I’M JUST CURIOUS: Starting with downsizing

by Debbie Walker

Are you planning a downsizing or just want to clean up a little like maybe spring cleaning? Did you put away all your Christmas decorations? Come now, haven’t you found one or two things you forgot? In the Woman’s World magazine dated March March 28, 2022, there is an article Surprising Down Sizing Tricks. I am sharing some of it in this column.

So, let’s start with that. Before you put away anything. Are there any items you might be able to redecorate for another holiday? If there are it ought to be fun. There is the old trick of “three piles”, you use one for maybes (that’s the tricky one). Yes, there is one for you to keep the special things (this one can be tricky, too, but I’ll get back to this later) and there is one to definitely throw away or donate.

Come to think of it they are all tricky. This has to all be up to you, something you really want to do. Then remember that just because someone special gave this or that to you, does not mean you really have to keep it. If they ever have reason to know, they may have forgotten all about it.

In the magazines it is also mentioned about possibly taking pictures of things that you think you might want to make later. Just don’t clutter up your picture space but if you do you can clean that up later! Or, the idea I liked was things you really loved such as children’s art work, and other things and make a coffee table book of all these wonderful things.

Oh, and they suggested in this magazine that we could all take old jewelry and baubles to decorate some of our “art work” projects. However, unless you want to wind up with the kind of messes I presently have you might want to pass on this one. Maybe a better idea is to make a box of art project items for a nursing home perhaps. This is one of those “Do as I say, not as I do” kind of thing.

On to a different subject, that comes from First magazine also dated March 28, 2022. These come under the page on Smart Home Solutions, page 78.

This first one that caught my eye was a Do-it-yourself lazy-susan. You will need a handful of marbles and two pie plates. Place one pie plate on the counter, add the marbles in plate. Then place the second pie plate on top of the marbles. Top plate will now ride around on top of the marbles but better yet you place the spices you use very often on the top plate. Things won’t come sliding off and it will keep things handy for when you need it.

The final one for the night is “pesky spots on your glassware” remover. It is to: Add two to four tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to dish washer’s rinse compartment and run as usual. I haven’t tried it (no room for a dishwasher in my camper!)

Okay, that’s my last piece of educational material for this issue.

I am just curious if you will try any of these. Let me know at DebbieWalker@townline.org. In the meantime have a great week and thanks for reading.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Mercury LPs

Chad Mitchell Trio

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Back during the last century old days of my adolescent youth, I was quite enamored by the Mercury dollar cut out LPs of the Chad Mitchell Trio that I bought at downtown Waterville Center’s Department Store. The group’s brand of folk music making thrilled me- their sing­ing of such classics as You Were On My Mind, The Last Thing On My Mind, 4 Strong Winds, I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound, etc. In addition the impeccable artistry of backup guitarist Paul Prestopino and the precision honed arrangements of Milt Okun contributed to the pleasure of these records.

The Kingston Trio

Seeking similar splendors, I bought my first album of the much more well known Kingston Trio, Close Up, which I believe was the first to feature John Stewart (1939-2008), who replaced the departing Dave Guard in 1961. Guard, along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, formed the group in 1957 and hit the charts with Tom Dooley.

Stewart had already gotten experience with the less successful but musically gifted Cumberland 3, which recorded an album devoted to songs of the Civil War. He was a gifted songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist- meaning outstanding interpreter of his songs, since his singing was not especially beautiful- ; and he would assume most of the duties as Master of Ceremonies during the Trio’s concerts, being very quick on his feet with witty repartee.

The early ‘60s folk music boom soon busted with the on­slaught of the Beach Boys, Beatles, Rolling Stones and their contemporaries but the Trio continued performing and recording as long as feasibly possible, finally calling it quits in 1967.

John Stewart

Meanwhile John Stewart accumulated a significant body of work and recorded his first of just over 60 al­bums in 1968, the exquisite Signals Through the Glass with his then-girlfriend and later wife, Buffy Ford. The album was a stunning example of great 20th century American music and on the same scale as the music of Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, just to name a few examples

Parallels in art and literature would be painters Winslow Homer, Grant Wood, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, the poets Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg and the novelists Willa Cather, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.

The song titles on that first album included Nebraska Widow, July You’re a Woman, Mr. Lincoln’s Train and Muddy Truckee River.

I recently listened to three of his albums: Lonesome Picker Rides Again, from 1971; 1992’s Bullets in the Hour Glass; and the 2006 The Day the River Sang.

Lonesome Picker had the wistful Just an Old Love Song; the very delectable celebration of village life, Bolinas, with its lovely strings and English horn; the most famous song Stewart ever wrote and a megahit for the Monkees and Anne Murray, Daydream Believer; and, since horses and horse races were subjects dear to Stewart’s heart (his father was a horse trainer), side two’s concluding Wild Horse Road, and All the Brave Horses.

Bullets in the Hour Glass was considered a rather desultory bad day for the singer by one otherwise loyal fan but I found only one dud, a monolog entitled Bad Rats. The River, Dealing with the Night, a very eloquent The Wheel Within the Clay, Women (with backup vocals by Rosanne Cash) and The Man Who Would Be King (it with Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary fame as backup) are first class. By this time, Stewart’s vocal chords were a bit more frayed than during the ‘60s and ‘70s but the solid beauty of the material was still in ample evidence.

In addition, there was a more frequent utilization of New Age synthesizer effects, as opposed to the straight folk rock of the 70s, yet used with taste and intelligence.

The Day the River Sang was a top notch Last Hurrah. While Stewart’s own singing had deteriorated even more in any semblance of beauty, the total quality control of material and arrangements prevailed. The choice Baby It’s You, East of Denver, the title song, Sister Mercy and Midnight Train warrant very close attention.

I attended two concerts of the singer, one in 2001 at the Town Crier Club in Pawling , New York, a village distinguished by the presence of headquarters for Norman Vincent Peale’s Guideposts publication and a separate set of buildings for the Jehovah’s Witnesses; and the second in 2006 at the Augusta St. Mark’s Episcopalian Church just off of Lithgow Street.

He put on great shows both times.

Sadly by 2007, Stewart’s health, which had been problematical for a few years, was showing signs of Alzheimer’s and he died in early 2008 at the age of 68.

Vassalboro budget committee change of venue

by Mary Grow

The Vassalboro Budget Committee meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, in the town office – not at Vassalboro Community School as previously planned – to make recommendations on the proposed 2022-23 municipal budget. The school budget will not be ready for review by March 31, committee chairman Rick Denico reported on March 28.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Long COVID Upends Lives, Even In The Young And Healthy

Young, strong, and healthy, Rob Smith didn’t think he had to ­worry about COVID. He did—and it changed his life forever.

by We Can Do This COVID-19
Public Education Campaign

(NAPSI)—Running was Rob Smith’s passion. He ran every day, ate healthy foods, and had good sleep habits. Because of his healthy lifestyle, Smith believed that it was very unlikely COVID-19 would have a serious effect on his health. In September 2020, at the age of 22, Smith contracted the virus, and his life changed forever.

“I used to run 5 or 6 miles a day. Now, when I walk up a flight of stairs, I’m gasping for air,” said Smith, who misses his daily exercise. “It feels like my brain is clouded, and I can’t think straight. It’s surreal.”

Smith is not alone. Though many healthy young people who contract COVID have mild symptoms and recover quickly, others experience a wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems that can persist for months. This condition is referred to as long COVID. As scientists work to learn more about long COVID, many mysteries remain.

“COVID is extremely unpredictable,” said Ann Marie Pettis, immediate past president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in Rochester, NY. “It is impossible to know who will recover readily, who will experience severe life-threatening illness, or who will have long COVID haunt them for months or even longer. Staying up to date on vaccines is the best way to prevent the devastating consequences of long COVID.”

Symptoms of long COVID can vary. Many, like Smith, report shortness of breath and difficulty with memory and thinking, often described as “brain fog.” Other common symptoms of long COVID include fatigue, pain, fast or irregular heartbeat, loss of taste and smell, memory problems, mood changes, and hair loss.

Katelyn Van Dyke, an athletic 20-year-old, contracted COVID in November 2020. Two months later she began to experience severe symptoms of long COVID. Van Dyke began having trouble remembering things, and she struggled to breathe with simple activity.

“I was a varsity soccer player in high school, and now I get winded just from walking,” Van Dyke said. “I can’t remember things. It’s unbearable.”

It is common for people with long COVID to have breathing issues, a possible indication of lung damage. COVID can damage organs including the lungs, heart, and brain. Symptoms can last many months after COVID illness.

Recent studies have also found serious increases in the risk for many kinds of cardiovascular disease in COVID survivors, including for people who were not hospitalized for COVID. Cardiovascular risks can be significantly higher for people who have had COVID regardless of their age, race, sex, or other cardiovascular risk factors.

Three weeks after getting COVID, dancer Isaiah Smith began experiencing chest pains.

“I used to be able to dance all day,” said Smith, who is 26. “But now just getting up gives me chest pain. And I can’t comprehend words at times. This has honestly been a very scary journey. I’m telling my long COVID story because I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

The risk of contracting long COVID is real—especially for those who have not been vaccinated and boosted. Remaining up to date on vaccinations provides the best protection against severe illness and long COVID.

Learn More

For accurate, science-based information about vaccines, visit www.vaccines.gov.

BBBS to hold plane pull fundraiser

Big Sister Paige Lilly and her “Little Brother” Hunter Stevens, came out to support the program that brought them together two years ago by participating in last year’s “Putt 4 Cass.” (Contributed photo)

Local businesses and organizations are lining up to see who can pull a CRJ-200 Jet Aircraft 20 feet in the fastest time, all to raise critical funding for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine youth mentoring programs.

The second annual Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine Plane Pull, hosted by Elite Airways, will be held Saturday, May 14, starting at 10 a.m., at the Auburn-Lewiston Airport, located at 80 Airport Drive, in Auburn. Jason Levesque, mayor of Auburn, will serve as event co-emcee, along with event media sponsor WGME Sports Director David Eid.

Sponsoring organizations enter teams comprised of 8 to 10 people to compete for the fastest pull times. Independent teams may participate by fundraising a minimum of $500 per team entry. A trophy will be presented to the team with the fastest pull time, along with prizes for top fundraisers. The event is expected to host upwards of 20 teams with a goal of raising $40,000 to support Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring programs.

“The pandemic has taken its toll on area children, who remain the most vulnerable and negatively impacted in our communities,” Executive Director Gwendolyn Hudson said.

Spectators are welcome to attend the event and cheer on their teams, including Big and Little matches, who will be treated to airport tours following the event.

BBBS of Mid-Maine will hold a second Plane Pull in the fall, hosted by C&L Aviation Group and Bangor International Airport, on September 10 in Bangor.

For more information about the BBBS of Mid-Maine Plane Pull, or to sponsor and register a team, visit bbbsmidmaine.org, email info@bbbsmidmaine.org or call 207.236.BBBS.

Welch receives MPA principal’s award at Carrabec High School

Brooke Welch

Brooke Welch, daughter of Dereck and Aaron Welch of North Anson, a senior at Carrabec High School, has been selected to receive the 2022 Principal’s Award, according to Prin­cipal Timothy Richards. The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals’ Association, is given in recognition of a high school senior’s academic achievement, citizenship and leadership.

According to Richards, Ms. Welch has distinguished herself as a leader for her class, a role model for her peers, and an athlete on the court and on the field. She always has a smile on her face and has a positive attitude. Brooke is hard-working, kind, and humble, all of which will ensure her future success. She is also very involved in her community, volunteering for many events, always willing to lend a hand.

Strong and focused, Brooke has not only thrived in the sports world, but has taken honors courses, as well as, AP and Dual Enrollment classes, and was March 2022 Student of the Month.

For all of these reasons, Richards is proud to announce that Brooke Welch is the Carrabec High School MPA Award recipient for 2022. Brooke can attend a LIVE Virtual Event on April 1, 2022, where she will be eligible to be selected for one of ten scholarships.

Maine K-12 students invited to submit short films

The 44th annual Maine Student Film + Video Festival (MSFVF) is currently accepting submissions until June 15. All Maine students grades K-12 are eligible to enter for free. Films will be judged by category: Narrative, Documentary, and Creative (animated, experimental, etc.), and by age group: Grades K-5; Grades 6-8; Grades 9-12.

Students can submit their work at MaineStudentFilm.org/Festival.

A free-to-attend screening and awards ceremony will take place at Railroad Square Cinema on Saturday, July 16, during the Maine International Film Festival. The grand prize for best film of MSFVF is a $500 award, generously sponsored by Maine Public.

“Young filmmakers produce some of the most inspired, genuine work we’ve seen,” says Julia Dunlavey, assistant executive director of the Maine Film Center. “Students who participate in the festival have gone on to become professional filmmakers with their work screened at the Maine International Film Festival.”

About the Maine Film Center

The Maine Film Center (MFC) brings world-class independent film to Central Maine through Railroad Square Cinema, the only Sundance Art House Project cinema in Maine; the annual Maine International Film Festival, a 10-day celebration that attracts filmmakers and film aficionados from around the world.

By delivering impactful, accessible film exhibition and education programs. MFC believes that art and culture have the power to enrich lives, strengthen community bonds, and serve as an economic engine. MFC is a division of Waterville Creates. For more information, visit MaineFilmCenter.org.

LETTERS: Energy bill could have dire consequences

To the editor:

With utility rates skyrocketing, many Mainers are struggling to keep the heat and lights on. Unfortunately, LD 318, “An Act to Provide More Options to Maine Electric Service Customers and Support Maine’s Climate Goals,” passed through the Maine Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee and will be voted on this week. The bill would have dire consequences if the current version passes into law.

LD 318 promises benefits to Maine consumers by opening our arms to third-party retail electric providers. These out-of-state providers will make the utility marketplace more complex and more confusing for ratepayers. Worse still, studies of third-party providers in the marketplace in other states reported both higher bills and higher rates of residential disconnection.

In addition, ample evidence from around the country highlights the abusive sales practices many of these retail providers routinely use. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Connecticut recently fined retail providers after investigations revealed “teaser rates” which quickly expire and are then replaced with variable rates; high cancellation fees and other hidden charges; and variable rates that have no cap and no advance warnings to sudden increases often leading to disconnection.

It is important to note that there is part of LD 318 that would benefit Maine electric customers. The funding set aside to study Maine’s standard offer, or default service, would help the state understand how to avoid future sudden rate increases, such as those we saw this past January. We can improve how Maine purchases electricity in the future, avoid dramatic jumps in rates and make smarter decisions to protect electric utility customers everywhere.

As written, LD 318 doesn’t favor Maine’s ratepayers. It needs consumer protections written by regulators, not the retail electric industry. It needs a study designed to protect low-income customers, eliminate variable rate contracts, and simplify, not complicate, our electric utility billing process.

We hope legislators take the time to improve LD 318 by including these vital consumer protections to this study. Last-minute bills, authored by out-of-state energy marketers, should receive some discussion and debate. Maine electric consumers are depending on that. No matter your political leanings or what part of Maine you call home, we can all agree that driving future electric rates even higher is the last thing ratepayers, particularly older Mainers, can afford.

Carl Bucciantini
AARP Maine Volunteer
State President 

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Wars – Part 13

Capt. James Parnell Jones (left), Capt. Charles W. Billings (right)

by Mary Grow

Civil War

Henry Kingsbury lists four men who served in “the late war” in the personal paragraphs in his chapter on Benton in the 1892 Kennebec County history.

Stephen H. Abbott enlisted from Winslow and served six months with the 19th Maine; he moved to Benton in 1872 and served as postmaster from 1890 and for three years as a selectman.

Gershom Tarbell was in the 19th Maine for three years. Albion native Augustine Crosby was in the 3rd Maine, credited to Benton. Hiram B. Robinson was in Pennsylvania when the war started and enlisted from there not once but twice; he fought in 37 battles and returned to Benton in 1865.

Kingsbury does not mention Benton-born Frank H. Haskell (1843-1903), described in on-line sources as enlisting in Waterville June 4, 1861, when he was 18. Sergeant-Major Haskell was promoted to first lieutenant in the 3rd Maine Infantry after being cited for heroism during the June 1, 1862, Battle of Fair Oaks (also called the Battle of Seven Pines) in Virginia. His action, for which he received a Medal of Honor, is summarized as taking command of part of his regiment after all senior officers were killed or wounded and leading it “gallantly” in a significant stream crossing.

Another Civil War soldier from the central Kennebec Valley who was awarded the Medal of Honor was Private John F. Chase, from Chelsea, who enlisted in Augusta and served in the 5th Battery, Maine Light Artillery. As the May 3, 1863, battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia, wound down, Chase and one other survivor continued firing their gun after other batteries stopped and, since the horses were dead, dragged the gun away by themselves to keep it from the Confederates.

Grave of Horatio Farrington

At least 40 China residents died of wounds or disease, including, the China bicentennial history says, the five oldest of Mary and Ezekiel Farrington’s seven sons. Horatio, age 27, Charles, 25, Reuben, 20, Byron, 19 and Gustavus, 18, died between June 1, 1861, and Oct. 30, 1864.

Records do not show how many Civil War veterans were permanently disabled, the author commented. She retold the story told to her by Eleon M. Shuman of Weeks Mills about Jesse Hatch, from Deer Hill in southeastern China, who (for an unknown reason) fought for the South and came home so disfigured from a powder magazine explosion “that his appearance frightened the neighborhood children, but his friendly words and gifts of apples made him less terrifying.”

One of China’s best-known Civil War soldiers was Eli and Sybil Jones’ oldest son, Captain James Parnell Jones. As the author of the China history pointed out, pacificism is a central Quaker tenet, but in 1861 some Quakers decided ending slavery and maintaining the Union outweighed religious upbringing.

She quoted from the Jones genealogy an account of James Jones (who was 23, married with one son) and his 18-year-old unmarried brother Richard at a troop-raising event.

“Richard immediately raised his hand when the call came but James walked over to his brother, pulled down the raised arm and slowly raised his own. ‘Thee’s too young, Richard.’ ”

Jones was in the 7th Maine, first a company captain and from December 1863 a regimental major, as the troops fought in Virginia and at Gettysburg. In 1864, in the Battle of the Wilderness, he allegedly replied to a demand to surrender his embattled regiment with, “All others may go back, but the Seventh Maine, never!”

Jones was killed in the fighting around Fort Stevens July 11 and 12, 1864, as the 7th Maine helped defend Washington.

From Clinton, Kingsbury listed Daniel B. Abbott, born in Winslow, who served in the 19th Maine until June 1865 and after the war bought a farm in Clinton and became commander and grand master of Billings Post, G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War veterans’ organization that was disbanded in 1956 after the last member died).

The post was named to honor Captain Charles Wheeler Billings (Dec. 13, 1824 – July 15, 1863), Company C, 20th Maine, who was wounded in the left knee July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Little Round Top and died in a field hospital.

Clinton’s Brown Memorial Library website and a “Central Maine Morning Sentinel” article found on line describe the June 6, 2015, rededication of Clinton’s Civil War monument and the monument at Billings’ gravesite in Riverview Cemetery. The newspaper quotes speaker Bruce Keezer, then President of the Friends of Brown Memorial Library, as saying Clinton had a total population of 1,600 in the early 1860s; 252 men enlisted and 32 died.

The website says Billings was the highest-ranking 20th Maine officer to die at Little Round Top.

Billings left a widow, Ellen (Hunter) Billings, whose 30th birthday was July 1, 1863, and two daughters: Isadore Margaret, born in 1850, and Elizabeth W., or Lizzie, born in 1860. Another daughter, Alice, born in 1856, had died in 1860; and Elizabeth died Dec. 7, 1863. Isadore died in 1897, the day after her 47th birthday. Ellen lived until 1924.

Also from Clinton, according to Kingsbury, were Isaac Bingham, Rev. Francis P. Furber, Joseph Frank Rolfe and Laforest Prescott True.

Bingham had gone to California in 1852; he came home in 1861 and served two years with the 1st Maine Cavalry. After the war he moved back and forth between his Clinton farm and California.

Furber, a Winslow native who moved to Clinton in 1845, served in the 19th Maine for three years. A wound received May 6, 1864, “destroyed the use of one arm,” Kingsbury wrote. He was ordained a Freewill Baptist minister Sept. 27, 1885, after serving as a minister in Clinton and nearby towns since 1875.

Rolfe, born in Fairfield of parents who moved to Clinton when he was about three, served in the 2nd Maine Cavalry from 1863 to the end of the war. True was in the 20th Maine from 1862 to 1865 and was wounded twice.

Fairfield’s Civil War monument is one of the oldest in Maine, according to the town’s bicentennial history. The writers noted that its dedication day, July 4, 1868, was a scorching Saturday: the temperature reached 105 degrees in the shade.

Soldiers came from all over Maine. Ceremonies included a parade; cannon salutes; speeches, including one by Governor (former General) Joshua Chamberlain; dinner prepared by townswomen and served “in the old freight depot”; and a baseball game with a final score of 60 to 40 (the history does not record the names of the teams).

“The day was not without its tragedy,” the history says. A veteran named William Ricker, who had survived the war unscathed, lost a hand when one of the cannons went off too soon. Chamberlain promptly canceled the remaining salutes.

Kingsbury found that one of Sidney’s soldiers, Mulford Baker Reynolds (Aug. 5, 1843 – Aug. 3, 1937) served in Company C of the 1st Maine Cavalry from August 1862 to July 1865, “and spent about six months in Andersonville prison” in Georgia.

Reynolds married Ella F. Leighton on Nov. 23, 1881, according to an on-line source. Kingsbury wrote that in 1892 Reynolds was farming his family place in Sidney and he and Ella had four children.

Among the many Vassalboro men whose personal paragraphs in Kingsbury’s history list Civil War service is Edwin C. Barrows (April 2, 1842 – April 20, 1918). Educated at Waterville and Bowdoin colleges, he enlisted Nov. 19, 1863, in the 2nd Maine Cavalry.

Transferred in June 1865, he became second lieutenant (but acted as adjutant, the officer who assists the commander with administration, Kingsbury wrote) of the 86th U.S.C.T. (United States Colored Troops), serving until he was discharged April 10, 1866.

After the war, Barrows got a law degree from Albany Law School in January 1867 and practiced four years in Nebraska City, Nebraska. He married Laura Alden (Sept. 5, 1842 – Dec. 19, 1909) and returned to Vassalboro in 1872. By 1892, he had been a supervisor of schools in 1882 and 1883 and since then a selectman, “being chairman since 1887.”

Edwin and Laura Barrows are buried under a single headstone in Vassalboro’s Nichols Cemetery.

Vassalboro’s G.A.R. Post was named in honor of Richard W. Mullen of the 14th Maine, one of 410 Vassalboro Civil War soldiers, Alma Pierce Robbins wrote in her town history. After the war, town meeting voters appropriated money to the G.A.R.’s Women’s Relief Corps for Memorial Day services and veterans’ grave markers. The Post disbanded in 1942 and the appropriation was transferred to Vassalboro’s American Legion Post and Auxiliary.

The Waterville G.A.R. Post, chartered Dec. 29, 1874, was named in honor of William S. Heath, who was killed in action at Gaines Mill, Virginia, on June 27, 1862. The first post commander was General Francis E. Heath, the second General I. S. Bangs. Francis Heath was almost certainly William Heath’s brother (variously identified as Frank Edw. and Francis E.; died in Waterville in December 1897), I. S. Bangs the author of the military history chapter in Edwin Whittemore’s Waterville history.

Ernest Marriner added information on William Heath’s life in “Kennebec Yesterdays”. In 1849, he wrote, Heath was 15 and “somewhat tubercular”; his father, Solyman, thought a trip to the goldfields in California would be good for him.

Young Heath “did survive the rigors of the terrible trip across plains and mountains, worked a while in a San Francisco store, then shipped off to China, from which distant land the anxious father soon had him returned through the intercession of the United States government.”

Back in Waterville, Heath graduated from Waterville College in 1853. When the 3rd Maine’s Company H was formed in Waterville in April 1861, Heath was captain and his brother Francis/Frank was first lieutenant. By the time of his death, William Heath was a lieutenant colonel in the 5th Maine Infantry, Marriner wrote. Francis ended the war as a colonel in the 19th Maine, according to Bangs.

Linwood Lowden, in his Windsor history, wrote that Charles J. Carrol, one of seven Windsor men who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg July 2-4, 1863, was mortally wounded. Three more Windsor men, George H. B. Barton, George W. Chapman and George W. Merrill, were killed May 6, 1864, in the Battle of the Wilderness.

Windsor’s Vining G.A.R. Post, organized June 2, 1884, was named to honor Marcellus Vining. Post members met every Saturday night in the G.A. R. Hall, which was the upper story of the town house, Lowden said.

At an 1886, meeting, “a Mr. Bangs presented a picture of Marcellus Vining” to the organization. Kingsbury added that the Vining family donated Marcellus Vining’s army sword, “his life-size portrait and an elegant flag.”

Lowden believed Vining Post continued “well into the twentieth century.” Windsor voters helped fund the G.A.R., usually at $15 a year, he wrote. In 1929, however, “$30.00 was appropriated for G.A.R. Memorial and paid to the Sons of Veterans.”

Kingsbury wrote that Vining was born on the family homestead on May 2, 1842, third child and oldest son of Daniel Vining by his first wife, Sarah Esterbrooks of Oldtown (Daniel and Sarah had three daughters and three sons; after Sarah’s death, Daniel married Eliza Choat, and they had six more daughters).

On Jan. 25, 1862, Marcellus Vining became a private in the 7th Maine. He served for two years, during which his “ability and courage” (Kingsbury) earned him two promotions. On Jan. 4, 1864, he re-enlisted in a reorganized 7th Maine. On March 9 he was made second lieutenant of Company A, and on April 21 made first lieutenant. On May 12 he was wounded at Spottsylvania, Virginia; he died a week later.

“A captain’s commission was on its way from Washington to him, but too late to give to the brave soldier his richly earned promotion,” Kingsbury wrote.

He continued with a paraphrase from a letter Vining, knowing he was dying, wrote to his father, saying it was better “to die in the defense of his country’s flag than live to see it disgraced.”

Kingsbury concluded: “Thus the oft-repeated tale—a bright, promising man with the blush of youth still on his cheek, willingly laid down his life to preserve that of his country.”

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)
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993)
Marriner, Ernest, Kennebec Yesterdays (1954)
Robbins, Alma, Pierce History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971)
Whittemore, Rev. Edwin Carey, Centennial History of Waterville 1802-1902 (1902)

Websites, miscellaneous

CRITTER CHATTER: Preparing for the arrival of spring

The late Carleen Cote with a baby fox. (Duck Pond file photo)

by Jayne Winters

While the recent signs of an early spring encourage most of us to anxiously look forward to warmer days and more outside activities, this time of year is one of mixed emotions for Don Cote and the volunteers at Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center.

These last weeks of winter still require shoveling, plowing, and sanding; freeing water tubs from ice; replacing soiled and sometimes frozen bedding; cleaning pens; doing multiple loads of daily laundry; washing and disinfecting food dishes; preparing meals; and tending to injured and sick animals. Wildlife rehabbers are not ‘fair weather’ friends: whether it rains or snows or the wind howls, the critters must be cared for several times a day.

Don also takes care of a variety of his own ducks and geese year ‘round, requiring nesting materials, fresh water and different feed. So, while the folks at Duck Pond won’t miss doing chores in frigid temperatures, they’re also thinking about the busyness of the coming spring and how to begin preparing for it.

As Carleen [Cote] wrote in 2004, March is when they begin looking at catalogues and deciding what supplies will be needed. Orders for milk, milk replacements, supplements, electrolytes, vitamins, and foodstuffs for so many animals are mind boggling. Typical spring admissions include squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, skunks, raccoons, porcupines, foxes, opossums, fawns, and the occasional mice, rabbits, birds, coyotes, and bobcats. It’s hard to plan for so many different needs.

In addition, Don has to be sure there are special bottles, nipples and syringes for feeding the very young babies, as well as enough medications, bandages and other first aid items for emergency treatment of wounds and broken bones on injured, abandoned or orphaned animals that will soon arrive.

With warmer weather come more admissions from vehicular accidents, especially youngsters who haven’t yet learned the dangers and survival skills of living in the wild. There are also admissions from well-meaning citizens who think little ones have been abandoned by their mothers, when in actuality they may be seeking food or a better den area to raise their brood.

On a happier and more rewarding note, this is the time of year to think about when and where to release the animals that have overwintered at Duck Pond because they were too young or not well enough for fall release. This May will see the three bobcat kittens, several deer, foxes and raccoons return to the fields and forests that await them. Although I’m sure some of the young residents at the Care Center hold a special place in Don’s and the volunteers’ hearts, I’m also sure they feel a sense of gratitude to know their months of nurturing care truly made a difference.

Don plans to continue to gradually keep admissions and long-term residents to a more manageable level by transferring many rescued critters to other rehabbers who have so generously offered to assist in their care. Please check these websites to see if there is a rehabber closer to you to help make critter care at Duck Pond more practicable: https://www.mainevetmed.org/wildlife-rehabilitation or https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/orphaned-injured-wildlife/rehabilitation.html. Donald Cote operates Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center on Rte. 3 in Vassalboro. It is a non-profit state permitted rehab facility supported by his own resources & outside donations. Mailing address: 1787 North Belfast Ave., Vassalboro ME 04989 TEL: (207) 445-4326.