The following local students have been named to the Plymouth State University president’s list for the Fall 2023 semester, in Plymouth, New Hampshire:
by Mary GrowAt a brief meeting on a snowy Jan. 16 evening, China select board members approved an emergency services dispatching agreement, made three committee appointments and briefly discussed pending ordinance changes.
One amended ordinance will be on the ballot for the June 11 annual town business meeting. Board members approved for presentation to voters the official copy of the revised Planning Board Ordinance.
Planning board members are working on revisions to the Land Use Ordinance, Chapter Two of China’s Land Development Code. Planning board chairman Toni Wall said it would be on the Jan. 23 planning board agenda.
Select board member Brent Chesley questioned provisions dealing with expansion of non-conforming uses in the shoreland. Other members had additional suggestions for planning board members to consider.
The nine-page dispatching agreement provides for the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to continue to dispatch emergency service providers in China for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The fee will be $51,528.94 for the year, which Hapgood said is about a five percent increase over the current year.
Select board members unanimously approved the contract and appointed Hapgood the town’s contact person with DPS.
Other appointments were James Hinds and Benjamin Weymouth to the transfer station committee and Trishea Story as budget committee secretary. Last fall, board members appointed Weymouth to the comprehensive plan implementation, broadband and tax increment financing committees.
Board member Janet Preston said she is working on getting electric vehicle charging stations in China, seeking cost estimates and possible locations. She said she has been advised that the town office is not a good place for Level 2 chargers, despite its central location, because of the length of time charging takes.
Hapgood reminded those present that the town office is accepting nominations for Spirit of America awards for volunteerism until March 1.
The Jan. 16 select board meeting was followed by an executive session. Hapgood said no action was taken afterward.
The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29.
China Primary School
No Power, No Problem: On Wednesday, December 20, China Primary School welcomed students from China Middle School to join them in their building even with a power outage! Each middle school class paired with an elementary school class for the day. Students helped each other out, played, had a hot meal, and had a warm place to spend the day!
Snow Globe Wishes: The third grade team at China Primary School read the book Snow Globe Wishes to their students. After reading the mentor text, students were asked to write a response to the prompt: If I was trapped inside a snowglobe, what would happen? Students were then able to make a snowglobe of their own! This activity was a part of their holiday celebration at CPS.
by Mary GrowChina planning board members returned to an old topic, the proposed town ordinance to govern commercial solar development, at their first 2024 meeting, held on Jan. 9.
Chairman Toni Wall shared her revised draft of the ordinance. Board members made a few immediate comments and accepted Wall’s suggestion they discuss it again at their Jan. 23 meeting.
They hope to recommend a final draft to select board members in time for that board to present it to voters at the June town business meeting.
Revisions to China’s Planning Board Ordinance are already scheduled for a June vote, Wall said.
State statute regarding new state housing law
To give readers an idea of what planning board members are dealing with as they propose amendments adding provisions of the new state housing law to the town ordinance, here is a section copied from the law:
§4364-A. Residential areas, generally; up to four dwelling units allowed.
1. Use allowed. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, except as provided in Title 12, chapter 423‑A, for any area in which residential uses are allowed, including as a conditional use, a municipality shall allow structures with up to two dwelling units per lot if that lot does not contain an existing dwelling unit, except that a municipality shall allow up to four dwelling units per lot if that lot does not contain an existing dwelling unit and the lot is located in a designated growth area within a municipality consistent with section 4349‑A, subsection 1, paragraph A or B or if the lot is served by a public, special district or other centrally managed water system and a public, special district or other comparable sewer system in a municipality without a comprehensive plan.
A municipality shall allow on a lot with one existing dwelling unit the addition of up to two dwelling units: one additional dwelling unit within or attached to an existing structure or one additional detached dwelling unit, or one of each.
A municipality may allow more units than the number required to be allowed by this subsection.
Another planning board project is revising Chapter Two of the town’s Land Development Code, the section titled Land Use Ordinance. The version on the town website, china.govoffice.com, last revised in November 2022, is 63 pages long.
A major change needed is incorporation of the new state law that began as LD 2003, titled “An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Commission To Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions.” It became law in April 2022.
The law seeks to increase available housing by expanding the numbers and types of dwelling units allowed on a lot. Municipalities are required to amend local ordinances to include provisions of the law.
Wall said she had asked China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to ask the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments to draft amendments to China’s ordinance. KVCOG has received many such requests from other member towns, she said.
Also needing planning board members’ attention are changes made by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that should have been added to the town ordinance years ago and were overlooked.
Wall is reviewing the entire ordinance, aided by comments from codes officer Nicholas French as he has applied it over past months. She is noting incorrect cross-references, inconsistencies, omissions, contradictions and other substantive problems, as well as correcting capitalization, punctuation, grammar and spelling.
In other business Jan. 9, French said he is still working on ordinance violations, mostly work done without obtaining required permits.
Wall said she submitted the planning board’s 2024-25 budget request to the town office and is working on the board report for the town report that will come out in the spring, covering the fiscal year from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
The next China planning board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Grade 12High Honors: Tristan Anderson, Leah Bonner, Isabella Boudreau, Heather Bourgoin, Robin Boynton, Elizabeth Brown, Nolan Burgess, Carol Caouette-Labbe, Makayla Chabot, Elise Choate, Alexia Cole, Caleigh Crocker, Brielle Crommett, Noah Crummett, Gavin Cunningham, Isabella Day, Keira Deschamps, Hailey Estes, Hunter Foard, Kaylee Fyfe, Aaralyn Gagnon, Meilani Gatlin, Caleb Gay, Julius Giguere, Tucker Greenwald, Nathan Hall, Tara Hanley, Natalie Henderson, Bella Homstead, Trinity Hyson, Hannah Kugelmeyer, Stephanie Kumnick, Landon Lefebvre, Aidan Maguire, Holden McKenney, Akela Mitchell, Lucas Mitchell, Alexis Moon, Austin Nicholas, Antonio Orantelli, Jeremy Parker, Kevin Pelletier, Nathan Polley, Jessica Pumphrey, Keith Radonis, Shae Rodrigue, Evelyn Rousseau, Max Sanborn, Christine Smith, Kinsey Stevens, Reese Sullivan, and Baruch Wilson.
Honors: Abigail Adams, Austin Armstrong, Lacey Arp, Duncan Bailey, Wyatt Bray, Kaleb Brown, Nathalia Carrasco, Timothy Christiansen, Simon Clark, Connor Coull, Thomas Crawford, Jesseca Eastup, Hailey Fongemie, Cole Fortin, Brayden Garland, Nathan Grenier, Hallee Huff, Mackenzie Kutniewski, Logan Lanphier, Jack Lyons, Richard Mahoney III, Liberty Massie, Jordan Mayo, David McCaig, Madison McCausland, Danny McKinnis, Abigail Miller, Morgan Miller, Royce Nelson, Alejandro Ochoa, Alyssa Ouellette, Andrew Perry, Giacomo Smith, Adam St. Onge, Lara Stinchfield, Jamecen Stokes, Ryan Tyler, Jack Uleau, Haley Webb, and Elijah York.
High Honors: Daphney Allen, Emmett Appel, Noah Bechard, Octavia Berto, Jayda Bickford, Lauryn Black, Brooke Blais, Carter Brockway, Keenan Clark, Madison Cochran,Lauren Cowing, Gabrielle Daggett, Aidan Durgin, John Edwards, Ryan Farnsworth, Keeley Gagnon, Hailey Garate, Ellie Giampetruzzi, Echo Hawk, Serena Hotham, Alivia Jackson, Ava Kelso, Sophia Knapp, Chase Larrabee, Jack Lucier, Owen Lucier, D’andre Marable, Justice Marable, Eleanor Maranda, Jade McCollett, Abigail McDonough, Shannon McDonough, Madison McNeff, Colin Oliphant, Makayla Oxley, Ava Picard, Carter Rau, Elsa Redmond, Justin Reed, Lillian Rispoli, Laney Robitaille, Carlee Sanborn, Joslyn Sandoval, Aislynn Savage, Kyle Scott, Jordyn Smith, Zoey Smith, Larissa Steeves, Parker Studholme, and Clara Waldrop.
Honors: Haileigh Allen, Jeffrey Allen, Ava Anderson, Emily Bailey, Bryana Barrett, Rylan Bennett, Kaleb Bishop, Olivia Brann, Paige Clark, Andra Cowing, Kaden Crawford, Lillian Crommett, Trinity DeGreenia, Aydan Desjardins, Brady Desmond, Thomas Drever, Lucas Farrington, Kenneth Fredette, Wesley Fulton, Kaylene Glidden, Tristan Goodwin, Blake Grady, Jonathan Gutierrez, Trent Haggett, Brandon Hanscom, Landen Hayden, Emma Henderson, Kailynn Houle, Rion Kesel, Kaiden Kronillis, Shelby Lincoln, Adrian Mayo, Elijah Moore, Ella Moore, Addison Mort, Gavyn Paradis, Riddick Peaslee, Sadie Pierce, Alyssa Pullen, Victoria Rancourt, Nathan Robinson, Achiva Seigars, Emily Sprague, Cody Stone, Grant Taker, David Thompson III, Kaylee Tims, Grace Vashon, and Adrianna Vernesoni.
High Honors: Connor Alcott, Emily Almeida, Kylie Bellows, Addyson Briggs, London Castle, Nathan Choate, William Choate, Drew Clark, Madeline Clement-Cargill, Sylvia Davis, Joshua Denis, Audryanna DeRaps, Lauren Dufour, William Ellsey Jr., Madison Griffiths, Mia Hersom, Aidan Huff, Halle Jones, Kasen Kelley, Kayle Lappin, Jacob Lavallee, Ava Lemelin, Jack Murray, Elijah Nelson, Ruby Pearson, Abigail Peil, Elijah Pelkey, Emily Piecewicz, Taisen Pilotte, Hannah Polley, Desirae Proctor, Michael Richardson, Leahna Rocque, Brynna Rodrigue, Jackie Sasse, Edward Schmidt, Kathryn Shaw, Nichala Small, Blake Smith, Madelynn Spencer, Kayla Stred, Gentry Stuart, Abigail Studholme, Donovan Thompson, Kammie Thompson, Addison Turner, and Oryanna Winchenbach.
Honors: Savannah Baker, Anders Bassett, Julia Booth, Brock Bowden, Benjamin Carle, Kolby Caswell, Lillian Clark, Timothy Clavette, Charles DeSchamp, Jacob Faucher, Solomon Fortier, Madison Gagnon, Stephen Gould, Brandon Haley, Aiden Hamlin, Willow Haschalk, Jacob Hunter, Timothy Kiralis, Savannah Knight, Nathaniel Levesque, Hayden Little, Brayden McLean, Paige McNeff, Parker Minzy, Tucker Nessmith, Bayley Nickles, Jordyn Parise, Isabelle Pelotte, Jackson Pelotte, Lilian Piecewicz, Allianna Porter, Kameron Quinn, Eli Redmond, Alexander Reitchel, Owen Robichaud, Autumn Sawyer, Jaelyn Seamon, Eva Simmons, Haidyn Smith, Phoebe Taylor, Clara Theberge, Kamryn Turner, Charles Uleau, Isaac Vallieres, Finnegan Vinci, Addison Witham, Brody Worth, and Maddilyn York.
High Honors: Isaac Audette, Olivia Austin, Jeremiah Bailey, Linnea Bassett, Luke Blair, Jackson Blake, Silas Bolitho, Madeline Boynton, Cassidy Brann, Delaney Brown, Liam Burgess, Emma Casey, Olivia Childs, Hunter Christiansen, Khloe Clark, Connor Crommett, Jilian Desjardins, Ryley Desmond, Robin Dmitrieff, Logan Dow, Kelsie Dunn, Delaney Dupuis, Bella Dutilly, Isabella Farrington, Madison Field, Audrey Fortin, Adalyn Glidden, Cody Grondin, Madison Harris, Eva Hayden, Reid Jackson, Johanna Jacobs, Evan James, Ivy Johns, Callianne Jordan, Peyton Kibbin, Chantz Klaft, Maverick Knapp, Jack Malcolm, Kate McGlew, Gaven Miller, Annie Miragliuolo, Jacoby Mort, Emi Munn, Madeline Oxley, Bryson Pettengill, Caylee Putek, Jessika Shaw, Lailah Sher, Bryson Stratton, Gabriel Studholme, Sabrina Studholme, Braeden Temple, Kaleb Tolentino, Carter Ulmer, Isabella Winchenbach, and Eryn Young.
Honors: William Adamson IV, Ariana Armstrong, Delia Bailey, Seth Bridgforth, Logan Chechowitz, Tyler Clark, Collin Clifford, Owen Couture, Kiley Doughty, Nolan Dow, Gavin Fanjoy, Danica Ferris, Scott Fitts, James Goodwin, Paige Greene-Morse, Kaylee Grierson, Addison Hall, Camden Hinds, Lilly Hutchinson, Channing Kelly, Bryson Lanphier, Matthew Lincoln, Jasai Marable, Gage Miller, Thomas Minzy, Alexis Mitton, MacKenzie Oxley, Molly Oxley, Layla Peaslee, Noah Pooler, Dylan Proctor, Sovie Rau, Tayden Richards, Samuel Richardson, Colton Ryan, Dylan Saucier, Cloe Smyth, Tyler Waldrop, and Brayden Ward.
by Mary GrowIn October 2022, Timothy Beals, who was then head of Delta Ambulance, asked China select board members to ask voters to approve funding the service in 2023-24 at $15 per resident, or a little less than $66,000 for the fiscal year.
At the time, he predicted the per-person charge would rise. He was right.
At the Jan. 2, 2024, China select board meeting, Delta Ambulance interim executive director Chris Mitchell explained why the service is requesting a higher 2024 appropriation from towns it serves.
The ambulance service was organized in 1972, Mitchell said, and until last year did not ask for town subsidies. Funding came primarily from insurance reimbursements, which over the years have fallen farther and farther below expenses.
Medicare’s funding formulas are complicated, Mitchell said. They cover mileage and treatment, with different rates for different levels and types of treatment. If an ambulance and crew come to a house but no patient is transported, there is no reimbursement.
Delta gets additional funds from miscellaneous sources, like grants and fees for courses its staff offers.
Mitchell said a Maine blue ribbon commission looked into ambulance funding a few years ago and concluded no Maine service was able to break even. The commission recommended state legislators appropriate $70 million a year for five years.
The legislature approved a one-time subsidy of $31 million, with an initial grant of $200,000 per service and the distribution formula for the rest not yet determined. Mitchell called the funding “inadequate.”
China select board chairman Wayne Chadwick translated: the federal government sets a reimbursement rate that doesn’t cover costs, the state doesn’t fill the gap so the towns get billed.
Costs, Mitchell said, include insurance, payroll, supplies, vehicle and building maintenance and utilities. He estimated it costs $1 million a year to run an ambulance.
Cutting overhead without sacrificing service is difficult. Ambulances may sit idle for part of a day, and then multiple calls will send them all out at once.
Another limit on cost reduction is the wage competition affecting many areas of the economy; medical staff wages have increased significantly.
Mitchell said cost-cutting includes reassigning personnel for more efficiency. Delta’s Augusta building has been sold, effective the end of January, and will be rented from the new owners until two smaller, less costly buildings can be found.
The upshot, he said, is that the per-person fee request from member towns will rise to $25. He estimated the bill to China for 2024-25 will be slightly over $110,000.
Mitchell did not ask for any select board action. Board member Jeanne Marquis proposed the board consider supporting funding requests during the current legislative session; Mitchell said he will provide information.
— Board members voted to put a revised Planning Board Ordinance on the June 11 local ballot, sharing the day with state primary elections and China’s annual town business meeting.
— They decided to put no local ordinances on a March 5 ballot with the state primary election, on two grounds: voter turnout will be higher in June and November than in March, and there is too little time to prepare a local March ballot.
— They discussed China’s town public works trucks, and voted to offer the 2012 GMC half-ton for sale by sealed bid. Information will be available at the town office.
— Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood credited transfer station manager Thomas Maraggio and staff member Cheyenne “Cj” Houle for getting China a state waste diversion grant of $14,440.57 (see the Dec. 14, 2023, issue of The Town Line, pp. 2-3). Maraggio said the grant will help fund two projects, enlarging and walling the cement compost pad and installing lights in the free for the taking building.
— After discussion, board members approved an updated transfer station fee schedule for mattresses, units with freon and commercial waste (the revised schedule is on the town website, china.govoffice.com). Hapgood said most of the increases will take effect April 1, allowing Palermo residents the three months’ notice required by the contract under which they use China’s transfer station.
— Hapgood said transfer station committee chairman Paul Lucas has resigned. China residents interested in serving on this committee are invited to contact the town office.
— Board members appointed Kemp Anderson to a three-year term on the board of appeals.
Other town employees earning praise, besides Maraggio and Houle, were deputy clerk Tammy Bailey, from codes officer Nicholas French for her help as he returns to the job long-distance; and from select board members, the public works crew for their storm clean-up and town office staff for the December 19 through Dec. 22 warming shelter.
The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16 (because Monday, Jan. 15, is the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday), in the town office meeting room.
So. China library interior
On Saturday morning, January 6, 2024, The South China Public Library opened its new building, at 27 Jones Road, to borrowers for the first time. While not the conclusion of this lengthy and often frustrating project, this occasion marked the the most significant event yet in the continuing attempt to bring this effort to fruition.
It has been at least six years since the library’s board of directors made the decision to seek a new location for the facility. This move was fueled by several requirements including more space, modern restroom facilities and easier building access among others. We wanted to remain close to our long-time location in South China village and after much searching and debating about varying properties, we were able to purchase land on the Jones Road. The site was laid out adjacent to the historic Jones House. We purchased a used portable classroom from the Town of China for one dollar with the intention of it being our children’s area and construction was begun.
Finances were a significant factor in all of this process and through fundraising projects, wonderful monetary gifts, and the dividing and sale of part the property we have finally reached the point where completion is in sight. Yes, there have been further issues. The portable had a mold problem but has been completely cleaned up and renovations are continuing. COVID and its aftermath created a huge barrier, and recent holiday fundraising has faced problems as well. But, we are committed to bringing this effort to fruition and we sincerely hope that those of you in our community who have generously supported us will continue to do so. We foresee a total opening to the public to take place later this year and look forward to welcoming everyone into our new home. For the time being, we will be open during our recent, regular hours- 10 a.m. to noon and 1- 3 p.m., on Wednesdays, and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. These will hopefully expand as well. We have been a huge factor in our neighborhood, and the town of China as an entirety, for decades and that will continue.
In conclusion, as with many great human endeavors, the new South China Public Library has dealt with a number of ups and downs. We will soon be celebrating our final opening and that will ultimately be our completion!
So. China Library opens at new location
The South China Library re-opened on Saturday, January 6, 2024, at its new location, at 27 Jones Rd. For now, hours will remain as they have been: Saturday, 10 a.m. – noon; Wednesday, 10 a.m. – noon, and 1 – 3 p.m. Children and adults will share space in the newly-constructed section, as work continues on the portable classroom.
So. China library
Seniors of the Trimester, from left to right, Lycus Choate, Caleigh Crocker, and Jeremy Parker. (contributed photo)
On Friday, December 15, 2023, Erskine Academy, in South China, students and staff attended a Renaissance Assembly to honor their peers with Renaissance Awards.
Tenure awards were presented to ten faculty members: Abby Everleth, Louise Irwin, and Randy Pottle for 15 years of service; Bill Childs, Kim Clark, and Erika Reay for 20 years of service; Beth Lawrence for 25 years of service; Kelly Clark and Tim Bonsant for 30 years of service; and Dennis Scates for 35 years of service.
Renaissance Recognition Awards were presented to the following students: Annie Miragliuolo, Hannah Polley, William “Billy” Ellsey, Elijah Nelson, Andra Cowing, Echo Hawk, Lillian Rispoli, Justice Marable, and Natalie Henderson.
In addition to Recognition Awards, Seniors of the Trimester Awards were also presented to three members of the senior class: Lycus Choate, son of Beth Choate, of Windsor, and Michael Choate, of Liberty; Jeremy Parker, son of Donna and Josh Parker, of Windsor; and Caleigh Crocker, daughter of Betsy Brann, of Windsor, and Mark Crocker, of Winslow. Seniors of the Trimester are recognized as individuals who have gone above and beyond in all aspects of their high school careers.
In appreciation of their dedication and service to Erskine Academy, Faculty of the Trimester awards were presented to Johanna Studholme, Business Office Bookkeeper; Kay Sullivan, Business Office Assistant Bookkeeper; and Timothy Bonsant, Social Studies Instructor.
Faculty of the Trimester, from left to right, Kay Sullivan, Tim Bonsant, and Johanna Studholme. (contributed photo)
Hollingsworth & Whitney paper mill, in Winslow.
In addition to the historic mills on Outlet Stream and smaller flowages in Winslow, Kingsbury mentioned two larger mills on the east bank of the Kennebec in the 1890s.
One he described as a new “large steam saw mill…on the historic grounds of Fort Point,” covering most of the “palisade enclosure of old Fort Halifax.”
Fort Halifax in 1754.
Old Fort Halifax was built in 1754 to deter the French and their Indian allies from attacking British settlements along the Kennebec River. After the ouster of the French from the area in 1763, the fort’s buildings were dismantled or allowed to fall down, until only one blockhouse survives, now the centerpiece of Winslow’s Fort Halifax Park. (See the Jan. 28, 2021, issue of The Town Line for more on this historic site.)
A deteriorating blockhouse at Fort Halifax, in Winslow, after the ouster of the French from the area in 1763.
The grounds went through a succession of owners and uses. The Maine Memory Network’s on-line site includes an item donated by the Winslow Historical Preservation Committee with an excerpt from the April 18, 1873, Waterville Mail commending an effort to preserve the remaining blockhouse, after “many years of talk and neglect.”
The Ticonic Water Power Co. then owned the buildings and had leased them to “Dr. Crosby” of Waterville and “J.W. Bassett and A.T. Shurtleff, of Winslow, for the purpose of preservation.”
Another on-line source says the Ticonic Water Power and Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1868 and “acquired the water rights and property adjacent to the Ticonic Falls.” In 1874, the Ticonic Power Company “became the Lockwood Company.”
The Lockwood Company is primarily associated with the mills in Waterville, just south of Ticonic Bridge. However, an on-line history of these mills says that in 1865, Waterville resident George Alfred “achieved the complex task of assembling water and property rights on both sides of the Kennebec River” in Winslow and Waterville.
Ownership of water rights let Alfred build a dam at Ticonic Falls, finished in 1869, the site says. It goes on to discuss the Waterville mills, built by Amos D. Lockwood, an engineer from Boston and Providence, who was familiar with water power.
On the Winslow side of the river, Kingsbury wrote that Edward Ware leased the land on Fort Point from the Lockwood Company and built a lumber mill in 1890. The building was more than 300 feet long, equipped with “all modern appliances for cutting lumber,” Kingsbury wrote. Logs came down the Kennebec from up-river timber operations and were made into lumber, shingles and lath, mostly shipped to Boston.
Your writer found the beginning (only) of a New York Times article on line, headlined “Lumber Ordered for Gray Gables,” with the dateline Boston, Sept. 30 (no year given). The first sentence reads: “Twenty-five thousand feet of spruce lumber has been ordered to be shipped from the sawmill of Edward Ware, at Winslow, Me.”
Gray Gables, Wikipedia says, was an elaborate house in Bourne, Massachusetts, built in 1880 and in 1890 bought by past and future president Grover Cleveland. He named it Gray Gables and used it as the summer White House during his second term, 1893-1896.
* * * * * *
The second large Winslow mill was under construction as Kingsbury finished his history in 1892. He wrote that Hollingsworth and Whitney was building Kennebec County’s “largest pulp and paper mill…on the east bank of the Kennebec, at a cost of three quarters of a million dollars.”
The University of Maine’s on-line Digital Commons provides a history of Hollingsworth and Whitney, written in October 1954 by company president James Lester Madden as the company merged into Scott Paper Company.
Madden wrote that the first Hollingsworth in the paper business was Mark Hollingsworth, from Delaware, who started in 1798 as a foreman in a Massachusetts mill.
In 1835, Hollingsworth bought a Revere Copper mill in South Braintree, Massachusetts, and converted it to a paper mill that was run until 1852 by his sons, John and Lyman. In 1852, another son, Ellis, came home after three years in California and took over the South Braintree mill.
In 1862, Ellis Hollingsworth formed a partnership with Leonard A. Whitney, Jr., owner of a “paper mill and bag factory” in Watertown. Whitney’s factory, Madden said, “produced the first machine-made paper bags in this country.”
Hollingsworth and Whitney’s first Maine venture was the purchase of a mill in Gardiner in 1876. Ellis’s son Sumner Hollingsworth was in charge.
In 1875 the company hired a “dynamic” sales manager named Charles Dean. After both founders died in 1881, Dean “was instrumental in incorporating the present [1954] company in 1882.” Sumner Hollingsworth was its president until his death in 1899, when Dean succeeded him and headed the company until he retired in 1911.
Hollingsworth and Dean had the Winslow mill built between 1891 and 1893, Madden wrote. He commented, “To move from Massachusetts to the wilds of Maine for a woodpulp and paper mill was a daring move in the 1890s.”
The original estimated cost turned out to be half the actual cost of $800,000, he said (see Kingsbury’s figure above). Because the 1893 financial panic made banks hesitant to lend, even to a company with a good record, Dean financed part of the building himself. The Winslow mill was “a high quality, very low cost producer,” and he was soon repaid from profits.
The mill had two paper machines and a pulp mill; its daily capacity was 30 tons of groundwood pulp and 20 tons of paper. Madden said the initial 150 employees worked 11- and 13-hour days for an average hourly wage of less than 15 cents.
“Under Mr. Dean’s leadership,” Hollingsworth and Whitney was the first paper company to go from two to three shifts, a change that was considered “very radical,” Madden wrote.
To guarantee a supply of wood, the company began buying forest land in 1895. By 1954, Madden said, it owned 550,000 acres in the Kennebec watershed.
He described additions and improvements at the Winslow mill in the first two decades of the 20th century (the last two paper machines were added in 1913 and 1916) and the building of a pulp mill in Madison, and praised the company’s products and reputation.
Madden said nothing about World War I. By World War II, he wrote, the Winslow mill was the only supplier of “Tabulating Cardstock” in the country. Production was quadrupled to meet the military’s need for “cards to operate tabulating machines.”
After Scott Paper sold to Kimberly-Clark, the Winslow mill was closed in 1997.
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Kingsbury listed another 10 mills on lesser streams and brooks in Winslow before 1892.
Again, a map of Winslow is helpful. As explained last week, the town is bounded on the west by the Kennebec River. On the south it is bordered by Vassalboro, on the east by China.
There are two ponds in Winslow. The smaller, Mud Pond, is in the southeastern corner of town, with its eastern shore in China (according to China tax maps and most others found on line; one on-line map shows the boundary deviating from a straight line to follow the shoreline, putting the whole pond in Winslow).
A connecting stream runs northwest from Mud Pond to larger Pattee (or Pattees or Pattee’s) Pond, which lies east of the Sebasticook River. The Pattee Pond outlet stream, and streams that join it from the east, drain northwest into the Sebasticook.
In addition to the streams associated with these two water bodies, contemporary maps show one stream, Chaffee Brook, flowing west into the Kennebec. Chaffee Brook passes under Route 201 a short distance south of the Carter Memorial Drive intersection.
The first dam Kingsbury mentioned was on the brook named for John Drummond “near the river road” (Route 201).
Your writer found no Drummond Brook in contemporary Winslow; she guesses Drummond Brook is now Chaffee Brook. Just north of Chaffee Brook, Chaffee Brook Road goes west off Route 201 to the bank of the Kennebec. On the south side of Chaffee Brook Road sits Drummond cemetery.
(Chaffee Brook Road leads to the Kennebec Water District’s Chaffee Brook pumping station, which is being upgraded. Area residents who have seen the crane on the river bank and the platforms in the water are looking at the project.)
Drummond built a grist mill with two runs of stones, Kingsbury said. In 1822 he sold it to Josiah Hayden (probably the younger of the two Josiah Haydens in last week’s article) and built a sawmill (presumably sharing the grist mill’s water power). Kingsbury said as forests were cleared, the flow in this brook diminished until it could not provide adequate power after about 1840.
Of the next mill he described, Kingsbury wrote: “Frederick Paine had a plaster mill on Clover brook that did business from 1820 to 1870.” (On-line sources say plaster mills ground lime and gypsum into powder for building materials, including plaster and cement.)
Your writer suggests Clover Brook might be the 19th-century name for Bellows Stream, which flows north into Pattee Pond roughly parallel to the Kennebec and about midway between Winslow’s east and west boundaries.
The apparently nameless stream between Mud Pond and Pattee Pond, eastward of Bellows Stream, powered two mills, presumably on dams, by the first half of the 1800s. This stream flows north and then northwest from the north end of Mud Pond, under Route 137 (China Road) into the east side of Pattee Pond
The upstream mill was John Getchell’s sawmill, operating by 1795. It later became Isaac Dow’s shingle mill.
Half a mile downstream, a man named Alden had a sawmill that “ran down and was rebuilt by Esquire Brackett, who lost his life in it in 1840, by a blow from the saw frame.” Later, Jacob Brimner ran the sawmill (the 1856 map of Kennebec County shows a sawmill on this stream and a Brimner house not far upstream). Later still, a shingle mill ran until around 1870, Kingsbury said.
The Pattee Pond outlet, Pattee Stream, flows from the north end of the pond into the Sebasticook. For lack of space, your writer postpones a description of mills in this northern and northwestern part of Winslow to next week.
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Websites, miscellaneous.
The log chair fashioned by a line crew from Michigan, following the devastating storm of December 18, 2023. (contributed photo)
Carol Thibodeau related a story to The Town Line that is a great example of how people help people in times of hardship.
She writes:
We are on Rocky Road, in South China, where we have been stuck without power for four days now, and until yesterday, we were trapped here by a giant tree across our driveway.
Yesterday a crew showed up to cut up the tree. Yay! …they were a crew of three guys who had driven 23 hours straight from Michigan, to help CMP with the storm devastation. Despite only three hours of sleep, these guys were friendly and upbeat and went right to work and got that mammoth tree cleared.
My seven-year-old grandson, Reid, was there with me and we watched them clear the tree. Reid told me he wanted to make a chair out of one of the chunks of wood, for his mom and dad for Xmas. I mentioned this to one of the crew guys. While the other two were finishing up, he decided to make Reid that chair, and went to work with his chainsaw. While we watched, he made the best little chair, which will carry this story forever. Not to be outdone, his buddy had to carve us a message on a huge log. I’ll keep that log forever too!
Then these three heroes marched off to rescue the next people, munching on the peanut brittle I gave them and just as upbeat as ever.
I’ve been wondering if maybe that guy has a kid at home in Michigan, when he decided to make the chair for Reid. I don’t know, but I think Reid will always remember it.
Reid made a card…..and I’m going to make cushions for the chair – LOL, and he’s excited to give it to my daughter and her husband for Xmas.
We are still stuck without power and there is a leaning pole and downed lines still, at the top of our driveway, but this gave us such a Xmas boost, and warmed our hearts.