COMING EVENTS  

Harbor Lights Open House

We will hold an open house on Saturday, December 4, during the pre-Christmas Harbor Lights celebration. We have a little display in place featuring old-time cooking utensils and cookbooks produced by early 1900s local groups.

We'll decorate the museum and offer cider, sandwiches, and cookies from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This would be a great time to pick up our new photographic book, The Boothbay Region Revisited, as a Christmas present! Plan to come for conviviality and refreshments and to look for other possible Christmas presents among our books and maps.

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 SUMMER ACTIVITIES  

The Annual Meeting

The annual meeting took place on May 21 at the museum. The brief business meeting included the election of new trustees, Ronnie Spofford of Barters Island and Sally Johnson of Ocean Point. Reelected to board terms were Tom Perkins, Larry Brown, Faith Meyer, and John Heyl. Elected as officers: Jim Hunt as president, Cathy Sherrill as vice-president, Sarah Giles as treasurer, and Doreen Dun as secretary.

After the meeting, Frank Farmer gave a brief talk on the McKown family and how they typify the early settlers of the Boothbay region. The attendees and trustees then socialized over refreshments.

Shipyard Talks

We held two talks to full houses on Boothbay region shipbuilding this summer on Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m. Barbara Rumsey talked about 19th-century local vessel building on June 30, and Roger Duncan talked about local 20th-century yacht builders on July 7. Afternoon talks are new for us, but we think they worked well.

New Book Party

On August 24, we invited the public to a book party to introduce our new 128-page book co-produced with Arcadia Publishing. The book, containing 200 local historical photos with captions, is available at the society and bookstores. We urge members to order copies from us, since this book is our fundraiser. They're selling well and we've had enthusiastic comments. If you can't get to the museum, please use the order form on the back of this newsletter to obtain your copy.

Maine Heritage Day

On September 18, we held an open house, introducing the small cooking display featuring locally published cookbooks. Trustees and volunteers greeted the public who came to visit and do research with drinks and goodies.

Volunteer Reception

We deeply appreciate the great contributions made by the many volunteers who donate their time and energy to help the society. On September 23 we gave a reception to honor our volunteers. Attending were members of the group who work behind the scenes in collections and those who man the museum in the summer.

A special thank you to those who welcomed visitors at the museum this summer: Judy Cook, Marilyn Lozier, Alan Fisher, Jane Cowley, Alice Fossett, Toots Adams, Judy Davidson, Barbara Bush, Edith Tauber, and Lynne Nicoletta.

We are always looking for more volunteers and urge you to contact us if you would like to get involved. Volunteers help with small mailing parties, man the museum in the summer, and help with collections work in the archives and photograph collection. Special computer skills needed are scanning and entering data. There are a variety of things to do!

Fall Foliage Festival

On Columbus Day weekend we maintained a booth at the Fall Foliage Festival at the Boothbay Railway Village. We sold our new book and, for the 32nd year, cheddar cheese.

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ONGOING ACTIVITIES  

Gifts for Collections

Brett Hedberg, a summer resident below Appalachee and computer consultant, came in for some information and asked if we were all set with our computers. Having just lost one, we were delighted with the question. Brett brought us a Gateway 450 computer from donor Joseph Ferguson; Brett also donated a snazzy office chair. Dick and Joan Hodgdon generously donated a practically new optical zoom Kodak EasyShare digital camera. The camera will let us produce prints from negatives.

Collections Work

Collections volunteers have been hard at work! 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 is organizing and maintaining order in the history files. Judy Davidson and Lynne Nicoletta have been checking the order of the photograph files.

Significant New Collections

Margaret and Tim Hodgdon have turned over a large portion of the Hodgdon yard's surviving papers, photos, and plans, generally dating from the 1950s up to the early 1980s. Included as well are many of the local historical photos that Sonny Hodgdon collected, one of his lifelong interests.

Barbara Rumsey, with helpers Cathy Sherrill, Bruce Wood, and Earl Leavitt, did some rough cataloging of the papers at Margaret's house. People who've worked on the Hodgdon Collection at the museum with Barbara are: Bill Wilson, Robert Rice, Bruce Wood, Doreen Dun, Sally Johnson, and Jim Hunt. About half the collection is cataloged at this second pass level. We couldn't be more pleased about the Hodgdons turning this material over to us.

The Francis Greene place on Oak Street in the Harbor was emptied out and will be sold out of the family. We are very grateful to the Greene heirs that we were given boxes of family memorabilia and some collections of Francis Greene, the author of the 1906 history of the Boothbay region.

Included were family photo albums, scrapbooks, clippings of an historic nature, some very early town reports, business papers, and copies of Greene's 1932 Boothbay family history. We are grateful to Florence Greene for her past help to the historical society and to the Grace Greene Dunton estate for the donation of this wonderful collection. Bruce Wood, Ken Hanson, and Barbara are working on cataloging the material.

Of such donations, as the Hodgdons and Greenes gave, are great research facilities created.

 

Buildings and Grounds

Rick Prose finished a wooden plaque on which Jeff Brown lettered the names of our trustees emeriti, Alden Stickney and Bea Walker. We're grateful to both men for donating their labor for this plaque.

Tom Carbone and his crew continue to mow the lawn and make improvements to the grounds. Larry Brown has taken loads of brush to the dump. Stevie Hale helped to plant the garden in the sideyard. Sterling Andrus has done a fine job cleaning up some overgrown shrubs around the building.

Dick Hodgdon and Ronnie Spofford handled the coordination with a Lincoln County Sheriff's Department work party. Surpervised by deputy Rob Banks, they returned to do some exterior painting on the building in July and August. Despite the many foggy, rainy days, the men were able to paint more than half the building and its shutters.

 

Annual Fund

We sent out an annual fund letter to members in mid-October. We hope to use some of the donations toward upgrading the security of the building and the collections, besides providing needed operating funds.

We intend to acquire more fire-proof files to house some of the print or photograph collections and to do some rewiring. We will continue these efforts in the coming years.

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OUTREACH  

News Items

Peggy Voight places nearly all the historical society news items in the Boothbay Register and Lincoln County newspapers. She announces coming events and reports on how they went, so people can follow our doings on an ongoing basis.

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-profits.

Out Of Our Past

Articles that were in our Boothbay Register column, "Out of Our Past," since the last newsletter included five by Barbara Rumsey: one on the mica mines at Back Narrows, four on Boothbay Center, and another of the Cap'n John stories 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. The photos profiled recently: the 1920s Barters Island gas station, a pastoral view of the McIntyre Bridge between Sawyers Island and the Harbor, the Elizabeth Howard awash at East Boothbay in 1919, and the sardine carrier Trident on the east side of the Harbor about 1915.

Schools

Barbara Rumsey spent a morning with the fifth grade at Porter Point, introducing the children to the probable lifestyle followed at the site of a 19th-century house foundation.

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MEMBERSHIP MATTERS  

Membership

Our membership now stands at 620. Since the April newsletter we've gained the new members listed below. We thank all of you for your dues which provide much of our operating funds.

We lost one of our original 1967 founding members, Bud Logan. Bud devoted himself to the community and his death was a sad loss felt region-wide. No doubt he was a founding member of many organizations.  

New Members

MAINE

E. Boothbay: Duane & Pat Brunell

Back Narrows: Alice Minto

Trevett: Mary Lou Teel

Edgecomb: Joanne Sharpe

Waldoboro: Nancy Paine

Bangor: Ted and Sandra Leonard

OTHER STATES

Greenfield, Mass: Melinda Watson (Appalachee)

Newton Highlands, Mass: Hannah Morehouse (Isle of Springs)

Chestnut Hill, Mass: Douglas Louison (E. Boothbay)

Boxford, Mass: Robert & Nancy McCann

Reading, Mass: Brett Hedberg (Appalachee)

New Bedford, Mass: John Murphy

Worcester, Mass: Alden Reed (Isle of Springs)

Ridgefield, Conn: George & Susan Craig

Glastonbury, Conn: John & Jean McClintock

Bridgewater, New Jersey: Peter Granger

Cortanot, NY: Laura Lee & Craig Keating

New York, NY: Marcia Annenberg (Boothbay Hbr)

New York, NY: Robert and Pat Linekin

Monkton, Maryland: Jim & Alice Forbes

Virginia Beach, Virginia: Bruce Husselbee

Citra, Florida: Chuck & Anne Koch (Linekin)

Jacksonville, Florida: Kirsten Williams

Key Largo, Florida: Charles Wade Jr.

Maitland, Florida: Harry S. Brier

Gold River, California: Susan Sylstra

Raleigh, North Carolina: Steve Willcox

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 ACQUISITIONS

Chet and Joan Rittall gave us a beautiful basket made by and given to them by the Ranco family. While we have a few Indian baskets, we did not know their source, and we'd hoped for a long time to acquire a Ranco basket. Chet also gave us his folder about the early 1960s proposed Harbor improvement project. It focused on filling a strip along the waterfront for a walking park.

Tina Santella donated a 1920s booklet on Appalachee Camps, a beautifully framed and preserved copy of the 1948 Rockwell map, and various brochures. Nancy Weber gave us her work on the Fuller family of East Boothbay. Dawn Giles donated a wonderful early 1900s pencil box, once owned by Freeman Van Horn, who was born in 1890.

Frank Farmer gave a large image of Patrick McKown's gravestone and McKown family history. Barbara Rumsey brought in tapes of interviews with Virginia and Gleason Gamage, Roger Duncan's July society talk, and Rick Prescott's talk at South Bristol. Jolly Arsenault brought in a Dunton Bible. The Gaffeys gave a souvenir pitcher of the library. Jim Skiff brought in an 1850-1870s survey book and a self-portrait by Fred Rockwell. Deb Wilson gave a mastband of the schooner Bowdoin. Rick Prescott donated a book about the Christmas Cove (South Bristol) Improvement Association.

Jean Chenoweth donated many items from the West Harbor Farmer and Frey families. She gave golf clubs from Billy Farmer's mini-golf, 1920s iceskates from his skating rink, songbook and sheet music played by Josephine Frey to accompany moving pictures, a yardstick from Watts oil business, William P. Farmer's Civil War papers, 1920s lease agreements of Billy Framer's feldspar quarry, children's book of her mother, a child's wooden block, a diary kept by Parker Frey in the 1910s, a flour tin, a mackerel plow, a lamp bracket, and a lamp.

The Rasers gave bottle labels from the Boothbay Medicinal Spring. Jere Coosard gave a 1950s Boothbay Fire Department fireman's hat and a sign for the East Boothbay Water District. A 1903 Nellie G. 10-trip ticket came from Elizabeth Reynolds.

Genevive Weeks Ireland donated a photo album she assembled in the 1920s while teaching on Barters Island. Evie Stevens gave a dory plug, a stencil for lettering the 1967 replica yacht America's stern, and a trunnel sharpener.

Chuck and Anne Koch lent a beautiful large model of a banks fishing schooner. Joan Marvin gave a promotional flyswatter from Porter's Drug Store. Fred and Carole Ann Bennett donated some family history books on CD.

Judy Marshall gave local school photos and early shots of Fisherman's Wharf. Margaret Kelly gave West Harbor school photos and her father's Knight of Pythias uniform as well as a framed, ornate KP mission statement. Edie Vassamillet brought in some classic early photos views. Generous gifts of collections from the Hodgdon family and the Greene family are covered under "Collections."

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.

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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. in July and August.

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

•   December 4, Holiday Lights open house at the museum, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

 •   May 20, 2005: Annual meeting at 2 p.m.

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We welcome orders for the new book we produced with Arcadia Publishing. Please use the form below to order the 128-page paperback.