New Exhibit Opens at History House

HISTORY HOUSE WILL OPEN

 WITH A NEW EXHIBIT

ON SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1:00 – 4:OO pm.

“Logging in the Sacopee Valley”

Logging has been an important industry in Maine, including the Sacopee Valley area, since settlement first began here.  Nearly every family has someone who is or has been involved in the logging industry.  Come learn about old-time logging methods, logging camps and life as a logger in the early days. 

Come tour the house and view all the exhibits.

History House is located at 92 Main Street, Porter 

(in Kezar Falls Village)

just east of the Porter Town Hall and the 

Sacopee Valley Health Center.

FMI – call 625-7019

Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society

Meeting and free program – Public Invited.

 To introduce our new exhibit scheduled to open in June,

we are presenting the film

“WOODSMEN AND RIVER DRIVERS

Another day, another era.”

To be followed by

oral history stories from some of the men and women whose lives

depended on the logging business in the years past.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Meeting – 2 p.m.      Program – 2:30 p.m.

At History House

92 Main Street

Kezar Falls Village (Rt. 160)

FMI – 625-7019

Logging in the Sacopee Valley

Logging has long been a major industry in the Sacopee Valley and surrounding towns.  In the early days timber was most often cut in the winter.  If not hauled to local or portable saw mills near by, the logs were transported by horses or trucks to landings along the Ossipee and Saco river banks to wait for spring and high river waters.  In about April after the river ice was gone men called “river drivers” rolled them into the river and floated them down stream all the way to the mills of J. G. Deering & Son and Diamond Match Company on the Saco River in Biddeford.  

River Driving - 1918

River driving was an annual occurrence on the Great Ossipee River from the 1820’s right into the middle of the 1960’s.  Here men are knee-deep in the frigid water of the Ossipee River in an effort to keep the logs moving over the dam at Kezar Falls.  Many logs were destined for mills along the Saco River.  The Kezar Falls covered bridge is in the background and Garner Island is on the right.

“Rearing After” by Bateau.  Following the river drive, men in bateaus use their peaveys and pike poles to break up log jams.  These men are working the river above the falls at Kezar Falls. Elm Street homes are in the background.  River driving was dangerous, but many made it their life’s work.  Russell Chisholm of Cornish was the only river driver to lose his life on the Ossipee River.  He drowned at age 24 – May 23, 1940 on the drive below mouth of Pleasant Pond

          In the 1970’s river drives were no longer allowed because of the pollution and environmental damage they caused.

THE FIRST MEETING IN 2018 – APRIL 28 AT HISTORY HOUSE

Just a reminder that the first meeting of the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society will be Saturday, April 28 and will take place at 2 pm at History House.  It is important that members attend as a quorum is needed to elect officers for 2018. 

We will also discuss 2018 activities and the new exhibit theme “Logging in the Sacopee Valley”.  Come hear a local logging story or two and taste some samples of typical logging camp food.

Hope to see you there.

Wilbur Lewis hauling logs with his horses about 1947.

An Easter Greeting from PPHS!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and a much anticipated spring!

(Remember: our first meeting will be later this month!)

MANY PHYSICIANS GOT THEIR START IN THE TOWN OF PARSONSFIELD

1875 – 1885

During the 1800’s there were 57 young men from Parsonsfield who chose to enter the medical profession.  Most moved on to establish practices in other towns and even other states, but that is an amazing number for arural town to boast about.   In addition to college and medical schools, it was customary at that time to study under the tutelage of a respected physician before starting their own practice.  Two doctors are credited with teaching the majority of them.

​

Dr. James Bradbury, the second physician to locate in Parsonsfield, was born in York, Maine April 27, 1772.  He obtained a good education and studied medicine in his home town. He settled in Parsonsfield in 1798, and soon acquired an extensive practice in which he continued more than 40 years.  During that period he trained 14 physicians.  In 1843 he moved to Windham to be near his only daughter and died there in Feb. 7, 1844.  One of his students was Dr. Moses Sweat who taught 19 new young doctors during his career of 50 years. 

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Dr. Moses Sweat was born March 18, 1788 in Parsonsfield.  He was determined at a young age to study medicine. According to the History of Parsonsfield, he had all the qualities of mind and traits of character desired of a physician including the requisites: “the eagle’s eye, the lion’s heart and woman’s hand”. He soon won and retained the richly deserved name and fame of being one of the best surgeons in the State.  He became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and received a diploma there in 1817, also one from Bowdoin in 1823 and one from Castleton, VT in 1840.

To perform surgical operations at that time period when anesthesia was unknown required fortitude which never failed him.  In fractures and dislocations he was most adept.  In capital operations he had no superior.  He rode long distances and his life was one of incessant toil.

He also served his town and state – in both branches of the Legislature, and was a member of the board of trustees of the Maine Insane Hospital.  He united with Rev. John Buzzell and Robert Blazo to help establish Parsonsfield Seminary and was ever a true friend and benefactor.

He married Miss Eliza Wedgewood of Parsonsfield in 1811 and they had seven children. Two daughters and a son died very young leaving four sons to live to manhood.  Sons, John B. Sweat, Moses E. Sweat and William W. Sweat studied under their father and became physicians.  Lorenzo D.M. Sweat became a lawyer.

Tragically, his son John B. Sweat died of typhoid fever Nov. 11, 1856 after practicing with his father for six years and was a crushing blow from which Moses never recovered.  His wife died in 1860.  Due to these terrible losses and advancing age, Dr. Sweat suffered a paralyzing stroke causing him to cease practice.  He died in 1865 at age 77.

Spring is Coming, It's Maple Syrup Time!

A first sign of spring in New England is the sap running in the sugar maples signaling the beginning of maple syrup production.  This occurs about mid-February through mid-March when the day time temperatures are above freezing and the night temperatures go below freezing.

It is generally believed that the indigenous people of north eastern America were the first people to produce maple syrup long before any Europeans came to this country.  They made a slash in the bark of the sugar maple trees and gathered the dripping sap in birch bark buckets placed on the ground below it. They then boiled the sweet liquid over a fire until it thickened into syrup.

That is still basically how it is done today.  Except now the sap is gathered in buckets, or more often, through plastic tubing that runs from tree to tree which is collected in a large container near the sugar house/shack.  The long process of boiling the sap to make the syrup is done in large pans over a wood fire in the sugar shack.  

There are sugar shacks all over New England. Many exist right here in our local area, both large and small producers, who make wonderful syrup and other maple sugar products.  Pictures below are of the Stacey Farms in Kezar Falls.  The Stacey’s have been making maple syrup products for five generations.  

The 4^th Sunday in March the Maine Maple Producers Association sponsor “Maple Sugar Sunday” and all the producers invite the public to their shacks to sample the products and to buy syrup to take home.  Watch for notices of this year’s “Maple Sugar Sunday” to appear soon.

George Stacey boiling sap for the 2018 production of syrup.