The following local residents were named to Clark University’s Spring 2023 Dean’s List, in Worcester, Massachusetts:
Brexton E. Getchell, of Unity, was named to second honors.
Anna Pellerin, of Winslow, was named to first honors.
Caleb J. Sacks, of Palermo, was named to second honors.
Eastern Connecticut State University, in Willimantic, Connecticut, recently released its dean’s list for the spring 2023 semester, in which nearly 1,300 students were recognized for maintaining high GPAs.
Among them is full-time student Olivia Bourque, of Vassalboro, a sophomore who majors in Psychology.
The University of Rhode Island, in Kingston, Rhode Island, has announced that Gavin Murphy, of Winslow, has been named to the Spring 2023 dean’s list.
by Norma Best BoucherListen up! You are the first to know. I am “officially” eccentric. I can see the raised eyebrows of the people who do not know me and the rolling of the eyes of the people who do know me. For the new people, just how eccentric am I? For my friends, I have crossed the line from oddity to eccentricity—there is no stopping me now.
The oddity stage started when I was a little girl living on a street with all boys. I thought I was a pretty normal tomboy, but in later years I met an older woman whose family had lived on my street who told me that her husband used to refer to me as “the character.” At first, I was insulted, but then I took the name as being my own person, which is evidently still true to this day.
Most of my family members were eventually involved in the business world, actually owning various businesses. I was the English major with a vivid imagination always writing or telling stories. We were all encouraged to be what we wanted to be, not what anyone else expected us to be. What freedom —to be accepted for what we were. I remember doing something that a non-family member thought odd, but my cousins stood up for me and responded with understanding, “Oh, that’s just Norma.”
Acceptance felt good.
Let’s see, now, eccentricity. I have discovered Crocs, the shoes not the reptile. Although there are many new stylish choices, I enjoy the original round-toed, holey clogs. I was at an appointment the other day with a young lady taking my blood pressure. She saw my Crocs (I was wearing my bright pink Crocs at the time.) and mentioned that there were many new styles.
“I know,” I said, “but I like the ugly ones.”
From the expression on her face, I could tell that she didn’t appreciate eccentricity.
I own many colorful pairs of Crocs, purchased at sale prices at a local discount clothing store. I like to choose shockingly bright colors that might ordinarily clash with my outfit, but by being eccentric, the colors merely stand out in total eccentricity.
About 20 years ago I discovered elasticized waist bands. Although my weight didn’t seem to change, my actual figure did, hence the elasticized waist bands. I discovered well-known national brand-named jeans with elasticized waist bands and was happy for many years. As the years progressed, I did have to hunt for those jeans. I went from one national department store to a different national department store until finally the last national department store closed all of its stores near me. I was forced to search online but to no avail.
I never gave up searching, though, and finally I found my jeans in not only dark blue denim but also in my beloved light blue denim and on sale. I just kept clicking on the links until I was into a company that only had stores in the northwest of the US of A. Then I noticed the name of the store. Let’s just say that the word “farm” was in the store name. I have nothing against farming. I have had my share of gardens and enjoyed them, but to buy my well-known national brand-named jeans from a farm supply store? That did it. Either I could be insulted, or I could be eccentric. I chose to be eccentric. I was nearly there anyway, so why not?
I was sulking about the “farm” thing and finally shared with my friends my dilemma.
“Go for it,” they all said. “Wear your wildest colored Crocs and add a bandana as an accessory.”
That sounded reasonable, maybe even stylish. No one had to know the store had the word “farm” in its name. I began to rationalize the situation. Farm stores sell animal feed. Horses eat feed, and horses live on ranches. I’ll just substitute the word “ranch” for “farm.” I went right online and ordered two pairs of “ranch” jeans, one in each color.
I am in my 70s now, but as I walk out my front door dressed in my bright red Crocs, my paisley-designed red bandana in my right pants pocket with just a hint of color showing from the corner of the bandana, and my new dark navy “ranch” jeans, I am the 10-year-old “character” of my youth going out to play with my cousins.
“Oh, that’s just Norma,” I hear them say.
Yes.
Acceptance feels good.
Published by Wicked Son Books, SOLIMEOS is available in paperback and eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and all major bookstores.
A fascinating new novel about Nazis hiding in post-war South America is a great summer read.
(NAPSI)—A daring new novel called SOLIMEOS, by Rhoda Lerman, a critically-acclaimed author who passed away in 2015, imagines what life might have been like for Nazi officers and their families in South American exile after the Holocaust.
Wicked Son Books co-publisher Adam Bellow, who The New Yorker called “the hottest editor in New York,” is universally credited with knowing a good book when he reads one. When he learned that the deceased “authors’ author” Rhoda Lerman (whose work has been favorably compared to that of his father, Saul Bellow) had left an unpublished manuscript, he made it his mission to assure her literary legacy with the publication of what he believed was an “exceptional” novel.
In the waning days of World War II, fourteen-year-old Axel, his family, and their servants are cold and hungry in Pappendorf Castle. Baron Dietrich von Pappendorf, Axel’s father, is away, having spent much of the war traveling the world in search of an ancient, pre-Babel language that his occult-obsessed, Nazi masters believed would solidify Aryans as the master race. But when the baron returns to the family castle, it’s not in triumph. Axel and his family must flee Germany and embrace a life of luxurious exile in the Brazilian jungle. The von Pappendorfs take up residence in a gilded home originally built for Hitler that was carved from the hallucinogenic wilds of Amazonia.
Protected from Nazi hunters, the baron prepares for the Fourth Reich while Axel is guided by a shaman into the wisdom of the jungle. It is there the young man discovers ancient truths linking an Israelite king to a river known as Solimeos. Axel is also passionately in love with his father’s mistress: beautiful, Polish-Jewish Luba. He becomes torn between his love for his father, his desire for Luba, and the growing realization that he and his family can never atone for the past.
Utterly original, highly entertaining, and sometimes shocking, Rhoda Lerman’s SOLIMEOS – a provocative parable about the sins of the father visited upon the son – is a powerful and elegantly written story of family, fanaticism, and fate.
Highly recommended for book clubs and reading groups who enjoy historical fiction, SOLIMEOS—available in paperback and as an eBook—begs to be discussed.
The New York Times famously wrote: “Rhoda Lerman is a find. Go out and find her.”
Augusta city farm, circa 1932.
This article will continue the theme started June 14, how central Kennebec Valley towns took care of their poor residents, jumping across the Kennebec River from Augusta and Sidney to Vassalboro, Windsor, Palermo and China. The focus will remain – mostly – on the 19th century.
The excerpts about caring for the poor that Alma Pierce Robbins chose to quote from official records in her Vassalboro history are tantalizing. Although the first selectmen were elected May 22, 1771, it was not until 1793, the year after Sidney became a separate town from Vassalboro, that the selectmen were also titled overseers, presumably overseers of the poor.
The first mention of a “work house” Robbins found in town records was a discussion at a meeting sometime between 1807 and 1810. In 1811, she wrote, a blacksmith named John Roberts bid $140 to care for Vassalboro’s poor families – she did not say how many families or people.
In 1812, Robbins found, voters agreed to “hire a house for the Poor,” and the next year they paid Roberts $200 for a specified two acres plus “the premises now occupied as a Poor House.”
By 1829, Vassalboro’s paupers were again being bid off. That year, Robbins wrote, Alexander Gardner was the successful bidder, asking for $669.
In 1831, voters went back to providing a poor house. The Roberts farm having been sold, the town paid $1,371.50 to the heirs of Elihu Getchell, Jr., for a property that was designated the new “Town Farm.”
This building was called the Town House by 1845, when voters directed selectmen to buy “a stove and funnell [sic] to warm the Town House.”
In 1852, it was the town farm: town officials spent $2,282.27 for “a new ‘set of buildings.'” In 1867, records said Thomas S. Lang donated $150 of the $230.89 spent for repairs to the town house; and Robbins found another $100 appropriated in 1888.
An 1886 action that Robbins reported suggests where this poor house or farm was located. That year, she found, officials planned to lay out a road from Foster’s mill to the farm “on the west side of the Pond.”
Foster’s mill, according to Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec Country history, was on Seven Mile Stream, the farthest upstream of several mills using the stream’s water power. Since Seven Mile Stream runs from Webber Pond to the Kennebec River, it seems probable that the town farm was on the west side of Webber Pond.
The farm was still operating in 1931, when Harold Taylor, of East Vassalboro (many residents will remember his daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” Taylor, and a few might remember him), repaired its windmill. It was sold in 1945, for $9,805.88, Robbins found.
* * * * * *
Linwood Lowden included a section on care of the destitute in his Windsor history. Examples he selected from the first half of the 19th century indicate that Windsor (the town that was named Malta from 1809 to 1820, Gerry for two years, and Windsor after 1822) alternated between providing a poor house or farm and bidding off paupers, with other measures taken intermittently.
The first report he cited was from a March 1813 town report at which voters were asked if they wanted to build a work house or choose another method. On April 5, they voted to turn the house described as “Joseph Linscotts Meiggs house at his mills” into a “work house for the poor,” with Linscott the overseer. Lowden believed the house was at Maxcy’s Mills on the west branch of the Sheepscot River, in the southeastern part of town.
On Aug. 3, 1815, town meeting voters moved the poor house to a house Joseph Norris owned near his “dwelling house” on the east side of the Sheepscot. Lowden located this house on the Cooper’s Mills Road, a little south of Maxcy’s Mills.
On April 1, 1822, voters moved the poor again, to “John Cottle’s old house,” with Cottle the overseer. Lowden located this house only by original and 1993 owners (Jabez Meiggs and Bernard Dow).
Another house that Lowden called “Linscotts Chadwick house” often housed paupers. In 1816, for example, voters said David Linn’s wife and children could live on the porch and their cow could graze on the Chadwick land, with the selectmen to determine how much to pay Linscott.
(Lowden did not explain, and your writer declines to guess, why the two houses had double names.)
Other town meeting decisions in 1816 and following years:
On April 4, 1837, Lowden wrote, Windsor voters decided to buy a poor farm. They appointed a three-man committee, who bought Thomas J. Pierce’s 90-acre farm.
(Editor’s note:) The possible location of the town farm in Vassalboro, on the west side of Webber Pond. The large island is referred to as Town Farm Island, in an area that was farm land before the dam was installed to form the lake as it is today. The rock lined road to the farm still exists under water.
The farm, Lowden said, was on both side of Route 2 north of the Windsor four corners, partly on the south side of Choate Road, which intersects Route 32 from the east. The farm buildings were on the west side of Route 32.
Lowden surmised that the vote was hotly debated and close. At another meeting a month later, he wrote, voters approved selling the farm and contents; in November 1837, George Briggs of Augusta bought it for $135.
In following years, Lowden wrote, voters went back to bidding off the poor, apparently as a group. In 1848, he wrote, Richard Moody offered to assume the responsibility for $425. Part of the job was to send pauper children to school and provide their school books.
* * * * * *
In Palermo, according to Millard Howard’s history, there was a poor farm for many years, operated as “a private enterprise” rather than owned by the town. Other paupers were bid out; or a relative was compensated for providing room and board.
In 1846, Howard wrote, James A. Huntoon, who was supporting Malvina Huntoon at town expense, “received payment for large quantities of port wine and brandy (medicinal, I assume).”
Howard described the indenture system that Palermo, and other towns, provided for minors who fell into poverty. He gave an 1848 example: after Elvira Brown became a town charge, the Palermo overseers of the poor bound out her son Arthur as an apprentice to a farmer named Charles Hathorn. Brown was to work for Hathorn from March 8, 1848, to Oct. 13, 1865, when he turned 21.
(Your writer notes that these dates say that Brown was not yet four years old when he was apprenticed.)
In return for Brown’s labor, Hathorn agreed to train him as a farmer; to teach him to “read, write and cypher”; and to provide “sufficient clothing food and necessaries both in sickness and health.”
Another issue that Howard discussed at more length than other historians was disputes among towns as to which one was responsible for a pauper who moved around. The rule was that wherever the pauper established “settlement,” that town was responsible. Such disputes seemed especially numerous in the 1840s, he commented.
For instance, in 1843, Howard said, Palermo went to court against Clinton, claiming a family named Chamberlain was not Palermo’s responsibility. Alas for Palermo, the court found that in 1823, Palermo had assisted the Chamberlains, thus assuming responsibility. The case cost Palermo $149.24 in damages paid to Clinton and another $50.26 in legal expenses.
On the other hand, Howard found an instance of cooperation between two towns’ officials: in March 1857, Freedom overseers warned Palermo officials not to be generous if a “smart, healthy young woman in her teens” who “seems very willing, if not desirous, to be a town pauper” showed up on Palermo’s side of the town line.
* * * * * *
China, like neighboring towns, vacillated among methods of providing for paupers, according to the bicentennial history. From the 1820s, they were usually bid off, sometimes individually and sometimes with one bidder assuming responsibility for all the town’s poor.
After decades of discussion and brief ownership of a farm in 1838, a March 31, 1845, town meeting appointed a five-man committee to find a suitable farm and report back in a week. Committee members examined, they reported, between 20 and 30 farms and recommended paying $2,000 for the farm owned by Seth Brown, which the town had owned in 1838.
There were cheaper farms available, the committeemen added, but it would cost more to adapt them.
The history says the farm was on the east shore of China Lake a little north of Clark Brook “and was considered one of the best-situated farms in town.” Between September 1846 and Mach 1849, voters appropriated about $2,800 to pay for the farm (with interest); to provide livestock and equipment; and to pay a superintendent. In March 1850 another $200 was appropriated “to enlarge the farmhouse.”
The history describes the farm as having “a large house and several barns and sheds.” In the 1850s, there were usually 15 or 16 paupers, “most of them old and infirm.” The superintendent and his wife, the able-bodied poor and when necessary hired hands tried to keep the farm at least partly self-sustaining.
A March 1859 inventory listed “two oxen, six cows, sixteen sheep, three swine,” plus supplies of “hay, corn, oats, wheat, vegetables, beef, and pork.” Hens were added in 1867.
Other paupers were living off the farm by the 1860s; in 1868, taxpayers spent more on the farm – over $540 –than on off-farm support – about $400. The farm had sold animals and crops, but had failed to cover expenses; and, the selectmen commented, all of the buildings leaked.
Due to space limits, the story of China’s poor farm will be continued next week.
Grow, Mary M. , China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
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).
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).
Websites, miscellaneous.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust employees recently presented more than $19,000 in donations collected through the bank’s employee-driven charitable giving program, Casual for a Cause, to nine nonprofit organizations serving Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont residents. The recipients of the donations are: Eastern Maine Community College Foundation, Kennebec Valley Community College Foundation, Lubec Community Outreach Center, Machias Area Food Pantry, and Schoodic Food Pantry in Maine; Dismas Home of New Hampshire and The River Center in New Hampshire; and BarnArts Center for the Arts and Village for Paws Rescue in Vermont.
Employees participating in Casual for a Cause dress casually on Fridays in exchange for a bi-weekly payroll deduction made to a pool of funds collected during each quarter. The employees then vote on which nonprofits will receive their contributions. Employees have donated more than $220,000 since the program begin in 2018.
“We often say that our employees are passionate about the communities where we live and work, and Casual for a Cause is a testament to that,” said Jack Frost, VP Director of Community Giving at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust. “The employees participating in the program give from their own pockets to support our neighbors and create better communities, and we are always amazed by their generosity.”
Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC) Foundation invests in students, faculty, and programs to empower individuals and to build stronger communities. The nonprofit organization raises funds to promote and support all educational programs; provides state-of-the-art equipment and facilities; and ensures access through scholarship funds for students. Learn more about KVCC Foundation at www.kvcc.me.edu.
This cause came to be heard on the Motion for Service by Publication by Petitioners, Skylar Durant and Kobe Durant, 137 Schoodic Lake Road, Brownville, ME 04419, for service by publication upon BRANSON CURTIS, pursuant to Maine Rule of Civil Procedure 4 (g) and Rule of Probate Procedure 4(c) (2), and it appearing that this is an action for Termination of Parental Rights brought by the Petitioners Skylar and Kobe Durant against BRANSON CURTIS; and that BRANSON CURTIS cannot with due diligence, be served by any other prescribed method; and that the address of BRANSON CURTIS is not known and cannot be ascertained by reasonable diligence; and it is ORDERED that the Petition to Terminate Parental Rights be heard before this Court at 41 Court St., Skowhegan, ME on September 12, 2023, at 1 p.m. or as soon therefter as it can be heard, and it is ORDERED that BRANSON CURTIDS appear and defend the cause and file a written response to the Petition by delivering it in person or by mailing it to the Office of the Register of Probate, 41 Court Street, Skowhegan, ME 04976, and by mailing a copy thereof to the Petitioners at their said address on or before September 12, 2023, 1 p.m.
IMPORTANT WARNING: IF YOU FAIL TO FILE A RESPONSE WITHIN THE TIME STATED ABOVE, OR IF, AFTER YOU FILE YOUR RESPONSE, YOU FAIL TO APPEAR AT ANY TIME THE COURT NOTIFIES YOU TO DO SO, A JUDGMENT MAY, IN YOUR ABSENCE, BE ENTERED AGAINST YOU FOR THE RELIEF REQUESTED. IF YOU DO NOT FILE A RESPONSE, YOU MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE WITH THE CLERK IF YOU WISH TO BE HEARD. IF YOU INTEND TO OPPOSE THE PETITION DO NOT FAIL TO ANSWER WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME.
AN ORDER TERMINATING BRANSON CURTIS’ PARENTAL RIGHTS WILL DIVEST SAID BRANSON CURTIS and CHANNING MAE ROBICHAUD OF ALL LEGAL RIGHT, POWERS, PRIVILEGES, IMMUNITIES, DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS TO EACH OTHER AS PARENT AND CHILD, EXCEPT THE INHERITANCE RIGHTS BETWEEN THE CHILD AND HIS/HER PARENT. FURTHERMORE, BRANSON CURTIS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO NOTICE OF THE CHILD’S ADOPTION PROCEEDINGS, NOR SHALL HE HAVE ANY RIGHT TO OBJECT OR PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCEEDINGS, AND SAID ORDER SHALL HAVE ALL OTHER EFFECTS SET FORTH IN 22 M.R.S.A. §4056.
If you believe you have a defense to the Petition, or if you believe you have a claim of your own against the Petitioners, you should talk to a lawyer. If you feel you cannot afford to pay a fee to a lawyer, you may ask the office of the Register of Probate at 41 Court Street, Skowhegan, Maine 04976 or any other Register of Probate, for information as to places where you may seek legal assistance.
It is further ORDERED that this Order be published in The Town Line, a weekly newspaper published in South China, Maine, once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks.
Dated June 15, 2023
/s/ Robert Washburn
Judge of Probate
A true copy of the original,
Attest:
/s/ Victoria M. Hatch
Register of Probate
(7/13)
Carrielynn Reynolds
New Dimensions Federal Credit Union (NDFCU) has received CUNA’s 2023 Desjardins Youth Financial Education Award! Ryan Poulin, CEO accepted the award at the Maine Credit Union League’s Annual Convention awards dinner on behalf of the entire team and financial education department for their outstanding work around financial education. CUNA created the Desjardins program to recognize leadership within the credit union movement regarding financial literacy for all ages. Naming these awards after Desjardin emphasizes the movement’s long-time commitment to financial literacy.
New Dimensions is proud of its financial education department’s work headed by Carrielyn Reynolds, Financial Coach, who has led by instructing and crafting age-appropriate lessons to share with students from kindergarten through college levels. Reynold’s passion for financial education shows with every trip to a local school or business. Under her tenure, she has reached more students and school districts than ever before, and the feedback from educators has been overwhelmingly positive.
NDFCU commends all its staff for the teachable moments that educated a member on a product or service, provided credit counseling, helped members pay off debt, saved money on loan interest, lowered loan payments, or saved for their financial goals. Ryan Poulin states, “We are in the dream fulfillment business and help our members achieve their dreams. Every day we have multiple opportunities to provide a member, even our youngest members, with the sound advice, products, and tools they need to achieve their financial goals.
Madison American Legion Post #39 Auxiliary members at the Military Child’s table, from left to right, Harriet Bryant, Nancy Misiaszek, Jackie Pollis, Pauline Bell, Ann Cody, Robin Turek, Amy Washburn, Irma Fluet, Betty Price, Diane Pinkham and Tammy Giguere. (contributed photo)
The month of April is recognized as Children and Youth Month as well as the Month of the Military Child. In observance of both, members of the Tardiff-Belanger American Legion Auxiliary, Unit #39, Madison, collected many essential items such as clothes, Pj’s, toothpaste, toothbrushes, diapers, jackets, socks, hygiene products for the older children, coloring books, crayons, and toys.
These items benefit the children who will enter the Department of Health and Human Services System. Most children enter with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. With these items they can call their own in hopes that it makes the transition a little easier for them. This year with generous donations of items from the members of the local community, Girl Scout Troop #351, and American Legion family membership as well as the Auxiliary purchases, the Auxiliary delivered 464 items valued over $1,400.
Purple is the color for the Military Child, members wore purple for the April meeting. Purple indicates that all branches of the military are supported. Air Force blue, Army green, Navy blue, Marine red, and Coast Guard blue, all are thought to combine as a single color – purple. At the meeting, members set up the Military Child’s Table to be seen by all at the hall for the month of April.
The following are the items and their representations: The potted flowering plant symbolizing that a military child may flower and flourish where they are planted; the hand spade recognizes they may be transplanted to a new place in the world at a moment’s notice; the birthday hat and unlit candles, along with the baseball and glove, and ballet slippers represents special occasions that are missed; the family photo depicting a child with his/her uniformed parent demonstrates our country’s strength; the final touch to the table setting is the American flag to remind us that families are united in their commitment to national service, at home or away.
Contact Robin Turek, President at robinturek@gmail.com or at 696-8289.