COMING EVENTS

Frank Farmer Talk at the Annual Meeting

The annual meeting will take place at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18 at the museum. Frank Farmer will give a brief talk on the McKown family and how they typify the early settlers of the Boothbay region. Frank, a Southport native and McKown descendant, has done some fine research on Boothbay region history, with a focus on primary sources.

A brief business meeting will precede the talk and will include the election of new trustees and officers, remarks by officers, and a trustees' report.

There will be refreshments and socializing following Frank's talk. All members of the society and other interested parties, plan to join us!

Please do not park in the bank's lot across the road. There is parking along the road, and Tom Carbone has generously offered to let people park in his lot next door just below the museum.

Shipyard Series

We will have a series of three talks on Boothbay region shipbuilding this summer. They will be held at the museum on Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m. As noted above, Tom Carbone will allow attendees to park in his lot just south below the museum. Refreshments will follow each talk. Come early to claim a chair, since seating is limited.

 

Barbara Rumsey on 19th-Century Yards

Barbara, who has researched historic local vessel building for 12 years, will describe her findings to date in a talk on June 30 at 4 p.m. Included will be remarks on the three traditional region shipyard centers, East Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, and North Boothbay; the whys and wherefores of the yards' rises and demises, and a summary of their doings.

 

Roger Duncan on 20th-Century Yacht Building

Roger, well-known maritime writer and speaker, will give a talk about local 20th-century yacht builders on July 7 at 4 p.m. Roger has personally known many builders, such as the Stevenses of Goudy & Stevens, Sonny Hodgdon, and Paul Luke. His talk will be mixture of historical fact and personal reminiscences of some of the local legendary builders. Roger's great delivery precedes him—so proceed to the museum on the 7th!

 

Rick Prescott on One-Designs

On Wednesday, July 21, at 4 p.m., Rick Prescott of Stamford, Connecticut and South Bristol will gave a talk at the museum on the development of the local one-designs, raced by local yacht clubs. Rick will cover the evolution of the prototypes that became the Boothbay Harbor and Christmas Cove one-designs, involving designers L. Francis Herreshoff, Starling Burgess, Geerd Hendel, and East Boothbay's Charles Hodgdon and his nephew, Sonny Hodgdon. Rick will illustrate his talk with half models he built.

Rick, who owns the first boat built by Goudy & Stevens, has rebuilt a number of classic East Boothbay-built boats at his South Bristol Union Hall, and has a working knowledge of their construction.

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Tad Pfeffer on Cottage Architecture

Tentatively scheduled for some time in August is a talk on cottage architecture by Colorado University professor Tad Pfeffer. Besides being a glaciologist, Tad is an accomplished photographer with a strong interest in summer cottage architecture.

Tad has come to Boothbay twice to examine houses at Ocean Point and elsewhere for his forthcoming photographic book devoted to summer cottages. We hope his trip east this summer will include a talk at the society.

 

Volunteer Recognition Reception

We are deeply appreciative of the great contributions made by our volunteers. This year we will have a reception to honor them on September 21 at 5 p.m. at the museum.

All our volunteers are welcome—those who man the museum in the summer, those who work behind the scenes in collections, and those who help in so many other ways, such as work on the building or donating legal expertise. Let the trustees volunteer for you for one afternoon!

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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The fall and winter seasons were a busy and eventful time for the historical society.

During the winter, a smoke and fire detection system, plus a low-temperature sensor, was installed as part of our planned improvements to the security of our collections. We will continue these efforts in the coming years, for instance acquiring more fire-proof files to house some of the photograph collection. The boiler for our steam-heated building malfunctioned in the fall, fortunately without damage to the building, and it was replaced with a new one, which functions very well.

These necessary projects could not have been done without the generosity of the 130 society members who contributed $14,000 to our fund raising effort last fall. Thank you very much.

Also during the winter, parts of the interior were refurbished from ceiling to floor by inmates of the Lincoln County Jail, as part of their work program. Please come and see the much brighter and nicer appearance of those rooms. The only cost to the society was for materials. We are indebted to volunteer Bill Wilson for his hours of preparation work, and to trustee Larry Brown who obtained the materials and coordinated the inmates' work. Also, many thanks to Barbara Rumsey and volunteer Ken Hanson for clearing out artifacts and restoring the items to their proper place. That was no small job.

I look forward to seeing you at our Annual Meeting on May 18th.

        Jim Hunt

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NEW BOOK

We're putting out a new book, Boothbay Region Revisited, a pictorial history of the peninsula, with a publication date planned for later this summer. Our newest publishing enterprise, our first book devoted to photographs, is being undertaken in collaboration with Arcadia Publishing of Portsmouth, N. H.

The book, which will contain archival photographs of the region, along with explanatory text, is divided into eight chapters, each depicting an aspect of life here in earlier days. The chapters cover such topics as shipbuilding, summer communities, marine trades ashore, and commerce. Photographs and captions capture how people lived, worked, and played, and they include notable scenes, buildings, and people.

Barbara Rumsey, BRHS director, is in charge of the project and a team of volunteers have been working all winter helping select photographs and write text. The 200 photographs in the book are culled mostly from the historical society's collection of more than 10,000. Volunteers working on the book are: Judy Cook, Doreen Dun, Jim Hunt, Andy Matthews, Faith Meyer, Robert Rice, Cathy Sherrill, Alden Stickney and Peggy Voight. Arcadia will publish, print, and market the finished book. The historical society will receive royalty payments.

The book, with an all-new selection of photographs, will be Arcadia's second publication on Boothbay (the first was published in 1995) and the first with the historical society. Another Arcadia book on the Damariscotta River also includes a short section on Boothbay. Under the title "Images of America," Arcadia Publishing has produced pictorial histories of dozens of communities in the New England area and more than 2,000 titles worldwide.

We welcome advance prepaid orders which will help us buy our share of the books from Arcadia. If you'd like to order a copy of Boothbay Region Revisited, which will retail for $19.99, please fill out the form on the back page of the newsletter.

When we have the books in hand, we will have a book signing event at the museum which will be announced in the Boothbay Register.

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ACTIVITIES

Winter Open House

We held an open house on Saturday, December 6, during the pre-Christmas Harbor Lights celebration. Many people visited the museum despite a surprise snowstorm, old friends dropping in to see what's new, as well as some new friends. Attendees enjoyed refreshments and a special display of antique Christmas cards.

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ONGOING ACTIVITIES

Members' Tangible Gifts

At Easter Brenda Bettinson and Cordula Mathias called to say they wanted to underwrite a targeted gift for the society. They kindly agreed to buy containers to rehouse part of the Boothbay Register collection and to augment our group of acrylic display stands. My favorite kind of phone call!

Collections Work

A growing number of volunteers have been working behind the scenes on most Wednesdays and some Saturdays.

Ken Hanson continues the task of cataloging artifacts in the computer and checking the artifacts and their locations against the information. Faith Meyer and Barbara Rumsey continue the routine collection work of accessioning, cataloging, and acknowledging artifacts and small collections. Marilyn Lozier continues to maintain the membership cards and also helps out retitling photos and negatives. Edith Tauber has finished bringing order to the family files, and is now doing the same for the history files.

Joining this effort to improve our artifact records and displays is new volunteer Donna Chapman, who, in a few short weeks, has become invaluable. Her work in Concord, Massachusetts museums is now a boon to us. Lynn Nicoletta is another wonderful new volunteer who has taken on the photograph files, checking and maintaining their order. And a third great new volunteer is Danny Giles, who has started to bring greater order to the "Boothbay Register" collection.

The number of new volunteers does not mean that we don't need or want more. We're always looking for people who might man the building in the summer or work behind the scenes on projects. Don't hesitate to drop by or call if you're interested.

Buildings and Grounds

Our biggest project of the last few months was participating in the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department Correctional Work Program. Over a three-week period, a deputy and crew of jail inmates totally painted the downstairs hall and north exhibit room, the stairs, and the marine room upstairs. They also refinished the floors downstairs in both exhibit rooms and hall. Deputy Rob Banks supervised a great bunch of guys, while society trustee Larry Brown oversaw the work and kept the men in supplies, coffee, and goodies. We hope that Rob and his crew will come back and work on the building exterior this summer.

Larry Brown continues to watch over the building and keeps things shipshape. Susan Strong donated a 10-year-old stove replacing our much older one, and Larry transported it. Robert Rice completely painted the walls in the main room in the fall.

Volunteer Bill Wilson, who started helping out last fall, has been tackling many small upkeep jobs around the place, besides doing preparatory work for the men who painted and refinished floors. Bill has refurbished framed pictures, repaired a shattered shutter, improved balky doors, and much more, improving the looks of the building in many ways.

We have a new boiler, thanks to Garry Blackman, and a newly-lined chimney, thanks to Breck Holladay. We are grateful to one of our members, who offered to pay the sizeable boiler bill.

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OUTREACH

Peggy Voight placed most of the historical society news items in the Boothbay Register and Lincoln County newspapers. We're grateful for her pieces which allow people to follow our doings on an ongoing basis.

Faith Meyer spoke to the Coastal Club about the historical society and she took some artifacts to show them a little of what we have to exhibit.

Website

Bruce Wood of Southport and Maryland maintains and updates boothbayhistorical.org, our website—a bonus to all the other things he does for us. Another key element in our internet activities is Great Works Internet (GWI) which hosts our email (brhs@gwi.net) and website. GWI generously provides access at no cost to non-profit organizations.

 

Out Of Our Past

Articles that were in our Boothbay Register column, "Out of Our Past," since the last newsletter included four by Barbara Rumsey: the fifth and last part of a series on the Robert Wylie West Harbor diaries, one on dumps in the region, one on the East Boothbay Methodist Church, and a short history of the Wildcat area.

Barbara also annotated an 1852 gold rush letter from Mary Kenniston of Boothbay Center as well as two more of the John M. Hodgdon stories, written by Flora H. Bishop.

In the month-long lapse between articles or a series of articles, we run a photo with a detailed caption in the Register. Some of the photos profiled recently: an 1875 view of Boothbay Harbor's Atlantic Avenue, a 1915 view of the Harbor's east side from the west side, a 1940s view of Pierce & Hartung from the water, a 1910s view of the Meadow, what is now Lobsterman's Wharf Inn about 1925, a circa 1925 shot of "King" Stewart, and a view of the morning after the 1944 fire at Goudy & Stevens.

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MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

Membership

Our membership now stands at 620. Since the November newsletter we've gained the new members listed below, though some of those listed joined before November but were inadvertently left out. Thanks, everybody—your dues provide a large part of our operating funds.

Our members join for various reasons: they may be residents, summer residents, descendants of old Boothbay families, and so on. We'd appreciate your emailing us with your reason for being a member, particularly if you are a descendant.

New Members  

MAINE

Boothbay    Sandra Dutton and Wayne Sheridan

Barters Island    Vic Taylor

Boothbay Harbor    Bruce and Mary Ellen Engert

Newcastle    Martha Frink

Denmark    Robert and Shirley Downing

OTHER STATES

Alexandria, New Hampshire    Nancy Butler

West Kingston, Rhode Island   Sheila Peckham

New Brunswick, New Jersey    Benjamin Beede

Bloomington, New York    James Fossett

Brookhaven, New York   Robert Webber

Rochester, New York    David Boyd \

Clermont, Florida    Doug Wilson

Newburgh, Indiana    Robert T. Giffin

Stillwater, Oklahoma    Virginia Coates  

Pasadena, California    Sarah Doupé

San Diego, California    Tom Adams

Bainbridge Island, Washington    John Fossett  

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ACQUISITIONS

We've gotten some outstanding gifts from a number of donors. Bob Barter gave us about two feet of prints and negatives he took in the 1950s as a professional photographer—a fine collection. Howard McDougall of Florida sent us a wonderful group of a few letters sent to his grandfather James McDougall in California who was a '49er and later a shipbuilder in East Boothbay. James's brother John, also a shipbuilder in North and East Boothbay, sent the letters in 1852.

Charles Wade Jr. sent us an annotated photo album of the building of the Balmy Days by his father and other family members in 1932. Charles also sent brochures of Capt. Wade's passenger boat business and Indian Island clambake at Little River, photos, and logs of Balmy voyages to southern waters in the 1930s. It's a terrific collection of material about a boat that was in Boothbay waters for a long time.

Paulding Phelps donated books by Owen Rice. Joan Krause gave us a guide to Civil War sources. Jack Murray gave us a copy of the East Boothbay School Register from 1896-1901, giving students' names, grades, and attendance records. He also donated a souvenir program for the school. Connie Wright gave us a copy of the 1872-1906 record of the West Harbor Marine Railway meetings. The railway site was incorporated into the Oake Grove Hotel, run by Connie and her family.

Terry Lewis gave us a codfish lure. Jen Chesebro gave us a large collection of high-quality 1950s slides taken by Jim Chesebro, many of fishing operations. Dennis Boyd brought in souvenir china showing the 1910s high school, Hendricks Head light, Mouse Island, the Opera House, and a fishing fleet in the harbor.

Bill Welsh gave us posters, one an 1898 steamer schedule poster, and the other the Loom House on Sawyers Island. Bill also sent transcribed and scanned logs on CD of Captain John H. Welsh. They run from 1862 to 1888. Barbara Beatley Anthony donated an old region souvenir booklet and old postcards of local views.

Bea Walker donated a booklet on the Hotel Weymouth, and Alan Fisher gave us one on the Menawarmet Hotel and the Welch House. Larry Smith gave us a brochure on the Samoset Hotel on Mouse Island. Phyllis Lawton donated a souvenir handbook and many photos.

Susan Bradley gave us some artifacts from the old Leishman house which was torn down and burned. The Arrington family brought in some artifacts from an old Barters Island house foundation site. Tom Berry donated household artifacts that were found in the walls of his McClintock Street office.

We purchased John Gilman's second book on the sardine industry. Bibs and David Clifford gave us an 1898 Maine Register. Loraine Nickerson donated Pierce & Hartung Christmas cards. Barbara Rumsey donated Woodbine Shanty, an early 1900s novel set in Lobster Cove. Arthur Webster brought in a Greene's history, a "Salt" periodical, two books on Pemaquid, a steamboat album, a 1967 Harbor eighth grade class year book, a souvenir booklet, an 1866 Adjutant General's Report, and two program books, one for the 1948 Fisherman's Fair in East Boothbay, and one for the 1939 Harbor anniversary.

Local historical family information has been supplied by various people. Jim Good researched and wrote a great profile of Flora Jones's house. Linda Olsson provided material on the Ayer family. Alden Reed sent detailed commentary on Jordan speedboat movies, and he sends terrific information regularly on one-designs and Isle of Springs. Anna Jean Springer sent info on the McKown family.

We appreciate all the gifts that have come our way. Our donors do the hard work of disposing of things in a thoughtful way. Many of the recently given artifacts are on display, and the paper items can be located easily for those who would like to see the new acquisitions.

Faith Meyer, board member and past president, provides a service to the society by recording and cataloging the donations and personally writing nearly all the thank-you notes to the artifact donors.

HOURS

Hours are 10 a.m. to noon on Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays during the winter. The hours expand to Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from July 4 to Labor Day.

Barbara Rumsey is normally there to help with any inquiries, and she and others are usually working in the building on Wednesday afternoons, 1:30 to 4 p.m.

•     Phone: 633-0820. Email: brhs@gwi.net

•     Website: www.boothbayhistorical.org

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  DATES TO  REMEMBER

•   May 18: Annual Meeting, 2 p.m.

Shipyard Series

 

•   June 30: Talk by Barbara Rumsey, 4 p.m.             "19th-Century Boothbay Shipbuilding"

 

•   July 7: Talk by Roger Duncan, 4 p.m.                    "20th-Century Local Yacht Building"

 

•   July 21: Talk by Rick Prescott, 4 p.m.                    "The Evolution of Local One-Designs"

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•   September 23: Volunteer Recognition Day, 5 p.m.

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