Covers towns roughly within 50 miles of Augusta.

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Last three Ballard children

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by Mary Grow

Last week’s article ended without finishing the story of Martha and Ephraim Ballard’s second son, Jonathan. When interrupted, he was living on his farm in the northern part of Augusta, on the road to Sidney, with his wife, Sarah “Sally” (Pierce), and an increasing number of children.

In December 1799, Martha and Ephraim moved into a new house on Jonathan’s farm. In February 1804, while Ephraim Sr, was in jail for debt, youngest son Ephraim Jr., married (see below) Mary Farwell. After the couple “went to housekeeping” in July and moved out of either parent’s home, Mary’s widowed mother, called in the diary “Sister Farewell,” and younger sister Sally moved in with Martha.

On Oct. 25, 1804, Martha wrote, Sally Farwell brought a message from Jonathan: he was going to take over Martha’s house in two weeks. Martha, he said, could “tarrie here [with them] or go and liv in their house and see how good it was to bring water from this wel.”

Ulrich said that in addition to having an inadequate well, Jonathan’s house was older and lacked “a bake oven.” Though Martha thought his demand another example of “his impetuous and irrational behavior,” it might have seemed reasonable to him: better living quarters for his growing family and, if Martha chose to stay with them, help for her.

Martha shared what had been her house with Jonathan, Sally and children until Sept. 14, 1805. Over the winter of 1804-05, she spent time with daughter Dolly Lambard and her family (see below) and with Ephraim, Jr. During the summer of 1805, Ulrich wrote, she stayed with Jonathan and Sally, helping with gardening and other chores, including taking case of the many grandchildren who lived and visited there.

A dozen people lived in the house in the spring of 1805, Ulrich wrote, and 21 other people visited for a meal or overnight in one month. Most were much younger than Martha (who was born in February 1735). Ulrich quoted an April 14, 1805, entry: “I have felt very unwell but have had the nois of Children out of 5 famelys to Bear….Some fighting, some playing and not a little profanity has been performd.”

Five days later, on April 19, 1805, Ulrich noted, “Sally gave birth to her sixth son and ninth child.” (This boy was Samuel Adams Ballard; he died Nov. 27, 1806.)

Ephraim Sr., was freed from jail on May 29, 1805, but his return to the family made no difference. On June 7, Martha wrote that Sally told her she would not get her house to herself that summer.

Ulrich quoted diary references to Sally’s “tantrums”; to her calling Martha a liar; and to Martha describing Sally as “inconsiderate” and “very impudent.” Sally, too, was overworked and unhappy.

Although Martha never “developed an intense and daily intimacy with Jonathan and Sally,” Ulrich wrote that she came to appreciate “the small gifts of love and care they were able to offer”; and Sally’s “immense” burdens became less as her children got old enough to help.

In late August, 1805, relying on the diary, Ulrich reported the start of a new house for Jonathan’s family. On Sept. 14, Martha wrote that they had moved back to their old one, leaving Martha and Ephraim in theirs.

FamilySearch and WikiTree say Jonathan Ballard died in Augusta on June 7, 1838. Sally was living with daughter Hannah and family in 1850; she died on July 1, 1858.

* * * * * *

Martha and Ephraim’s daughter Hannah was born Aug. 6, 1769, in Oxford. On Oct. 28, 1792, in Augusta, she married Moses Pollard (the couple became “daughter Pollard” and “son Pollard” in Martha’s diary).

WikiTree lists nine Pollard children, “although records are scant and there may be other children.” Ulrich also said nine, though she pointed out that Hannah and Moses could have had more after Martha’s diary ended in May, 1812 (when Hannah was almost 43).

According to the diary excerpts, Hannah’s first child was born in July 1794. WikiTree names this child as daughter Rhoda, who married James Black in Sidney on June 30, 1816.

Ulrich said after the second child was born in October 1795, Hannah was so sick as to be delirious, and could not join the family for meals for six weeks. WikiTree says this child was daughter Hannah (Oct. 18, 1795 — May 14, 1863).

WikiTree then lists 3) Sally, born in 1797, and 4) Harry, born in 1799 and died March 5, 1800, in Augusta.

Martha said Hannah had another child just after midnight on Jan. 11, 1801. WikiTree names a son 5) Samuel (1801 — Feb. 22, 1870).

WikiTree then lists 6) Dorothy, aka Dolly (1803 — Feb. 1, 1881); 7) Thomas L. (born in 1804, in 1849 married Mary R. McIntire, widow of his first cousin, James S. Ballard); and 8) Martha Moore (1807 — Sept. 11, 1880).

WikiTree says Hannah and Moses’ ninth child, Catherine Nason, was born in 1809 and died in Augusta, May 1, 1882. On May 28, 1809, Martha wrote that “son Pollard” called her at 2:30 a.m., and at 6 a.m. Hannah gave birth to her sixth daughter and ninth child.

Hannah died May 25, 1863, according to FamilySearch, in Augusta; she is buried in Slowhegan, where she had been living in 1850 (when the town was named Bloomfield).

* * * * * *

Ephraim and Martha’s fifth child, Dorothy (Dolly), was born, according to FamilySearch, on Sept. 2, 1772, in Oxford. On May 14, 1795, in Hallowell, she married Barnabas Lambard, born Sept. 1, 1772.

On April 3, 1797, after Hallowell’s northern part became the new town of Harrington (changed to Augusta on June 9), voters at the first town meeting elected Barnabas Lambard a fence-viewer and a surveyor of lumber, according to Captain Charles Nash’s chapter in Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history. In 1799 he was a member of the town’s first “company of firemen.”

FamilySearch says the Lambards had at least 12 children, six sons and six daughters, between 1796 and 1816. Ulrich and Augusta historian James North (in a brief biography of Barnabas Lambard) say 11.

According to FamilySearch’s list, the first child was a son, Allen, born July 22, 1796, died Sept. 5, 1877. He was followed by 2) Dorothy, born Nov. 11, 1797, death date unknown; 3) Thomas, born Aug. 10, 1799, died Oct. 12, 1804, aged five; 4) Barnabas, Jr., born April 17, 1801, died Sept. 25, 1814, aged 14; 5) Lucy L., born Jan. 31, 1803, married in 1822 Asaph R. Nichols, with whom she had at least nine children, died Oct. 17, 1884, in Boston (she had been in Augusta in 1880); 6) William, born Nov. 21, 1804, died Feb. 15 or 19, 1839; 7) Henry Augustus, born Dec. 26, 1806, died March 27, 1821, aged 14; 8) Sarah Farwell, born June 25, 1809, lived in Augusta until at least 1880, apparently unmarried, died in 1896 in Natick, Massachusetts; 9) Martha Town, born April 4, 1811, died July 27, 1823, aged 12; 10) Thomas, born June 29, 1813, married, lived in Augusta at least until 1870 and died in Boston Sept. 28, 1892; 11) Hannah Pollard, born March 29, 1816, married Rev. John A. Henry in September, 1842 (and after his death, Edward Walcott of Natick, Massachusetts, in 1850, North wrote), died Aug. 12, 1896, in Natick; and 12), according to FamilySearch, another Hannah, also born in 1816, who married David Waire or Wire, had at least eight children, died May 19, 1895.

(FamilySearch says when the first Hannah was born in March 1816, her parents were both 43 years old, and when the second was born the same year, they were 44. Making the two births chronologically possible does not explain the duplicate names.)

Dolly Lambard died March 14, 1861, in Augusta; her husband had died Oct. 10, 1860, FamilySearch says.

* * * * * *

Ephraim Ballard Jr., according to an unusually complete biography on Wikipedia, was born in Augusta on March 30, 1779. Wikipedia calls him “an engineer and a builder,” descriptions compatible with things Ulrich wrote about him.

According to Wikipedia, Ballard and Benjamin Brown built Augusta’s second Kennebec River bridge in 1818; and after it burned on April 2, 1827, Ballard was hired to replace it. North wrote that the work was “pushed forward with unexampled dispatch for this region”; the new bridge opened for foot traffic on Aug. 3 and for carriages on August 18.

In 1829, Wikipedia says, Ballard was chosen to build “the Mattanawcook road.” (Mattanawcook was the Town of Lincoln’s name until the Maine legislature changed it, in 1829). He “was between Augusta and Mattanawcook when he contracted typhoid fever and died at Bangor,” on Nov. 5, 1829.

Ballard’s first wife was Mary Farwell (born June 21, 1785), whom he married in Augusta on Feb. 5, 1804. Their first daughter, whom they named Mary, was born four months after the wedding, and died when she was three months old.

WikiTree lists the rest of Mary and Ephraim Ballard Jr.’s children as: 2) Sophia, born Nov. 3, 1805, married Charles Keene, died Dec. 24, 1847); 3) Theodore Sedgwick, born Nov. 3, 1805, died March 1839; 4) Amelia, born and died in 1808; 5) an unnamed daughter, born June 25, 1809; 6) Edward, born June 4, 1814, died in Chicago, May 31, 1871; and 7) Charles Henry, born about 1815, died Nov. 11, 1841.

As usual, other websites give different information.

Mary Farwell Ballard died March 13, 1819, aged 33. On Jan. 7, 1822, in Augusta, Ballard married Paulina Palmer, who was born about 1795.

Paulina might have given him more children. After Ephraim’s death in 1829, Wikipedia cites the 1830 census that lists Paulina’s Augusta household as including “one female 30 to 39 [Paulina], one male under 5, one male 5 to 9, one male 10 to 14, one male 15 to 19, one male 20 to 29, one male 70 to 79, one female under 5, and two females 5 to 9.”

Paulina remarried in December 1833; her second husband was named Jonah Dunn.

* * * * * *

As previously written, Martha Moore Ballard died in late May 1812, aged 77. Her widower, Ephraim Sr., died in 1821, aged 96.

Readers of this and the preceding article will have noticed what different historical records the Ballard children and their spouses left. The men owned land and buildings, farmed, practiced professions and held town offices. The women bore children.

This subseries began on Nov. 6 with two themes: women in the late 1700s and early 1800s worked as hard and as long as men, but their work left no historical record. Martha Ballard’s diary was a rare exception.

Ulrich pointed out that except for the diary, “Martha has no history….no independent record of her work survives.” She is not listed in financial records, or as a church member, or in legal records.

“Without the diary, even her name would be uncertain,” Ulrich wrote. Once Martha married, her name became “Mrs. Ballard.” Minister Benjamin Tappin, who brought her comfort in the last weeks of her life, thought her first name was Dorothy; historian North called her Hannah in his genealogy.

“Fortunately, she had the good sense to write firmly at the end of one of her homemade booklets, Martha Ballard Her Diary, Ulrich said.

The other theme in the Nov. 6 article was that women’s work is never done. Martha, too, noticed that.

Ulrich quoted a diary excerpt, written as midnight approached on Nov. 26, 1795, in which 60-year-old Martha summarized her day doing housework, nursing a cow and keeping up with two paid helpers and various family members.

Martha said, “A womans work is never Done as the Song says and happy shee whos strength holds out to the End of the rais.”

Main sources

North, James W., The History of Augusta (1870)
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, A Midwife’s Tale The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, 1990

Websites, miscellaneous.

Steve Fotter’s Warming Up For Christmas concert was another great success

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Pictured, from left to right, are Director Steve Fotter, of Benton, Vera Grenier, of Albion, and drummer Pat Michaud, of Oakland. (photo by Mark Huard/ Central Maine Photography)

by Mark Huard

This year’s warming up for Christmas concert 2025 was once again a huge success and a great night of music with many talented musicians helping in the cause. There was a horn section from the Al Corey Band under the direction of Brian Nadeau. Approximately 450 people were in the audience and they raised nearly $14,000 for the Operation Hope program led by the Waterville Police Department. Many thanks to all who gave their time and talent to help make this special night possible. This was their second time to benefit Operation Hope and they have raised approximately $31,000 in both shows.

EVENTS: Mid-Maine Chamber promotes Shop Small Saturday, Nov. 29

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Join Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce and area businesses for Shop Small Saturday Mid-Maine – and shop ‘til you drop!

What better way to enjoy a Saturday, get some holiday shopping done, and know that you are helping your friends, neighbors, and business owners at the same time. So, grab your friends and family members – and head to the great outdoors for some much-needed activity.

Shopping locally keeps your money in the area and supports the businesses that serve and support you. Take some time this season to check out special offers, new merchandise, or a business you have not visited in the past. They will make it worth your while!

Participating businesses will include great discount offers in a special Shop Small – Save BIG coupon book and will have shopping bags for your convenience, and entry forms for a chance to win a $100 Chamber gift certificate to be used at over 180 local businesses. A list of participating businesses, as well as extra coupons, will also be available on www.midmainechamber.com.

Mix 107.9 will be making the rounds in the area with sponsored live remotes, highlighting additional opportunities to join in the fun, and other sales and promotions being held in our towns.

Mark your calendars to join us on Saturday, November 29, and shop ‘til you drop, with Shop Small Saturday Mid-Maine! Your small purchase will make a BIG difference to our local businesses!

Sponsors for this event include: SBS Carbon Copy and Allen Insurance & Financial, Major Co-Sponsors; Central Maine Motors Auto Group; Kennebec Savings Bank; Damon’s Beverage; Oliver & Friends Bookshop, Huhtamaki; Skowhegan Savings Bank; Best Western Hotel and Front & Main/Lockwood Hotel.

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Martha’s children

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by Mary Grow

This article continuing the Ballard family history will summarize information about three of Martha and Ephraim’s six children who lived to adulthood – space limits postpone the other three, and the end of Jonathan’s story, to next week. As related previously, three Ballard children died young, in a 1769 diphtheria epidemic in Oxford, Massachusetts.

The surviving children, in order of birth, were Cyrus, Lucy, Jonathan, Hannah, Dorothy (Dolly) and Ephraim, Jr. The first five were born in Oxford between 1756 and 1772; Ephraim, Jr., was born in 1779, after the family moved to Hallowell.

All but Lucy outlived their mother. The excerpts from Martha’s diary that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich included in “A Midwife’s Tale” show that Lucy had frequent health issues; there are several references to her being ill after the birth of one of the children (see below for varied numbers) she had by her husband, Ephraim Towne.

For example, in May, 1789, Ulrich wrote (using Martha’s diary as her source) that Lucy “fell ill of a fever” a week after giving birth (to the second daughter named Hannah, if WikiTree’s list below is accurate; Ulrich gave the child neither name nor sex). Because, Ulrich claimed, separating a newborn from his or her mother was a last resort, Lucy continued to try to nurse the baby; only after 10 days, when the child “seemed to be suffering,” did neighbors with babies assist.

* * * * * *

Cyrus Ballard was born Sept. 11, 1756, in Oxford. He never married. Ulrich described him as a “peripatetic [wandering] miller,” working in the family mill and living at home for a while, then taking a job at another mill, perhaps in Waterville or Pittston, at least once as far away as Lincolnville (almost 50 miles from Hallowell).

In November 1792, for example, Martha recorded that he came home after working in “Mr Hollowells” grist mill for 14 months, and two days later “went to Pittston and brot his chest & things home.”

When he was home, Cyrus ran errands for his mother, worked in his father’s mill, helped with gardening and other chores and was generally useful. Martha was seldom sentimental about him – or anyone else – in the entries Ulrich chose to copy; but she seemed to prefer his company to his absence.

In the fall of 1804, when Ephraim had been in jail since early January for failure to pay debts and Cyrus left home to “tend mill for Mr. Pullin at Watervil,” Martha wrote, “I wish him health and prosperity but alas how shall I do without him.” (The next day, she wrote, 13-year-old grandson Jack, Jonathan’s oldest son, brought water and cut wood for her.)

Neither Ulrich nor any other source your writer found said when or where Cyrus died.

* * * * * *

Lucy Ballard was born Aug. 28, 1758, in Oxford. On Feb. 4, 1778, in Hallowell, she married her first cousin, Ephraim Towne or Town (his mother, Hannah [Ballard] Towne, was Ephraim Ballard’s younger sister).

The couple moved to Winslow in 1784.

Ulrich’s choices from Martha’s diary show that she was the attending midwife when at least two of Lucy’s children were born (and probably all). Find a Grave says the Townes had nine children; Ulrich said 11.

WikiTree lists 10: 1) Ezra, born September 8, 1778, died November 14, 1811, in Farmington; 2) John, born February 4, 1780, died April 10, 1785; 3) Mary “Polly” (Towne) Smith, born November 5, 1781, died Nov. 27, 1871; 4) Martha “Patty,” born August 13, 1783, died June 29, 1820; 5) Lucy, born July 23, 1785, died April 24, 1802; 6) Hannah, born November 14, 1787, died February 8, 1788; 7) a second Hannah, born May 4, 1789, died July 10, 1793; 8) Dolly, born November 24, 1791, never married, died August 9, 1858; 9) John, born October 3, 1793, died in Madison, March 29, 1885; and 10) Betsey (Towne) Tilton, born April 13, 1797, died February 20, 1895, in East Livermore.

Ulrich, based on Martha’s writing, added to WikiTree’s list a daughter born in September, 1795, who lived only two hours, due to “an obstruction of breath at the Nostrils.”

First son Ezra was born seven months after Lucy married. Ulrich said Lucy’s, Jonathan’s and Ephraim, Jr.’s first children were all conceived before marriage, as were many others in those days.

Lucy Ballard Towne died Nov. 8, 1798, with her mother among those who attended her in her final illness. Ulrich did not supply details. WikiTree says Ephraim Towne later married Eunice Stackpole, by whom he had three more children.

* * * * * *

Jonathan Ballard was born in Oxford March 4, 1763. Ulrich, comparing him to Cyrus, called him the “flamboyant and rebellious younger brother.” Later she mentioned his “vandalism, fighting, and drinking.”

Jonathan’s “temperament” was a recurring theme in his mother’s diary.

In the summer of 1791, after Martha and Ephraim settled in their second home (see references to their moving and starting a new garden in the Nov. 13 issue of “The Town Line”), she wrote that Cyrus brought Jonathan’s “things” and his sow to the new house.

Ulrich thought Jonathan might have spent the early summer working for Peter Jones, owner of the house the Ballards had left. She quoted a Nov. 22 diary entry: the “gentlemen” chosen to decide the dispute between Peter Jones and Jonathan had awarded damages and court costs to Jones.

“I would wish my son might learn to govern his temper for the futer [future],” Martha wrote.

He didn’t. Martha’s March 17, 1804, unusually long diary entry described the “scean” that evening, after a young hired man named Lemuel Witham took “Son Lambard’s” (son-in-law Barnabas Lambard, Dolly’s husband) horse and sleigh to a tavern to bring Jonathan home, found him not ready and brought the horse and sleigh back.

Jonathan therefore had to walk home. He “Came here without his hat, took him [Lemuel] from his supper, push him out a dors, Drove him home to his house, damning and pushing him down and struck him. Shaw and Burr [neighbors] went on after to prevent his being diprived of life.”

Martha followed, “falling as I went,” and Dolly and others joined in. Jonathan was still “Cursing and Swearing he would go and giv him a hard whipping.” The men were separated for the night; Lambard brought Martha home; and she concluded her entry, “O that the God of all Mercy would forgiv him [Jonathan] this and all other misconduct.”

A few pages later, Ulrich revealed she had found a similar diary entry from two years earlier, when Jonathan’s wife Sally and their children were having supper at Martha’s and Jonathan came in “in a great passion about his white Mare being hurt.”

“It overcame me so much I was not able to sett up,” Martha wrote. Ulrich commented that this first outburst left Martha “immobilized, psychologically struck down.” In the second incident, however, “fear for Lemuel Witham’s safety propelled her into the middle of the fray, delaying her own collapse.”

Although Dolly and her husband helped Martha on March 17, Ulrich wrote that when Dolly and her sister Hannah visited March 18, they apparently were less helpful as they discussed what had happened. On March 20, Martha wrote that Jonathan “spake very indecently” to his mother; but the diary rebuked “all who do injure my feelings” and hoped “May they consider they may be old and receiv like Treatment.” (Martha was born in February 1735, so in March 1804 she would have been just past her 69th birthday.)

Ulrich also quoted an October 1804 diary entry in which Martha complained that Jonathan “treated me very unbecomingly indead. O that God would Chang his stubborn heart and Cause him to behave in a Cristion like manner to parents and all others.”

Ulrich found other information sources that led her to comment that “Of all the Ballards, Jonathan appears most frequently in county court records, both as a plaintiff and as a defendant.”

Between 1797 and 1803, she wrote, Jonathan Ballard was involved in 29 cases before the Kennebec County Court of Common Pleas, 19 he brought and 10 brought against him. He won 15 cases, Ulrich said.

Five cases involving Jonathan were appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court, Ulrich found. He won one, getting $3.33.5 for reporting a man for selling liquor without a license.

Jonathan was sometimes in debt; Ulrich mentioned at least three brief imprisonments. His family found money to free him at least once. In May of 1809, six of his oxen were seized to pay a creditor.

In another comment on Jonathan, however, Ulrich wrote that he “was impulsive and perhaps given to hard drinking, but he was no ne’er-do-well.” Starting in 1787, he acquired a 200-acre farm on the north edge of Augusta, and by 1800 he owned a total of 348 acres in the town.

Jonathan married Sarah “Sally” Pierce on Feb. 23, 1792, in Hallowell — “reluctantly” Ulrich wrote, and only because she “had initiated a paternity suit against him.”

Elsewhere, Ulrich recorded that on Oct. 23, 1791, in the snow, Martha went to Sally Pierce’s to deliver the unwed mother of “a fine son.”

As Massachusetts law then required, she asked Sally who the father was; and Sally “declared that my son Jonathan was the father of her child.” Ulrich explained the law determined who should pay child support, and was based on the theory that a woman in the middle of giving birth wouldn’t lie.

Sally named her son Jonathan; he was known as Jack from infancy.

Neither Martha nor Ephraim went to Jonathan’s wedding, Ulrich said. Martha wrote that Jonathan first brought Sally and their son to visit her at the end of February, 1792. By March 2, Martha wrote that she “Helpt Sally nurs her Babe.” As was the custom, Jonathan and Sally lived alternately with his parents and hers for a month, settling into their own place (“went to housekeeping”) on April 4, 1792.

At Hallowell’s June town meeting, Ulrich wrote, Jonathan and half a dozen other newly married men were elected hog reeves (town officials responsible for rounding up roaming pigs and assessing any damage done), “a humorous acknowledgment by the town fathers that another roving stag had been yoked.”

On May 9, 1809, Martha recorded that Jack Ballard came to tell his grandparents he was leaving for Liverpool, and on May 10 “sett out for sea.” But he came back home May 15: “Could not get a Chance to go to sea.”

FamilySearch says Sally and Jonathan had 10 children; Find a Grave says 12; WikiTree says 13. Here is WikiTree’s list, longest but not necessarily most accurate.

1) Jonathan, born Oct. 24, 1791; 2) DeLafayette, born Feb. 4, 1793, died Oct. 9, 1833; 3) Hannah Kidder (Ballard) Pinkham, born Feb. 1, 1795, died May 21, 1886, in Massachusetts (FamilySearch says she died in 1818); 4) Ephraim, born Feb. 17, 1797, died Dec. 16, 1868; 5) William Y., born in 1799 (Find a Grave says 1795), died Jan. 29, 1896; 6) Sarah (Ballard) Pillsbury, born Jan. 11, 1801, died May 15, 1880, in Massachusetts; 7) Martha M. (Ballard) Barton, born Nov. 22, 1802, died in Clinton around 1845; 8) a son who was born and died April 3, 1804; 9) Samuel Adams, born April 19, 1805, died Nov. 27, 1806, aged one; 10) James Sullivan, born April 23, 1807, died Oct. 11, 1847; 11) Elizabeth Augusta, born April 3, 1809, died July 19, 1818, aged nine; 12) and 13), unnamed twin sons, born March 17, 1812, and died within days.

Ulrich wrote that after Sarah was born on Jan. 11, 1801, Sally was “burdened…with a new baby, a houseful of children, a temperamental husband, and a younger sister who needed constant attention.” The younger sister was Hitty Pierce, unmarried but not childless; the children (earlier, Ulrich said there were five; it is not clear how many were Sally’s and how many Hitty’s) included Hitty’s dying son, John, who had been badly burned in December, 1800.

To be continued

Main sources

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, A Midwife’s Tale The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 1990

Websites, miscellaneous.

Public advocate applauds PUC decision to dismiss CMP’s five-year rate proposal

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Heather Sanborn

Maine Public Advocate Heather Sanborn has released the following statement commending the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for dismissing Central Maine Power’s (CMP) proposed five-year rate plan, a filing that would have significantly increased electric distribution costs for Maine households beginning in 2026.

“The Public Utilities Commission made the right call today in dismissing CMP’s five-year rate proposal. At a time when thousands of Maine people are already struggling to afford their electric bills, CMP’s plan simply asked for far too much.

“While this decision prevents a deeply flawed proposal from moving forward right now, we know that CMP will have the opportunity to refile. In the meantime, we look forward to engaging with other stakeholders and the Commission in providing our utilities with guidance about designing a rate plan proposal that keeps affordability and improved performance as the central focus. The Office of the Public Advocate will scrutinize any future proposal to ensure that any increases are reasonable, necessary, and in the best interest of Maine consumers.

“The decision today reflects the fact that Mainers were very engaged and spoke out about the unaffordability of CMP’s proposal.”

LETTERS: Recognizing Maine Family Caregivers

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To the editor:

November is Maine Family Caregivers Month – a time to recognize the thousands of Mainers who provide unpaid care to loved ones. Family caregivers are the backbone of our health care system, offering support that ranges from managing medications and transportation to providing emotional comfort. Their dedication allows older adults and people with disabilities to remain in their homes and communities, where they want to be.

Yet caregiving is not without challenges. Many caregivers juggle jobs, family responsibilities, and financial pressures while navigating complex health systems. The holiday season can add extra stress, making it even more important for caregivers to have access to resources and support.

AARP Maine offers a Family Caregiver Resource Guide, a free tool designed to help caregivers find local services and connect with community programs. This guide can be a particularly helpful during the holidays when balancing care and family traditions can feel overwhelming.

If you are a caregiver or know someone who is, please share this resource. Supporting caregivers means strengthening families and communities across Maine.

To download the guide or learn more, visit aarp.org/me.

Star Pelsue
AARP Maine Community Outreach Volunteer
Portland

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry launches new statewide food access map

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The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) today announced the launch of the Maine Food Access Map, a statewide interactive resource that helps individuals and families locate nearby food pantries, meal sites, school-based programs, WIC clinics, and other free or donation-based food assistance services.

“We know that too many Maine people struggle to find nutritious food, and the new Maine Food Access Map is designed to meet this real and growing need,” said DACF Commissioner Amanda Beal. “By consolidating the state’s hunger-relief resources into one intuitive platform, we can help individuals and families connect more quickly.”

The Maine Food Access Map is continually updated in partnership with local programs and community organizations to ensure that it contains accurate and current information. It complements existing statewide directories, such as 211 Maine, by providing a comprehensive, interactive, location-based view of food assistance resources.

DACF encourages organizations that serve the public, municipal offices, libraries, schools, faith-based groups, nonprofits, and healthcare providers to share the map to maximize access for residents.

The Maine Food Access Map can be accessed here.

The Maine Food Access Map was created by the DACF Ending Hunger Corps team. Maine is the first state in the nation to commit by law to ending hunger, supported by a statewide strategic plan. As part of this effort, Ending Hunger Corps strengthens the capacity of organizations working to increase food security across Maine. Ending Hunger Corps members work behind the scenes to help programs serve more people, more effectively. Their work includes building and improving systems that support hunger-relief and financial security efforts, developing data tools and analyses, expanding volunteer programs, providing community education and outreach, and supporting special projects that enhance local food access. Together, their efforts create long-term, sustainable impact for communities across the state.

Local youth groups participate in Veterans Day parade (2025)

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All the local youth groups that participated in the Veterans Day Parade, in Waterville. (photo by Galen Neal, Central Maine Photography)

“It is so important for the community to honor, pay respect, and show gratitude to all veterans but especially for those in our community and in some cases our own family who have shown the courage to serve our country with the ultimate belief that service above all else is what they are committed to,” said Christopher Santiago, Kennebec Valley District Commissioner of Pine Tree Council, Scouting America. “Scouting has had a long relationship with the military and veterans. Our Scout Oath reads directly to do our Duty to God and Duty to Our Country. With that being said, honoring our country and those who protect it is a very real opportunity to teach young people about citizenship and the responsibility we have to our country and community. Not everyone will serve in the military, but individuals serve as police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, and so many other professions for the purpose of serving others. Participating in the Veterans Day Parade allows us the opportunity to make these lessons real and encourage our youth to think about the positive impact they can have in the lives of others.”

Vassalboro Troop #410, march down Main St., in Waterville. Other groups participating included Vassalboro Cub Scout Pack #410, Winslow Cub Scout Pack #445, Winslow Troop #433, Oakland Cub Scout Pack #454, Augusta Troop #603, and Girl Scouts Arnold Trail Service Unit Troop #1521. (photo by Galen Neal, Central Maine Photography)

The Remembrance Tree (Christmas 2025)

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Help us decorate the tree and at the same time remember loved ones.

For only $10 a ball, you can commemorate loved ones who have passed.

Mail your donation and the names of your remembered loved ones to:

The Town Line
P.O. Box 89
South China, ME 04358

to place an ornament on the tree.

Deadline is Friday, December 12.

The completed tree will be published in the December 18 issue.

All donations to The Town Line are tax deductible.

Remembering a member of the Army Air Corps

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Warner Howard

Veterans Day special

by Danny Howard

For the record I cannot confirm nor can I deny any of this – I am not sure if I myself remember any of this as fact/facts, however I shall do my best – you see, when I requested by father’s military records, they wrote back saying my father’s military records were burned in a massive fire that burned most of those records.

I have heard these stories, as told by my father, as far back as I can remember, and probably ever before that.

Now, before I embark on his military career, I thought you might like to know about his early years, that he told me about his family, how they were so poor.

How poor were they?

Now cut that out!

They were so poor they had to save up to be poor, as proof they were living at the Union Fairgrounds. Now, I don’t know why they were living at the fairgrounds. I never thought to ask. Maybe it was because they were poor.

One of my favorite stories my father told me was that he (my father) was having supper of baked beans. My father dropped this plate of beans on the floor of the old Secretary Office at the fairgrounds.

Grandpa had my father scoop the beans off the well-traveled floor, in fact, some of the floor had been worn down to the subfloor, put the beans back on the plate and eat it. The beans, not the plate.

Dad would tell about how his father would hit him when he did bad – and hearing about those hitting.

I don’t think he had to have a reason. I think my sister cleaned that up years later. “Grandfather just liked to hit his children.” Looking back now, I think she was right.

Well, back to the story.

Dad was a farmer from way back, probably right after he learned to crawl. His dad had him out in the barn cleaning it with his older brother who, according to my father,,didn’t seem to want his help. I think he told my father, “I don’t want your help, get lost, get out of my way,” or something like that.

One day it got really heated. My uncle told my father, “I’ll throw you right out that door if you so much as breathe.”

My dad said, “I’d like to see you try,” or something like that.

(Sometimes I don’t think my father would be any good at playing cards, as he didn’t always have a full deck to play with.)

My uncle grabbed my father by the neck and the seat of his pants and dad went flying through the big roll doors. That might have been painful if the door hadn’t given way the way it did. Dad just rolled under the door and into my grandfather, who was going to milk room with two buckets of milk.

Now grandfather, being the understanding parent he was (not), grabbed my father by the neck and the seat of his pants and threw my father back into the barn and into his brother.

There was a trip to the wood shed for the both of them.

Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all fun and games. No sir, dad worked in a casket factory as a store clerk, and delivered ice for those ice boxes which weighed up to 40 pounds. And let’s not forget the weight of the ice tongs.

Now, with all of that stuff to keep him busy, one day he got a letter from the president of the United States of America. Yes, the president, good ol’ FDR took the time out of his busy schedule just to write a letter to my dad.

It said, “Greetings.”

He was off to boot camp. Now, boot camp was almost like the Boy Scouts, camping out in tents, hiking, doing all types of exercises, jumping through tires, etc. Why sometimes you even got to scrub a garbage can or two. He was assigned to the Medical Corp. Dad didn’t want to be in the Medical Corp, so he told the sergeant, “I don’t want to be in the Medical Corps.”

“Oh, I see,” said the sergeant, “and just what do you want to be?”

“I want to be a pilot.”

“Why don’t you go and tell that to the captain? You’re in the Medical Corps and you will like it.”

After almost no training they gave my father a syringe and was told to give shots to the men standing in line. The first guy comes up and dad gives him a shot, then asked for another syringe. “What? There was enough for five guys” (it might have been for more but like I said it has been years). They quickly got the guy and gave him some medications to counteract the medication dad gave him.

The stories my dad told me were stories right out of a Stephen King novel. Like this one guy who is brought in with stones and dirt embedded in one side of his head.

OK, what happened? “I got run over by a truck, well, my head, anyway.”

“I was on guard duty last night and I thought I could get in a nap so I laid down and this fuel truck runs over my head.”

We really didn’t believe him, so we went out by the runway and there was an imprint of a man’s face in the ground. The only thing that saved him was the fact that in England, where it rains 356 days a year, made the ground so soft that a fuel truck could run over a guy’s head without hurting the guy.

Then there was this guy who came in. to get a shot. “Hey, I don’t like needles.” Now this guy would make Mr. Universe look like an 85-pound weakling. We gave him the shot and turn away. Then Bang, the guy hit the floor. But before he hit the floor he hit the desk, cutting his lip which took eight to 10 stitches to close the wound. So, instead of one shot of needles, he had to have 16 to 20 stitches.

Another time, they brought in a guy all busted. We knew he was on the ground crew, so what happened?

“I fell off a plane,” So, we asked how he fell off a plane when he was on the ground crew. “I was refuelijg a. plane when some fuel spilled onto the wing, and I slipped off the wing. All fall of about 10 feet.”

Then there was another guy they brought in by ambulance. His head, well, it wasn’t there. Most of it wasn’t. It seemed that a cap on each of the propeller blaeds had broken loose and hit him in the head. Now I know it doesn’t make snese to me why they would make cap that could come off a propeller blade, but they did. The only thing they could do at that time was to get a stocking from a nurse, and put what was left of his head into it, and hung him up in his bed. He died shortly there after.

Then there was the call to come to the end of the runway. It seemed a guy just walked into a propeller blade. They didn’t know what happened. Was it suicide, or was he not paying attention. All we could do is to hose him off the runway.

The planes would sometimes make a three point landing, and sometimes they didn’t. Some would land with their wings hitting the ground and spin the whole plane around. Sometimes they would lane nose first and flip over. Sometimes they just crashed. Sometimes they made it out and sometimes they didn’t.

Sometimes they didn’t even try, they just jumped out. One time a pilot radioed the crew to jump.Everyone did except the tail gunner who had not heard the order to jump. When he saw the parachutes of the others, he jumped. All while the pilot was fighting to keep the plane in the air long enough for all the crew to get out. They he turned the plane away from any buildings and jumped himself. But it was too late. By the time we got there, the tail gunner who landed near the crash site, was holding the pilot, and saying over and over, “He died for me. He died for me. He died for me.”

Dad used that more than once in his pastor times – oh, did I mention he became a pastor?

One day they came to dad and asked him if he be willing to give rub downs on black people, as there was a lack of personnel who were willing to work with African Americans. Now, when dad had gotten in the Army it was the first time he even saw a black person. So, dad had an almost steady job giving rub downs to African Americans.

Then he told me about his treatment of a foot disease. The treatment was to put an acid on the skin. But it had very bad side effects, so they banned the use of it. Dad thought it was foolish so he mixed up a diluted form of the acid. I believe it was one-eighth percent of acid to the rubbing oil. It worked, so soon he had another steady job.

Then came D-Day. He drove an ambulance down those skinny ramps onto the beach. Every time they would show a scene of the landing on TV, he would say, “I remember that building.”

He never told me his rank. Just that before the was was over, he was in charge of the Medical Corp. The only thing he made clear was that he didn’t want to be in the Medical Corp. But when he couldn’t get out of it, he became the best he could be. It was only after his death that I learned he was a staff sergeant when I read his obituary.

He told me all about the training he got, but it seemed to me that all of the training was on the job.

Like the time he was in a plane, and they were flying low to avoid radar. They would fly over a house and go back down then again, then down, then up, down, up, down. Dad got sick and threw up. The vomit went allover the inside of the plane and baked itself to almost every inch of the inside of the plane. I will let you guess who cleaned that up.

It seems at first he enjoyed telling me those stories, but as the years went by, the stories were told less and less until they seemed to have lost their glory. I think as he got older the stories got more painful and to avoid the pain, he stopped telling them. Forget them, never, he just stopped telling them.

For a man born in1922 he was not actually a “cowboy”, but almost. He lived through the Great Depression, delivered ice for those ice boxes, drove a Model T, and a Model A, fought in World War II, saw man walk on the moon, and was down in Florida, to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger; it was a long trip home. Not bad for a boy born in the small town of Union, Maine.

Then, one day I went to see him at the Veterans Home, in Augusta. He looked so very tired, I wanted to tell him, that it was OK for him to go. Mom is waiting for you. Don’t worry about Barbara and me, we will be all right. But I didn’t, I wanted to have him a little while longer. I gave him a sip of water. I didn’t ask if it was all right, just a cup of water. I thought dad would like that.

I walked home. By the time I got there, my sister had called. I said, “Is this about dad?”

“Yes, he’s gone.”

I always knew the man could read minds.