Waterville American Legion Post #5 installs new officers

American Legion Post #5 recently installed officers: from left to right, Dave Butler, Executive Committee, Charlie Shoudy, First Vice Commander, Val Bard, Second Vice Commander, Craig Bailey, Commander, Ernie Paradis, Adjutant, Butch Berard, Finance Officer, Pearley Lachance, Chaplain, Mike Hanley, Sgt.-at- Arms. Officers not in photo, Don Marden, Judge Advocate, and James Ware, Service Officer. (contributed photo)

American Legion Post #5, in Waterville, installed its officers for the coming year on June 8, 2022. Post #5 is still active fulfilling its mission of honoring men and women who served their country by wearing their uniform proudly. Many of the requirements for American Legion membership have been modified and all veterans are welcome.

For more information call 207 859-3055. Post #5 meetings are held the first and third Saturday, at 9 a.m., at the new location, at 120 Drummond Avenue, Waterville.

25th annual Maine International Film Festival to honor actor Debra Winger

Debra Winger

Star of An Officer and a Gentleman will appear at Waterville festival in July

The Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) will present its annual Mid-Life Achievement Award to actor Debra Winger at a special ceremony held at the Waterville Opera House, on Friday, July 15, following a special 35mm screening of A Dangerous Woman, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Best known as an Academy Award nominee for her work in An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, and Shadowlands, Winger has had a stellar acting career, working in a wide variety of genres with directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Jonathan Demme, James L. Brooks, Bob Rafelson, and James Bridges.

“We’re tremendously excited to have Debra join us at the festival this year, and to have the chance to showcase the wide diversity of films that she’s given great performances in,” said MIFF programming director Ken Eisen.

Winger played Diana Prince’s younger sister in the television series Wonder Woman before appearing opposite John Travolta in her first major film, Urban Cowboy, for which she earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Winger continued to rise to stardom throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, winning a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment and a second BAFTA nomination for Shadowlands. Other accolades followed, including National Society of Film Critics Award nominations for Everybody Wins and The Sheltering Sky and a Golden Globe nomination for A Dangerous Woman, co-starring 2016 MIFF Mid-Life Achievement Award honoree Gabriel Byrne. After an acting hiatus in the late 1990s, Winger returned to acting, giving acclaimed performances in Dawn Anna, Rachel Getting Married, Law & Order, and The Ranch.

The Mid-Life Achievement Award presentation will be followed by a party in Winger’s honor at Front & Main, 9 Main Street, Waterville. Admission to the party will be limited to ticket purchasers of the screening and festival pass holders. Winger will be in Waterville for several days of the Festival for screenings of Mike’s Murder, The Lovers, and The Sheltering Sky.

“As we celebrate an incredible MIFF milestone this year – our 25th anniversary – we could not have asked for a more influential and adored special guest than Debra, whose groundbreaking career has made such an impact on American cinema,” said Maine Film Center Executive Director Mike Perreault.

Festival passes are now on sale at MIFF.org. The complete MIFF program was announced on June 10, when tickets were made available for purchase online.

Issue for June 9, 2022

Issue for June 9, 2022

Celebrating 34 years of local news

Brown, Levasseur honored for service at Vassalboro town meeting

Vassalboro voters quickly approve 39 articles

Vassalboro voters chose Richard Thompson to moderate their annual town meeting Monday evening, June 6, for more than the dozenth time, Thompson said. But for the first half hour after his election, his role was more master of ceremonies…

Your Local News

China town meeting ballot a long one

CHINA — China voters coming to the polls on Tuesday, June 14, might want to bring at least a water bottle for sustenance. Balloting will take a while. In addition to the 38-article warrant for the annual town business meeting, each voter will be handed two more pieces of paper. Those enrolled in the Republican or Democratic party will get a fourth ballot…

VCS names three new staff

VASSALBORO — At a short special meeting June 6, Vassalboro School Board members hired three new staff members, Chairman Kevin Levasseur reported…

LETTERS: Tuminaro would be huge asset in District #62

from Sherri (Dowe) Gamble (China) – My name is Sherri “Dowe” Gamble and I am writing in regards to Jennifer Tuminaro’s bid for the House Seat in District 62. I was the manager of the China Dine-ah from 2007-2014. This is where I met Jennifer…

Name that film!

Identify the film in which this line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville: “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is July 8, 2022…

Erskine Academy announces top ten seniors, class of 2022

CHINA – Erskine Academy, in South China, has announced the Class of 2022 Top Ten Seniors…

Free dental care for veterans

CENTRAL ME On Saturday, June 11, from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Aspen Dental locations nationwide will open their doors to provide free care to military veterans across the country…

Davidoff announces for District #61 seat

VASSALBORO Amy Davidoff has announced a bid for House District #61 (Vassalboro and most of Sidney). She retired in 2019 as a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine after a productive and fulfilling research and teaching career. She moved to Vassalboro with her partner Mary, where they built a high efficiency home with numerous solar panels…

Bishop Deeley announces priest assignment

AUGUSTA Bishop Robert Deeley has announced priest assignments. The three appointments include one assignment to St. Michael Parish, in Augusta. Effective September 1, 2022, Fr. Anthony F. Kuzia, CM, is appointed as parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish (St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Augusta…

Beware of energy saving scammers

CENTRAL ME – Summer is coming, and rising temperatures mean high air conditioning bills. Scammers have devised a new con that claims to “save you money.” Con artists, posing as local government and utility company representatives, are offering phony home energy audits and services. Here’s what you need to know to spot the scam…

Friends of Razorville Chapel begin fundraising for refurbishing

WASHINGTON – After a long idle time, Razorville Chapel will have crucially needed refurbishments when the Friends of Razorville Chapel succeed in raising the needed funds. The familiar building was acquired from The International Society of Christian Endeavor after a years’ long search to ferret out the legal owner of the property…

EVENTS: Augusta group to host June 15 fundraiser showing of Martha Ballard film

AUGUSTA – The Mayor’s Committee for Martha Ballard, a city group planning a memorial celebrating the famed early American midwife and diarist, is organizing a June 15 presentation of the 1997 documentary film A Midwife’s Tale

EVENTS: Spectrum Generations offering early morning “Savvy at Sunrise” class for caregivers

CENTRAL ME – Spectrum Generations is offering an evidence-based class, “Savvy Caregiver,” via Zoom, Tuesdays 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., from July 19 to August 23…

PHOTO: Fields of lupines in bloom

WINDSOR – Gary Mazoki photographed this field of lupines, in Windsor.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Native Americans – Part 2 (new)

CENTRAL ME HISTORY — Earlier articles in this series have identified the Kennebec River Valley as a throughway connecting the coast and the St. Lawrence River, used by, among others, Benedict Arnold going north to attack Québec in 1775 and Canadians coming south to find jobs in Maine in the 19th century… by Mary Grow [1891 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Native Americans – Part 1

CENTRAL ME HISTORY — Logically, your writer should have started this series on the history of the central Kennebec Valley with the first human inhabitants, the groups once called Indians and now more commonly called Native Americans. Your writer is a coward. She did not want to take on a topic about which there is no contemporary written evidence and limited later evidence… by Mary Grow [2029 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Immigrants

CENTRAL ME HISTORY — The French-Canadians and the Irish were not the only groups coming to the central Kennebec Valley from other countries. Stephen Plocher wrote in his Waterville history (found on line) that in the 1860s, people he called “Syrian-Lebanese” from Syria (Lebanon and Syria were French mandates until 1943, when they became two separate countries) began arriving… by Mary Grow [1807 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: French-Canadians – Part 2

CENTRAL ME HISTORY — The story of French-Canadian immigrants in the Augusta and Waterville area, as presented by the writers cited, is partly a story of separateness and discrimination evolving into cooperation and mutual respect… by Mary Grow [2066 words]

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Walk ‘n Talk on Invasive Plant Species slated

ROCKPORT — Join Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District (KLSWCD) on Thursday, June 16, from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m., at Merryspring Nature Center, located at 30 Conway Road, in Camden, for a walk to identify invasive plant species… and many other local events!

Obituaries

VASSALBORO – Spc. Jeremy L. Gilley, 37, died unexpectedly Monday, May 30, 2022, at his home. He was born in Waterville on December 22, 1984, son of Thomas V. and Tammy A. (Green) Gilley… and remembering 13 others.

Common Ground: Win a $10 gift certificate!

DEADLINE: Wednesday, June 17, 2022

Identify the people in these three photos, and tell us what they have in common. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Retail Therapy Boutique in Waterville! Email your answer to townline@townline.org or through our Contact page. Include your name and address with your answer. Use “Common Ground” in the subject!

Previous winner: Frank Hersey, Winslow

Town Line Original Columnists

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee | Well, today we have an interesting question. A supporter sent an email to me stating they had seen a wolverine crossing the Bog Road, in Vassalboro, on their way home from the Vassalboro town meeting last Monday night. After looking online, this person is sure it was a wolverine…

Peter CatesREVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates | Back during eighth grade in 1964, I was hungrily eager to hear every record of classical music that I could beg, borrow, buy, barter for; and one neighbor was kind enough to loan the Arturo Toscanini/NBC Symphony RCA Victor Red Seal LP of Beethoven’s 5th and 8th symphonies…

LIFE ON THE PLAINS

by Roland D. Hallee | Just north of The Plains, at the most southern end of Main St., stood an iconic landmark known, pretty much, nation wide – The Levine’s Store for Men and Boys…

LIFE ON THE PLAINS: An icon on lower Main Street

by Roland D. Hallee

This is the beginning of a series of articles on growing up on The Plains, in Waterville, in the 1950s and 1960s. The Plains was a flat area along the Kennebec River that stretched from the end of lower Main St., south toward Grove St., and slightly beyond to Couture softball field. I was born into a French-Canadian Catholic family, in the south end of Waterville.

But, before we get into that, there was one significant chapter in my growing up that must be acknowledged.

Just north of The Plains, at the most southern end of Main St., stood an iconic landmark known, pretty much, nationwide – The Levine’s Store for Men and Boys.

In my growing up years, there wasn’t a stitch of clothing I owned that did not come from Levine’s. Back in those days, there was no Walmart, Kohl’s or Target. When you needed clothing, you went to the local haberdashery, picked out your item, had them fitted, and tailored to your size and specifications, at no extra charge.

One of the main reasons we went to Levine’s – there were other clothing stores, Stern’s Department Store, and Dunham’s of Maine to name a couple – but for our family, it was Levine’s.

My mother’s youngest brother, Leonel “Nel” Libby was a sales clerk at the store, and he was our go-to-guy. Anytime, anyone in our family walked through the front door, we were not approached by other sales clerks, but they would go looking for “Uncle Nel” – You could hear them yelling for “Libby” throughout the store.

I remember when I was about 10 years old, my father took me to Levine’s to buy my first suit. Actually, it was more like a sports jacket. It was a red checkered coat that was worn with black pants. Boy, did I feel like I was the cat’s meow with that snappy jacket. Even took it on trips to Canada.

Levine’s had the latest fashions.

During my sophomore year in high school, I was finally able to buy my own clothes after I got a job working in the mailroom at the Morning Sentinel. The rage at the time were khaki “chinos”. That was something my mother would not buy for us. We always wore corduroy or flannel pants.

How proud I was of those chinos. I now looked like one of the guys in school. Even the girls noticed.

Until the day came when they went into the laundry. Before I go any further, you have to understand my mother was a very meticulous person. Never any dust on the furniture, floors that shined all the time, and laundry that was ironed perfectly before being put away.

The style for wearing chinos back then was more like boot cut jeans of today. No creases. Well, my mother went and ironed them, putting a clean, crisp pleat in the legs. Destroyed! I couldn’t wear those to school again. Even though they came from Levine’s.

Levine’s store, founded in 1891, has been closed since 1996, as have the other two stores. Even my Uncle Nel has passed on. Something is definitely missing downtown.

So, descendants of William Levine, founder, and his sons Lewis “Ludy” and Percy “Pacy”, have come together to remember the store and its location in Waterville. After moving the store to its most recent location on lower Main St., early in the 20th century, the store expanded in the 1960s to the former site of the Crescent Hotel, which was located on the traffic circle that existed in the middle of Main St., Water St., Spring St., and Bridge St.

Levine’s Store for Men and Boys served as a beacon of business development and community gathering in downtown Waterville for 105 years. After closing its doors in 1996 the building lay dormant until it was razed. location is now the site of the newly-built Lockwood Hotel, which is owned by Colby College. Levine’s was internationally known. Colby students and satisfied customers spread word across the globe about Levine’s. Thus, Levine’s Store is inescapably tied to Colby College in putting Waterville on the international map.”

Descendants of the Levine family have created a fundraiser to preserve the family’s legacy with a plaque to be erected in the southern park.

The GoFundMe organizer says: “It is time to memorialize and honor the legacy of Levine’s Store and the memories of Ludy, Pacy, and their nephew Howard Miller. In partnership with the Mayor of the City of Waterville and with Colby College, the descendants of Ludy, Pacy and Howard have banded together to honor the store and the Levine family with parks on both sides of the hotel, and with a special naming of the hotel’s conference room. An exceptional dedication ceremony is currently being planned for mid-July 2022. Colby College is funding the development of the memorials that will live in the northern park and in the conference room. It is the family’s responsibility to fund the memorial for the southern park.”

To view the GoFundMe, please visit: https://gf.me/v/c/z4lq/levines-park.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Conductors Bruno Walter and George Szell

Bruno Walter, left. George Szell, right.

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Back during eighth grade in 1964, I was hungrily eager to hear every record of classical music that I could beg, borrow, buy, barter for; and one neighbor was kind enough to loan the Arturo Toscanini/NBC Symphony RCA Victor Red Seal LP of Beethoven’s 5th and 8th symphonies, that I auditioned on another neighbor’s hi-fi which was quite superior in sound to the $32 manually operated phonograph I owned.

I was already quite familiar with the 5th Symphony via an old Columbia Masterworks set of five 12-inch 78s, conducted by Bruno Walter (1876-1962) with the New York Philharmonic.

I remember the black and white photo of Walter raising his arms in the air and conveying, in his stern eyes, that he meant business; Leonard Bernstein called him one of the great saints of music with a sweet gentle spirit and wearing silk gloves but beneath those silk gloves was an iron fist and a sneaky snakiness in Walter’s ability to look out for number one.

But Walter was a truly great conductor on the same level as his close friend Toscanini (1867-1957) and his recording of the 5th had a combination of dramatic power and nicely contrasting poetry while Toscanini’s performance had the excitingly riveting volatility of a sledgehammer.

Back to my first encounter with the 8th Symphony. Toscanini and his players tore into the first movement and fully communicated its growling jubilation, Beethoven being a 100 percent manic depressive.

This symphony had its first performance in 1812 in Linz, Austria, where the composer was visiting his brother Johann, enjoying his hospitality and, at the same time, trying to break up a relationship Johann was having with a woman whom Beethoven considered a lowlife. The situation and how it was resolved makes for hilarious reading.

The second movement is a perky dance with the bassoon taking center stage with its staccato notes.

The third movement is labeled as a Menuet but its beauty is a passionate outpouring of the heart, as opposed to a graceful elegant dance, with some very eloquent, almost heavenly writing for the strings.

The final movement is a vivacious highly spirited romp for the entire orchestra.

A similarly exciting performance of the 8th was an early 1960s one conducted by the arch perfectionist, SOB, taskmaster George Szell (1897-1970) with the Cleveland Orchestra while another one from 1957 with Andre Cluytens (1905-1967) conducting the Berlin Philharmonic has a more relaxed sedate quality that works beautifully, this Maestro being one who was quite underrated during his own lifetime.

While the 7th Symphony is a colossal masterpiece with the much shorter 8th seeming to a number of listeners anticlimactic, Beethoven himself considered the 8th immensely superior to the 7th.

Friends of Razorville Chapel begin fundraising for refurbishing

Razorville Chapel 2002

Washington, ME — After a long idle time, Razorville Chapel will have crucially needed refurbishments when the Friends of Razorville Chapel succeed in raising the needed funds. The familiar building was acquired from The International Society of Christian Endeavor after a years’ long search to ferret out the legal owner of the property. Originally a schoolhouse, the structure was relocated in 1897 to a tiny plot purchased for the purpose for $15 by trustees of the “Razorville Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor,” namely W.E. Overlock, L.T. Marr, Lewis Day, Newel Jones and O.B. Collins. It never changed hands from then until last year.

Friends of Razorville Chapel know that the building was used by the Christian Endeavor organization for meetings and for Sunday school and, probably, church, but the timeline is unclear and far from complete. Everyone with experience and knowledge about the first century of the chapel is warmly encouraged to post facts to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/razorvillechapel . In time, with the public’s help, we will have a good record of those earlier years.

Ten years ago, a speaker at Washington Historical Society spoke about Razorville Chapel and related the (then) difficulty in finding the owner. The conversation led to a question about whether any group in town could take responsibility for it if, indeed, it could be acquired. At that time there was no interest. Over its long dormant time though, neighborhood residents watched over the place and donated to or outright paid for urgent repairs. Residents like the Sidelingers, Victor Chapman, Mary Merrifield, Bradley and Judy Brann, Steve Melgard and several others warded off serious damage by keeping the building weather tight.

By 2018, the Christian Endeavor Society had been located and a transfer of the property was proposed to them by Roy Garnett, Patty Manson, Jillianne Jermyn, and Charlotte Henderson. In fact, the International Society of Christian Endeavor, headquartered in the Midwest, had lost track of this property which was so remote from their activities they were unaware of it.

While Christian Endeavor considered the proposal, Garnett, Manson, Jermyn and Henderson filed papers to become a non-profit corporation, the Friends of Razorville Chapel. Ignoring Covid and other challenges, the Friends took a leap of faith and accepted responsibility for the property as soon as the Society agreed to let it go. Friends of Razorville Chapel envision the small building being used for special services, meetings, private events, small theater presentations, or music recitals, guest speakers, and other purposes that are suited to an intimate sized of hall.

The Friends of Razorville Chapel organizers, with the addition of Zelma Williams, have gotten appraisals and estimates for the work that needs to be done to make the structure solid and safe for public use. It includes foundation and sill replacement, new roofing, and new windows. The estimates, which are now several months old, total about $95,000. The group will be seeking funding from many sources with fervent hope to raise enough to make the chapel long term weather tight before another winter.

The Friends of Razorville Chapel invite you to check out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/razorvillechapel. Contributions may be sent to: Friends of Razorville Chapel, c/o P. Manson – Treasurer, 55 Youngs Hill Road, Washington ME 04574. If you would like to talk to someone about the project or want to discuss a contributions, please inquire at razorvillechapel@gmail.com.

Spectrum Generations offering early morning “Savvy at Sunrise” class for caregivers

Spectrum Generations is offering an evidence-based class, “Savvy Caregiver,” via Zoom, Tuesdays 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., from July 19 to August 23.

The nonprofit Area Agency on Aging is aware that caregivers or care partners of someone with Alzheimer’s face challenges when it comes to attending events. For this reason, Spectrum Generations will offer the class when most caregivers are available and when the person they are providing support for is still sleeping.

Savvy Caregiver provides the tools and knowledge to be a more effective caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s disease. Caregivers leave the class with a better understanding of the effects of the disease, and how to identify triggers to avoid undesirable behaviors associated with Alzheimer’s and related types of dementia. The class is being implemented to help get the information into the hands of those who want to attend the class from the comfort of their own homes.

Anyone is welcomed and other members of the family are encouraged to attend. Participants will receive coffee and biscuits along with their class materials. Pajamas, hair rollers, pin curls, and bedhead are all welcomed.

To register for Savvy Caregiver, call 1-800-639-1553.

Augusta group to host June 15 fundraiser showing of Martha Ballard film

The Mayor’s Committee for Martha Ballard, a city group planning a memorial celebrating the famed early American midwife and diarist, is organizing a June 15 presentation of the 1997 documentary film A Midwife’s Tale. The 89-minute movie, which first appeared on PBS in 1998 as part of the American Experience film series, is based on Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812.

Ballard, a native of Oxford, Massachusetts, moved with her family to the Augusta area at the start of the American Revolution. Her 37-year diary records not only many of the births, illnesses, deaths, and illnesses in which she was involved as a caregiver, but also blunt, insightful observations about the customs, conflicts, and living conditions of her time.

To honor Ballard’s achievements, The Mayor’s Committee for Martha Ballard is planning the design and construction of a permanent monument to her. The film presentation is part of an effort to raise money for and community awareness of that project. The event is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. with a social hour featuring hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at Le Club Calumet, at 334 West River Road, in Augusta; followed by a 7 p.m. live interview with sisters Glee and Ruth Ballard, of Sidney, and their cousin, recently retired Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, of Newburgh, all direct descendants of Martha Ballard; and a silent auction. The showing of the film will conclude the event.

The committee’s members are Chairman Larry Fleury; the Ballard sisters; Earl Kingsbury, Augusta’s director of community services; Courtney Allen and Heather Pouliot, Augusta City Council members; Stephen Arbour, local historian; Rachel Merriam, of Hallowell; and Secretary Jamie Logan and Joseph Owen, representing the Kennebec Historical Society.

Tickets for the film showing event cost $30 each and are available online at the mayor’s committee’s website, www.marthaballard.com, or by arrangement with Fleury, who can be called at (207) 242-0540.

Beware of energy saving scammers

image: AARP

Summer is coming, and rising temperatures mean high air conditioning bills. Scammers have devised a new con that claims to “save you money.” Con artists, posing as local government and utility company representatives, are offering phony home energy audits and services. Here’s what you need to know to spot the scam.

How the scam works

You are contacted over the phone or in person at your front door. The “representative” introduces themselves as working for your utility company or with the energy division of your local government. They may even show you identification, but it isn’t real.

Scammers inform you that you could be saving big on your energy bill. Some con artists will even insist on a tour of your home. These individuals may offer to install filters, thermostats, or other energy equipment to lower your bill, or they may say simply you are eligible to pay less. In either case, they’ll ask you to sign a contract and possibly even run a credit check. They will also ask for billing information, including your debit or credit card number.

In the end, you won’t receive any discount on your energy bill or any services. The equipment you were promised won’t be delivered. That’s because this “home energy audit” is a scam. You may, however, be charged the fees mentioned in the contract, and your personal information will be in the hands of a scammer.

How to avoid impersonation scams

Don’t agree to anything on the spot. No matter how good the deal seems or how urgent the individual makes their offer seem, take time to do your research. Tell the person you need time to think about their offer and hang up or close the door. Scammers may tell you you’ll miss out on the deal, but taking immediate action isn’t worth getting scammed.

Go to the source. Contact your local government agency or your utility company directly to confirm whether they really are offering energy audit services. This is the quickest way to find out if you are dealing with an impostor.

Get help. If you aren’t sure about what you’re being offered, talk to someone. Call a trusted friend or family member or contact your local BBB to find out if it you are dealing with a scam.

For more information

Learn more ways to protect yourself from scams by reading the BBB’s tip on avoiding impostor scams. You can find additional information at BBB.org/AvoidScams.

Become a skilled scam spotter by visiting BBB.org/SpotaScam and report any suspicious activity to BBB.org/ScamTracker.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Native Americans – Part 2

The British execution of Father Sebastian Rale

by Mary Grow

(Read part 1 of this series here.)

Earlier articles in this series have identified the Kennebec River Valley as a throughway connecting the coast and the St. Lawrence River, used by, among others, Benedict Arnold going north to attack Québec in 1775 and Canadians coming south to find jobs in Maine in the 19th century. According to Charles E. Nash’s chapter on the Abenakis in Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history, the route was well-traveled long before the Europeans arrived.

Nash wrote that for the Kennebec tribe of the Kennebec Valley, “The river was their highway and its banks their home.” He described a nomadic life varying seasonally with food resources.

In the winter, he wrote, families moved to the head of the river at Moosehead Lake, where they hunted moose, deer and caribou and caught trout through the ice. When the game animals left their winter yards, the Native Americans loaded their canoes and headed downriver.

They would stop along the way, Nash wrote, especially at waterfalls and at river junctions where migrating salmon and river herring assembled. Usually, their journeys ended at Merrymeeting Bay, where they and other groups spent the summer feasting on fish and shellfish.

Nash described canoes skimming down descending rapids and being carried around those too swift to run. He did not mention the autumn upstream journey, which must have been more difficult.

Along the way, the same camping places were used over and over, to the point where permanent traces were left. Nash described evidence of tool-making and of campfires still visible when the Kennebec County history was published in 1892.

“Flint and stone chippings, with arrow-heads and other articles in all stages of manufacture” were common. The slate used for the tools came from Mount Kineo, near Moosehead Lake, he said.

Nash also wrote, “Many spots where wigwam fires once glowed are yet marked by burned and crumbling stones and by fragments of the earthen vessels in which the feasts were cooked.”

Such “relic places” are spread from Moosehead Lake to Popham Beach, Nash wrote, “but they are almost continuous on the alluvial banks between Augusta and Waterville, which seems to have been a favorite resort or metropolis of the tribe.”

Nash wrote that there were no permanent villages along the river, but other sources list three places that seem to have been inhabited most, if not all, of the year: Norridgewock; Cushnoc, on the east bank of the river in Augusta; and Ticonic, at the junction of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers, in Winslow.

Norridgewock, too far north to be part of this series, was dominated by the French; the British built trading posts and later forts at Ticonic and Cushnoc.

An on-line article calls Ticonic, or Teconnet Village, the “ancestral home” of the Kennebec tribe; or, according to an 1852 history by J. W. Hanson also found on line, of the Teconnet clan of the Kennebec tribe.

Kingsbury considered this junction of two major rivers a natural place for a Native American village. “It was easy of access, renowned for fish and game – just the spot for camp and council, for traffic and recreation.”

An on-line history of Waterville says the village “was estimated to be the second largest Native American settlement in Maine at the time of the first European visitors.” (The article does not name the largest.)

Two sources agree that the burying ground associated with the village was on the west side of the Kennebec. An on-line history says it extended from contemporary Temple Street to the Lockwood/Hathaway mill complex.

Kingsbury wrote the lot that was by 1892 Lockwood Park (near the Lockwood Mill at the northern end of present-day Water Street) had been the site of sequential hotels after the 1840s, until the final building became a tenement and was demolished.

As the site was cleared, he said, workers found “many human bones” indicating the burial site. One of the skeletons was in a sitting position and surrounded by “over 300 copper beads about the size of a straw, from two to three inches long, and punctured from end to end.”

A Native American village attracted British traders. Kingsbury wrote that a 1719 survey showed a building on the southeast side of the Sebasticook-Kennebec junction labeled as a trading house built by Christopher Lawson, dated Sept. 10, 1653.

Lawson had acquired the land from the chief called Kennebis in 1649. In 1653 he “assigned” it to Clark & Lake, a trading company mentioned in various histories.

By 1675, Kingsbury wrote, “Richard Hammond, an ancient trader, and Clark & Lake each had a trading house at Ticonic.” ((In his history of Augusta, James W. North accuses Hammond of stealing the Kennebecs’ furs.)

By then, too, although the British were theoretically not allowed to furnish either guns or liquor to Native Americans, tribes had become dependent on guns for hunting. Williamson wrote that the Kennebecs were starving, because the British had driven them from their corn fields and had denied them hunting supplies.

Williamson described an early 1676 meeting at Ticonic between British representatives and tribal chiefs, who asked for powder and ammunition. The British denied the request, saying they feared the Kennebecs would hand them on to tribes farther west who were on the warpath. So, Mitchell said, the Kennebecs attacked the British settlers, beginning the first of the series of wars that lasted from 1675 until 1759.

In 1676, the Native Americans killed Hammond and Lake, Kingsbury wrote. They evidently seized the buildings, rather than burning them, because various sources refer to Europeans being sent as captives to a Native American “fort” at Ticonic in the 1780s and 1690s. This fort was burned in 1692, one source says, by the Kennebecs.

This first war ended with a peace treaty that Harry Edward Mitchell, author of a 1904 Winslow Register found on line, called temporary, because “The two races were naturally repellant.” War did indeed resume, with occasional intervals of peace. Europeans, their livestock and their pets were killed, their homes and farms were destroyed or abandoned; but they always came back.

One pause in the fighting followed a major meeting of Native Americans and British at Casco (Portland) in 1702. Mitchell listed three Kennebec chiefs named Bomaseen, Captain Sam and Moxus among those present.

Bomaseen or Bomazeen appears in multiple histories, identified as a Norridgewock chief, shot by the British in 1724. Captain Samuel, whose real name is given on line as Wedaranaquin, was a Kennebec or Norridgewock leader, born before 1680 and maybe died in 1722; he is described as “an orator” at the 1702 Casco conference. Moxus was, or might have been, Bomaseen’s son, born before 1660 and died about 1721, according to other on-line sources; one says he was a Penobscot leader and by 1701 leader of the Norridgewock group.

A European peace in 1713 meant an interval of peace in the Kennebec Valley and the rest of Maine, during which more settlers moved in, basing their land claims on “deeds” given them by natives who had not yet learned concepts of individual ownership.

A 1717 British attack on Norridgewock, by then home to Father Sebastien Rale, who was highly esteemed by the Kennebecs, brought open warfare again, Mitchell wrote.

In August 1724, the British succeeded in killing Rale, and on their way to Norridgewock, Bomaseen. Rale’s death ended the Kennebecs’ participation in wars against British settlers, Mitchell said. He described subsequent “minor conflicts” in the Kennebec Valley as “of little importance,” though people continued to die for another three decades.

In the spring of 1754, the Massachusetts General Court ordered a new fort on the point between the Sebasticook and the Kennebec at Ticonic to deter the French and protect the British settlers. Major General John Winslow and soldiers, Governor William Shirley and other authorities met with local chiefs late in June and told them the plan.

Williamson wrote in his history of Maine that the chiefs were opposed, until the Massachusetts delegation showed them documents by which their forebears had ceded the land. They then signed a treaty and celebrated with a dance before all, except three young men, went back to their villages.

Two days later a group of Penobscots met with the Massachusetts delegation to sign the treaty. Two of their young men also stayed behind, and, Williamson wrote, “the five were sent to Boston to be educated.” He said nothing more about them.

The British soldiers then built Fort Halifax. It was finished Sept. 3, 1754, and the Governor, who had been visiting Falmouth and surrounding towns, came upriver for an inspection. Mitchell said that the governor “very highly complimented General Winslow and his men.”

The inspection must have been hurried, however, because Williamson wrote that Shirley continued upriver from Ticonic as far as Norridgewock and was back in Boston Sept. 9.

The Massachusetts General Court promptly authorized funds to supply the fort and buy gifts for the Kennebecs, Williamson said. The gifts were recalled, because on Nov. 6, 1754, the Fort Halifax garrison sent Governor Shirley the news that Native Americans had attacked a party of soldiers outside the fort, killing one and taking four prisoners.

Williamson did not suggest what reason the Natives Americans might have had. From the British point of view, his words were “outrage” and “base and cruel treachery.” He added that efforts to ransom the prisoners were counterproductive, because they encouraged more kidnapping to collect more ransoms.

The Nov. 6 attack marked the beginning of the French and Indian War, the last of the long series. Tribal warriors attacked throughout the Kennebec Valley. Williamson mentioned one man (probably a soldier, though he did not specify) shot at Ticonic in 1755 and another “taken” on his way north to Fort Halifax.

The Kennebecs saw Fort Halifax as “an object of great affront and hatred,” Williamson wrote. In 1756, they shot and killed two soldiers “catching fish at the falls.”

Mitchell agreed, recording that “No man was safe if he ventured beyond the limits of the fortifications. Several were mortally wounded by the Indians.” The last attack, he wrote, was on May 18, 1757.

Captain Lithgow, in charge of Fort Halifax, had noticed rafts floating down the Kennebec, deduced that warriors had crossed and were making their way downstream by land and sent ten soldiers downriver to warn settlers. As the men came back, they were ambushed near Riverside. They resisted so effectively that the Kennebecs fled.

The cost was two soldiers wounded, one Kennebec killed and one wounded, Mitchell said. And, he concluded, the “skirmish” at Riverside was “the final shot of the redman, as a tribe, in this region.”

Settlers continued to use the name Ticonic, misplaced, for the west side of the Kennebec River after Winslow was created as a town (including present-day Waterville) in 1771. After Waterville became a separate town on June 23, 1802, Kingsbury wrote that Asa Redington, convening the first Waterville town meeting, called on voters to assemble “in the public meeting house in Ticonic village on Monday, July26, 1802.”

The name Ticonic endures today, as in Waterville’s Ticonic Street and Ticonic Bridge (scheduled for replacement by 2026).

Main sources

Davis, B. V., and Harry Edward Mitchell, The Winslow Register 1904 (1904) (found on line; also available as a paperback book).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Williamson, William D., The History of the State of Maine from its First Discovery, A.D. 1602, to the Separation, A.D. 1820, Inclusive Vol. II (1832).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Next week: another major Native America village, at Cushnoc, and more incomplete evidence from elsewhere in the central Kennebec Valley.