Covers towns roughly within 50 miles of Augusta.

LETTERS: Nominations for awards open

To the editor:

With so many older Mainers making a difference in our communities every day, AARP Maine is proud to once again honor one outstanding individual through the annual Andrus Award for Community Service. I’m writing to encourage Mainers to nominate someone age 50 or older who has gone above and beyond in serving others. The nomination deadline is July 15, 2025.

This award is AARP’s most prestigious volunteer honor and is named after Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus who founded AARP at age 73. It celebrates people whose selfless work has improved lives and inspired those around them. Nominees do not have to be AARP members or volunteers; they just need to live in Maine and have made a meaningful impact through unpaid service.

As a volunteer myself, I’ve met so many people who give their time quietly, never asking for recognition. Whether delivering meals, mentoring youth, helping neighbors age safely at home, or running community programs, their acts of kindness often go unnoticed. That’s why this award matters, and it shines a light on those who lead with heart and action.

Last year’s recipient, Pamela Partridge, of North Anson, is a perfect example. She is a retired educator who continues to give back, improving lives and inspiring others long after retirement. I believe there are many more Mainers like her, and they deserve to be seen and celebrated.

If you know someone who you feel would be worthy of this award, please take a few moments today to nominate them. Details and nomination forms are available at www.aarp.org/andrusaward.

Let’s celebrate the people who make Maine a better, stronger, and more compassionate place for all of us.

Dr. Erica Magnus
AARP Maine, Communications Volunteer
Windham

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Early surveyors

by Mary Grow

As promised, the next articles in this series will introduce some of the important surveyors in the central Kennebec Valley as Massachusetts proprietors sold lots – mostly pieces of land they had never seen – to settlers, and other people began lumbering, trapping and farming without the formality of buying a lot.

Readers should remember that Kennebec Company, Kennebec Proprietors, Plymouth Company and Plymouth Proprietors all mean the same organization of Massachusetts businessmen who owned most of the Kennebec Valley. Different local historians preferred different names.

* * * * * *

European settlers had moved into the lower Kennebec Valley in the first half of the 18th century. Once the threat from the Natives and their French supporters ended in the 1760s, interest in upriver lands increased. The Kennebec Proprietors hired Nathan Winslow to survey both sides of the river from Chelsea, south of Augusta, to the north line of present-day Vassalboro, dividing the land for three miles inland into lots.

Multiple historians wrote that Winslow was hired in 1761 and dated his completed survey June 17, 1761. Your writer found in the on-line Maine Memory Network a statement that Winslow covered Pittston, Hallowell, Vassalboro (then including Sidney) and “Some in Winslow town and finished his Survey and made his plan and dated it the 17th of June 1761.”

This statement continued: “all those Surveys was made for the Kennebeck proprietors hath been made from may 1750 & Continually one after another: in Succession as of oft as they Could be.” If this information is accurate, the implication is that Winslow’s work took 11 seasons (but see below for his contradictory birthdate).

In their town histories, Alice Hammond and James North each reproduced the parts of the survey that became Sidney and Augusta, respectively. Winslow laid out three tiers or ranges of lots, each a mile deep, with an eight-rod (132-foot) space for roads between the each tier.

(Winslow’s range roads or rangeways were laid out as straight lines, but might in practice vary with the terrain. Some Kennebec Valley deeds still refer to them; and Waterville has streets named First Rangeway, roughly parallel to the Kennebec, and Second Rangeway, farther west.)

The 100-acre lots with river frontage were 50 rods (825 feet) wide. (At least one source says each lot was 125 acres; the math disagrees.) The maps show Range 2 lots as three times the width (150 rods, or 2,475 feet); and Range 3 lots 75 rods (1,237.5 feet) wide.

Along the river, one of every three lots was reserved for the Proprietors and marked with a P on the plans. Settlers’ lots were marked S. All of the big Range 2 lots were for Proprietors and all of Range 3 for settlers.

Winslow numbered the lots from south to north: in Augusta, on the east side of the river the lots run from 1 to 50, but on the west side, where the survey starts farther upriver, the northernmost lot is 34.

Vassalboro historian Alma Pierce Robbins’ account of Winslow’s survey on the east bank of the river was less detailed, but comparable. She, too, wrote of three tiers of lots, adding that Vassalboro included riverside lots 51 to 102 on the east bank and 35 to 82 on the west (later Sidney) bank. Most of Seven Mile Pond (now Webber Pond in Vassalboro) was in the third tier.

Rev. Edwin Carey Whittemore, in his history of Waterville, said that a March 12, 1766, grant from the Plymouth Company gave six named men 18,600 acres “covering the present Winslow,” with conditions.

Within four years, the new landowners were to have 50 settlers, at least 25 of them with their families, and 50 houses “not less than twenty feet square and seven feet studd [high?] each.” Each settler was to have cleared and ready for mowing at least five acres adjoining his house.

Robbins said the Proprietors gave settlers three years to clear five acres and build a 20-by-20-foot house, and required the settler or his heirs to occupy the house for another seven years. In addition, for 10 years each settler was to work two days a year on town roads and another two days for the church or the minister’s house.

These requirements were common for Kennebec Valley land grants. Their effects seem to have varied.

Whittemore claimed that the plan for (future) Winslow “was the only one to succeed of many similar propositions.” However, the 1761 plan in North’s Augusta history has owners’ names, rather than numbers, on most lots; and the China bicentennial history says that “between 1762 and 1766 most of these riverside lots [none in China, which is inland from the river] were taken up.”

For the April 2011 issue of the Sidney Historical Society’s newsletter, Polly Furber wrote an article on some of the early deeds in the town, based on Nathan Winslow’s 1761 survey. Having done that research, she decided to find out more about the surveyor, commenting that “I have never seen his name mentioned in any local history.”

Furber found that Winslow was the son of Nathan and Charity (Hall) Winslow, born April 1, 1743, in Falmouth – therefore, she pointed out, only 18 in 1761. He lived all or most of his life in Falmouth; Furber found a Quaker document recording the births of his five sons and five daughters there, between 1765 and 1785.

He married in 1764, probably to Jane Crane (according to multiple sites, including the list of his children in Quaker records; Furber called her Judith). FamilySearch says she died in 1805. In 1807, Furber found, he married again, a woman name Mary Vinal from Dresden.

FamilySearch adds that Winslow “registered for military service in 1778.” He was still actively surveying into the 1800s. FamilySearch dates his death Nov. 7, 1820, aged 77.

An on-line genealogy of a remotely-related family named Nagel says Winslow died Nov 7, 1826 (not 1820), in Falmouth. This source says his wife, Jane Crane, was born Nov. 12, 1742, in Sagadahoc (in the lower Kennebec Valley) and died March 30, 1805, in Windham.

* * * * * *

Surveyor Ephraim Ballard is mentioned in several early accounts. He was born May 6 or May 17, 1725, in Oxford, Massachusetts (or in Billerica and moved with his parents to Oxford in 1726). On Dec. 19, 1754, in Oxford, he married Martha Moore (born Feb. 9, 1735), author of the well-known diary of life as a midwife in the central Kennebec Valley from 1785 to 1812.

In 1775, Ephraim (and presumably his family) came to Fort Halifax. James North wrote in his 1870 Augusta history that on Oct. 15, 1777 (another source says 1776), Ballard moved into surveyor John Jones’ former house in Augusta (then Hallowell) and took over Jones’ mills, which Jones had abandoned because of his Loyalist sympathies.

Most sources wonder if Ballard, too, was a Loyalist. North thought not, citing 200 British pounds given him from the town “for his contribution to the revolutionary cause” in 1780, as well as his election to town offices.

He was a Hallowell selectman from 1784 through 1787. Later, he was the town’s tax collector, imprisoned in 1804 for failing to collect all the taxes he should have. Maine An Encyclopedia calls him a “prominent local resident” and says he is “frequently mentioned in the town’s records.”

This source calls Ballard one of the Proprietors’ “principal surveyors” and says, “His name appears on hundreds of maps in the area, and of such far-flung locations as Canaan, Lincoln Plantation, Bangor, Magalloway Plantation, Eustis, and Dover-Foxcroft.”

One such map, found on line, is dated 1794 and shows “the few county roads and three church parishes of early Hallowell,” before the two northern parishes became a separate town – eventually the City of Augusta — in 1797. A recent comment on the map says, “Mr. Ballard drew this map on the same kind of paper that Martha Ballard cut and folded to make her diary.”

Ballard is named as the surveyor of part of Albion, an area Kingsbury said the Kennebec Proprietors had given to Nathan Winslow. North wrote that while Ballard was surveying in Balltown (the area that later became Jefferson and Whitefield), armed men (perhaps settlers without deeds?) stole his surveying instruments and papers and drove him away.

One survey North described was in 1796, for the Plymouth Company, tracing a stream that flows into the Kennebec in Gardiner. In June, Ballard reported he had “ascertained the general course of the Kennebec from ‘Cobbossee stream’ down to the ‘chops'”; had found “the utmost limits of Cobbosseecontee towards the western ocean”; and had run a line from that point east-southeast to the Kennebec.

The “utmost limits” of the stream Ballard defined as the most southern point at which water was running into it. North said he was paid seven pounds, 10 shillings for this job.

Also in 1796, North wrote, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hired Ballard to survey potential settlements on the Penobscot, in what became Hampden and Bangor.

One of Ballard’s surveys created the Ballard Line. As Millard Howard explained in his 2015 Palermo history, in the area that became Palermo the Kennebec Proprietors’ claim overlapped with a separate land grant called the Waldo Patent, owned in 1795 by General Henry Knox.

In June 1795, Knox and the Proprietors agreed on a division and hired Ballard to implement it on the ground. The Ballard Line is close to the eastern border of Palermo, Howard wrote, “leaving most of the town to the Kennebec Proprietors.”

Martha Ballard

Martha Ballard’s diary recorded some of her husband’s work. (Excerpts were included in a Feb. 16, 2023, article in this series in The Town Line.)

On Aug. 23, 1796, she said, a committee (unspecified) hired him to go to Dresden “to lay out a road to the point.” After preparations that included bringing “two birch cannoes [her spelling] to our shore,” he left at 10 a.m. Sept. 5; he came home Oct. 13.

Martha’s diary shows him actively surveying in following years, for the Proprietors, for individual settlers and sometimes laying out new roads for a town.

In mid-April, 1801, she recorded that he was dividing 2,000 acres somewhere between the Kennebec and the Penobscot. In late June that year he had a job in Bowdoinham. In September, he was working in Readfield, and in November, in Fairfield. December 22 he spent running the Sidney-Augusta town line.

In 1803, Martha wrote that he “sett [her spelling] out to go to Davis Town” on July 26; he returned on Sept. 27. (The length of time he was away suggests he could have been working in Maine’s current Davis Town, in Franklin County north of Rangeley and Mooselookmeguntick lakes, almost 100 miles from Augusta.)

Besides being a surveyor, Ballard ran the Jones mills he took over during the Revolution, North says until the fall of 1791. Other sources mention his working as a builder and a farmer.

The Ballards had three sons and two, three or four daughters (sources disagree), born between 1756 and 1779. At least one daughter, maybe two or three, died in childhood in a June 1769 diphtheria epidemic in Oxford.

On Nov. 1, 1799, North said, Ephraim and Martha moved to their son Jonathan’s riverside farm about a mile north of Augusta’s center.

Most sources say Martha Ballard died in May 1812, but North quoted an Aug. 7 1812, diary entry and wrote that she died within the next three weeks. Ephraim died January 7, 1821. Find a Grave says they “were buried in Augusta in a small family burial ground on…[their] son Jonathan’s property. The cemetery was later plowed up to plant crops.”

Main sources

Hammond, Alice, History of Sidney Maine 1792-1992 (1992).
Howard, Millard, An Introduction to the Early History of Palermo, Maine (second edition, December 2015).
North, James W., The History of Augusta (1870).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, A Midwife’s Tale The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Sebasticook Valley Hospital graduates nurses

Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital and Eastern Maine Community College 2025 nursing cohort graduates pictured here at their pinning ceremony, from left to right, Sarah Kelly, Mary Butler, Kate Hight, Lily May Joy, Mackenzie Newman, and Nittaya Dow with their Sebasticook Valley Hospital Clinical Education instructor Nathalie McLaughlin, RN, BSN, CMSRN. (contributed photo)

Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield and Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor are proud to announce their 2025 nursing cohort graduates.

The student nurses successfully completed two years of clinical and classroom education at Sebasticook Valley Hospital and Eastern Maine Community College to earn their Associate Degree of Nursing (ADN). Their senior project, which they worked on for the full two years of the program, focused on protein intake in hospital setting and the effect on readmission.

Sebasticook Valley Hospital clinical nurse educator Nathalie McLaughlin, RN, BSN, CMSRN, shared, “I truly have been impressed with this hardworking group of nursing students who have undergone rigorous academic and clinical training to obtain the knowledge, skills, and compassion necessary for providing patient-centered care. Each of them will be a great asset to our Maine communities. I am very proud of each of them and am honored to have been part of their nursing journey.”

“Since the start of this nursing degree collaboration program, we have graduated 11 registered nurses,” states Tracy Bonney-Corson, RN, PhD, MBA-H, vice president of Nursing and Patient Care Services at Sebasticook Valley Hospital. “This initiative, undertaken in collaboration with Eastern Maine Community College, has been pivotal to our hospital’s success in cultivating a local workforce of registered nurses, thereby strengthening our capacity to deliver high-quality care to rural residents and enhancing both recruitment and retention efforts.”

“Our partnership with Sebasticook Valley Hospital makes nursing education more accessible for rural students. They complete clinicals and labs locally while staying connected to Eastern Maine Community College faculty and resources. This cohort is a strong example of how successful this model can be,” explains Heather Rushmore, MSN, RN, CNE, program director and department chair at Eastern Maine Community College.

If you have a passion for caring for others and would like to pursue a career in nursing, there will be an upcoming Nursing Information Session in-person at Sebasticook Valley Hospital on Tuesday, August 5 at 9 am in the Board Room, located at 130 Leighton Street on the hospital campus in Pittsfield. To learn more and to register, please visit emcc.edu/nursing-info-sessions or contact Nathalie McLaughlin, RN, BSN, CMSRN, clinical educator, at nmclaughlin@northernlight.org.

Internship or exploitation? Attorney warns young of summer red flags

As thousands of students and recent grads across Maine take on summer internships, nationally recognized attorney Brian Chase of Bisnar Chase is sounding the alarm: some internships aren’t stepping stones – they’re legal minefields in disguise.

“Interns are often told to be grateful for the experience,” says Chase, “but too often, they’re delivering real value to a company and getting nothing in return – not even proper training. That’s not an internship. That’s exploitation.”

Internships have long been considered a rite of passage for young professionals, especially in competitive industries. But the rise of unpaid or vaguely defined roles has raised concerns – not just among career advisors, but legal experts too.

“In the eyes of the law, there’s a difference between shadowing a team and becoming a free extension of it,” Chase explains. “If you’re generating content, managing client accounts, or working unsupervised on high-stakes tasks, you’re not interning – you’re working.”

5 Red Flags That Could Signal a Problem

To help Maine students avoid legal and ethical pitfalls, Brian Chase is highlighting five key red flags to watch for before accepting – or continuing – a summer internship:

1. No clear job description

A legitimate internship should have a defined learning plan. If you’re told to “wear many hats” or “figure it out as you go,” beware.

2. Unpaid with no structured learning

Labor laws allow unpaid internships only under specific conditions, including that the experience benefits the intern more than the employer. If you’re doing repetitive, menial work or lack mentorship, that balance is likely off.

3. You’re doing the job of a regular employee

Interns can support teams, not replace them. If you’re writing proposals, handling customers, or being left in charge, it’s not legal unless you’re paid.

4. Lack of mentorship or real guidance

If no one’s checking in on your progress or offering feedback, that’s a problem. Interns should have someone to turn to, ask questions, and learn from. Being left to “figure it out” might sound empowering, but in reality, it usually means the company isn’t invested in your development.

5. Unreasonable time demands or vague promises

Being asked to stay late, work weekends, or put in extra hours to “prove yourself” can be a sign that the role is more about filling gaps than supporting your growth. If you’re working like a full-time employee without the pay – or a clear path to something more – it’s worth reconsidering the arrangement.

Chase emphasizes that not all internships are bad – many offer critical experience, connections, and mentorship. “We don’t want to scare students away from internships altogether,” he says. “But we do want to empower them to ask the right questions and recognize when something feels off.”

What to Do if You Think You’re Being Exploited:

If you’re in an internship that seems questionable, Chase recommends documenting everything: dates, tasks, communications, and expectations. “Interns often feel powerless, but they do have rights – especially if the company is benefiting significantly from their work.”

He also suggests bringing concerns to a school advisor or career services office if the internship was arranged through an academic program. “Some schools have policies that forbid students from participating in internships that don’t meet minimum educational or legal standards,” Chase adds.

At the end of the day, Chase says the goal is to shift the narrative around internships – from vague, unpaid rites of passage to structured, mutually beneficial experiences.

“Interns deserve clarity, respect, and an actual learning opportunity,” he says. “If a company isn’t offering that, then it’s not just unethical – it may be unlawful.”

Troop #603 earns Paul Bunyan award

Group photo, left to right, Sgt. Scott Maddox, Life Scout Ian Martin, 1st Class Zach Corson, Life Scout Trenton Franklin, 2nd Class Jeffrey Mason, and Life Scout Tristan Morton. (contributed photo)

by Jeffrey Morton

It rained Friday, May 23, soaking the ground and pulling the temperature into the 50s for the start of Paul Bunyan Training the next day. Scouts arrived smiling as rain is good news when working with Maine Forest Rangers – a lower chance of the Rangers being called out on a fire. Senior scouts from Troop #603 arrived at the Bolton Hill Regional Facility eager to learn, demonstrate, and train. They were met by Sergeant Scott Maddox, District Forest Ranger and Eagle Scout.

The day began with safety and equipment. Each scout was issued helmets, eye protection, leather gloves, and walked through the proper use of six tools including the sharpened Forestry Shovel, Pulaski, Sharpened Fire Rake, Single Head Axe, Bow Saw, and Pick Hoe. Moving to a slash pile at the edge of the Helicopter Landing Zone, each scout demonstrated proper employment of the tools and safety consideration.

Next the Scouts had to create a fire line which was a daunting task and then they stepped into a helicopter to see what it would be like for the firemen to have to go into a remote area via helicopter to reach a fire in a wilderness area.

Troop #603 gained a huge appreciation for the mission of Maine’s Forest Service and discussed the career pathways that support joining this diverse, well trained, and critical capability in our “Pine Tree State.”

Scouts in Helicopter (contributed photo)

Creating a Fire Line (contributed photo)

Northern Light Inland Hospital ends clinical services

On Tuesday, May 27, 2025, Northern Light Inland Hospital and clinical services ended. The facility, associated services, and most practices have been winding down services and working to transition patients to new care locations since announcing the closure earlier this year.

On Tuesday, May 27, 2025:

• The emergency department stopped accepting new patients at noon.
• All clinical services ended.

The following practices will remain open to serve patients and the community:

• Northern Light Primary Care, Unity, as part of Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital
• Northern Light Walk-In Care, Waterville, as part of Northern Light Mercy Hospital
• Northern Light Primary Care, Madison, as a practice of Redington-Fairview General Hospital.

Many providers will continue to offer care in Waterville and the surrounding area at new practice locations, and many current patients can choose to continue care with their current provider. Letters have been mailed to established patients of closing practices advising on any action needed to continue care with their current provider or to transition care to a new provider/practice.

As a reminder, this closure does not affect Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood, which operates as a separate entity in Waterville.

Additional information about the closure, answers to frequently asked questions, and up to date information about providers, can be found at NorthernLightHealth.org/InlandNotice.

Spectrum Generations seeks subcontract for older and disabled adults with local providers

Spectrum Generations, Central Maine’s Area Agency on Aging, provides community- based services through the Older Americans Act (OAA) Title III, parts B, C, E, and D. Spectrum Generations serves Kennebec, Somerset, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc Counties as well as the towns of Brunswick and Harpswell. The mission of Spectrum Generations is to promote and advance the well-being and independence of older and disabled adults, with the support of their care partners, to live in their community of choice.

To best serve local communities, Spectrum Generations seeks proposals to subcontract Older Americans Act services with local providers. Those services include:

OAA Title IIIB

– Money Minders
– Community Center Activities for Older Adults
– Telephone Reassurance
– Adult Day Services
– In-home Supportive Services (chore, personal care, and homemaker

OAA Title IIIC

– Home Delivered Meals
– Congregate Dining
– Nutrition Counseling and Education

OAA Title IIID

– Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

OAA Title IIIE

– Care Partner Support Groups and Training

Refer to Older Americans Act service definitions and reporting requirements for information on these services.

Single-year grant agreements will cover a period of one fiscal year, beginning October 1 and ending September 30. Providers must be familiar and compliant with rules and policy sections of the Office of Aging and Disability Services, Maine Nutrition Standards, the Older Americans Act, and standard terms and conditions required by Maine employment law and contracting guidelines.

Providers must also demonstrate the capacity to continue quality services in the case of delayed state payments or reduced award amounts due to state contractual amendments. Federal Funds through the Older Americans Act are often not received until January for contracts starting in October and typically include 2 to 3 amendments during the contract year. Award amounts are based on service type, service area, and units of service.

Any services provided by a subcontractor must fall within Spectrum Generations planning and service area listed above, though they need not cover the entire area. Providers must meet all requirements and submit all data prior to receiving payment. Providers may not means test or subcontract services.

Interested organizations must submit a Letter of Intent by June 23, 2025. Submissions will not be accepted after the closing date. Submissions should demonstrate the capacity to meet all requirements herein as well as the regulatory requirements from the sources listed above. Current subcontractors are not required to submit a letter of intent for those services currently under contract.

SNHU announces Spring 2025 president’s list

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), in Manchester, New Hampshire, congratulates the following students on being named to the Spring 2025 president’s list. The spring terms run from January to May.

Ascher Ter Kuile, of Vassalboro, Ryan Cunningham, of Skowhegan, Blake Laweryson, of North Anson, Alex Akers, Tamara Butler, and River Garling, all of Madison; Zachary Eggen, of Liberty; Stormy Wentworth, Grace Marshall, and Allison Nickerson, all of Fairfield; Jasmine Cayford, of Canaan; Jacob Colson, of Albion; Sierra Winson, Joseph Slater, and Trevor Lovely, all of Winslow; Duncan Sawyer, and Oase Erkamp, both of Waterville; Murphy Duffy, of Washington; Andrew Cronk, of China; Jennifer Anastasio, of Jefferson; Jaimie Thomas, of Sidney; Krista Neal, Renee Kimball, Krista Knight, Kristopher Mank and Jamison Bragdon, all of Augusta.

Lincoln County Historical Society opens season (2025)

Colonial Maine Living History Association reenactors honor veterans on Memorial Day, at the Pownalborough Court House, in Dresden. The event begins at 11 a.m., on Monday, May 26. (photo courtesy of Bob Bond)

The Lincoln County Historical Association (LCHA) is kicking off its 2025 season with a range of engaging events that invite the public to experience history in different ways. Highlights include a Memorial Day ceremony, a visit from historical archaeologist Tim Dinsmore, new hands-on experiences at the Old Jail, and Community Day offering free admission to three historic sites on Sunday, June 1.

Seasonal programming begins on Monday, May 26, at 11 a.m., with a Memorial Day observance at the Pownalborough Court House, in Dresden, where visitors can join historical reenactors in honoring nine veterans of three different wars buried in the Old Court House Cemetery. The event will include flower placements on graves, a brief prayer, and a ceremonial flag-raising, followed by guided tours of the 1761 Pownalborough Court House.

On Saturday, May 31, historical archaeologist Tim Dinsmore will be at the Chapman-Hall House, in Damariscotta, from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m., to talk with visitors about his archaeological work at the site. This informal opportunity gives guests the chance to learn about the goals and findings of the excavation, and ask questions about historical archaeology.

Sunday, June 1, marks LCHA’s annual Community Day, with free admission to all three historic sites: Pownalborough Court House (1761) in Dresden, Chapman-Hall House (1754), in Damariscotta, and the Lincoln County Museum & Old Jail (1811), in Wiscasset.

At the Old Jail Museum, families can engage in new hands-on activities that bring 19th-century daily life to life for younger visitors. Children will explore what it was like for the jailer’s family in the early 1800s, making for an interactive and educational experience.

Seasonal hours begin after these special events, and all sites will be open during weekends through the summer. Pownalborough Court House will be open Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Indigenous Peoples Day. Chapman-Hall House will be open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through October 12, and the Old Jail Museum will be open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through September 28.

For more details, including event information and seasonal programming, visit www.lincolncountyhistory.org or follow LCHA on social media. Facebook: Lincoln County Historical Association (Maine) and Pownalborough Court House Museum, instagram: @historicallincolncounty.

Support Maine 4-H with a paper clover donation at your local Tractor Supply

The Jolly Juniors 4-H Club hosting a bake sale during the Paper Clover Campaign at the Tractor Supply Co. store in Ellsworth. Pictured left to right: Leah, Samantha, Brenda Jordan (Club Leader), and Cassidy.

The bi-annual Paper Clover fundraising campaign is in full swing at Tractor Supply stores across the state. Imagine a generation of young people in Maine equipped with the skills to lead, innovate and build a brighter future. This vision becomes a reality through the long-standing partnership between 4-H and Tractor Supply Company. Since 2010, this effective collaboration has raised over $24 million nationwide through the Paper Clover campaign, directly impacting the lives of countless youth by providing them with invaluable life and work-ready skills.

Donations to the Paper Clover campaign make a local impact, with 100 percent of the funds raised in Maine directly benefitting Maine 4-H youth and providing vital resources for hands-on learning experiences, leadership development and community engagement. These funds also directly support Maine’s 4-H Camps and Learning Centers, offering transformative opportunities for young people to connect with the outdoors, build confidence and develop essential life skills.

This spring’s campaign, which runs through May 5, holds special significance as Maine proudly declares 2025 the Year of Youth in Agriculture, a statewide initiative celebrating and supporting the young individuals shaping the future of our agricultural landscape. The initiative underscores the role 4-H plays in cultivating the next generation of farmers, producers and agricultural advocates. The Year of Youth in Agriculture will feature various events, educational opportunities and leadership development programs including the upcoming Northeast Livestock Exposition (NELE), taking place at the Windsor Fairgrounds from Friday, May 16 to Sunday, May 18. This event will showcase the talent and dedication of young livestock exhibitors, many of whom are Maine 4-H members.

Maine 4-H provides experiential opportunities for young people to develop essential skills in animal science, crop production, and sustainable farming practices. The Paper Clover program directly supports these local programs, helping to ensure a vibrant future for Maine’s agricultural sector.

To learn more about Maine 4-H or to enroll, please visit the program website or contact 207.581.3877, 1.800.287.0274 (in Maine) or extension@maine.edu