The Palermo Planning Board will meet Thursday, February 13, 2025, at the Palermo Town Office, at 6 p.m. Purpose – to conduct official review of plans for the proposed Pine Hill subdivision on Hostile Valley Road, Tax Map R11, Lot 27C.
by Mary GrowAt their Jan. 28 meeting, China Planning Board members approved a flood hazard development permit for the town’s planned rebuilding of Town Landing Road, in South China Village.
When board members approved a conditional use permit for earth-moving at their Jan. 14 meeting, approval was conditioned on getting a flood hazard development permit. The board has not granted one for so long that Codes Officer Nicholas French needed to create an application form.
He did, and presented a completed application at the Jan. 28 meeting. It asked approval “to pave/stabilize the [Town Landing] road, armor the end with concrete planks and crushed stone, install a drainage ditch, check dams, + a vegetative buffer.” The size was given as 25-feet-by-550-feet; the cost was estimated at $125,000.
Board members quickly found the project met flood hazard requirements (most deal with structures in flood zones and were irrelevant) and approved the permit. French will create an approval form for them to sign at their next meeting.
In an email after the meeting, French said the Town of China now has all needed permits for the road rebuilding project.
Discussion of the second item on the Jan. 28 agenda, timber harvesting regulations, led to a broader discussion of ordinance amendments.
Board Chairman Toni Wall and French explained that in November 2024, China voters approved an ordinance amendment that transferred authority to regulate timber harvesting (in shoreland, resource protection and stream protection districts) from town officials to the Maine Forest Service. Forest Service officials have asked for additional deletions of references to town authority, from lists of responsibilities to definitions.
Ordinance amendments need voter approval. Newly-appointed (and former) board member Milton Dudley asked about presenting other changes at the same time.
At various times in 2024, board members discussed updates and additions to several parts of the town’s Land Development Code. They lacked time to develop wording.
French said any changes proposed for the June 10 town budget meeting need to be drafted by the end of February, so voters can comment at a public hearing before the final version goes on the meeting warrant early in April.
The next town wide vote after June 10 will be in November 2025.
French’s report to the board included announcing that he has been selected as the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce municipal employee of the year, with seven nominations. An awards banquet will be held in April. Board and audience members congratulated him.
The next regular China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11.
by Mary GrowAll six China Budget Committee members and four of the five Select Board members watched Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s Feb. 3 on-screen presentation of the initial draft 2025-26 town budget. Each went home with a binder containing an inch of paper detailing past, present and proposed finances.
The introductory page shows Hapgood’s proposed budget, totaling $4,996,148. This figure is $191,752 higher than the current year’s budget.
Major recommended increases include more than $70,000 for public works; more than $60,000 for public services; and more than $54,000 for emergency services. The manager proposes decreases from the current year in five accounts; the largest is $18,500 from the transfer station, mainly achieved by moving a part-time employee to the public works payroll.
This person will continue to work in both departments as needed, Hapgood said.
Her presentation summarized some of the budget highlights. New expenditures she proposes include adding a part-time Community Program Director, at an anticipated cost of $11,000; and creating a new reserve fund for replacement scales at the transfer station, starting with $12,000.
The manager is recommending a 3.5 percent cost of living pay increase for town employees. The figure matches the CPI (Consumer Price Index) increase for northern New England, she said.
After review by the budget committee and select board and approval by the latter, the budget will be presented to voters at the June 10 annual town budget meeting. The 2025-26 fiscal year begins July 1.
Hapgood pointed out that not all the almost $5 million will come from property taxes; excise taxes and state revenue sharing are important contributors. And, she said, new homes and new businesses have increased the tax base.
A major concern that surfaced repeatedly in Hapgood’s presentation is emergency services. How will 911 calls be answered in the future? she wondered.
Delta Ambulance is one aspect. The Waterville-based service essential to transport sick or injured residents is charging towns it serves $25 per resident this year and will increase the fee to $35 in 2025-26. This year China was billed $110,200; next year’s bill will be $154,280.
Hapgood proposes paying for 10 hours a week coverage by Kennebec County deputy sheriffs, instead of the current eight hours, increasing that budget line from $36,000 this year to $44,200 next.
And she worried about the decline in volunteers for China’s three fire departments and China Rescue. Members are aging out, and not enough younger members are replacing them, she said.
Hapgood urged select board and budget committee members to review the information in their budget books and send her any questions, preferably well before the Feb. 10 select board meeting.
A “Cabin Fever Quilt Show and Luncheon” will be held in Vassalboro on Saturday, February 15, (storm date February 22) at the Vassalboro United Methodist Church (VUMC), 614 Main Street.. “What better way to spend a mid-winter Saturday than taking in a display of beautiful new and vintage quilts,” said one of the event coordinators, Dale Potter-Clark. “Quilts of all sizes, ages, patterns and skill levels will be draped over the pews in the sanctuary, producing a rather breathtaking display.” A luncheon will add to the enjoyment of the day.
Some antique quilts from the Vassalboro Historical Society’s collection will be among those on display as well as others, both old and new, from church members and local families. Information about the quilts’ histories will be provided and there will be people on standby to answer questions that may arise. Those who attend the Quilt Show will be eligible for a door prize – one drawing will be done every hour 11:00 a.m – 2 p.m. Some newly-made quilts will be available for purchase, a percentage of which will be designated to the VUMC building fund as will be all proceeds from the day.
The quilts will be on display 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., and the luncheon will be served 11:30 a.m. p.m., to include special desserts and sweets with Valentine’s Day in mind for a $10 donation, and additional donations would be appreciated for the Quilt Show. Anyone with interest in entering a quilt, whether vintage or newer, can email crossings4u@gmail.com or call or text (207) 441-9184. Follow this and future special events and public meals on the Vassalboro United Methodist Church Facebook page.
Hsiang shows off some of the parsnips grown this past summer. (contributed photo)
In an era where community spirit is more important than ever, China’s new garden project aims to bring people together by fostering a sense of connection and collaboration through a shared love of gardening.
Organizer Jim Hsiang, begins assembly of the raised beds. (contributed photo)
Managed by the China for a Lifetime committee, and advised by Jim and Jude Hsiang, this initiative builds on their successful experience with similar projects in Connecticut to ensure its success here. The garden will be centrally located on the south side of the Town Office, by the Red Barn, making it accessible and convenient to all community members.
The project will feature 36 garden beds available for rent, providing ample space for participants to cultivate their own plants. Any surplus produce will be donated to the China Community Food Pantry, further benefiting those in need. Additionally, a spring workshop will introduce participants to the basics of gardening, equipping them with the knowledge to make the most of their plots. A nominal fee of $25/year, or $15/year for seniors, will be required to participate.
While the project has received several generous donations already, they still need to raise about $1,500 from local businesses and individuals to fully fund the effort before spring. Volunteers are also essential for building the fenced-in area, constructing a storage shed, and preparing the garden beds.
James Hsiang and Tom Michaud will be putting the garden beds together on Saturday, February 8, and they could use additional volunteers to help with the effort.
Those interested in signing up for a garden plot or seeking more information should contact the committee by email at ChinaForALifetime@gmail.com. Follow “China Community Garden Project” on Facebook for future updates and announcements.
Community members can also support the project by donating recyclables (bottles and cans) designated for the garden project at China Variety and Redemption in China Village on Rt. 202 just north of the lake.
The Garden Committee is excited to see our community come together through this initiative and looks forward to the growth and connections it will inspire. Join us in bringing this vision to life!
I remember the day; I remember the hour; I even remember the skipped heartbeat when I first heard my six-year-old son Alan’s words: “I want to be a hockey player.”
Translation – You can be my hockey mom.
* * * * * *
“I have to teach him to skate?” I asked my husband. “You’re the athlete in the family—you teach him to skate.”
“You teach him to skate,” he said, “and I’ll teach him to play hockey.”
“Why me? Remember, I’m the one who took dancing lessons because I was so clumsy and at age five sat on my thumb and broke it and couldn’t be in the recital.”
“So?” he answered. “You were a cheerleader.”
“But I only did that to get into the games for free.”
“Skating is great exercise,” he added.
“This was my last rational plea. “But I’m Mrs. Couch Potato!”
Smiling, he answered, “I rest my case.”
* * * * * *
“My, God, he skates just like you.”
I had warned him, right? Hadn’t I warned him?
One year of intensive training, a frostbitten nose, frostbitten toes, a thousand miles on the car and another five thousand miles on my ice skates, not to mention the wear and tear on my body and all he could say was, “My, God, he skates just like you.”
What did I learn from this experience? I learned two things: one, once a couch potato always a couch potato and two, when you sit on your thumb at age five, it takes only six weeks to heal, but when you sit on our thumb at age 30, it takes six months to heal.
* * * * * *
“Hey, Mom, I’m on a hockey team. I’m number 6.”
Translation – He can now skate up and down the ice using a cutoff $20 hockey stick as a lethal weapon, and he can now legally crush against the boards any player who dares to touch that puck.
As the weeks went by, I learned hockey lingo.
Faceoff – This is when ten players line up with sticks to kill the puck to win or to kill each other – if they lose.
Off-sides – Technically this means a player went over his own blue line before the puck. The result is a face-off in front of his team’s goalie. Realistically this means if your son does this more than once or if a goal is scored, the mother of your team’s goalie will attack you because you are sitting closer to her than your son.
Checking – This is the legal crushing of bodies against the boards.
Charging – This is checking with the intent to kill but failing.
Major Penalty—This is checking with the intent to kill and succeeding.
“Get His Number!” – This is yelled by the mother of the player who was charged and still lives for revenge.
Burn – This is when a forward from one team skates past the defensemen of the other team and scores a goal. All the mothers then yell, “Get his number!” and the entire opposing team charges after the scorer.
(Note: If this player is your son, this is not a pretty picture.)
* * * * * *
“Hey, Mom, we’re going to play in a Squirt Tournament.”
Translation – I can now watch my seven-year-old kill or be killed in an arena with hundreds of frenzied mothers screaming, “Get his number!”
* * * * * *
Our team skated out. The nine-year-olds who could skate forward, backward and stop were line one, the Midgets. The eight-year-olds who could only skate forward and stop were line two, the Pipsqueaks. The seven-year-olds who could neither skate backward nor stop were line three, the Smurfs.
Not being able to skate backward was only a minor problem. The Smurfs just skated forward all the time. Not being able to stop was another story. Most hockey players do the snowplow where they stop sharply, turning their skates to the left or right and spraying a little loose, scraped ice to the side. Unable to do the snowplow, the Smurfs had developed a variety of methods for stopping. Some players dragged the toe of one skate; some skated into the boards; some skated into other players; and others did a pirouette-like whirl where they turned around on their toes in one spot.
The warmup started. Everyone was excited. Even I, who’d had nightmares about sending my lamb to the slaughter, was excited.
That was before I saw the opposing team’s players.
That’s our Rambo line,” volunteered the woman next to me. They’re our seven-year-olds.”
Just then five Rambo line players raced across the arena and snowplowed ice up onto the Plexiglas in front of us. At that precise moment I knew we were in trouble.
“Here comes our Commando line. They’re our eight-year-olds.”
Each of the Commando line players lined up on their blue line and took slap shots, one after another. Each puck sped past their goalie and into the net.
I wanted to stand up and yell “Help!” but all I could do was stare.
“And here are our nine-year-olds. We call them the Terminators.”
Dare I look?
In a gust of wind five giants skated past us. The top of my son’s helmet reached only to their shoulders.
Our goalie’s mother jumped up and screamed hysterically, “My, God, he shaves,” but all I could do was slouch in my seat, mumble incoherently, and pray, “Let Alan live, God, just let him live.”
“Which kid is yours?” the woman asked.
Alan’s over there, number 6. He plays center.”
“The one with the toothy grin and dimples?”
“Yes.”
“A shrimp, huh?”
“No, Smurf.”
“That’s my kid over there. Hey, Butch!” she yelled. “He’s the number one Terminator, the captain.”
As she said this, Attila the Hun with five o’clock shadow skated by and smiled.
“What happened to his front teeth?” I asked.
“Lost them in the last game.”
I stared in horror.
“You should have seen the other guy,” she boasted.
“Not my son, God, please, not mine.”
Throughout the game our coach played the Midget and Pipsqueak lines as much as possible. Everyone said he played them to keep the score at a respectable 15-0. Personally, I think he played them to keep the Smurfs alive, and I was grateful.
During the game Mrs. Terminator, as I had begun to call her, gave me a synopsis of her team’s successes.
“We’re undefeated, you know.”
Somehow that didn’t surprise me.
“In fact, no team has ever scored one goal against us.”
Somehow that fact didn’t surprise me either.
“Butch is the top scorer. If he scores one more goal in this game, he’ll have a triple hat trick, nine goals in the same game, and that will be a team record.”
She was praying for records, and I was praying for lives.
“You know, you get what you pay for,” she offered.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I mean, I paid $250 for my kid to play on this team. They practice Monday through Friday and play games on Saturday and Sunday.
“I only paid $75 for Alan to play.”
“Ha!” she laughed. You wasted your money. Looks as if you paid $75 for a seat on the bench.”
She was definitely beginning to annoy me.
Just then one of the Pipsqueaks changed up lines, but the door was closed. In an attempt to get off the ice, he tried to put his leg over the boards. Unsuccessfully, I might add. Butch skated by, and with a motion of his hand he flipped the Pipsqueak over the boards and onto his head.
The rest, as they say, is history. That Pipsqueak was followed by other Pipsqueaks, and they were followed by Midgets. Relentlessly, Butch skated our players into exhaustion, into fear, and just plain into the boards.
“I told you,” Mrs. Terminator repeated. “Two hundred fifty dollars makes a winner.”
Suddenly, my heart was in my throat. The Smurfs were going out. There were five little cherub-faced seven-year-olds carrying $20 hockey sticks cut in half to reach their chins. Some skated into the boards; some skated into each other, one dragged a toe; and all pirouetted from blue line to blue line.
“This is a three-ring circus,” Mrs. Terminator laughed. “It’s worth my $250 just to see this.”
Right then I was beginning to imagine what she’d look like without her front teeth.
Butch had two minutes left to score his triple hat trick goal, and he was determined to succeed. The Smurfs gave up chasing and lined up for the attack. The next 30 seconds, a scene from a Marx Brothers movie, were the longest 30 seconds of my life.
Butch skated around his cage with the puck and headed straight for our zone. The only obstacle blocking his way was Alan. I covered my face, and that’s when I heard the hit.
I peered through my fingers, and there was my Smurf literally plastered chest-to-chest with Butch. Alan lost his grip and slid to grab Butch’s waist – and Butch skated on. Holding on for dear life, Alan then slipped down to Butch’s legs – and Butch skated on. Suddenly, Alan lost his grip and with stick and body flat on the ice he hooked butch’s skate with the curve of his cutoff $20 hockey stick – and Butch still skated on, dragging Alan and his stick behind him.
Everyone just watched. This was going to be the record-breaking hat trick goal and another shut out for the Terminators.
Butch wound up, and the shot echoed in the silence. The puck headed straight for the left-hand bottom corner of the cage. But wait! The puck hit the pipe, and the ringing shook the crowd.
The puck then deflected off Alan’s stick and shot into open ice. Smurf defenseman number 14 was doing a pirouette on the blue line, and with pinball precision he accidently slapped the puck into the opposing team’s zone and toward their net. The goalie dropped to his knees – going, going and through his legs – Score!
No triple hat trick goal and a score against the shutout champs.
Our entire bench jumped on Smurf number 14 in ecstasy. Butch jumped on Alan in rage.
At that point everything went black for me. The next thing I remember was Butch in the home penalty box, a two-minute penalty for roughing. Through his face mask I saw his glaring eyes and clenched toothless jaw.
Alan was in the guest penalty box, a two-minute penalty for holding. Through his face mask I saw his dimples and toothy grin.
My Smurf was now a full-fledged hockey player. He had scored his first assist, gotten his first penalty, and was still alive to brag about it.
Mrs. Terminator was on her feet shaking a clenched fist, “Hey, Ref,” she screamed. “I didn’t pay $250 for my kid to sit the bench.”
I just smiled.
At this point, Mrs. Terminator saw me and yelled, “What are you grinning about, Lady? Your kid’s on the bench, too.”
I turned to face her, eye to eye, hockey mom to hockey mom.
“I know,” I quipped smartly, “but I only had to pay 75 bucks for my kid’s seat.”
(I had the privilege of watching these seven-year-old Smurf hockey players grow up and win the Maine 1991 Class A State Hockey Championship. Also, the editor of The Town Line, Roland Hallee, was the assistant coach of that team.)
by Joyce BucciantiniFebruary is one of the most beautiful times in Maine. Gone are the super short days of early winter, leaving us with more daylight to enjoy the great outdoors in Maine. Many cities and towns have winter-themed celebrations which might include snow sports, ice fishing, or maybe an opportunity for hot cocoa. These are great ways to fight off cabin fever and reconnect with our neighbors and friends. For those who enjoy warmer activities, there is always excitement to be found at the state high school basketball tournaments during the February school vacation week.
In between enjoying the bright winter weather and fresh air, we must also keep in mind a yearly task that we all must do, but few enjoy: get our taxes done! Yes, as surely as the new year moves forward, it is important to start making a plan for gathering our financial information and completing our tax forms. However, there is good news! The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program offers free tax preparation services in 47 locations in Maine. Last year, 240 Tax-Aide volunteers filed 13,671 Federal returns helping Maine taxpayers receive $10.4 million in Federal refunds. They also filed thousands of state tax returns, all at no cost!
This remarkable program offers free tax preparation services, focusing on taxpayers who are over 50 years old and have low to moderate incomes. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered by AARP Foundation in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service. All Tax-Aide volunteer counselors are IRS-trained and certified to prepare and file most types of federal and state tax returns for Maine taxpayers.
The online Tax-Aide Site Locator tool will help you find the Tax-Aide location nearest to you. This website provides the locations, the operating schedules and who to contact for making tax preparation appointments. Visit https://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide/locations/ or call 1-888-227-7669 for more information.
AARP Foundation Tax-Aide appointments fill up fast. It is a good idea to make your appointment early in the tax season. Then you can rest easy and enjoy all that the great Maine outdoors has to offer, or for indoors fun, check out an AARP Maine coffee social near you. Perhaps I’ll see you there!
Joyce Bucciantini is a retired middle school educator. She currently coordinates Delta Kappa Gamma’s Read to Me program, is a tutor with Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin, and is an active AARP Maine volunteer. In her spare time, she enjoys her gardens, being outdoors and traveling.
Erskine Academy
Note: part of this article, like part of last week’s, was first written in September 2021.
Yet another private high school in China, Erskine Academy, opened in September 1883 and is thriving today. The China bicentennial history gives a detailed account of its origins: it became a private academy because China voters at the beginning of the 1880s refused to accept donated money for a public high school.
As the history tells the story, Mary Erskine inherited her husband Sullivan’s considerable wealth when he died in 1880. She consulted John K. Erskine, Sullivan’s nephew and executor, about ways to use the money. (The history says she had no children; on-line sources say Mary and Sullivan had a son, born in 1832 – perhaps died or estranged by 1880? – and a daughter, by 1880 married with three children.)
John Erskine, who regretted his own lack of educational opportunity, suggested endowing a high school in the Chadwick Hill school district, south of South China Village. Mary Erskine agreed, and at a Nov. 13, 1880, special town meeting, voters accepted a $1,500 trust fund for a free high school.
At the annual meeting in March, 1881, voters reversed the decision and told the town treasurer to return the money. In March 1882, school supporters presented an article again offering the $1,500 and “specifying that the town would not pay for providing the school building.” Voters passed over it (did not act).
A month later, a group of supporters asked the Erskines to let them establish a private high school. Mary Erskine approved and helped organize a board of trustees headed by renowned Quaker, Eli Jones.
John K. Erskine was the trustees’ vice-president, Dana C. Hanson secretary and Samuel C. Starrett treasurer. Hanson and Starrett were China selectmen in 1876 and 1877 and again, significantly, in 1881 and 1882.
The trustees “bought the seven-acre Chadwick common from A. F. Trask for $100.” (Wikipedia says the campus is now about 25 acres.) Mary Erskine donated $500 for a building.
Starrett encouraged the owners of a disused Methodist church on the common to sell it at auction. They did, and he bought it for $50.
The trustees had the building moved to the center of the lot and turned into a schoolhouse. “A bell tower and other necessary buildings” were added, and Mary Erskine donated a bell and furnishings in the spring of 1883.
The trustees organized a “tree-planting picnic:” area residents were invited to bring a picnic dinner and a tree. The China history says the grounds gained about 250 trees. A “very happy” Mary Erskine attended Erskine High School’s opening day in September 1883.
Erskine started with two teachers, one also the principal, and “more than 50 students.” The teachers were Colby College graduate, Julia E. Winslow, and Castine Normal School graduate, William J. Thompson.
As Henry Kingsbury finished his Kennebec County history in 1892, he wrote that at “the Erskine School” “under the principalship of William J. Thompson, many young people are receiving a serviceable article of real learning.”
Thompson, Kingsbury said, was born in Knox County and taught in South Thomaston and Searsport before becoming Erskine’s first principal in 1883. The school “has flourished under his management,” Kingsbury wrote.
The China history says in 1885, Carrie E. Hall, from East Madison, succeeded Winslow. In May 1887, Thompson and Hall married; both taught at Erskine until Carrie died “in the spring of 1900.”
Her widower stayed as principal until 1902, and lived until 1949. Find a Grave says both were born in 1860, and both are buried in Chadwick Hill cemetery, near Erskine Academy.
The school initially ran two 11-week terms a year, and in some years “a shorter summer term.” The history lists 16 courses: “reading, grammar, elocution, arithmetic, algebra, history, geography, natural philosophy, bookkeeping, ancient languages (Latin and Greek), botany, geology, astronomy, and anatomy and physiology.”
By 1887, increased enrollment required a third teacher, not named in the China history. The building “was raised ten feet to make room for more classrooms underneath.”
Students from Chadwick Hill and other school districts came and went by the term, not the year. Therefore, the history says, it was not until 1892 “that four students finished four years apiece so that the first formal graduation could be held.”
Trustees had a dormitory for girls built in 1900 and “later” (the history gives no date) one for boys. Students who roomed on campus “brought their own food and fuel from home and prepared their own meals,” the history says.
In 1901 the Maine legislature incorporated the school as Erskine Academy and approved an annual $300 appropriation.
The China history says after 1904, Erskine Academy and China Academy, in China Village (see last week’s article), became China’s town-supported high schools. Town Superintendent Gustavus J. Nelson (1896 and 1897, 1899 to 1901 and 1903 through 1907) came to a financial agreement with the Erskine trustees, and “the trustees accepted Dr. Nelson’s ideas about such matters as curriculum and entrance examinations.”
In the fall of 1904, the history says, “three local students passed the superintendent’s entrance examination, and ten more were admitted conditionally.”
China Academy closed in 1909, leaving Erskine China’s only high school. For reasons the bicentennial history does not explore, Erskine’s enrollment went down so dramatically in early 1913 that the State of Maine downgraded it to a Class B school (two instead of four years, a single teacher instead of two or more).
In the fall of 1913 Erskine had 16 students. The history says enrollment doubled to 32 by February 1914, “and the one teacher was overworked.” The state restored a Class A rating in 1915, and enrollment continued to climb: 46 students in the fall of 1916, 50 in 1919, with a record entering class of 26 and three teachers “for the first time in many years.”
More students needed more space; the history credits relatives of the Erskines, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Ford, from Whitefield, with buying a nearby house and turning it into a boys’ dormitory, named Ford Cottage. Another house became the Erskine Cottage Annex, housing “four girls and a teacher.”
A fire destroyed Erskine’s original school building on Nov. 5, 1926. Fortunately, Ford gymnasium had opened in November 1925; the bicentennial history says classes were held there until a new classroom building was ready in 1936.
The history also says Mary Erskine’s bell was saved from the fire and “mounted on campus.” In the fall of 1971, someone stole it.
Erskine Academy’s website says the school has been a nonprofit organization since 1974. It explains that tuition paid by the eight towns from which most of its students come does not cover costs, so tax-deductible donations are welcome.
The eight towns are listed as Chelsea, China, Jefferson, Palermo, Somerville, Vassalboro, Whitefield and Windsor. Erskine also accepts privately-paid students and, the website says, international students.
China school students who became college presidents
Kingsbury named two men who attended China schools (at least elementary schools) and later became college presidents: Stephen A. Jones and George F. Mosher.
Stephen A. Jones was the second president of what Kingsbury called Nevada State College (later University of Nevada at Reno, according to on-line information) from 1889 to 1894.
During his tenure, the “faculty increased to 15 members… and enrollment grew to 179 in his final year as president.” He oversaw the school’s first graduation, in 1891.
The Jones genealogy in the China bicentennial history includes Stephen Alfred Jones, oldest son of Alfred H. Jones and Mary Randall (Jones) Jones (they were second cousins), of China. Alfred Jones taught in freedmen’s schools in Virginia and North Carolina.
Stephen went to the Providence, Rhode Island, Friends School and then to Dartmouth, from which he graduated in 1872, “receiving both MA and PhD from that institution.”
Married to Louise Coffin, he taught Latin and Greek at William Penn College in Iowa, where their older son was born; and then studied in Bonn, Germany, where their younger son was born. After heading the University of Nevada, the genealogy says, he retired to San Jose, California, returning at intervals to visit China relatives.
The genealogy calls Stephen “a good teacher,” with “excellent literary qualifications” who had “excellent results” when he taught in Branch Mills in 1865. It quotes a biographical cyclopedia saying his “large stature and commanding presence, pleasant but firm,…won the respect and confidence of his students and had a strong influence over them.”
* * * * *
George F. Mosher was the seventh president of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, from September 1886 to 1901. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bowdoin, he was a nurse during the Civil War, and served “in a German consulate” before coming to Hillsdale.
An on-line list of Hillsdale presidents says “Mosher’s years as president were a period of particularly high academic achievement. Hillsdale was widely known as one of the strongest small colleges in the Midwest.”
*****
A digression: Hillsdale’s first president, Daniel McBride Graham (1817-1888), was an Oberlin College graduate who served Hillsdale, then Michigan Central College in Spring Arbor, from its opening in 1844 to 1848. It started with “only five students in a small, deserted, two-room store.”
In 1848, Graham resigned “to become a pastor in Saco, Maine.” In 1855, the school moved about 25 miles to Hillsdale and changed its name.
Graham returned to become the school’s fourth president from 1871–1874. The list of presidents says: “Facing almost total destruction of the campus by fire, Graham led the rebuilding of the campus during the 1873 financial panic.”
Spring Arbor is now home to a private Free Methodist university described on line as “the second-largest evangelical Christian university in Michigan.”
Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984)
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892)
Websites, miscellaneous.
Once properly diagnosed, thyroid disease can be treated in many ways.(NAPSI)—An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease.1 During January, recognized as Thyroid Awareness Month, YARAL Pharma is raising awareness of thyroid disease, particularly hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Despite its prevalence, thyroid disease remains widely misunderstood, with many people unaware of its signs and symptoms.
The thyroid, a small butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck, plays a vital role in regulating metabolism, energy levels, and overall hormonal balance. Conditions such as hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroid nodules can significantly impact health and quality of life. However, up to 60% of individuals with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition, often due to a lack of awareness about the signs and symptoms, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment.1
Thyroid disorders can manifest in various ways, including fatigue, weight changes, mood fluctuations, and cognitive difficulties. These symptoms often resemble common day-to-day ailments, making them easy to overlook. As a result, many patients live with thyroid conditions for years before seeking treatment.
What Can Be Done
Treatment for thyroid disease varies depending on the type and severity of the condition, as well as the patient’s age and overall health. Some common treatments include:2
• Antithyroid drugs: These medications stop the thyroid from producing hormones.
• Radioactive iodine therapy: A widely used and effective treatment involving the oral intake of radioactive iodine. Most patients who undergo this therapy eventually develop hypothyroidism.
• Beta-blockers: These medications don’t affect the thyroid but can help manage symptoms such as rapid heart rate, tremors, and nervousness.
• Surgery: In rare cases, a healthcare provider may recommend surgically removing the thyroid. Patients undergoing this procedure will need to take synthetic thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of their life.
• Thyroid hormone replacement: For hypothyroidism, patients typically take a daily dose of synthetic thyroxine (T4), a hormone that replaces what their thyroid can no longer produce.
If you’re experiencing symptoms of thyroid disease or have concerns about your thyroid health, don’t wait—talk to your healthcare provider to learn more about diagnosis and treatment options.
1. American Thyroid Association. Press Room. https://www.thyroid.org/media-main/press-room/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.
2. Cleveland Clinic. Thyroid Disease. Cleveland Clinic, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8541-thyroid-disease. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.
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