TEAM PHOTO: PAL football camp senior group
/0 Comments/in Fairfield, Photo, School News, Sports/by Website EditorDrew Ketterer presented with Lifetime Achievement award by Maine Bar Assn.
/0 Comments/in Bar Harbor, Community, Fairfield/by Website EditorAt the annual summer meeting of the Maine State Bar Association, held in Bar Harbor, Attorney Drew Ketterer was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.
Drew Ketterer was orphaned at the age of 13 and forced to live on $90 a month of social security survivor benefits. He did manage to complete high school and played football for Fairfield University. In 1971 he became the first male graduate of Connecticut College for Women, in New London Connecticut, now known as Connecticut College. He graduated sixth out of a class of 316 with the distinction of Magna Cum Laude. Earning a scholarship through college and law school, he graduated from Boston’s Northeastern University School of Law, 50 years ago in 1974.
His first employment as a lawyer was with the Roxbury Defenders Committee, defending indigent felony cases by day and serving as a faculty member at Suffolk University School of Law, teaching criminal trial practice.
After five years of practicing law in Boston he returned to Maine to open a general practice law firm in Norridgewock, Somerset County. To this day he has remained in Norridgewock as a trial lawyer.
He was appointed by two Maine Governors to chair the state ethics commission, charged with enforcing the state election laws.
He has served in all three branches of Maine government. He first was in the judicial branch as a Complaint Justice, authorized to issue search and arrest warrants. He later served two terms in the House of Representatives, assigned to the Judiciary Committee. Finally, he served in the third branch of government as a three-term elected attorney general, of the State of Maine.
While serving as Maine’s AG he successfully completed five Boston Marathons and successfully sued the tobacco industry in the case Maine v. Philip Morris. He received what is believed to be the largest civil judgment in the history of the state of Maine, with a judgment in the amount of $1.4 billion. He represented Maine in the United States Supreme Court case of Alden v. Maine.
After serving as Maine’s Attorney General, he returned to the law firm he founded in 1979, in Norridgewock, and developed an attorney general practice. In July 2014 his son Andrew became a partner in the law firm, now known as Ketterer & Ketterer, with offices in Maine and Florida.
His service to the legal profession, included serving as the president of the Somerset County Bar Association as well as being elected to the Maine Bar Association Board of Governors for three terms. He was also elected to serve as president for the New England Bar Association.
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Fairfield
/0 Comments/in Fairfield, Local History, Up and Down the Kennebec Valley/by Mary Growby Mary Grow
This article brings readers to Fairfield, northernmost of the four municipalities in this series on the west bank of the Kennebec River. Fairfield is across the river from Benton and Clinton (subjects of the June 13 and June 20 articles).
Fairfield is one of the two towns in the series outside Kennebec County; it is far enough north to be in Somerset County. (Palermo, in Waldo County, is the other outsider; see the July 4 history article.)
Fairfield was settled and incorporated only on the west side of the river, unlike Augusta, which began and still is on both banks, or Vassalboro and Winslow, which lost their west sides (the names of Waterville, originally Winslow, and Sidney, originally Vassalboro, remain to be discussed).
The present town started as Fairfield Plantation, according to a history on the town’s website. The 1988 bicentennial history book, prepared by the book committee of the Fairfield Historical Society, says the plantation was organized in 1774, and the town was incorporated June 18, 1788.
Why Fairfield? When your writer summarized the town’s history in an April 16, 2020, article in this series, she quoted Ava Harriet Chadbourne’s Maine Place Names as saying the name was due to the area’s “natural beauty.”
An unrelated on-line account supports Chadbourne. It says Fairfield, California, was named by an early settler after his home town of Fairfield, Connecticut, and cites a 1903 issue of the monthly Connecticut Magazine saying Fairfield, Connecticut’s “name is descriptive of the tract.”
When Fairfield? is a question one writer in the bicentennial history raises. Most of its authors referred to the 1788 town as Fairfield, and called only the present downtown section Kendall’s Mills, named for an entrepreneur who arrived in 1780.
The writer of the chapter titled Military Involvement, however, wrote, “Because of William Kendall’s dominance in the Town it was known as Kendall’s Mills until the name was changed to Fairfield in 1872.” Another chapter says the name of the Kendall’s Mills post office, not the town, became Fairfield in 1872.
The town was not named after its first settler: multiple sources say he was Jonathan Emery, who in 1771 “built a house on Emery Hill [a short distance north of today’s downtown] near the banks of the Kennebec River.”
The bicentennial history says the house started as a log cabin that was “later sheathed with boards” and otherwise modified. Cianbro Corporation took it down in 1982, the history says.
Jonathan Emery came from Dracut, Massachusetts. His son Samuel, born June 15, 1773, was probably the first white child born in Fairfield, the history says (but see below).
On-line Emery genealogies are full of arguments and contradictions. Majority opinion says Jonathan (born Nov. 23, 1722, in Haverhill, Massachusetts; died June, 1807, in Fairfield) was married twice. His first wife was Jerusha or possibly Johannah (Barron) Emery, from Dracut, Massachusetts, born Aug. 4, 1735. She and Jonathan had nine or 10 children before she died in 1781.
One genealogy identifies Jonathan’s second wife as NN. Another calls her a widow named Whitten. Neither provides dates.
Several sources say Emery came first to Winthrop and then to Fairfield. None explains why he came to Maine.
Contemporary downtown Fairfield began with the first dam built to use a portion of the Kennebec’s water power. It ran from the west bank to the island now called Mill Island, the westernmost and largest of half a dozen islands in that stretch of river. Jonas Dutton started building the dam in 1778; in 1780, Revolutionary veteran William Kendall came to Fairfield and took it over.
Kendall (Sept. 11, 1759 – Aug. 11, 1827) was born in Georgetown. The bicentennial history says he joined the army as a private in March 1777, and was honorably discharged in 1780. Why he came to Fairfield is unstated.
He bought and finished Dutton’s dam and built a sawmill and a grist mill on top of it. The mills remained in the family until 1835.
Several sources tell the story of Kendall paddling his birchbark canoe upriver on Christmas Day 1782, to marry Abigail Chase and bring her back to his Fairfield home. The bicentennial history is inconsistent about where Abigail lived and which house her new husband brought her to.
The chronological introductory section says he “brought her down the Kennebec from what is now Hinckley.” Most sources call Hinckley the site of the former Pishon’s Ferry (where the Kennebec has been bridged since 1910).
The writer of the Military Involvement chapter specified Noble’s Ferry, which was downriver from Pishon’s Ferry. (See the June 20 article on Clinton.)
The history says Kendall’s first house was a log cabin near the river, at the north end of the present downtown area. The writer of the introduction said the couple lived there until the late 1790s, when they moved into a large brick house farther south and farther from the river.
The Military Involvement writer implied that immediately after putting up the log cabin, Kendall “proceeded to dig a cellar and to build the first frame house in the village.” He brought his bride down the river “to the home he had recently completed.”
Kendall also bought land downstream from his dam, starting the present commercial center. The history says he ran a store farther south on the river until he died in 1827.
Kendall’s Mills, and now downtown Fairfield, was/is in the southeastern corner of town. The local histories list another half-dozen early population centers, three upriver from Kendall’s Mills and three in the rest of town.
The next upriver settlement has been called Shawmut since 1889; previous names included Philbrooks Mills, Lyons Mills and Somerset Mills (the name of the post office there from 1853 to 1889). The area was farmland until 1835, the history says, when Ivory Low “bonded his farm with the water power to Milton Philbrook of Fairfield for the round sum of $40,000.”
Philbrook presumably built a dam, though that fact is not recorded. His original mill soon changed hands; Waterville lawyer Alpheus Lyon built Fairfield’s first flour mill there. The history does not explain the names Somerset Mills and Shawmut.
Next up the river was Nye’s Corner, where the post office was Fairfield Corners from 1822 to 1882, the history says. Named for the numerous Nye family, this village in the 1830s was “the hub of the Town with its stores, church, hotel, blacksmith shop, hat manufacturer, cooper shops, coat and shoe shops and carriage shops.”
About eight miles upstream from Kendall’s Mills, at Pishon’s Ferry, was East Fairfield, now Hinckley, in the northeastern corner of town. The name Hinckley, the bicentennial history says, honors George Walter Hinckley, founder in 1889 of the Goodwill Home and School.
Of the three inland settlements, the southernmost, almost due west of Kendall’s Mills, is Fairfield Center. Northward, inland from Nye’s Corner, is North Fairfield; and in the northwest corner of town is Larone.
Neither the on-line nor the printed town history is clear on the origin of the Fairfield Center settlement. It might be part of acreage on the west bank of the Kennebec purchased by two Massachusetts men, Joseph Dimmock and Joseph Nye, on Oct. 11, 1781.
Dimmock and Nye were required to survey 60 195-acre lots and find settlers for them and to build three roads in the tract. If your writer has correctly located their land, they succeeded: the bicentennial history says Fairfield Center, on the main road from Waterville to Skowhegan, had the Fairfield post office from 1807 to 1872, and stores and taverns that made it the town’s “business section” (no dates given).
North Fairfield’s first settlers the bicentennial history describes as “a group of Quakers from Massachusetts” – hence one of its early names, Quakertown. It was also known as Black’s Mills and Blacknell’s Mills, for reasons your writer has not ascertained. The Bowerman brothers, Elihu, Harper and Zaccheus, were the initial settlers.
(There is more about the Bowermans in the history article in the April 20, 2016, issue of The Town Line.)
The village of Larone is in extreme northwestern Fairfield, on Martin Stream. Martin Stream, which the bicentennial history says is named for an early trapper (no first name given), flows into the Kennebec River at Hinckley.
The history says the first settler was Abraham Potter, who paid Massachusetts $1.25 an acre for his farmland. Opening a road to Norridgewock encouraged more settlers, including Daniel Winslow (no date given) who dammed the stream and built “a mill for tanning purposes, a grist mill and later a lath saw.”
The village was therefore called Winslow’s Mills until residents wanted their own post office and a new name for it. Citing an earlier history specifically of Larone, the bicentennial history says during a meeting organized to discuss the post office, Tilly Emery, who owned a roan horse, offered “the roan,” “meaning that if no other way was provided, his horse could bring…[the mail] in.”
Others present amended “the roan” to “Larone,” “and the named was unanimously adopted.”
The writer added that “Mr. Emery became the first postmaster, although Mrs. Emery did most of the business.”
A contemporary on-line map shows these seven early Fairfield settlement centers (plus three other localities).
Two more second-generation Emerys
Some of the varying lists of Jonathan and Jerusha Emery’s children begin with Private David, born in Dracut in 1754. One list, of six sons and four daughters, includes Samuel; two sources say he was born June 17, 1773, in Winthrop (not Fairfield).
An 1890 genealogy, copied on a newer genealogical site, says when Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Québec went through Fairfield in September 1775, 21-year-old David Emery joined and went as far as Dead River. When Lieutenant Colonel Roger Enos and about 450 men turned back from there late in October, Emery came with them.
(Dead River is about 80 miles north and west of Fairfield. Roger Enos [1729 -1808] was a Connecticut native who had been a soldier since 1759 [the French and Indian War]. He was court-martialed for leaving Arnold’s expedition; defended himself on grounds of the lack of food, supplies and boats for the troops; was acquitted and rejoined the army.)
Emery then served in the army outside Boston until March 1777. He spent two years at Ticonderoga, New York, the genealogist wrote, before going to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to join General George Washington’s Life Guards.
Discharged in March 1780, at Morristown, New Jersey, he returned to Fairfield. The genealogist found an April 5, 1782, record of marriage intentions between “David Emery and Abigail Goodwin [1763 – 1838] both of Kennebeck River without the boundaries of any town, but in the county of Lincoln.” The marriage did not get recorded because the town was not incorporated, the genealogist explained.
David and Abigail had six sons and four daughters. David died in Fairfield on Nov. 18, 1830, and is buried in Emery Hill Cemetery.
Another genealogy says David’s younger brother, Samuel (the one who might have been Fairfield’s first white child), married Deidamia Johnston, whose date and place of birth are unknown. Between April 1786 and April 1817, the couple had 11 children whose names are listed – the website says there were a total of 15.
The children were born in Fairfield except for William (Nov. 20, 1801) and Samuel (May 22, 1810), who were born in Phippsburg, this source says (without explanation).
Samuel was 69 when he died March 7, 1839, in Fairfield; he, too, is buried in Emery Hill Cemetery. Neither Deidamia nor her sister-in-law Abigail have identified graves there.
Main sources
Fairfield Historical Society, Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988)
Websites, miscellaneous
Scholarships available for young musicians
/0 Comments/in Community, Fairfield, School News, Topsham/by Website EditorThe Kennebec Performing Arts Company encourages the participation of young musicians in its groups. Student members entering grades 9-12 are eligible to apply for the $500 scholarship for tuition to a summer camp or music program of their choice.
Victoria Hahn is the daughter of Ken and Kamala Hahn, of Fairfield. She has just completed her freshman year at the Ecology Learning Center, in Unity. Victoria began playing violin at age four, continuing for nine years. Two years ago, she began playing French horn, which is now her exclusive focus. She studies under Brittany Genness and has participated in various ensembles, including Mid-Maine Youth Orchestra, KPAC, Kennebec Valley Music Educators Association Honors Band, and Maine All-State Band. Victoria has attended the summer Bay Chamber Envision Program, and Maine Summer Youth Music Camp at the University of Southern Maine, where she will return this summer using her KPAC scholarship.
Victoria is a member of the KPAC Wind Ensemble, joining two years ago to have the opportunity to play challenging music.
“I really enjoy the community because everyone is extremely friendly and supportive of me as a musician. People often talk about how difficult the French horn is, but honestly, that is one of the reasons I like it. It is challenging and annoyingly finicky.”
Isla Granholm is the daughter of Sven and Elise Granholm, of Topsham. A home-schooled student, Isla will be starting her senior year this fall. She has been singing all her life and became a member of the KPAC chorus in September 2023. She credits directors Chuck Milazzo and Jason Giacomazzo, accompanist Christina Misner Rao, and the alto section for their guidance and encouragement.
“The chance to sing together with people who have the same deep love and passion for music is such a wonderful thing, and some of the best moments of my life have been when we finally get the harmony right and our voices just soar together.”
Since 2020, Isla has studied piano under Linda Craig, performing her first recital in April 2024 at an advanced level. She will use the KPAC scholarship to attend the Csehy Summer School of Music, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, for two weeks this summer, where she will major in piano and participate in chamber choir and handbell ensembles.
Mya Williams senior class president at Lawrence High School, in Fairfield
/0 Comments/in Community, Fairfield, School News/by Website EditorMya Williams, Lawrence High School, in Fairfield, class president, graduated top 10 in her class. Mya has had a dream of being a teacher since she was little. Mya will be attending University of Maine at Farmington for education, and plans to come back to MSAD #49 to be a teacher and give back to the community that inspired her. She is an inspiration to the youth of our community, and helps to coach PAL youth in soccer. Mya is also the assistant director for the Summer PAL Program.
TEAM PHOTO: PAL Majors champions
/0 Comments/in Central ME, Fairfield, Photo, School News, Sports/by Website EditorTEAM PHOTO: PAL Minors champions
/0 Comments/in Central ME, Fairfield, Photo, Sports/by Website EditorTNT Competitive Edge dance team is heading to national competition
/0 Comments/in Community, Fairfield, Sports/by Mark Huardby Mark Huard
Competitive Edge Dance Team is a group of young dancers based out of TNT Dance Studio, on the Center Road, in Fairfield. The Studio began as Terri’s School of Dance and was founded by Theresa “Terri” Glidden 50 years ago. It is now owned and operated by Terri’s daughter, Tiffany Glidden, and Jesse Klein. They started competitive dancing 30 years ago when Tiffany was a young child and they have continued to build a strong team of competitive dancers ever since. This year is not any different, as they are setting out to take the stage at Dance Ovations Nationals, on Cape Cod, for the week of June 26 – 30. The team has traveled all over New England this year and qualified for this national competition by competing in the regional event in Stratham, New Hampshire, in early May. They have worked all year and engaged in multiple fundraising events to be able to compete at this level.
Currently eight members strong, the team is comprised of athletes from the age of to 10 to 18. Dance Competitions are broken up by age, skill level and genre. They can compete in solo divisions, small group, large group and duo/trios. The main choreographers for TNT’s Competitive Edge team are Tiffany Glidden, Kali Vashon, and Terri Glidden. The team meets at least weekly as a team to practice their routines, listen to critiques from previous competitions and attempt to perfect technique and gain stamina. To compete on a national stage requires a commitment to excellence, discipline, sacrifice, and perseverance by the coaches and their athletes. Based on the results of the Dance Ovations Regional event, the following dances qualified for a special “Dance On” competition during Nationals, due to their high scoring placements:
Mechanical Dolls (a ballet routine choreographed by Tiffany Glidden for Annabelle Tasker age 10 and Kirstin Clawson age 10); Stepsisters Lament (a musical theater routine choreographed by Kali Vashon for Jayla Jandreau, Hailey Benson, and Stella Patterson, all 13 years old); All Aboard (choreographed by Terri Glidden for Sophia Santiago, Jayla Jandreau, Hailey Benson and Stella Patterson, all age 13) and finally The Letter (choreographed by Kali Vashon for Jaylenn Cugno, age 18, Sophia Santiago, Jayla Jandreau, Hailey Benson, and Stella Patterson, all age 13).
In addition to the qualifying routines, TNT has two dancers that qualified to compete in the Titleist Competition. These dancers – Sophia Santiago, age 13, and Jaylenn Cugno, age 18 – qualified by scoring in the top three of their respective solo divisions. Sophia is a seventh grader at Lawrence Jr. High School, in Fairfield, and is performing an acro/lyrical routine called Butterfly Fly Away that is choreographed by Kali Vashon. Jaylenn is a senior at Skowhegan Area High School, and is performing a contemporary routine called I am What I am, that is choreographed by Terri Glidden. Both dancers will engage in different events throughout the week such as interviews and opening number rehearsals with a large group of top soloists from all over the country.
In addition to an incredible amount of hard work, these dancers can attend these events due to their generous sponsors including: National Level Sponsor: Heavy Machines LLC; Competition Level Sponsors: S&K Heating, RDA Automotive and Zimba Corp; Convention Level Sponsors: Sackett & Brake Survey, Inc., Cappzas Pizza and Mattingly Products Co; Donors: Stan’s Fries, Key Appliance, Freihoffers, Cervesas, Pour House Pub, The Apple Farm, Harvest Moon Deli, Computer Improvements, Rebecca Cayford, ESQ, Rita’s Pizza, Johnny’s Seeds, Emery’s Meats, China Way, Pizza Hut, Autozone, Tin Knocker Signworks, and The Magic of Conjuring Carroll.
PUBLIC NOTICES for Thursday, June 20, 2024
/0 Comments/in China, Fairfield, Legal Notices, Palermo, Winslow/by Website EditorTown of China
EARLY OFFICE CLOSING
Attention China Residents:
China Town Office will be closing at noon on Friday, June 28, and closed Saturday, June 29, for fiscal year end reporting.
Town of Winslow
Notice of Public Hearing
In accordance with Section 213 of the Winslow Town Charter, notice is hereby given that the Town Council will hold a public hearing in the Town Council Chambers, 136 Halifax Street, Winslow, Maine at 6:00 p.m. on July 8, 2024, on the following proposed Ordinances.
Ordinance No. 08-2024: Providing for: The Town of Winslow to approve an ordinance for signs on town-owned property.
All interested persons are invited to attend the public hearing and will be given the opportunity to be heard. Anyone having questions about the proposed ordinances or wishing to obtain a copy of it should contact the Winslow Town Clerk’s or Town Manager’s Office during regular office hours.
Audra Fleury
Town Clerk, Winslow, Maine.
Town of Palermo
Request for Sand Bids
The Town of Palermo is now accepting sand bids for the 2024-25 season. Bid applications can be found on our website: (townofpalermo.org) or at the Town of Palermo Office during regular business hours. The deadline for submitting a bid will be July 11, 2024.
TOWN OF FAIRFIELD
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS
The Fairfield Town Council will hold Public Hearing in the Council Chambers at the Community Center at 61 Water Street on Wednesday June 26 at 6:30 p.m. for the purpose of hearing public comments on the following matter:
• To hear public comments on a renewal application for a special amusement permit for the purposes of music and dancing submitted by River Jack Tavern Main Street, Fairfield, Maine 04937
The Fairfield Town Council will hold Public Hearing in the Council Chambers at the Community Center, at 61 Water Street, on Wednesday, July 10, at 6:30 p.m., for the purpose of hearing public comments on the following matter:
• Proposed statutory amendments to the Land Use Ordinance; Section 9.14 Accessory Dwelling Units.
Copies are available at the Town Office. All interested persons are invited to attend the public hearings and will be given an opportunity to be heard at that time.
Signed: Christine Keller,
Town Clerk
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