Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Natural resources – Part 1

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Brick making operation in Brewer.

by Mary Grow

As the preceding articles have at least partly shown, pre-European inhabitants of the Kennebec Valley lived off the land, using natural resources to provide food, shelter, clothing, transport, decoration and other necessities and frivolities.

The first Europeans, arriving in small (by our standards) ships, had no choice but to imitate the Native Americans. They got food by hunting and fishing, built wooden shelters and grew crops suited to local conditions. However, they quickly branched out in two directions, monetizing many natural resources and adding imported and manufactured items.

Monetizing applied to wild animals, notably the sale of beaver and other furs to European traders; to fish, especially migratory species, a trade being revived in the 21st century; to forests, as land was cleared not only for houses and farms but for a lumber industry that covered much of Maine and continues today; and even to the ice that formed in the Kennebec River every winter and was exported globally (see the article on lumber driving and ice harvesting on the Kennebec in the May 14, 2020, issue of The Town Line).

The Kennebec Valley offered other natural resources that Europeans developed. Linwood Lowden, in his history of Windsor, mentions one of the most common: rocks.

After a would-be farmer in the Kennebec Valley cut down trees, hauled away the wood and dug out the stumps, he was usually left with a field full of rocks. Nuisances, yes, but, Lowden points out, useful: big ones were “drilled, split and removed to be used as foundation stones.” Smaller ones lined cellars and wells or made stone walls as field or property boundaries.

Some, Lowden wrote, were immoveable: the farmer and his friends would dig a hole and bury such problem stones. Smaller ones that continued to surface as the fields were plowed went to the “stone dump,” the otherwise unused area in some corner on every farm.

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The invaluable USM Digital Commons on line includes Mining in Maine: Past, Present, and Future, published in 1990 by Carolyn A. Lepage and others. This source considers granite, limestone, slate, feldspar and iron among Maine’s commercially important minerals.

In 1836, the Maine legislature hired a Bostonian named Charles Jackson to survey the state’s mineral resources. Lepage wrote that he inspected mostly coastal areas and “major river and overland routes.” From this sample, he concluded Maine minerals were worth developing.

By 1836, Lepage wrote, Maine was already an international granite exporter. Hallowell was one of five granite centers (plus Biddeford, Blue Hill, Penobscot Bay and Washington County).

The rest of the 19th century featured continued exploitation of resources, especially along the coast, and a brief period of excitement about gold, silver and other metals after the Civil War (with no indication that the Kennebec Valley was involved). Granite remained important; in 1901, Lepage wrote, the value of granite produced in Maine exceeded that from any other state. Maine’s granite industry slowly declined in the 20th century, especially during and after the Great Depression of 1929-1939.

A Maine Geological Survey website emphasizes slate, used especially for roofing tiles, as another important mineral. This site mentions the “Central Maine Slate Belt” that runs from the Waterville area more than 70 miles northeast to Brownville Junction.

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Another natural resource common enough to be mentioned in many town histories is clay.

Clay, Wikipedia says, is a fine-grained soil that contains clay minerals. Clay minerals, according to the same source, are “hydrous aluminium phyllosilicate minerals, composed of aluminium and silicon ions bonded into tiny, thin plates by interconnecting oxygen and hydroxide ions.”

These minerals are plastic – they stick together and are flexible – when they’re wet, but become rigid when they dry. The material can thus be made into many things, from bricks for walls to dishes for the people inside the walls to eat from.

Wikipedia provides more scientific information, including noting that clay is commonly found where water bodies, like glacial lakes, let the soil settle to the bottom. Since much of Maine was once under a glacier, the prevalence of clay is to be expected.

An on-line source says Maine clay is not particularly suitable for ceramics, but is excellent for brick-making. Residents exploited clay deposits for building materials, for houses and for larger structures like mills and public buildings.

The all-brick Besse Building, in Albion.

In Albion, Ruby Crosby Wiggin’s history described a brickyard on the shore of Fifteen-Mile Stream, across from the Crosby sawmill (built in 1810 and operated into the 1880s). When George Crosby built the Crosby mansion in 1886 (see the June 11, 2020, issue of The Town Line for more on the stream and the Crosbys), he used bricks from the brickyard.

Wiggin listed specific uses: three chimneys, “a large brick oven and water heater in the kitchen,” “a large tank in the cellar which was used for the liming of eggs” and brick paving for the section of the cellar floor used to store potatoes. (Storing fresh eggs in a mixture of water and lime in a cool place was one of several ways to keep them edible before refrigeration.)

The front wall of the wooden ell added to the mansion in 1832 had a brick facing, Wiggin wrote. After part of it collapsed into the driveway some 50 years later, the remaining bricks were replaced with clapboards.

Wiggin mentioned another brickyard at Puddle Dock, in southern Albion, and yet another “along the clay flat beside Alder brook.” From the later, allegedly, came bricks used to build a brick schoolhouse.

This building was the town’s District 4 schoolhouse, shown on the 1856 Kennebec County map on the north side of what is now Route 202, opposite the north end of Quaker Hill Road. Wiggin quoted Henry Taylor’s memory of his father’s description of the building as “a brick schoolhouse with a wooden clock on the outside denoting the time, quarter to nine.”

No one seemed to know what significance, if any, that particular time held. A new District 4 schoolhouse off Quaker Hill Road was built around 1858, Wiggin wrote. She did not say whether any others of Albion’s 20 or so school buildings were brick, nor did she list owners of any of the brickyards.

The 1913 brick Besse building was originally Albion’s high school and now houses its town office (it is briefly mentioned in the Sept. 30, 2021, issue of The Town Line).

In China, various sources say there were at least three brickyards, along the north end of the east basin of China Lake; there might have been seven in the town, according to the bicentennial history.

The history describes how clay was turned into bricks. It was “shoveled into a circular pond; water was added; and the mixture was stirred with a long sweep propelled by a horse walking around the pond.” The resulting goop was put into a “hand-operated moulding machine” that could make six bricks simultaneously. The bricks were sun-dried and then kiln-baked.

Captain Nathaniel Spratt started his brickyard on the stream then called Wiggin Brook, which runs into the west side of China Lake’s east basin a short distance south of China Village, in the 1820s or early 1830s, according to Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history. He ran it for 25 years; the bicentennial history says that in October 1834 he advertised in the China Village newspaper, the Orb, that he had 230,000 bricks for sale. Later owners were Samuel Benson and Zalmuna Washburn. The brickyard went out of business in 1865.

(The bicentennial history explains that two early Wiggin Brooks were named for the Wiggin [or Wiggins] family of early settlers, which included two Nathaniels, father and son, one of whom fathered 25 children. The west-side Wiggin Brook, later Broad’s Brook, flows under Neck Road; Kingsbury associates “Hollis Broad’s widow” with the Spratt brickyard. The other Wiggin Brook, now commonly Meadow Brook [or Hunter Brook or Starkey Brook] is larger and flows into the east side of the muldoon [swamp] at the head of the lake.)

There are numerous handsome brick houses along Neck Road, including one just north of the former Wiggin/Broad’s Brook.

On the east side of the head of the lake, the bicentennial history says Abraham Talbot, a former slave, operated a brickyard. The town comprehensive plan dates it tentatively to the 1790s (see the June 23, 2022, issue of The Town Line for more information on the Talbot family).

Neither Kingsbury nor the bicentennial history gives a name or location for a third brickyard.

One significant brick building in China Village was the double store on the west side of the south end of Main Street, facing east down Causeway Street toward the end of the lake. Built around 1825 by two residents, Alfred Marshall (the northern two-thirds) and Benjamin Libby (the southern third), it housed various stores and intermittently the local Masonic chapter, with the two sections changing ownership separately.

The Masons briefly owned the whole building in 1866, but they promptly sold the north section. In 1919 they reacquired that part; the entire building was the China Village Masonic Hall until 2006, when the organization finished building a new hall on the east side of Main Street and had the old building demolished.

The Fairfield Historical Society’s 1988 bicentennial history says nothing about brickyards, but it and other sources describe many significant buildings made of brick.

One of the earliest was William and Abigail (Chase) Kendall’s house, built in the 1790s at the intersection of Lawrence Avenue and Newhall Street, a block west of the downtown area that was for years called Kendall’s Mills. The history says the building later housed Bunker’s Seminary, founded about 1857 (see the Oct. 21, 2021, issue of “The Town Line); it served “as a Masonic Lodge and as a boarding house” before it was demolished in the 1890s.

An on-line history says that “The United Boxboard and Paper Company, a three story brick mill complex, was established in 1882 at the northern tip of Mill Island.” (Mill Island is the largest and westernmost of the islands in the Kennebec between Fairfield and Benton.)

This mill provided pulp for paper-making at “the company’s other paper mill at Benton Falls and the Hollingsworth and Whitney Company (later Scott Paper) in Winslow.” The northern end of the island is now the town-owned Mill Island Park, designed by Waterville dentist Steve Kierstead, with walking trails built by the town public works crew and remains of the mill foundations visible here and there.

On Aug. 21, 1883, the bicentennial history says, some of wooden commercial buildings on Main Street burned down. The writers surmise that the fire probably “stimulated the building of the first of the brick blocks” on the street.

The most elaborate downtown brick building is the former Gerald Hotel, opened on June 4, 1900. Designed by Lewiston architect William R. Miller (1866-1929) for Fairfield business magnate Amos Gerald (1841-1913), it is described as “a striking Renaissance Revival structure, with a sophistication of design and decoration not normally found in rural Maine.” The building served as a hotel until 1937, according to the history, and was considered “the most elegant, if not the largest” in New England.

After 1937 the building was for many years home to Northern Mattress and Furniture Company. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2013.

The original Lawrence High School, on High Street, opened in September 1907, is yet another significant brick building in Fairfield (see the Oct. 7, 2021, issue of The Town Line). It is now Fairfield Primary School.

Main sources

Fairfield Historical Society, Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988.)
Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Lepage, Carolyn A., Michael E. Foley and Woodrow B. Thompson, Mining in Maine: Past, Present, and Future (1990) found on line.
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

China planners approve two applications; discuss potential future ordinances

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members approved two applications on their June 28 agenda and expanded their discussion of pending ordinances and ordinance revisions to new topics.

Permits were approved unanimously and with little discussion for:

  • Together Wee Grow day care, at 166 Tyler Road, to expand capacity from 49 to 75 children, reusing a previously closed section of the building; and
  • Paul Kraemer and Catrina DiMarzo to make their goat farm, at 131 South Road, commercial, adding an 8-by-45-foot shipping container to provide milking and milk processing rooms.

Board members hope to have the three ordinances or amendments they have discussed for months ready for a Nov. 8 local ballot. They are a new ordinance to regulate commercial solar developments; amendments to the Land Use Ordinance required by the state Department of Environmental Protection; and amendments to the definitions section of the Land Use Ordinance to match the other two projects.

A more-than-a-year-old draft of the solar ordinance, titled “Solar Energy Systems Ordinance,” is on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the planning board.

Board chairman Scott Rollins listed three other topics he would like to consider for future ordinances (not for November 2022): food trucks, tiny homes and short-term rentals.

Board members are not concerned about a food truck that comes for a few days, as for a wedding or for the August China Days celebration. If, however, one were to park in town for the summer, they want to consider whether, and if so how, it should be regulated locally.

Rollins said there are three kinds of tiny homes. Some are stick-built on site; some are stick-built elsewhere and brought to a lot; and some are on wheels. The last, board members said, might be treated similarly to recreational vehicles.

Rollins and other board members have heard complaints about short-term rentals’ effect on neighbors. Issues include overcrowding, overloading septic systems, traffic and parking and, Rollins said, false advertising, when a building owner invites more paying guests than the space accommodates.

Septic system designs are based on the number of bedrooms in a house, not on the number of beds that can be fitted in, he commented.

Board members do not want to interfere with property-owners who rent their camps or homes occasionally. They agreed that an early step in drafting an ordinance would be to define “short-term,” using some combination of length of rental, number of rentals per year and number of different tenants.

They intend to start exploring other towns’ ordinances on all three topics, looking for provisions that might be useful for China.

Board members scheduled their next meeting for Tuesday evening, July 12. Rollins intends to have near-final drafts of ordinance amendments ready and to continue discussion of the solar ordinance. He thinks it likely there will be new applications to review by then.

China Boy Scout earns Eagle Scout status

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Eagle Scout Kaiden Kelley

by Ron Emery

On Saturday, June 11, Troop #479, of China, honored an Eagle Scout at a Court of Honor held for China resident Kaiden Sawyer Kelley, at the China Masonic Hall. Family, friends and Scouts attended the ceremony marking the advancement of this young man to the highest rank in Boy Scouts.

Kaiden joins a group of Eagle Scouts who have completed community service projects with the help of fellow Scouts and other volunteers. Each Eagle candidate must plan and supervise an Eagle service project to demonstrate his capacity and willingness to exert his leadership ability in activities that are constructive and worthwhile in his community.

Kaiden’s Eagle Project had two parts. The first part was the maintenance on a local park trail. Talbot Cemetery Trail within Thurston Park had a large tree removed that was covering the entrance of the trail. The path to the gravestone had the trailblazer refurbished and additional signage was added to the trail. The second part was visiting Maine State Parks and taking 360-degrees pictures. These images were compiled on the website MaineParks.org and are available for anyone who wishes to visit Maine State Parks from home.

Kaiden and his family created the Eagle Scout Ceremony and invited other members of Troop #479 to take part in this celebration. Assistant Scoutmaster Matt Bodine was asked to be moderator for the ceremony. Pastor Ronald Morrell, Sr., gave the invocation. Scouts Isaac Audette and Bryson Pettengill posted the colors.

Kennebec Valley District’s Membership Chair Chuck Mahaleris called the Eagle Court of Honor to Order.

Assistant Scoutmaster Ron Emery introduced the special guests. Chuck Mahaleris brought greetings from Senator Susan Collins and read a letter from her. Other letters of sentiment were received from U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, as well as many others.

Kaiden is the son of Kern and Michaela Kelley, of China, and will be a senior at Erskine Academy, and will graduate in 2023.

Read more stories about the Scouts here.

Erskine Academy third trimester honors (2022)

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(photo credit: Erskine Academy)

Grade 12

High Honors: Julia Barber, Alana Beggs, Jacob Bentley, Jack Blais, Autumn Boody, Olivia Bourque, Lilian Bray, Kevin Brownell II, Emily Clark, Jesse Cowing, Jasmine Crommett, Isabella DeRose, Luke Desmond, Alexander Drolet, Coralie Favier, Emma Fortin, Jenna Gallant, Rayne George, Josette Gilman, Samantha Golden, Trace Harris, Isaac Hayden, Hayden Hoague, Grace Hodgkin, Rachel Huntoon, Emma Jefferson, Grace Kelso, Mallory Landry, Aidan Larrabee, Isavel Lux Soc, Hunter Marr, Calvin Mason, Kaden McIntyre, Adam Ochs, Abigail Peaslee, Tony Pedersen, Matilde Pettinari, Devon Polley, Sarah Praul, Riley Reitchel, Mackenzie Roderick, Abbey Searles, Andrew Shaw, Hannah Soule, Lily Thompson, Daniel Tibbetts, Lily Vinci and Summer Wasilowski.

Honors: Isaac Baker, Nickolas Berto, Jon Bonner Jr, Evan Butler, Lodin Chavarie, Nicholas Chavarie, Daniel Cseak, Colby Cunningham, Kaden Doughty, Abigail Dutton, Kelsie Fielder, Chase Folsom, Wyatt French, Ciera Hamar, Larissa Haskell, Krystal Ingersoll, Hunter Johnson, Taidhgin Kimball, Lili Lefebvre, Shawn Libby, Madison Lully, Rebecca Main, Malcolm Martinez, Wes McGlew, Rebecca Morton, Brady O’Connor, Lilly Potter, Julian Reight, Parker Reynolds, Ely Rideout, Shawn Searles, Nathaniel Solorzano, Natalie Spearin, Hannah Strout – Gordon, Hannah Torrey, Samuel Worthley, Emily York.

Grade 11

High Honors: Carson Appel, Andrew Bentley, Abigail Beyor, Katherine Bourdon, Breckon Davidson, Nicole DeMerchant, Lillian Dorval, Lilly Fredette, Loralei Gilley, Cooper Grondin, Nabila Harrington, Grady Hotham, Grace Hutchins, Olivia Hutchinson, Hallie Jackson, Beck Jorgensen, Kaiden Kelley, Dale Lapointe, Brenden Levesque, Malachi Lowery, Emily Majewski, Lily Matthews, Timber Parlin, Kayla Peaslee, Jonathan Peil, Gabriel Pelletier, Sophia Pilotte, Kaden Porter, Alexis Rancourt, Samantha Reynolds, Sarah Robinson, Noah Rushing, Jarell Sandoval, Gabriela Sasse, Zuriah Smith, Sophie Steeves, Aidan Tirrell, Mackenzie Toner, Emma Tyler, Katherine Williams and Damon Wilson.

Honors: Molly Anderson, Kassidy Barrett, Eve Boatright, Angel Bonilla, Caleb Buswell, Marianna Charlebois, Kayleen Crandall, Grace Ellis, Myra Evans, Hailey Farrar, Brianna Gardner, Ciara Glidden, Alivia Gower, Mallary Hanke, Ronald Haskell Jr, Jakob Kennedy, Brady Kirkpatrick, Casey Kirkpatrick, Siena Klasson, Matthew Knowles, Lydah Kong, Meadow Laflamme, Emmet Lani-Caputo, Zephyr Lani-Caputo, Bryce Lincoln, Gwen Lockhart, River Meader, Gage Moody, Angelina Ochoa, Ezra Padgett, Hannah Patterson, Jenna Perkins, Casey Petty, Karen Potter, Cadence Rau, Ally Rodrigue, Conner Rowe, Emmalee Sanborn, Sammantha Stafford, Emma Stred, Paige Sutter, Colby Willey, Joseph Wing and Keanah Young.

Grade 10

High Honors: Lacey Arp, Isabella Boudreau, Heather Bourgoin, Robin Boynton, Elizabeth Brown, Nolan Burgess, Makayla Chabot, Elise Choate, Alexia Cole, Caleigh Crocker, Brielle Crommett, Noah Crummett, Gavin Cunningham, Hailey Estes, Kaylee Fyfe, Jackson Gamblin, Meilani Gatlin, Caleb Gay, Leah Grant, Nathan Hall, Tara Hanley, Natalie Henderson, Hannah Kugelmeyer, Stephanie Kumnick, Mackenzie Kutniewski, Carol Labbe, Sydney Laird, Sophie Leclerc, Aidan Maguire, Richard Mahoney III, Holden McKenney, Austin Nicholas , Jazel Nichols, Jeremy Parker, Remy Pettengill, Nathan Polley, Jessica Pumphrey, Keith Radonis, Giacomo Smith, Kinsey Stevens, Lara Stinchfield, Reese Sullivan and Baruch Wilson.

Honors: Abigail Adams, Austin Armstrong, Duncan Bailey, Kellsie Boynton, Wyatt Bray, Kaleb Brown, Nathalia Carrasco, Hayden Chase, Simon Clark, Thomas Crawford, Keira Deschamps, Brayden Erie, Hunter Foard, Cole Fortin, Brayden Garland, Jessica Hendsbee, Lilliane Herard, Kiley Lee, Landon Lefebvre, Jack Lyons, Liberty Massie, David McCaig, Carlos Michaud, Gavin Mills, Lucas Mitchell, Cami Monroe, Alexis Moon, Royce Nelson, Alejandro Ochoa, Nora Schweter-Clarkson, Adam St. Onge, Hayden Turgeon, Ryan Tyler, Jack Uleau and Haley Webb.

Grade 9

High Honors: Ava Anderson, Emmett Appel, Bryana Barrett, Noah Bechard, Geneva Beckim, Octavia Berto, Brooke Blais, Carter Brockway, Keenan Clark, Madison Cochran, Hannah Cohen-Mackin, Gabrielle Daggett, Brady Desmond, John Edwards, Chloe French, Ellie Giampetruzzi, Tristan Goodwin, Jonathan Gutierrez, Brandon Hanscom, Emma Henderson, Serena Hotham, Kailynn Houle, Ava Kelso, Rion Kesel, Sophia Knapp, Lucy-Anne Knowles, Bodi Laflamme, Chase Larrabee, Jack Lucier, Owen Lucier, Eleanor Maranda, Jade McCollett, Abigail McDonough, Shannon McDonough, Madison McNeff, Owen Northrup , Makayla Oxley, Sadie Pierce, Wallace Pooler IV, Elsa Redmond, Justin Reed, Lillian Rispoli, Nathan Robinson, Laney Robitaille, Carlee Sanborn, Joslyn Sandoval, Aislynn Savage, Kyle Scott and Zoey Smith.

Honors: Haileigh Allen, Kaleb Bishop, Lauryn Black, Olivia Brann, Paige Clark, Dylan Cooley, Andra Cowing, Lauren Cowing, Aydan Desjardins, Ryan Farnsworth, Lucas Farrington, Kaylee Fortier, Kenneth Fredette, Echo Hawk, Parker Hunter, Walker Jean, Montana Johnson, Kaiden Kronillis, Cassie LaCroix, Addison Mort, Thomas Mullens, Colin Oliphant, Gavyn Paradis, Ava Picard, Bronwyn Potter, Alyssa Pullen, Carter Rau, Achiva Seigars, Jordyn Smith, Parker Studholme, Katherine Swift, Grant Taker, Grace Vashon and Clara Waldrop.

Erskine Renaissance awards 2022

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Seniors of the trimester, from left to right, Larissa Haskell, Madison Lully, Jesse Cowing, and David Martinez-Gosselin. (contributed photo)

On Friday, June 10, 2022, Erskine Academy students and staff attended the final Renaissance Assembly of the year to honor their peers with Renaissance Awards.

Recognition Awards were presented to the following students: Aydan Desjardins, Kenneth Fredette, Morgan Miller, Austin Nicholas, Lilly Fredette, Zuriah Smith, Emma Jefferson, Isavel Lux Soc, Gabriella Berto-Blagdon, Sarah Praul, and Malcolm Martinez.

In addition to Recognition Awards, Senior of the Trimester Awards were also presented to four members of the senior class: Larissa Haskell, daughter of Tanya Haskell, of China; David Martinez-Gosselin, son of Louise McMillan, of Whitefield; Madison Lully, daughter of Janet and Kevin Lully, of China; and Jesse Cowing, son of Kirsten and Anthony Cowing, of Palermo. Seniors of the Trimester are recognized as individuals who have gone above and beyond in all aspects of their high school careers.

Faculty of the trimester, from left to right, Colt Pierce and Shara MacDonald. (contributed photo)

In appreciation of their dedication and service to Erskine Academy, Faculty of the Trimester awards were also presented to Colt Pierce, maintenance, and Shara MacDonald, health educator.

China selectboard hears from heads of two advisory committees

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by Mary Grow

China select board members heard updates from the heads of two advisory committees at their June 21 meeting, and took the actions one requested.

Sheldon Goodine, chairman of the Municipal Building Committee, reported on plans for an addition to the town office, plans that have grown since the committee’s June 9 meeting (see The Town Line, June 16, p. 3).

Goodine shared a sketch of a 34-by-64-foot one-story storage building. At his request, select board members authorized Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to find an engineer or architect to draft a more formal plan.

Hapgood said the person hired could be paid from the current year’s contingency fund, which has about $23,000 unspent that could be carried forward after the June 30 end of the fiscal year.

Board members also appointed two new members to the Municipal Building Committee, as Goodine requested. Edwin Bailey and Dennis Simmons were appointed until June 30, and later in the meeting reappointed for fiscal year 2022-23, with many other volunteers and appointed officials whose terms end June 30.

Goodine gave board members his opinion that the former portable classroom, used for committee meetings, voting, weekly senior citizen gatherings and other events, is unlikely to last more than another three or four years.

He proposed making the new addition two stories instead of one, on a foundation instead of a slab, with a meeting room on the second floor, made handicapped accessible by a stair lift. An alternative would be a new building to replace the portable classroom.

Hapgood said the portable classroom is too small for voting, given the number of booths required for a town with China’s population. She urged select board members to consider the need for meeting space as they discuss a new building or addition.

Later in the meeting, Hapgood shared results of the June 14 straw poll on the format for the annual town business meeting: of 275 residents who answered (660 came to the polls), 162 preferred an open town meeting and 111 preferred a written ballot. One requested both options; another recommended select board members make decisions – like a town council, Hapgood commented.

Select board members left open what plan or plans the engineer or architect will be asked to work with, waiting to get a cost estimate for his or her work.

The second June 21 report was from Robert O’Connor, chairman of the China Broadband Committee (CBC). He brought select board members up to date on negotiations for phased expansion of broadband service in China in cooperation with Direct Communications of Rockland, Idaho, through its subsidiary, Unitel of Unity, Maine (see The Town Line, June 23, p. 3).

O’Connor outlined a proposal to spend almost $1.2 million to extend service to underserved and unserved China homes, using a state grant, China Tax Increment Financing funds, money from Direct Communications and perhaps other grants and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

He said he is likely to return to the select board’s July 5 meeting to ask members to sign a memorandum of understanding with Unitel representatives.

An accompanying map showed that many of the underserved and unserved homes are at the ends of fire roads along the lake and dead-end roads in the backlands. Select board member Wayne Chadwick objected to town funds providing broadband service to those residents; they had to pay for their own electric lines, if they have them, so he believes they should pay for broadband service, if they want it.

One problem CBC members encountered is that the accuracy of the map is doubtful, and an accurate map is necessary to apply for a state grant. O’Connor said he is waiting to hear from the Maine Connectivity Authority about mapping, and about the schedule for the next round of grants.

Chadwick did approve of a new proposed expenditure of ARPA funds – in fact, select board chairman Ronald Breton said, he suggested it. Labeled “Senior Citizens Fuel Support Fund,” as drafted it would “be used to help offset a senior resident’s fuel (electricity, propane, oil) bill up to $500” between Nov. 1, 2022, and April 1, 2023 “or until funding runs out.”

The idea is to make a very simple process by which someone who is over 65 and has lived in China for at least a year could get help with fuel prices next winter. The draft proposal has no income requirement – deliberately, Chadwick said, to avoid limiting the aid to people who are accustomed to filling out financial aid forms.

Breton, Jeanne Marquis and Janet Preston all thought there should be an income cap. Chadwick said he would not object, if the application form were kept simple enough so that people would not be discouraged from signing up.

Preston asked why only senior citizens should benefit. Chadwick replied that families with children have other sources of aid. Preston also pointed out that the proposed expenditure helps for only one year; perhaps a fund to upgrade heating equipment would be more useful.

Whatever select board members decide will be submitted to voters to approve or reject the expenditure. Breton hopes a question can be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Another debate was over Hapgood’s proposal to have the gravel parking areas at the head of China Lake’s east basin paved. When the causeway project was done, they were deliberately left gravel, because paving was supposed to increase runoff into the muldoon that drains into the lake.

The June 21 argument was over whether the packed gravel also creates run-off, and whether pavement would make the situation better or worse.

Hapgood said pavement would permit striping to guide people parking their boat trailers and would discourage people from doing “donuts” in the gravel. Chadwick and audience member Brent Chesley said the gravel is too compacted to absorb water.

Preston feared increased run-off. China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA) Executive Director Scott Pierz asked from the audience what run-off control measures could go with the proposed pavement.

Pierz wondered if the CRLA’s Youth Conservation Corps might install a buffer between the parking areas and the water. Hapgood immediately interpreted his question as an offer to have Conservation Corps members do the labor if the town provided materials. She welcomed the idea.

Select board members postponed deciding whether to pave to their special end-of-year meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, June 30. Hapgood said she would like a decision in time to coordinate the project with work planned at the nearby Circle K convenience store and gas station, under a state Department of Environmental Protection permit.

In other business, select board members chose Pierce Works, LLC, of China, to do this year’s roadside mowing. Hapgood said the town’s request for bids drew no response, so she contacted Pierce, the company doing Windsor’s roadsides.

Select board members left it up to Hapgood and Director of Public Services Shawn Reed to decide whether China needs one or two mowings. The price, Hapgood said, would be $3,995 for a single mowing or $7,990 for two mowings, with roadside brush clearing extra.

Board members approved a long list of appointments for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Hapgood said all are reappointments except the addition of David Savage, Oakland’s codes enforcement officer, as China’s building inspector. Hapgood is serving as China’s interim codes officer and plumbing inspector.

After the June 30 special meeting, the next regular China select board meeting will be Tuesday evening, July 5, again moved a day to avoid a Monday holiday. On June 30, the town office will close at noon so staff can finish end-of-fiscal-year business.

Erskine Academy’s Paige Reed named America’s Most Spirited Student for 2022

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Paige Reed, front, surrounded by cheerleading coaches, from left to right, Tarsha Donar, Julie Wing and Amy Rau. (contributed photo)

Submitted by Amy Rau

Varsity Brands, the national driving force behind cheerleading’s transformation into the high-energy, athletic activity it is today, has named Erskine Academy senior Paige Reed America’s Most Spirited Student for 2022. The award program celebrates schools, organizations, and individuals that go above and beyond to build school pride, student engagement, and community spirit, and carries with it a $3,000 cash prize.

Reed’s classmates voted her as “most school spirited” earlier in the year, recognizing her love for Erskine Academy and its community of students, faculty, and staff.

Reed, of Vassalboro, was nominated for Varsity Brands’ award by her cheerleading coaches Amy Rau and Julie Wing, and her school advisor Shara MacDonald. The nominators penned the required 500-word essay, solicited letters of recommendation, and gathered “spirited photos” of Reed in action.

On June 1, Reed joined other finalists from across the country for a virtual awards presentation, viewed by Rau, Wing, and MacDonald, who were anxiously awaiting results. The three fought back the tears when hearing Reed named Varsity Brands’ Most Spirited Student in America, and accepting the award on her behalf, as she could not accept it while recovering from a stem cell transplant as part of her battle with a second bout of leukemia. Early in the school year and following a 12-year remission, the Reed family and Erskine community were shocked yet united by the resurgence of leukemia affecting Paige. Subsequently, Reed endured several months of chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, and stem cell transplant with cells donated by her hero brother, Seth.

Paige and her journey, entitled Paige Power, became well known by the outpouring of support and good will through fundraisers, benefits, and gatherings, particularly within the cheerleading and basketball communities, all worthy yet bittersweet. “It is a welcome change to be in the news at this time to celebrate the positive for Paige,” said cheerleading coach and nominator Rau.

Paige is currently home from Boston and recovering well. Coach Wing was able to Facetime her about the award, and with the news, she was back to her sassy, fierce teenage self. The entire EA community cannot wait until she is well enough for visitors and when she returns to her friends and teachers in her special and favorite place, Erskine Academy.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Native Americans – Part 4

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Early drawing – An Indian Campsite At The “Rips” On Cobbossee Stream, Maine, Circa 1750.

by Mary Grow

East side of and away from the Kennebec

Last week’s article talked about Native American sites along the Kennebec River between Fairfield and Sidney on the west bank, but the east bank between Ticonic (Winslow) and Cushnoc (Augusta) was skipped for lack of space. This week’s article will remedy the omission by talking about Vassalboro and about sites inland on the east side of the river (as was done for the west side last week).

Vassalboro either was popular with the Kennebec tribe or has been more thoroughly explored than other areas (or both), because various histories mention several areas connected with Native Americans, including at least one Native American burial ground on the Kennebec.

Alma Pierce Robbins, in her Vassalboro history, quoted a historian of the Catholic Church in Maine who claimed Mount Tom was an “Indian Cemetery.” Mount Tom is now in the Annie Sturgis Sanctuary a little north of Riverside, on the section of old Route 201 between the present highway and the river named Cushnoc Road.

Charles E. Nash, in the chapter on Native Americans in Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history, reported a large burial ground north of the mouth of Seven Mile Stream (or Brook), which runs from the southwest corner of Webber Pond to join the Kennebec at Riverside.

Kingsbury himself, in his chapter on Vassalboro, suggested that Robbins’ source and Nash were talking about the same site. Kingsbury wrote that the burial ground was the south side of Mount Tom, “sloping to the brook, on the Sturgis farm.” Artifacts and bones were still “plentiful” there in 1892, he said.

Nash wrote that the Native American name for Seven Mile Brook was Magorgoomagoosuck. James North, in his history of Augusta, spelled it Magorgomagarick.

The pestle was used against the mortar for crushing and grinding and were commonly used for meal preparations such as reducing grain and corn into wheat and meal. Mortar and pestles would have also been used in the preparing of medicine as well as the manufacturing of paint.

An undated on-line copy of a University of Michigan document titled Antiquities of the New England Indians includes descriptions and photographs of a variety of artifacts, including knives, axes and mortars and pestles. The writer explained that mortars and pestles, either wooden or stone, were essential for crushing dried corn kernels.

One pestle that the writer particularly admired came from Vassalboro, and when the description was written it was owned by Kennebec Historical Society. It is now in the Maine State Museum, according to KHS archivist Emily Schroeder.

The pestle is described as 28.5 inches long, made of green slate, topped with a small human head. The illustration shows an almost round head, with oval eyes, a nose indicated by two straight lines with a connecting line at the bottom and a pursed mouth. The writer said the lower half of the pestle was found near Seven Mile Brook; the upper half was found a few miles away four years later, and “The two pieces fitted perfectly together.”

The pestle was broken intentionally, the writer asserted. He wondered whether the destruction of what could be seen as an idol was related to the nearby seventeenth-century Catholic mission.

There are also references to a Native American site farther north along the river, on the section of old Route 201 called Dunham Road.

Robbins wrote that many artifacts had been found on the shores of Webber Pond – so many, she said, that cottages built around 1900 used them as trim around fireplaces.

The major Native American site in Vassalboro located and partly investigated to date was at the outlet of China Lake in East Vassalboro, partly on property on the east side of the foot of the lake and the east bank of Outlet Stream owned for generations by the Cates family. The Vassalboro Historical Society museum in the former East Vassalboro schoolhouse has a room dedicated to information about and artifacts from the site.

According to the exhibit, the area was occupied at least sporadically from 10,000 years ago until Europeans displaced the Native Americans. Different types of tools, weapons and houses are displayed or illustrated and explained. Alewives were harvested at the China Lake outlet 5,000 years ago.

Correspondence on exhibit shows that the Maine Historic Preservation Commission listed the Cates farm site as a protected archaeological site on the Maine Register of Historic Places in the fall of 1989, as requested by George Cates.

The part of China Lake that is in the Town of China was also frequented by Native Americans. The town’s comprehensive plan says the Maine Historic Preservation Commission has found prehistoric sites on two islands in the lake, Indian Island in the east basin and Bradley Island in the west basin (plus one at the north end of Three Mile Pond, and an accompanying map shows a fourth site on Dutton Road). Commission staff think it “highly likely” that there are other sites in town, especially along waterways.

According to the China bicentennial history, the lake was part of one of the Native Americans’ routes inland from the coast in the fall. After final seafood feasts, people would paddle up the Sheepscot to a place about two and a half miles south of China Lake, portage to the south end of the lake and paddle northwest to the outlet in Vassalboro. From there Outlet Stream carried them to the Sebasticook and then to the Kennebec at Ticonic.

The Kennebecs left behind on the west shore of the southern part of the lake’s east basin a heart shape carved into a boulder. World-famous Quaker Rufus Jones, of China, told a story about this carving several times, including as a chapter in Maine Indians in History and Legends.

Jones began by warning readers that his version of The Romance of the Indian Heart is part history and part imagination. He refused to say which was which.

The legend features a Kennebec brave named Keriberba, son of Chief Bomazeen (or Bomaseen, mentioned in the June 9 article in this series), from Norridgewock, and his wife Nemaha, from Pemaquid, whom he met at one of the annual seafood feasts at Damariscotta.

Coming home from the coast, Keriberba, Nemaha and their companions stopped to roast and eat the last clams on the west shore of China Lake’s east basin by “a large sentinel granite rock” from the glacial age. They continued to Norridgewock, where Father Sebastian Rale married them beneath a picture of the Sacred Heart that hung above the altar.

Nemaha immediately organized a group named “The Sisters of the Sacred Heart,” Jones wrote. The women took lessons from Father Rale and hosted an annual feast.

When the British soldiers made their final and successful attack on Norridgewock in August 1724, Keriberba and a few other young men “escaped across the river.” Nemaha grabbed the picture of the Sacred Heart from the church and with others of her sisterhood ran to a secret hiding place in the woods.

The next morning the two groups reunited. After burying Bomazeen, Father Rale and others, they gathered up what the British had left of their belongings and went back to settle at the feasting spot on China Lake.

Jones described the 300-year-old pines that sheltered their wigwams, and the shrine they built for the Sacred Heart picture that became “the center of their religion.” The importance of the picture was reinforced when, one evening, Keriberba called across the lake, “Le sacré Coeur,” (“the sacred heart” in Father Rale’s native French). His words echoed back to him across the water.

Jones wrote that he too had experienced the echo, from the place on the shore that repeats whole sentences. But to the Kennebecs, it seemed to be the voice of the Great Spirit. From then on, Keriberba called every evening and they were comforted by the reply.

Jones described years of living in peace, traveling to Norridgewock to grow corn (because they could not clear enough land by the lake), hunting deer, moose and an occasional bear, importing clams that fed muskrats (both edible), netting and smoking alewives. As children were born and grew up, the group became larger.

One night, a storm destroyed the Sacred Heart shrine and blew the picture into the lake, where it turned to pulp. The next day, Keriberba began carving a recreation of the sacred heart into the granite rock.

When his picture was finished, the group feasted and danced until late at night. Before they went to bed, Keriberba stood beside his carving and shouted, “Le sacré coeur” – and the words came back just as they should.

There is a little more to Jones’ story; it will be continued next week.

* * * * * *

Your writer has found only bits and pieces of information about Native Americans in the areas now included in the towns of Albion, Clinton and Palermo, and nothing from Windsor.

The 2004 report on the archaeological survey around Unity Wetlands and along the Sheepscot River, reprinted on line and mentioned last week, cited a person named Willoughby who, in a 1986 publication, described one pre-European relic from Albion. The reference is to “an isolated Indian artifact recovered by a farmer in the town of Albion – a ‘mask-like sculpture’ of sandstone with pecked and incised eyes, mouth, and other facial lines. It is unclear if the portable rock sculpture was found within the Unity Wetlands study area or simply nearby.”

A photo of what is almost certainly the same sculpture, described as “found while digging potatoes in Albion, Maine” appears in the on-line Antiquities of the New England Indians. The writer described the head as sandstone, about 10 inches long by two inches thick at the thickest point.

The writer continued, “Its natural smooth surface was used for the face, and the rougher fractured surface of the back was smoothed by pecking.” The face tapers to a chin; ears round out on either side; two small round dark eyes each has a circular outline; a smaller dark circle represents the nose; and parallel horizontal lines make a slightly off-center mouth.

The writer described traces of red pigment on the front and yellow pigment on the back. He surmised the effigy came from a grave.

Clinton’s 2006 comprehensive plan says the Maine Historic Preservation Commission had found four prehistoric sites within the town boundaries, one on the Kennebec River, one on the Sebasticook River and two on Carrabassett Stream. Commission staff suggested waterside archaeological surveys. The 2021 plan gives no new information.

Palermo historian Millard Howard doubted there were permanent Native settlements within the boundaries of present-day Palermo, either before or after 1763, because, he wrote, most settlements were on rivers like the Kennebec or the lower Sheepscot.

Kerry Hardy’s map of Native American trails converging on Cushnoc shows one from the coast near Rockland that crosses the east branch of the Sheepscot River a little north of Sheepscot Pond, about where Route 3 now runs east-west a bit south of the middle of town.

Linwood Lowden began his history of the Town of Windsor with the first European settlers. Because the Sheepscot River running out of Long Pond is in southeastern Windsor, including the junction of Travel Brook, it seems likely that parts of the town would have been at least a Native American travel route, if not home to settlements.

Main sources

Grow, Mary M. China, Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Hardy, Kerry, Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki (2009).
Howard, Millard, An Introduction to the Early History of Palermo, Maine (second edition, December 2015).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Maine Writers Research Club, Maine Indians in History and Legends (1952).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Boat inspectors standing by

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The Courtesy Boat Inspection Program is underway, checking boats for invasive aquatic plants at the four boat launches in the region. Left to right, Sage Hapgood-Belanger, Director, Courtesy Boat Inspection Program (CBI), Jack Blais, Director, Youth Conservation Corps (YCC). (photo by Scott Pierz)

For more information about the CRLA please go to https://www.crlamaine.org.

China Broadband Committee (CBC) continues talks with Unitel

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by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members met again with representatives of Unity-based Unitel to talk about a cooperative project expanding broadband service to China residents who currently have no service or inadequate (by 2022 standards) service.

The focus was on expanding service to homes that are currently underserved (have slow internet speed, unreliable service or other issues) or unserved (have no broadband access at all). This extension of a fiber network might be the first phase or phases of a multi-year town-wide upgrade.

Joining the discussion with CBC members at a June 15 meeting were Unitel representatives Michael Akers, Director of Network Operations, and Jayne Sullivan, Director of Internal/External Support; and consultant John Dougherty, Vice President and General Manager at Bangor-based Mission Broadband.

Unitel is now part of Direct Communications, a company based in Rockland, Idaho, that supports broadband service in rural areas.

To develop the planned China project into a proposal to present to town officials and residents, group members agreed they will need two things: specific locations of underserved and unserved areas to be upgraded, and money.

They had a colorful map of China identified as a Connect Maine Map, with a web address: https://maps.sewall.com/connectme/public/. The website has a lengthy note that says, among other things, that most of the map information was reported by internet service providers and that most of it dates from September 2019, with some updates to September 2021.

CBC members Tod Detre, Janet Preston and Jamie Pitney all said the map showed full service in areas they knew to be at best underserved.

In a follow-up email, Detre questioned whether Yorktown Road, which runs through Thurston Park, really has full service, as the map shows. Thurston Park Committee Chairman Jeanette Smith replied that there are no utility poles or lines anywhere in the park, and therefore no internet service.

“The map is the gospel” for funding, Sullivan said, so it needs to be accurate. Akers thinks it is up to a local group – like the CBC – to provide correct information.

Akers presented a preliminary cost estimate of around $1.2 million to provide service to the areas mapped as unserved or underserved. The group agreed that up to half the money might come from Connect Maine grants specifically designated to provide new or improved service to unserved and underserved areas.

Dougherty and Akers talked about Unitel and Direct Communications providing perhaps as much as $300,000. These very tentative estimates would leave the Town of China with about another $300,000 to pay, which Pitney suggested might come from the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) fund. The TIF document currently in effect appropriates $30,000 a year for broadband for 10 years.

Another possibility, committee chairman Robert O’Connor said, is to allocate the next installment of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to broadband expansion.

Akers’ plan includes a new service building in South China near the junction of Routes 32 and 202. The building would be about 15-by-15-feet, or smaller, he said, and would house electronic equipment. If plans come to fruition, CBC members may well be looking for a building or a lot to lease or buy.

O’Connor made a short presentation to China select board members at their June 21 meeting. On June 15 CBC members tentatively scheduled their next meeting for 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 6; on June 21, O’Connor tentatively rescheduled it to 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 5, before that evening’s select board meeting.

Help by doing speed check

China residents who want to help update the Connect Maine map, or only to find out how good their internet service is, are invited to do speed tests. The link to do them, provided by Jayne Sullivan of Unitel, is https://www.mainebroadbandcoalition.org/. To complete the test successfully, residents must carefully check even what seem like unnecessary boxes, like the one that says “check address.”