History House to Open Soon!

  The Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society begins the 2022 season with their first meeting to be held Saturday, May 21 at 2:00 pm.  A brief meeting and election of officers will be held followed by a program “What Is It?”   Attendees are asked to bring an article, object or picture for the members to identify.  Can you stump the audience?

Open House at History House will be held on Sat. June 4, 1-4 pm.  The new exhibit in the meeting room this year will be “Antique and Vintage Toys” featuring many toys from our own collection.    Visitors will also have the opportunity to tour the whole house.  Another open house will be held in September, and tours can be scheduled by appointment.  Have you ever been to History House?

History House is the home of the Parsonsfield Porter Historical Society.  It was a village house with an attached barn that was built in 1885 for Preston J. Stanley, father of our founder and first president, Ina Stanley Emery.  In 1955 the Society purchased it and established a small museum in which to display and store articles and memorabilia connected to the history of Porter, Parsonsfield and South Hiram and with a room for meetings.  It was opened for the Porter Sesquicentennial in 1957.  Extensive renovations were begun in 2000 and in 2006 it was expanded to add a library, office and additional storage space.   Work is ongoing to improve and maintain the property.  Some new exhibits are put up every year.

Over the next few months our blog post will give you a glimpse of what you will see on a History House Tour.  

The first room in the main house is the kitchen.  Imagine being transported back in time about 100 years to your great or great, great grandmother’s kitchen.  Our kitchen is representative of a kitchen from the 1920’s or 1930’s with even a few things from the 1940’s and 50’s.  You will see items such as a glass churn, a hand crank coffee grinder, a wash board for scrubbing clothes, an old-fashioned iron and a candle mold, dishes and many more kitchen items. 

The sink is an early white porcelain one with an attached drain board and running water.  There is an Empress Atlantic Cook Stove that burns wood manufactured by Portland Stove Co., in the 1920’s – 40’s. We also have a 1927 General Electric Monitor Top refrigerator.  The other furnishings are typical of an early kitchen that evolved over the passage of time just as they would have in real life.

We look forward to seeing you in the coming months.

Remember:

Local

History

Matters!

The Dating of Easter

 As spring approaches each year, we eagerly await the signs of nature’s reawakening, particularly those of us living in northern climes.   With this, our thoughts perennially turn to the question - When is Easter this year?  The “when” is easily answered – Easter is the first Sunday after or on the Paschal Full Moon, the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  Though the equinox’s exact date can vary each year, the church always recognizes the vernal equinox as March 21, meaning Easter can occur any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.  

But why does the date of Easter vary from year to year.  Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the day when Mary discovered the empty tomb of Jesus following his resurrection. In fact, many churches hold sunrise services believing Mary made her discovery at daybreak.  Early Christians wanted Easter to coincide with Passover because Christ’s death and resurrection are believed to have taken place during Passover.  Passover’s dates are pegged to the Hebrew calendar, based on the lunar cycle, where months are measured by how long it takes the moon to go from new to full and back to new. That cycle takes about 29½ days, making a lunar year about 12 days shorter than the solar year (tracked by the calendar on your wall). 

 

Passover’s seven-day observance commemorates the liberation of Jews from slavery in Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. When God unleashed the 10th plague, slaying the first-born of each Egyptian family, he “passed over” homes of the Jews.  Passover starts in the middle of the month of Nisan, when the moon is full, typically falling in March or April of the Gregorian (modern) calendar.  

This year on Friday evening, April 15th, members of the Jewish faith will begin to observe Passover. Two days later, on April 17th, Christians will celebrate Easter. The observances make for one of the holiest times of the year for both faiths though they commemorate unrelated events. 

SPOTLIGHT ON: MYRON H. RIDLON – Kezar Falls Druggist

 Myron Ridlon played an important role in the community as the local pharmacist and was known by everyone.  His soda fountain provided a popular spot for socializing by young and old alike. 

Myron H. Ridlon was born in Porter on August 14, 1883, a son of Herbert L. and Ella (Davis) Ridlon.  He was one of six children.  He attended local schools and in 1908 graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in pharmacy.  He worked in Portland, Presque Isle and North Conway to gain practical experience and passed the exam to become a registered pharmacist in February 1910.  

In April of 1910 he purchased the E. P. Ham drugstore located next to Norton Hardware on the Parsonsfield side of Kezar Falls Village.  After only a few weeks he sold the building and moved the business across the bridge to River Street, Porter on the ground floor of what later became the Garner Gym and Kezar Falls Fire Department building.  He remained there for 13 years.

In 1922 he bought property on Bridge Street next to the river and erected a two-story building with an apartment above, where he relocated in 1923. He continually upgraded the store many times over the years as he not only dispensed prescriptions and over the counter medicines, but had a soda fountain, sold ice cream and had a few tables for the comfort of his patrons.  As drugstores do today, he also sold magazines, funny books, personal items, etc. to his many customers so it was a popular drop-in spot for local residents not just for medicines.  He carried on his business; open from 6:00 am to 9:00 p.m. daily and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm on Sunday for 43 years. He also had a side business as an insurance agent for 43 years.

He married Grace Ethel Davis on Sept. 11, 1906 and they had a son, M. George Ridlon, a daughter Eleanor (Ridlon) Ortlieb, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

Myron was an active member of the local community.  He was a charter member of the Kezar Falls-Cornish Kiwanis Club; a member of the Ossipee Lodge, Knights of Pythias; a member of the Riverside Methodist Church; a member of the Costello Tribe, IORM; and the Greenleaf Masonic Lodge.  He also was a member of the old Kezar Falls band, playing the cornet and baritone horn.  He was the founder of the “Colcord Bears”, a local men’s group who spent the first weekend in November deer hunting and the first weekend in February ice fishing every year for 26 years. 

Mr. Ridlon became ill and passed away at the age of 83, November 29, 1966 and is buried in the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.  The drugstore closed at the time of his death and never reopened as a pharmacy.  His nephew, Myron Locke opened it as a variety store with the soda fountain and snack bar in January 1967.

MARCH HAS ARRIVED. WELCOME SPRING!

 In spite of the rollercoaster temperatures and weekly snowstorms, March heralds the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Here in Maine, we await with anticipation the appearance of green leaves, spring flowers, mild weather and longer days. We start planning our gardens and think summer can’t be far behind.

Daylight Savings Time begins on March 13th this year.  By setting clocks ahead one hour we take advantage of the daylight hours.  Germany was the first to establish Daylight Savings Time in 1916 during WWI as a way to save electricity and Great Britain soon followed.  The U.S. Congress passed its first Daylight Savings law in 1918 but it was repealed a year later.  It became a local option until WWII when President Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Savings Time, called “War Time” from 1941 to 1945 to save energy.  There was no federal law then until 1966 and a hodgepodge of time observances based on local laws and customs caused a great deal of confusion and controversy. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 finally established a system of uniform Daylight Savings Time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.  There have been revisions since, the last being in 2007 which set the start date at 2:00 am on the second Sunday of March and end date at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.  Although it is still controversial today, all but a few states follow it to be consistent for interstate commerce and travel.

Let’s turn to the Farmer’s Almanac for more information about spring.

Astronomically speaking the first day of spring is marked by the spring equinox which falls on March 19, 20 or 21 depending on the time zone. Day and Night are close to being equal on the equinox. This year it falls on March 20.  (In the Southern Hemisphere it announces the arrival of fall.)  Interestingly, there isn’t a March 21 equinox in the mainland U.S. again this century. 

Meteorologically speaking, the official first day of spring is March 1st. Weather scientists divide the year into quarters to make it easier to compare seasonal and monthly statistics from one year to the next. Meteorological seasons are based on annual temperature cycles rather than the position of Earth in relation to the sun.

Either way, we will be looking for signs of spring in nature all around us. And with the advent of spring, the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society becomes active again planning this year's meetings, events and the new exhibit at History House.

We are excited to begin our 2022 season. Watch for our spring newsletter, this blog and the shopping guide ads for the upcoming calendar of events as we begin the new season. We hope to see you soon.

Spotlight on Dr. Paul C. Marston

 

Paul C. Marston was born in Brownfield, ME April 16, 1900 to Dr. Clarence H. and Lula (Richardson) Marston.

He graduated from Fryeburg Academy in 1917 and Bowdoin College in 1921.

He taught for a few years at Franklin High School, Bean Memorial High School in Brownfield, Potter Academy at Sebago and Kennett High School in Conway, NH. 

It was during this period in 1924 he married Sylvia H. Brooks.  They had two daughters, Sylvia (Marston) Garner and Mary (Marston) Waye.  

In 1928 he decided to become a doctor and enrolled at the medical college of the University of Vermont graduating cum laude in 1932.  He interned at the Maine General Hospital in Portland, ME and set up practice at Freedom, NH for four years.  In 1937 he came to Kezar Falls where he practiced for the remainder of his career.

During WWII Dr. Marston joined the 67th Maine Medical Unit and served for three years in a Taunton, England hospital.  He left active duty as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Medical Corps and resumed his practice.  His offices were upstairs from the living quarters of his modest white house in Kezar Falls, a small village of some 2,500 people.  His wife, Sylvia, answered the phone when he was out and helped in his office.

Dr. Marston was an old-fashioned country doctor, one of the few left by the 1970’s and ‘80s.  Several articles were written about him at that time.  One written in 1981 had the following to say about him. -----

“Paul Marston is an 81-year-old doctor who still goes out in the dead of night to make house calls.  This feisty great grandfather is the only doctor in a rural area to thousands of patients who have come to depend on the kindhearted man as a lifeline to health.

Despite blizzards and freezing winter nights, despite knee deep snow, they know when somebody’s sick the Doc will always show up.  ‘I always go when I’m called’, said the kindly country doctor who has been looking after folks around Kezar Falls, Me for more than 40 years.

‘Medicine should be practiced the way I practice it’, he said. ‘The public wants a little tender loving care and I give it to them.  When people are sick and call at night I’ve got to go see them.  What else are they going to do?’….. ‘A doctor works for the benefit of his patients and you can’t do it without making house calls.’

So, half a dozen times a day or more, Dr. Marston grabs his weathered black bag and hops into one of his 3 cars – all equipped with 2-way radios, so he can keep in touch with his office in case of an emergency.

He winds his way up and down mountain roads until he arrives at the home of a woman too ill or too old to drive to his office or at the bedside of a little boy two feverish to leave the house.  And even if the drive is 20 miles long and the freezing wintery New England wind howls outside, he still only charges $20 for a house call.  ‘I’ll never get rich, but I have a lot of fun and I was able to educate my daughters’, says the man who has 2 daughters, 8 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

Dr. Marston has delivered thousands of babies and treated three generations of the same families.  Patients never forget the incredibly caring man.  He gets many letters a year from grateful patients who have long since moved from the hills Maine.

Doctor Marston was active in local affairs, was a past president of the Cumberland County Medical Association, the American Academy of General Practitioners and he was on the staff of the Maine Medical Center.

When time permitted, he enjoyed fishing, hunting and gardening and his camp in West Baldwin.

He died Oct. 4, 1985.  His wife died in 2004.  Both are buried in the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds.

SPOTLIGHT ON - RAYMOND VEN SMITH – 1896- 1981

 Ven Smith was widely known in the 1930’s – 1970’s, not only in Parsonsfield and Porter, but all over southern Maine for his home-grown music and especially for his home-made instruments.

Raymond Ven Smith was born June 17, 1896, in Burlington, MA to Robert and Julia (Coffin) Smith.  His parents died not long after he was born and he was moved to South Parsonsfield, Maine to live on the farm of James Row, a blacksmith and farmer who raised him.   He attended Parsonsfield and Newfield schools and worked his way through an agricultural course at Parsonsfield Seminary. He farmed all his life, raising Holstein cattle and had a dairy farm at one time. But music played a big part in his life as a young man.  

May 5, 1918, he married Edith (Haines) Smith. They had 4 children, Alice, Arnold, Louise and Raymond.  Edith was a schoolteacher for 44 years in Denmark and Parsonsfield.

Ven was a “home grown” music man who could coax syncopated rhythm from a flowerpot and melodies from a brass bed xylophone.  He learned to play chords from Everett Patch and graduated to country dances.  He traveled with “Jim” Cole of Cornish who further inspired him to play violin.  He was interested in music all his life and began playing instruments as a young man.  He was mostly self-taught with no formal  

musical training, but played standard instruments such as the violin, guitar, bass fiddle, banjo, mandolin, accordion, bugle, harmonica, ukulele and piano.

He became widely known for his home-made instruments.  Common articles from the kitchen, barn, garage, workshop, and attic contributed to his collection.  He created the first tin can xylophone from evaporated milk cans.  A brass bedstead became bedstead chimes. Other instruments were made from a pitch fork with two steel strings, lard keg with guitar strings, a whiffle tree, salt fish box and cheese box violins, wash pan banjo, cow horns, wash board and fireplace bellows.  And of course, a musical saw.

His children and grandchildren inherited his musical ability.  The family used to entertain at dances when the children were small.  They formed the singing group the “Singing Smiths” but stopped when the children grew up and lost interest. 

He did musical comedy and in 1956 put on his musical show at a Portland hotel.

He played with a group at dances every Saturday night at West Baldwin. He played the musical saw in churches and made appearances before club groups. 

In 1962 Ven was chosen to represent the Pine Tree State on national TV on the Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour.   

Nov. 7, 1969, he won 1st prize - a trophy, and $50 in the senior division of the Northeast Regional Old Time Fiddlers Contest in Montpelier, VT.  

Whether playing in a group for a dance, putting on an entertainment, playing for friends 

or for his own satisfaction he was happiest when he was with music.  He said, “There is music all around us if we’d only listen for it.”

Along with farming and playing at dances, and musical appearances he served on the Parsonsfield School Board for 19 years and was a bus driver for a number of years.

He was a member of the West Newfield Congregational Church and charter member of the Parsonsfield-Porter Historical Society.

His wife, Edith died August 20, 1966 and Ven died in Palm Beach Florida Nov. 13, 1981.  They are buried at the Maplewood Cemetery in Parsonsfield.

SPOTLIGHT ON NOTABLE PARSONSFIELD RESIDENT - ALICE E. GRANVILLE

 Alice Granville was an active and well known resident of Parsonsfield for all her adult life.  She was born in Brownfield, Maine July 15, 1884; daughter of David S. and Anne Elizabeth (Staples) Fogg.

January 1, 1903 she was married to Harvey E. Granville who was also active in Parsonsfield town affairs, the first principal of Porter High School at Kezar Falls in 1920 and served in both houses of the Maine State Legislature.  

They had a son, Harry F. Granville born in 1903.  In 1911 they moved to reside on Elm Street in Kezar Falls Village, Parsonsfield.  Her husband passed away on August 18, 1948. 

Alice was active in many state and local organizations.  She became a member of the Ladies Magazine and Reading Club in 1905 and became a member of the Kezar Falls Circulating Library Association the same year.  She served as its librarian for several years.

When the Kezar Falls Branch, American Red Cross was organized in 1917, she served as its first secretary with Mrs. Bessie Stearns Johansen.  In 1945 she also became active in the work of the Salvation Army serving as Kezar Falls treasurer and was Chairman of the welfare committee in that area for many years.

From 1925 – 1945 Alice was president of the York County Tuberculosis and Health Association and was honored by them in May 1964 for her part in a statewide effort to improve personal health.

Previous to 1928 she was made a member of the executive board of the Maine Public Health Association, serving for many years.  She also served as chairman of the health committee of the Maine Federation of Women’s Clubs for two years and was the first treasurer of the Women’s Legislative Council.

She was best known as the Parsonsfield Town Clerk where she served from 1938 to 1964, was Registrar of Voters and held the office of Excise Tax Collector for a number of years. Alice passed away April 14, 1982 at the age of 98 and is buried in the Kezar Falls Burial Grounds Cemetery.