Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Albion schools

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Besse High School 1913

by Mary Grow

Note: some of the following information was previously published in The Town Line on September 30, 2021.

The Town of Albion, north of China and east of Winslow, had half a dozen European families by 1790, according to Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history. The area, including until 1818 the north end of present-day China, was organized as Freetown Plantation in 1802.

On March 9, 1804, the Massachusetts legislature incorporated it as the Town of Fairfax. Fairfax became Lygonia (or Lagonia) on March 10, 1821, and Albion on Feb. 25, 1824.

Ruby Crosby Wiggin wrote in her 1964 Albion history that the first plantation meeting was held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, 1802. Voters chose major local officials.

At a second meeting, on Monday, March 8, 1803, there were more elections and the first appropriations. Voters authorized spending $50 for “plantation charges”; paying the three assessors $1 per day; and paying the meeting moderator $1.

There were more meetings in April and October 1803 and March 1804. Wiggin found the first reference to education at the April 16, 1804, meeting (after Freetown Plantation became the Town of Fairfax): voters approved $200 “for schooling” (and $1,200 for roads, payable in money or equivalent).

At an Aug. 25, 1804, meeting, Wiggin wrote, voters created five school districts; elected a three-man committee to run each district; and elected “a committee for the purpose of building schoolhouses.”

School money was allocated according to the number of “scholars,” defined as residents between three and 21 years old, in each district. District committees hired teachers and oversaw building maintenance; students provided their own textbooks.

As in other Kennebec Valley towns, early school districts were described by town lines and lot lines. The description Wiggin quoted for District 1, for example, said it covered the area “from the north line of H. Miller’s to N. Wiggin’s at the town line, then east to the eastern line of the Williams lot, then running [is a direction omitted here?] until it intersects the Heywood lot.”

District 1 was in southwestern Albion; two of its first three committeemen were Nathaniel Wiggin and Japheth Washburn, settlers in China in 1803 and 1804. Ruby Crosby Wiggin commented on how District 1 appeared and disappeared in town records.

She found that much of its territory, maybe including the schoolhouse, became part of China in 1818. In November 1821, Albion’s District 1 reappeared, with 24 students. On Oct. 25, 1823, voters abolished it, though 31 students were listed. It reappeared in 1838, and was listed until 1846, when it apparently was permanently eliminated.

Voters approved seven districts in March, 1805, and nine, with a total of 316 students, in May, 1805, Wiggin said.

She did not record how many schoolhouses were built, but apparently not enough. Voters in 1809 approved taxing non-residents, defined as “Winthrop and Lloyd, Nathan Winslow and the Plymouth Company,” specifically to raise money to build schoolhouses.

(The Plymouth Company, the Boston-based group also called Kennebec Proprietors and other names as it changed corporate structure, hired Falmouth surveyor Nathan Winslow to lay out lots on several of its Kennebec Valley tracts; Kingsbury said Winslow was assigned land in Fairfax. Wiggin wrote that in 1809 the company still owned 9,498 acres in Fairfax. Your writer could not identify Winthrop and Lloyd.)

In 1814, Wiggin wrote, voters created a tenth school district.

By 1816, she said, town meetings were being held in the District 7 schoolhouse (which she was unable to locate precisely), while voters argued about building a town house. The town house finally came into use in late 1817 or early 1818, also in District 7. But, Wiggin wrote, a January, 1823, town meeting was in the District 7 schoolhouse.

(The 1856 map of Albion in the Kennebec County atlas shows a town house south of Albion Corner [approximately the current business district on Route 202], on a road running west from the stream crossing formerly called Puddledock.)

From 1830 to 1842, Wiggin found, voters approved about $500 a year for schools. In 1843 they raised the amount to $686 annually, and kept it there for a decade.

The 1856 atlas shows 10 Albion schoolhouses. Three were in the southern part of town. One of the southern schoolhouses was named first Shaw and later Davis, Wiggin said, giving no dates. It was near a store run by a man named Shaw, a blacksmith shop and an inn.

The 1879 Albion map shows C. H. Shaw’s house and a blacksmith shop between South Albion and the Quaker Hill Road schoolhouse in eastern Albion.

Another schoolhouse was on South Freedom Road, near Puddledock (called in the 1879 atlas South Albion).

Two western schoolhouses were on Back Pond Road (aka Clark Road), west of Lovejoy Pond. (The southern of these, Wiggin said, had become District 1 by 1858.) Three more were in northern Albion.

The schoolhouse closest to present-day downtown Albion was a little south of the business area, on the west side of what looks like present-day Route 202, almost due east of the northern tip of Lovejoy Pond.

Wiggin gave interesting details about some of Albion’s district schools, but unfortunately she located them mostly by reference to 1960s property-owners. For example, she quoted a resident whose father said District 4, at some point, had a brick schoolhouse with a clock on the outside whose hands pointed permanently to 8:45.

She did locate one controversial school building: in the 1860s, she said voters argued for six years over replacing the District 8 schoolhouse, with the dispute including a lawsuit. In 1868 a new schoolhouse went up on the Main Street lot where the Besse building, home of the town office, now stands.

Ernest C. Marriner, in his Kennebec Yesterdays, dipped into the report of Albion’s school committee for 1861. (The 1861 date might mean the report was published in the spring of 1861 and covered the previous year, since early 1860; or the report was for the year 1861.)

Marriner said the committee found that schools were “flourishing,” in spite of a diphtheria epidemic that killed 17 students (in 1860 or 1861, presumably). But Wiggin quoted from a town report saying 17 students died of diphtheria “during the school year of 1862-3.”

Marriner and Wiggin agreed that Albion had 14 school districts in 1861 – Wiggin listed them by number and name, not by location. By then a single agent was in charge of each district, with the town committee (Marriner) or town school supervisor (Wiggin) overseeing all.

The report Marriner cited criticized individual teachers who failed to maintain discipline, and singled out the District 5 (Quaker Hill, per Wiggin) schoolhouse that was poorly maintained.

Limited success in District 3 – the Crosby Neighborhood school, in southeastern Albion, Wiggin said – was not the teacher’s fault. Marriner quoted: “with so much ice, the fondness for skating rather than for school, and the parents seemingly willing to have it thus, the term was not very profitable.”

By 1862, Wiggin said, “all legal residents” of each district could participate in district meetings at which they voted on “the upkeep of the school property, board of the teacher, wood [firewood for heating] and other matters pertaining to the school.” The district school agent apparently hired the teacher.

In 1879, Wiggin reported, Albion’s summer schools cost $343.61, with the average term eight weeks plus four to six days. Winter schools cost $738.65, and the average term was 11 weeks plus one to three days. She did not say whether all 14 schools operated both terms.

Women teachers were paid, on average, $3.15 a week; men earned, on average, $28 a month.

In March, 1890, Wiggin wrote, there were 323 students, and voters appropriated $951 for “school expenses.” (By this time, the State of Maine also supported schools, so the total school budget was higher.)

Kingsbury said by 1892 a decreasing population led officials to cut the number of districts to 11, serving about 250 students. The town was providing uniform textbooks, and “school property is valued at about $3,000, and is kept in good repair,” he wrote.

Wiggin wrote that the town report for April 1893 to March 1894 said District 6 had been eliminated. By 1896, she said, Albion had so few students that five district schools had been closed, with their students “sent to other schools.”

The first mention of “conveying scholars” Wiggin found in the school report for 1897. Half a dozen men were paid from $1 to $3 per week. Her book includes an undated photograph labeled “Albion’s first ‘school bus,’ horse drawn,” showing a group of students and a boxy vehicle in front of the Besse Building (built in 1913).

* * * * * *

Wiggin wrote that “subscription high schools” were taught in Albion in 1860. One shared the District 3 schoolhouse in southern Albion.

In April 1873, she said, a group of residents organized a stock company to provide a public high school. Group leaders quickly sold 90 shares, at $10 a share, and appointed a three-man building committee.

Wiggin said Albion’s first free high school opened in 1874 or 1875; Kingsbury said 1876. After “several years” (Kingsbury), or around 1880 (Wiggin), voters stopped appropriating money for it, Wiggin said due to lack of interest. In 1881, the trustees began the process of conveying the building to the local Grange; by 1892, it was the Grange Hall.

The free high school reopened, either in 1884 (Kingsbury) or about 10 years after it was closed (Wiggin). Wiggin wrote that into the 1890s, fall terms – 10 weeks in 1891 – met in District 8, in the Albion Village schoolhouse, and spring terms – in 1892 also 10 weeks – met in District 9, in the McDonald schoolhouse.

The fall term had 87 students and cost $214, the spring term 33 students at a cost of $82. The state and town split the cost, $147 each, she wrote.

Kingsbury again offered slightly different information. As of 1892, he wrote, the fall high school term was held in the Number 10 schoolhouse in the Shorey District, and the spring term in the Number 8 schoolhouse in the village.

He wrote that the high school “has since [it reopened] received cordial support.” This support waned, Wiggin wrote, “until in 1898 the average attendance at the village was only 18, and the high school at McDonald was discontinued entirely.”

The “village school” was apparently the 1868 one on Main Street, where the Besse Building now stands. It was revived as a high school after 1898 and served until 1913, with the roof raised twice to accommodate more classrooms.

Wiggin wrote, “From this school came the first pupil to graduate from Albion High School with a diploma.” His name was Dwight Chalmers, his graduation year 1909.

Wiggin said the old high school building was moved to a new site and in 1964 was a private home.

The Besse Building was a gift of Albion native, later Clinton resident, Frank Leslie Besse. Designed by Miller and Mayo, of Portland, and built by Horace Purington, of Waterville, it was dedicated as Besse High School on Sept. 20, 1913.

* * * * * *

Benton, Clinton and Fairfield combined as Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) #49, now Regional School Unit (RSU) #49, in January 1966. Albion joined in September of the same year. In 2025, Fairfield’s Lawrence High School serves all four towns.

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Marriner, Ernest, Kennebec Yesterdays (1954).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Albion dairy farmer honored for 60th straight Christmas milking

/0 Comments/in , /by

Chuck Noyes holds letters from Senator Angus King and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. (Photo by Holly Noyes)

by Gillian Lalime

The Noyes Family Dairy farm, in Albion, is a true family farm. Three generations live on one dead-end road with their family’s surname. Cornfields and barns that store equipment and house animals surround the milk parlor, which is a stone’s throw away from a farmhouse where generations of members from the Noyes Family have been born, lived, and died. Each Christmas Chuck Noyes’ four children and their kids await their grandfather’s return from the cowbarn. There are no days off in dairy farming. Daily the bovines must be fed, milked, and have their spaces cleaned.

Gifts, photos, letters, and stories compiled for Chuck on Christmas morning by his children. These items recognize and celebrate Chuck’s 60 years of farming. (Photo by Holly Noyes)

Chuck Noyes is the family patriarch and owner of Noyes Family Farm. Every day, morning and evening, seven days per week, Chuck milks the herd of 90 holsteins with help from family members and hired farm hands. Morning milking happens at 5:30 a.m., and evening milking at 4:30 p.m., 365 days/year. Without fail, Chuck wakes at 4:30 a.m., each day. A milk truck comes every day or two to deliver the Noyes dairy milk down to Oakhurst Dairy, in Portland.

Chuck’s great-grandfather purchased the family farm in the late 1920s. He was a traveling carpenter. His son, Chuck’s grandpa, worked on the railroad, in Waterville. When the Depression hit and the railroad shut down, their family leaned on their land as a subsistence farm and his grandfather came home from the railroad to grow crops.

His father, Keith, was born in the main farmhouse in 1933 and died in the very same house in 2015. It was Keith Noyes, who started raising a few calves in the late 1950s. Back then the milk from those cows went to a local dairy right in Albion town center called United Dairy. As this grew into a viable financial aspect of the farm, Chuck’s father increased herd numbers, eventually signing a contract with Oakhurst Dairy. Like his father before him, Keith was a hardworking Mainer. When the time came for him to marry, Keith took a handful of days off while he and his bride celebrated their honeymoon. Upon returning home, Keith Noyes didn’t miss a single milking – morning or evening – for 17 years straight. After that streak the man allowed himself a few days here and there for hunting and fishing trips with his buddies. It was for those occasions he decided his son was ready to take on more responsibility with the farm. At age 13, Chuck was milking the dairy herd by himself.

Starting at age eight he was given the task of feeding the calves. “By the time I was nine or ten I was making five dollars per week.” Chuck did his share of daily chores and went to school. At eight years old, Keith gave him the option of not working on Christmas Day. However, they’d still have to wait until all chores were done and his father was home and fed before the children were able to start opening presents. “This got me thinking,” Chuck remembers “If I help out with chores, doesn’t that mean my dad will be in sooner and we can all open Christmas presents earlier?” Thus began Chuck’s first Christmas of working with the family cows. Now, six decades later, the man realized he hasn’t missed a single one since.

Growing up, Chuck Noyes never had any intention of taking over his family farm. After working on the farm all through high school, Chuck went to further his education at the University of Maine in Orono and graduated with no inclination of farming. At his college graduation, Chuck received a handful of job offers, all of which were postponed due to the summer farming season. Thinking he’d just work one summer more on the farm and accept one of the jobs come winter. A smile crinkles to the corners of Chuck’s eyes as he remembers this time “The rest is history”. Chuck never did end up taking one of those jobs; he’s stayed working on his family farm ever since.

“There are days that are good and days that aren’t so good. I worked with my father seven days a week for 50 years.” When asked about his favorite part of the job, Chuck states: “Being your own boss. I tell my kids that the only sh*t I take is from the cows”.

Chuck’s own four children were raised on this land, and grew up working the farm. “I remarried 13 years ago,” says Chuck. It was around eight years ago Chuck’s wife asked if he’d ever not worked on Christmas. “See that got me thinking. It was nothing I ever planned…” but Chuck Noyes has milked every Christmas day since he was eight years old.

What does this generational dairy farmer have to comment on the matter? “I consider myself lucky to have had the health and ability to do it. I consider myself fortunate.”

And so began another cycle of family Christmases on the farm. Chuck’s own children would have to wait for him to get home from milking and chores on the holiday before they ate a traditional Christmas brunch together and finally opened presents. One memorably cold Christmas, the motor on the feed arm of their old concrete vertical silo stopped working. Chuck had to climb up the old silo and hand-shovel feed to the dairy herd. That definitely delayed their family present opening!

So, if holidays and weekends are just as work-filled as any other day, when do dairy farmers relax, reflect, and celebrate? Christmas is one of the few days of the year their family always makes sure to be together. It is a rarity that they actually make time to kick-back, rest, and eat together. The only other time this happens is in the heat of the summer, on their days making hay. Once the day’s hay is cut, dried, baled, and stacked in the barn, this dairying family and hay crew has a tradition of eating a farm-fresh meal together. “It doesn’t matter what time of day we’re finished, it could be 9 p.m., we all sit down at the picnic table together,” says Holly Noyes, one of Chuck’s daughters.

One of the two collapsed barns from December 18, 2023. (photo by Chuck Noyes)

According to Holly, the theme of this year is resilience. Challenges from the past year resulting from the storm last December that collapsed two barns on the Noyes Farm. “Before the December storm last year, our barns withstood two hurricanes. Last December 18 I watched those two barns collapse. It was a different storm than I’d ever seen.” Remarks Chuck. Building a new barn to replace what collapsed in the storm has been much harder than it would have been in the past due to cost of materials and limited availability of building materials and help. Holly had to apply for grants for the farm to receive funds to rebuild their lost structures.

When asked about the future of the farm, Chuck says, “I don’t ever want to see this land sold, and I have no desire to sell it.” When asked about his own future full-time farming at 68 years young, Chuck remarks “As long as I can climb on a tractor and cut hay, I’ll keep farming.” To that he adds, “There’s always a market for hay”.

This Christmas, Chuck’s children planned a special surprise for their father. Over the last month they’ve reached out to friends, neighbors, employees, and community members who have been involved with the Noyes farm over the last many years. They requested a memento such as photos, stories, or favorite memories of Chuck and the farm. Responses poured in! The Noyes children set up a display of these items to surprise Chuck on Christmas morning. Even Senator Angus King and Congresswoman Chillie Pingrie wrote personal letters recognizing and celebrating his achievement! Holly wrote: This 60-year milestone is one Chuck holds close to his heart, feeling incredibly fortunate to have spent these years doing what he loves on Christmas Day.

This year’s recognition certainly caught Chuck by surprise, “I feel very humbled by all the attention I’ve received from everywhere. I definitely did not expect any of this.”

Chuck Noyes on the tractor. (photo by Holly Noyes)

Area combat veterans to benefit from sisters’ handi-work

/0 Comments/in , /by

Thirty-five combat veterans and their families will enjoy the efforts from talented sisters Angeline LeHay, of Albion, and Nancy Lessard, of Jackman, shown here with Travis Mills. Each week, nearly every week of the year, combat veterans and their families enjoy a break at the retreat in Mount Vernon set up by the Travis Mills Foundation. (contributed photo)

Thirty-five combat veterans and their families will enjoy the efforts from talented sisters Angeline LeHay, of Albion, and Nancy Lessard, of Jackman.

The Travis Mills Foundation provides an environment for post-9/11 recalibrated veterans and their families to enjoy peace and tranquility amidst some of the most incredible scenery that Maine has to offer. They have provided this respite for approximately 2,000 families from across the nation with no cost to the veteran or their family.

Meanwhile, Nancy and her sister Angeline have been busy throughout the year crocheting beautiful afghans that fit most twin-sized beds. This year, the 35 afghans they made will be given by the Travis Mills Foundation to the families and veterans who visit the retreat.

On December 2, they were given a tour of the foundation by Volunteer Coordinator John Romac and were thanked for their efforts by Travis himself. Born and raised in Vassar, Michigan, United States Army Staff Sergeant (Ret.) Travis Mills, of the 82nd Airborne, is a recalibrated veteran, motivational speaker, actor, author and an advocate for veterans and amputees. In addition to being the founder of the Travis Mills Foundation, Travis also serves as the president of the board of directors.

Romac said the afghans would make a wonderful gift to the veterans and families who take part in programs at the Mount Vernon retreat.

CAMPAIGN 2024: Candidates address issues concerning Maine voters (Part 1)

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by
Read more

POEM: Ode to Albion

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Kristin Frangoulis was honored when asked to write a poem to celebrate Albion’s 200th birthday. This is what she authored.

ODE TO ALBION
IN CELEBRATION
OF HER 200TH BIRTHDAY

Albion’s fields roll lush and green,
Surely a farmer’s perfect dream.

Orange day lilies and white Queen Ann’s lace
Line the roadsides with a beautiful grace.

The town center boasts a church and a school
Where the good folks practice the old Golden Rule.

Dow’s General Store is a friendly quick stop
Where one can buy food or a new mop.

In 1790 the pioneers came
To plow the land, and the wilderness tame.

Lovejoys, Shoreys, Crosbys, to name a few
Claimed the land and admired the view.

Followed by Drakes, Besseys and Prays,
Chalmers and Skillins, helped pave the way.

Forgive me, for others not mentioned this time,
It’s only because their names do not rhyme.

They planted the fields, set up saw mills,
Built their sturdy homes with sweat and God’s will.

Freetown Plantation was your first name,
Then Fairfax, Lagonia, all titled in vain.

Then in the winter of 1824,
Albion was named the town we adore.

Elijah Lovejoy, a man of good fame,
Died a martyr in pursuit of his aims.

He fought for the freedom of men and the press,
To make all souls free that were opressed.

Albion once was a railroad junction,
Thanks to George Crosby’s steam gauge invention.

George built a mansion in Italianate style,
With indoor plumbing, marble and tile.

Alas, it burned in a great conflagration,
Nothing is left from this sad tribulation.

Mickey Marden, another Albion name
Was proud founder of his discounted chain.

Today, many farms still do abound,
Where cows, horses, chickens, goats can be found.

Christmas trees, maple syrup, honey blueberries,
Johnny’s Seeds and the Czech Out Bakery.

Albion, you ‘re the best place to call home, sweet home,
No matter how far we wander and roam.

Albion Eagle Scouts

/0 Comments/in , /by

From left to right, Matix Ward, Nash Corson and Preston Roy, of Boy Scout Troop #446, in Albion, were each awarded the Eagle Scout rank in a ceremony held on July 5, 2024. (contributed photo)

by Chuck Mahaleris

The town of Albion is celebrating its bicentennial this year with alumni gatherings, a frying pan throwing contest, parade, fun run and plenty of food. Among the festivities and pageantry, residents and guests are learning more about what makes their community special and of her rich history. A special ceremony honoring three young men who made Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting, took place recently at the Albion Middle School to recognize Troop #446 Eagle Scouts Matix Ward, Preston Roy and Nash Corson. All three are Albion residents.

State Representative Scott Cyrway and Albion Selectmen Jason Dow and Michael Gardner praised the accomplishments of the trio. A slide show highlighting their camping and high adventure experiences captured the attention of all attendees. Lorna Ward was the guest piano accompanist. “I was very impressed,” Alissa Roy said. “It was a very nice ceremony.”

Each of the three Eagle hopefuls had to give leadership to a significant project to benefit the community. In March of this year, Nash organized a blood drive for the American Red Cross and coupled it with a food drive to benefit the Albion Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry. “I wanted to help save lives by collecting blood,” Nash said. “My goal was to have 22 people come out. On the day of my drive, we had 46 donors come and collected 25 units of blood. We had so many people come to donate we had to schedule them for different blood drives as the Red Cross ran out of space to have them all that day. I extended my project to run throughout the month and …ended up having 15 more who donated on other days….I collected approx 60 items for my home town food pantry.”

In January, Matix led volunteers in building a picnic table and hiking trail for Thurston Park, in China. Preston, who completed his project in 2022, led a team to construct new side stairs for the Albion Public Library and revamped the wheelchair ramp as well.

Nash Corson is the son of Alyssa and Michael Corson, of Albion. Nash is 18 and in September will be going into his senior year at Lawrence High School, in Fairfield, and also his last year at Kennebec Valley Community College where he is working towards earning his welding certificate. His mother Alyssa said, “Having watched Nash grow and mature throughout his Scouting career, I can say that Scouting has benefited him immensely and he would not be the driven young man he is without the family and backbone that Scouting has given him.”

Preston, 17, is the son of Alissa and Chuck Roy, of Albion. In 2022, Preston shot a 232-pound, 10-point buck during Youth Deer Hunting Day introducing him to the “Biggest Bucks in Maine Club.” Preston is going into his senior year at Lawrence High School.

Matix is 19 and the son of Elizabeth and Matthew Ward, of Albion. He is going to be a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire where he is majoring in mechanical engineering. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School.

“Matix gained leadership skills, a love for nature, lifelong friends, and a commitment to his community through Scouting,” Elizabeth Ward said. “Through volunteer work, Matix has shown a strong commitment to serving his hometown.”

The ceremony was held on July 5, 2024. While 2024 marks the two hundredth anniversary of Albion, these three Eagles have helped shape her next two centuries.

Cassidy’s birthday book drive to support Local Little Libraries

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Peyton Belyeu checks out the books in the ShineOnCass Lending Library, where free books are available to kids attending summer and after-school care programs at Alfond Youth and Community Center, in Waterville. Photo in background is Cassidy Charette. (photo courtesy of Monica Charette)

by Monica Charette

ShineOnCass Foundation invites the community to join “Cassidy’s Birthday Book Drive” to help shine a light on childhood literacy and inspire reading. The ShineOnCass Foundation, named and created in memory of Cassidy Charette, will collect children’s books during the month of August to help fill the shelves of local Little Free Libraries. Volunteers will deliver donated books on what would be Cassidy’s 27 birthday on August 31.

A registered Little Free Library, located at 93 Water Street, in Waterville, is among more than a dozen “take a book, share a book” free libraries located throughout central Maine. ShineOnCass Foundation is collecting books for Little Free Libraries during the month of August and will distribute donations on Cassidy Charette’s birthday, August 31. For a list of local Little Free Libraries, visit shineoncass.org. (photo courtesy of Monica Charette)

A Little Free Library is a “take a book, share a book” free book exchange in communities nationally and internationally. Thousands of Little Free Libraries, owned and supported by volunteer stewards, are located in communities in over 120 countries. More than a dozen Little Free Libraries are located in central Maine, including a ShineOnCass Lending Library for children at the Alfond Youth and Community Center in Waterville. A list of local Little Free Library locations can be found on the ShineOnCass website, shineoncass.org.

“Our mission is to make books accessible for kids, expand their knowledge, and inspire future readers,” says Monica Charette, Cassidy’s mother and executive director of the ShineOnCass Foundation. Cassidy, a 17-year-old Oakland resident who died in a hayride accident in 2014, was an avid reader, youth mentor, and a lifelong community volunteer.

“We believe expanding literacy access to local families is a meaningful way to celebrate the day Cassidy was born, by giving back and sharing her love for reading with kids.”

New and gently used books for children and young adults can be donated all month at Camden National Bank, at 51 Main Street, in Oakland, or at 258 Kennedy Memorial Drive, in Waterville. Books will be distributed to Little Free Libraries on Cassidy’s birthday on August 31.

For more information about Cassidy’s Birthday Book Drive or the ShineOnCass Foundation, visit shineoncass.org.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Albion

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Monument erected in Albion for Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an Albion native. On November 7, 1837, Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob while defending the site of his anti-slavery newspaper, the St. Louis Observer. His death both deeply affected many individuals who opposed slavery and greatly strengthened the cause of abolition. (photo courtesy of Maine: An Encyclopedia)

by Mary Grow

Of the town and city names your writer has explored in this subseries, none has yet been as frustrating as the Town of Albion.

Sources agree on names and dates. In 1802, Freetown Plantation was incorporated, including most of present-day Albion and the northern end of what is now the separate town of China.

Ruby Crosby Wiggin wrote in her 1964 history of Albion that in March 1803 plantation residents petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to create a town. They received three separate approvals, Wiggin wrote, by the House and Senate plus the Governor, and on March 9, 1804, the Town of Fairfax was incorporated.

On March 10, 1821, the Maine legislature approved changing Fairfax’s name to Lygonia (Lagonia, Ligonia). On Feb. 25, 1824, the name was changed again, to Albion.

So said Wiggin. And Henry Kingsbury in his Kennebec County history. So says Wikipedia. And the on-line Maine an Encyclopedia, which adds that Albion is the old name for England. And a website called FamilySearch. And a website called greenerpasture, quoting Wikipedia. And a website called mainegenealogy.net. And a website called heirloomsreunited, which skips Freetown Plantation, naming only Fairfax, Ligonia and Albion.

Some of these sources describe boundary changes, especially in Fairfax; the early 1800s saw multiple land transfers. Some name inhabitants — early settlers, famous people, heads of household listed in the 1790 and 1820 censuses.

Your writer found not one source that explained any of the four names, and not one that explained why the area had four successive names anyway.

* * * * * *

Freetown was a not uncommon name for an early Maine settlement, presumably expressing the settlers’ belief that they had moved beyond the reach of government. But the men who established Freetown promptly asked to live in an incorporated town, and the 1802 Freetown Plantation became the March 1804 Town of Fairfax.

Wiggin had a theory. She wrote that Freetown’s first town meeting, starting at 10 a.m., on Oct. 30, 1802, was held at John Leonard’s house, which she located on the west side of current Route 202 close to the Unity town line, in the northeastern corner of town.

Leonard and Asa Phillips, who was chosen town meeting moderator, “were neighbors in Winslow [incorporated in 1771] before coming to Freetown Plantation,” Wiggin wrote. She surmised that after “something like five years” in this unincorporated area, they were ready to again “enjoy the same privileges their former neighbors in Winslow were enjoying.”

The Oct. 30, 1802, meeting only chose local officers, Wiggin said. A second plantation meeting, on March 28, 1803, included an article to “petition…the General Court [the Massachusetts legislature] for an incorporation of this plantation just as the [boundary] lines now run.” Wiggin said nothing about a name for the incorporated entity.

She wrote that this area’s settlers mostly came east from the Kennebec Valley or north from Jones Plantation (later China). Neither she nor any other source your writer found gave a date for the first land claim more specific than “before 1790.”

Wiggin and Kingsbury agreed the first settler(s) are not known. Kingsbury added that the “weight of evidence seems to point to the Rev. Daniel Lovejoy” (a Congregational minister who moved to the west shore of Lovejoy Pond before 1790, according to Kingsbury).

Wiggin disagreed. Referencing family papers, she said Daniel Lovejoy was only about 14 years old when his father, Francis, and the rest of the family settled on what was then Fifteen-Mile Pond; Francis, therefore, has a stronger claim to the “first settler” title.

(Francis Lovejoy’s most famous grandson was abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy. Two previous articles in this history series have been about the Lovejoy family, in the Aug. 13, 2020, and Feb. 1, 2024, issues of The Town Line.)

Kingsbury went on to list six families he said were in Albion when the 1790 United States census was taken, naming four (plus Lovejoy): Crosbys, Libbeys, Prays and Shoreys.

Wiggin wrote: “Although the Shoreys, Prays and Libbeys were here very early, we believe that there were others who were here even earlier.”

She said the 1790 census report divided present-day Albion between Hancocktown (another name for Hancock Plantation, mentioned in the June 20 history article as including present-day Benton and Clinton) and Jones Plantation (now China).

Men Wiggin was sure were in Albion by 1790 included Bela or Belial Burrill, Jonah Crosby, Jr., and Robert Crosby, Samuel Davis, Thomas Fowler, Nathan Haywood and Francis Lovejoy.

Kingsbury said Robert Crosby’s homestead was “near the foot of the pond,” and in 1892 part of the land belonged to his grandson, Ora O. Crosby.

Wiggin identified Robert Crosby’s first grant by its 1964 owner, and implied it was at the southwest end of Lovejoy Pond by referring to two dams; an 1811 or 1812 sawmill on a stream; and the “new road completed in 1961” (Route 202?) that runs over the mill site.

(The “new road” also crossed “the spot where the old workshop used to set [sic] at the top of the hill.” Here, Wiggin wrote, the “curved pieces on the arms of the Christian Church pews” were probably made – “at least the patterns for them used to be stored under the workshop bench.”

(The Albion Christian Church, she wrote later in her history, was organized Jan. 1, 1825, at “the home of Brother Robert Crosby.” She listed the nine founding members as Elder Samuel Nutt; Robert and Abigail Crosby; Luther and Ethelinda Crosby; William and Demaris Crosby; and Franklin and Lovina Barton. Luther, Demaris and Lovina were children of Robert and Abigail, she said.)

At least three families who lived in what eventually became the north end of China are included as early Albion settlers: the Burrills, Washburns and Wiggins.

Anecdotes about two of these men illuminate the frequency of the boundary changes mentioned in last week’s account of early days in China.

Wiggin wrote that Nathaniel Wiggin (March 16, 1750 – Sept. 15, 1823) built a log cabin on a hill northeast of the head of China Lake. The 1790 census listed him as a Jones Plantation resident; when Freetown’s first town meeting was held in 1802, he was a resident there. “Thus, he lived in Jones Plantation, Freetown, Fairfax and possibly Lagonia without moving from his home place.”

Japheth Washburn is quoted in the China bicentennial history as writing (in a Jan. 14, 1850, letter) that before the 1818 incorporation of the Town of China, “my Dwellinghouse was in Winslow – across the road, directly opposite, stood my store, in Albion, and 40 rods south, stood my Potash, in Harlem [later China].”

(Washburn was referring to his potash works, where he would have poured water through wood ashes and boiled down the leachate to a solid mass, potash or potassium carbonate. Potash was an essential ingredient in soap, one of many products commonly made at home in 19th-century Maine.)

Kingsbury and Wiggin both named more Albion families who arrived by the early 1800s. Their lists partly duplicate each other. Neither includes a settler named Fairfax.

* * * * * *

Wiggin summarized, without explanation, the March 1821 name change: “the name of the town was changed to Lagonia, or ‘Lygonia,’ (both spellings were used) but some of the residents were still not satisfied and in August of that same year another meeting was called to see if they could get it changed back again to Fairfax, but to no avail.”

Voters at a special meeting in December, 1822, did not pass an article to go back to Fairfax, she wrote. In January, 1823, a five-man committee was elected to draft a petition for the selectmen to present (presumably to the Maine legislature) requesting the name Richmond; apparently nothing happened. On Jan. 8, 1824, voters chose a seven-man committee to petition the legislature for Fairfax, again without success.

Lygonia – the most common spelling – was the name of a British province in southeastern Maine from 1630 or 1639 or 1643 (sources differ) to 1658. It encompassed a roughly square area bounded on the southwest by a line that ran about 50 miles from the coast near Kennebunkport almost to the New Hampshire border; on the northwest by a line that reached the Androscoggin River, enclosing most of Cumberland and part of Androscoggin counties; and on the northeast by a line slanting back to the coast near present-day Brunswick.

The coast was the province’s southeast boundary. Lygonia covered 1,600 square miles, by one estimate, including the present Sebago Lake region and the coastal and riverine areas that were the first parts of Maine to be settled.

Wikipedia, whose writer supplied the 1830 date, says Lygonia was a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Gorges named it in honor of his mother, Cecily (Lyon) Gorges.

(Gorges [1565, 1567 or 1568 – May 24, 1647] was a Plymouth Company member and recipient of royal grants covering much of what became Maine. Though he was influential in Maine’s early history, his story is outside the limits of this series.)

In 1658, Lygonia became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Your writer found no connection between this Lygonia and the inland Lygonia that succeeded Fairfax.

* * * * * *

Citing town records, Wiggin wrote that at an April 5, 1824, meeting, Lagonia voters were asked to accept the name Albion for their town, and agreed. Again, she gave no explanation for the action or the name.

As previously mentioned, Albion is an old name for Britain. Wikipedia offers a scholarly article on the origin of the word (from early Celtic, via ancient Greek), referring to sources from the sixth century B.C. into the Christian era.

“By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain,” the Wikipedia writer says. However, it was soon replaced by words that led to the Roman word “Britannia” and related names.

An on-line Encyclopedia Britannica article says “Albion” is the earliest name for “the island of Britain,” as distinct from Ireland and other islands that make up the British Isles. “The name Albion has been translated as ‘white land’; and the Romans explained it as referring to the chalk cliffs at Dover (Latin albus, ‘white’),” the article continues.

More recently, the Wikipedia writer says, English explorer Sir Francis Drake christened California “Albion” when he visited there in 1579, during his voyage around the world. When the provinces of Québec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were united as the Canadian Confederation in 1867, alternative names “briefly suggested” for what became Canada were “New Albion” and “Albionoria” (translated as “Albion of the North”).

Your writer cannot connect any of this information with people in Lygonia, Maine, choosing a new town name early in 1824.

Historian Ruby Crosby (Bickmore) Wiggin

Headstone of Ruby Crosby Wiggin in Willey Cemetery, in Benton.

Historian Wiggin’s full name is Ruby Crosby (Bickmore) Wiggin. An on-line genealogy (managed by Roger Keith Crosby, who last updated it two years ago) says she was born in Albion on Dec. 5, 1908, daughter of Merlon Linley and Pearl Eleanor Bickmore.

Pearl Bickmore was born in Calais in 1887, to parents whose first names are not recorded in the on-line genealogy, and was adopted by Ora Otis and Hannah Buzzell Crosby.

Ruby married Raymond Kenneth Wiggin (Jan. 29, 1907 – Nov. 2, 1998). Raymond Kenneth Wiggin was the son of Elmer Ellsworth Wiggin (1868 – 1953); who was the son of George Martin Wiggin (1835 – 1905); who was the son of Ezra Wiggin (1803 – 1894); who was the son of Nathaniel Wiggin, Jr. (1777 -1860); who was the son of Nathaniel Wiggin (born March 16, 1750, in New Hampshire; died Sept. 15, 1823, in China).

Ruby Crosby Wiggin died in Clinton, June 8, 1996.

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Websites, miscellaneous.

EVENTS: Albion bicentennial photo contest underway

/0 Comments/in , /by

Albion town office. Photo source: Town of Albion Facebook page

Albion bicentennial photo contest is open to anyone, but photos must be taken in Albion.

There are four categories: people, animals, still life and landscape in three age groups, 12 years old and under, 13-20, and over 20.

All submitted photos must be in printed form and matted. Photos no larger than 5×7. Mat will be pinned up so when it is returned the mat may be damaged. Pictures may be in color or black and white. The photos must be taken by the entrant, and entries are limited to one entry per category.

Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second and place place in each age group and each category. All first place winners will be entered in a grand prize contest with the winner’s photo to appear on the front cover of the 2025 town report.

Photos must include name of entrant, phone number, address and location of photo taken. The town of Albion reserves the right to use the photos on their website.

Entries must be submitted by Thursday, July 18. Entries may be dropped at the town office or with Pam Wallace and Miranda Perkins at the Besse Building on a designated date to be announced later. Questions may be emailed to pllwallace@gmail.com or acbmperkins@gmail.com with subject “photo contest”.

Albion gold cane presented to Donna Bessey

/0 Comments/in , /by

Donna Bessey

On May 31, 2024, Donna Bessey received the Town of Albion’s Boston Post Cane, recognizing her as its oldest citizen at age 95. Albion Selectman Paul Flynn gave a brief history of the Boston Post Cane before presenting her with the cane and a plaque. Also representing the town were Selectmen Michael Gardner and Jason Dow, as well as State Senator Scott Cyrway and Town Clerk Jeannie Doore. Many friends were also present to celebrate the occasion.

Donna moved to Albion in 1949 when she married Leland Bessey. They met while attending Thomas College, in Waterville. Together, they had a successful dairy farm in Albion for many years. In addition to helping on the farm, Donna also worked in various secretarial/bookkeeping capacities in the area – for example, at North Wayne Tool Company, in Oakland, and for the District #3 Superintendent of Schools.

After selling the farm, Leland worked for the U .S. Postal Service, in Albion, and Donna continued to work in the school department. She eventually retired from H.L. Keay’s store, in Albion, in 1992. Donna and Leland enjoyed a wonderful retirement together, celebrating 74 years of marriage, until Leland’s passing in March 2024. As an avid animal lover with a great sense of humor, Donna expressed her secret to longevity as simply “Wag more, bark less”.