilgrims held a town meeting (then called court day) in 1622.  So the distinction of the first town meeting goes to Plymouth, Mass.  Gov. William Bradford ran the first town meeting of Plimoth Plantation in 1622  in order to divide land among the families.  The other fledgling towns followed the Pilgrim example and held annual meetings as well.  In Massachusetts, the General Court in 1635 enacted the New Towne Ordinance.  It authorized each town to dispose of common property, order its civil affairs and to choose its ‘own particular officers.’”

Not to be confused with Town Hall meetings, the New England Town Meeting is a form of direct democracy in which a community gathers and votes on budgets and policies.

In the act of incorporation for Parsonsfield in 1785 Simon Frye, Esq., of Fryeburg, was authorized to call the first meeting for the choice of Town Officers. From the History of Parsonsfield written in 1885:

And the results of the meeting:

In Porter the first town meeting under the act of incorporation was held on March 20, 1807 at the home of James Coffin.

From Teg’s History of Porter, written in 1957, are the warrant and results of that first meeting:

In both cases the main business of the day was to assume self-government.  Since there were sometimes more offices than qualified citizens to fill them, the more knowledgeable settlers were sometimes forced to double up.  In addition to three Selectmen, the slate called for a Constable, Tax Collector, Treasurer, Surveyors of Highways, and other such positions as are defined in Teg’s History of Porter:

Aside from the problem of roads, or the lack of them, vagrant livestock was a sometimes pressing issue, hence the "pound keeper, hogreaf and fence viewers". As New Englander Robert Frost later noted, "good fences make good neighbors".

The form or purpose of town meeting has not changed much over the centuries since the citizens of Plymouth Colony first met to discuss and decide on community-specific matters.  In those early years the privilege of voting was limited to those male citizens 21 years of age who were property owners.  Then, as today, the posted warrant “warned” the citizens to meet at a designated time and place to act upon the articles within.  Traditionally, Maine town meetings were held in March and, until relatively recent years, were called to order at nine or ten in the morning and continued all day with a break for lunch put on by the church or Grange ladies.  The Moderator, the election of whom is always the first order of business, brings the meeting to order and presides over the meeting after which his term of office ends.  A good Moderator should know everybody in town, be respected, fair, and possess an operational knowledge of parliamentary procedures.  Once a citizen both capable and willing was found, they could generally count on the job until health or infirmity intervened.

All Maine towns are not alike and many variations of town meeting exist but the process is basically the same.  It may not be “pure democracy” as some contend but Meeting Day does afford Mainers the opportunity to speak their minds and to vote directly on matters that affect their lives. 

BARTLETT DOE & HIS LASTING LEGACY FOR THE TOWN OF PARSONSFIELD

 John and Gideon Doe were among the first settlers in Parsonsfield. They left Newmarket, NH in 1775 and settled in the south western part of town on the western slope of Doe Mountain.  Gideon soon moved to Effingham, NH.  Both had large families -- some settled in and around Parsonsfield and some moved on to locations further away.  John Doe and wife Elizabeth (Ames) Doe had eight children including Colonel Bartlett Doe born 7/30/1785 and died 2/11/1872.

Bartlett was a common family name, so there are several in the family tree.  We are focusing on Bartlett Doe, son of Colonel Bartlett and Mary (Sanborn) Doe who was born July 13, 1820, the 6th of 12 children. Martha Doe (Moore) – b. 8/15/1811, d. 9/9/1869

Mary S. Doe (Jones) – b. 8/15/1811, d. prior to 1902

Alvah Doe – b. 8/28/1813, d. 7/4/1885

Amzi (Amza) Doe – b. 9/23/1815, d. 1867

Hannah S. Doe – b. 3/9/1818, d. prior to 1902

Bartlett Doe – b. 7/13/1820, d. 4/18/1906

John S. Doe – b. 9/26/1822, d. 1894

Elisabeth A. Doe (Moulton) – b. 12/27/1824, d. prior to 1902

Calvin Doe – b. 4/6/1827, d. 6/7/1829

Calvin W. Doe – b. 2/20/1829, d. 8/17/1846

Nancy H. Doe (Kezar) – b. 5/6/1831, d. 1917

Charles F. Doe – b. 8/13/1833, d. 1904 

In 1850 at the age of 30, Bartlett moved to San Francisco, California and in 1852 was joined by his brother John.  Together they formed the firm “B. & J.S. Doe”, a sash, door and blind business.  Charles followed them in 1857 forming a retail lumber business that prospered as “Charles F. Doe & Co.”  They became successful financiers, and with shrewd management and high business capacity they amassed immense fortunes.  Little is known about John, but Charles and Bartlett became known for their generosity.  Bartlett never forgot his hometown of Parsonsfield.

The following was taken from the “Parsonsfield Seminary First Hundred Years – 1832 – 1932”.

In 1899 Bartlett Doe visited his native town and became interested in Parsonsfield Seminary and at his expense the old Seminary was remodeled and repaired.  A new dormitory [for boys] was built with a steam heating plant, a hot and cold water system, and other modern improvements.  This was done at a cost of $20,000.  Mr. Doe, at that time, also placed $100,000 in the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. as an endowment Trust Fund.  The conditions of the Trust, stated in Mr. Doe’s Deed of Trust are as follows:

“It is a condition of this gift that the Seminary shall be represented by a board, to be termed the Board of Education, elected by the Trustees or otherwise appointed.  

“Said Board shall consist of five members, one of whom shall be the Superintendent of the Public Schools of the State of Maine; one whom shall be the Superintendent of the Public Schools of the town of Parsonsfield; one of whom shall be the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of the Town; two of whom shall be elected by the Board of Trustees and shall always be members of the Board.”

“It shall be the duty of said Board to visit the school from time to time for the purpose of examining its condition, and said Board has the sole right to select teachers for said school.  It is my desire that the Seminary shall always be non-sectarian and free to all the high school scholars of the Town of Parsonsfield.”  

At the request of Mr. Doe, in 1901, the legislature amended the charter to provide that the State Superintendent of Schools be a permanent member of the Board of Education in charge of the school, as expressed in the terms of this Deed-of-Trust above referred to.

On the same day as the San Francisco earthquake, in 1906, Mr. Doe died.  His wealth was estimated at $2,472,516 [even though it was diminished by the terrible earthquake].  In his will further provisions were made for the school.  50/18 of 1% of his fortune was to be added to the Trust Fund.  39/18 of 1% was to be used in building the girl’s Dormitory, which was built in 1906.