Vassalboro select board looks at budget version five; ready for presentation

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members spent their March 13 meeting going over two familiar documents, the draft 2025-26 budget (now in version number five) and the personnel policy they have been discussing at intervals since the end of May 2024.

They made progress on both.

After more than an hour’s review, they decided the budget is ready to be presented to the budget committee, in advance of a discussion between the two boards scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 18.

The personnel policy took another three-quarters of an hour. Board members asked Town Manager Aaron Miller to distribute the revised version so they can consider it individually.

Community Program Director resigns

by Mary Grow

Karen Stankis has resigned as Vassalboro’s Community Program Director, effective March 20.

Vassalboro voters approved funding for the new position at their spring 2022 town meeting, effective July 1. Stankis has been director since August 1, 2022, adding a variety of activities in addition to the youth sports that predated her position.

The main reason she resigned, Stankis said, is that although she knew the job was part-time when she was hired, she has learned that 30 hours a week is not enough time to develop and manage a complete parks and recreation department, supplementing youth sports with varied programs for all ages.

She thanked many people who have helped expand town recreational activities, including participants, youth recreation sports directors and other leaders and sponsors.

“I hope the town will continue to fund the position,” she said. “Recreation offers much more to a town than youth sports.”

Miller said since the March 6 budget discussion (see the March 13 issue of The Town Line, p. 2) he has learned that Vassalboro’s fuel oil dealer is likely to abide by the 2025-26 contract price and add a surcharge when justified by tariffs.

The longest March 13 discussion was over the recreation budget, including board member Chris French’s proposal to have a recreation director paid for 40 hours a week and expected to spend 10 hours in the town office, filling in as needed over lunch hours and when a regular staff member is absent.

Miller said current staff members are doubtful, mostly because they believe the need is for another bookkeeper, not for general office help.

He and board member Michael Poulin recommended discussions of the recreation program with the budget committee and the recreation committee. Other suggestions included a survey of residents and/or discussion at the June 2 town meeting.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 20. A transfer station task force meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m., that day.

Vassalboro school board honors girls basketball team

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Vassalboro Community School girls basketball team, 2025 Sheepscot Valley Athletic Conference, undefeated champions. (The Town Line file photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members began their March 11 meeting by recognizing the Vassalboro Community School girls’ basketball team, who won the 2025 Sheepscot Valley Athletic Conference championship with a 12-0 record. (See the photo on p. 8 of the March 13 issue of The Town Line.)

“From worst to first,” Coach David Trask summarized: last year, he said, the team didn’t win a single game, though they steadily improved. He said the junior varsity girls also had an undefeated season this year.

Trask and Athletic Director Traci Tibbetts both coach basketball, but Trask said because Tibbetts has many other duties, he has worked with the teams. He praised them as a “great group of girls” supported by “fantastic parents.”

At the end of the meeting, board members recognized two other students: eighth-graders Savannah Judkins and Agatha Meyer were waiting to learn on March 14 whether their applications to the Maine School of Mathematics and Science (MSSM) had been accepted.

On March 14, both girls learned they have been accepted at the specialty school, in Limestone, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer reported.

At the school board meeting, the girls’ parents and board members discussed whether Vassalboro taxpayers can be asked to help cover room and board expenses at MSSM, as part of the school budget. Pfeiffer explained that the State of Maine pays tuition there; Vassalboro gets no subsidy or reimbursement. Neither the state nor the town covers room and board, which people said costs close to $11,000 a year.

Pfeiffer pointed out that if the students attended Erskine Academy instead, the tuition – paid by the town, mostly reimbursed by the state – would be more than that.

School board members decided they should develop a policy. Needing time to consider it, they postponed a decision to their April meeting.

Board member Zachary Smith, whose son Judson is in his first year at MSSM, said MSSM’s financial aid information comes out in June and families’ payments are due beginning in July.

In other business March 11, board members reviewed the first draft of the 2025-26 school calendar. Pfeiffer explained that every year, state education officials send a suggested schedule; he coordinates with Waterville and Winslow, since they and Vassalboro share many administrators; and the school board tweaks the final version to meet specific Vassalboro needs.

One outstanding question is whether November 2025 voting will be held at Vassalboro Community School, and if it is, how to compensate for missing a day of classes.

After another brief discussion of school board members’ stipends, board members voted unanimously not to recommend an increase this year.

Each Vassalboro board member currently receives $400 a year, a figure Board Chairman Jolene Gamage said has not changed for more than a decade. Gamage’s figures showed Vassalboro select board members receive $2,580 a year with an additional $500 for the chairman. Waterville and Winslow school board members’ per-meeting stipends add up to well over $400 annually.

Pfeiffer reported with pleasure that Vassalboro has hired a new bus driver. Board members confirmed her appointment.

The next regular Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 8. Before then, board members have 2025-26 budget discussions scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 26; but Pfeiffer said if he does not receive information on 2025-26 insurance costs in time, the meeting could be postponed.

China budget committee makes recommendations on ‘25-’26 budget

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by Mary Grow

Five of China’s seven budget committee members met March 17 to make their recommendations on the select board’s draft 2025-26 budget.

They recommended cuts affecting several accounts, and two increases.

The major change budget committee members want is in town employees’ salaries. Select board members, at their March 10 meeting, accepted Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s proposed 3.5 percent cost of living increase (see the March 13 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Budget committee members recommended a 2.5 percent pay increase for next year. Michael Sullivan proposed a reduction, saying that with the 3.5 percent increase, employees would have gained 20 percent over four years, double the rate of increase in the previous four years.

Kevin Maroon took up the argument, asking the source of the 3.5 percent cost of living increase, on which the recommended pay was based.

The vote to recommend the lower raises was unanimous.

This change affected all accounts that include employee salaries and benefits. Hapgood proposed the budget committee not act on the draft warrant for the June 10 annual town business meeting until she has time to calculate revised figures.

Select board members will decide at their March 24 meeting whether to accept the budget committee’s recommendations. Voters make the final spending decisions at the town meeting.

Budget committee members also recommended deleting a proposed $500 donation to Northern Light Home Care and Hospice, because with Inland Hospital closing in June, no one knew whether the hospice would continue.

Sullivan’s motion to eliminate funding for China’s broadband committee was defeated, supported by himself and Maroon and opposed by Chairman Brent Chesley, Tim Basham and Taryn Hotham. Sullivan also proposed cutting the 2025-26 recreation committee budget, but did not persist after Chesley pointed out it is already $10,900, or about 25 percent, lower than this year.

One increase the budget committee recommended was in the PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) line in the transfer station account. This money funds state-required PFAS remediation. Hapgood said she had just learned one system needs a new pump, expected to cost about $950.

Budget committee members unanimously recommended an additional $1,000, for a total of $6,400.

Maroon proposed the second recommended addition, to the social services account. He moved to put back the $500 donation to the American Red Cross that the select board deleted, at Thomas Rumpf’s request, on March 10.

Maroon, who is a China Village volunteer fire department member, praised the Red Cross for their prompt help to disaster victims, for example when a family’s home burns. He listed other services, including blood drives and safety and life-saving courses.

Basham and Hotham voted with him to reinstate the $500; Chesley and Sullivan were opposed. Chesley later voted against the entire account, because he thinks residents should make their individual choices of organizations and agencies to support.

Chesley, a former select board member, addressed two recommendations to current board members (three of whom were in the March 17 audience). He advised them to investigate health insurance options to seek a less expensive plan for employees; and he recommended paying employees for unused vacation time at the end of each fiscal year, so funding liability would not accumulate.

After select board members review the budget committee recommendations, the latter group needs to meet again to review the town meeting warrant. That meeting is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 2.

The draft warrant Hapgood prepared for the budget committee meeting did not include the China Village volunteer fire department’s request for a new fire truck. Maroon urged adding the article, summarizing the need to replace an old, unreliable vehicle with an efficient new one.

He reminded those present that the department first asked for funds two years ago, when the truck would have cost substantially less than it will now.

Palermo rep suggests PAYT at China transfer station

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by Mary Grow

At the March 11 China Transfer Station Committee meeting, member Bob Kurek shared his calculation of the economic benefit of charging all users a per-bag fee to dispose of trash at the China facility.

Palermo users currently buy colored bags for their trash. China residents do not, since their taxes support the facility along with other town services.

Kurek calculated that adding pay per bag (PPB) for China users would generate enough additional revenue to make the transfer station self-supporting, assuming Palermo continues to contribute.

PPB is also fair, he and station manager Thomas Maraggio said; those who use the facility the most pay the most. Maraggio said PPB would make attendants’ work easier, since all trash would be bagged.

Town Clerk Angela Nelson found on the cover of China’s 2014-15 town report, published in June 2016, a caption: “The year of the great PAYT [Pay As You Throw] debate.” She quoted a comment on p. 57 that said, “As of this writing February 6, 2016, the Select Board has rescinded their earlier action to initiate a Pay Per Throw Program to a time uncertain in the future.”

Committee member Lee Buzzell said one effect of PPB would probably be more residents switching to dumpsters. Chairman J. Chrisopher Bauman asked members to consider other unintended consequences, and asked Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to calculate the effect on taxes.

Maraggio had compiled recycling statistics for China: the recycling rate is just over 25 percent if demolition debris is not counted, just over 20 percent if it is. The state average is around 30 percent, he said; the state goal is 50 percent.

The list of recyclables on the China website includes plastics, metal and aluminum cans, glass, newspapers and magazines, and corrugated cardboard. Maraggio said collection of newly-added #1 plastic is going well. He would especially like to see more composting of food wastes.

Committee members scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 8.

Palermo residents cite opposition to Pine Hill Subdivision

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Select board approves project

by Jonathan Strieff

More than two dozen residents attended the Palermo Planning Board meeting on Thursday, March 13, to voice concerns and raise questions during the preliminary hearing to approve a proposed 12-unit subdivision on Hostile Valley Road. Many of those present spoke to potential impacts to the local ecology and environment, traffic and public infrastructure, and other anticipated consequences from increased population density. The five member planning board recorded input from community members, as well as developer, James Boyle, for over two hours before voting unanimously to approve the preliminary application as complete, moving the proposal forward to a public hearing at a future date.

In November 2024, Gorham based developer, James Boyle purchased 27 acres, in Palermo, between Log Cabin Lane and Belden Pond. He promptly began the application process to subdivide the parcel into 15 house lots ranging in size between one and four acres, including the development of a 50-foot wide private road.

In the intervening months, Boyle has worked with K and K Land Surveyors, based in Oakland, to finalize his proposed development plan to meet the preliminary application requirements of the planning board, including mapping protected wetlands and slopes unsuitable for building on, identifying at least 10 percent of the total acreage to be preserved as open space for recreation, and designating a 75-foot protected buffer area along Belden Pond Brook.

The submitted proposal reduced the number of house lots from 15 to 12 and significantly shortened the length of the proposed Pine Hill Road. Boyle intends to sell the lots individually, rather than developing the entire housing division himself, but specified that including deed restrictions and the creation of a Road Association or Home Owners Association within the subdivision would ensure the common maintenance and upkeep of the shared assets, the private road and the preserved recreation land.

Several abutting land owners present addressed their wide ranging concerns both to the planning board members, and to Boyle directly. Four community members read prepared statements focusing on the potential impacts of the development to the health of the ecology and wildlife of the surrounding area, road repair and travel safety related to increased traffic, and impacts to other social and cultural aspects of the town, like the school system. One resident, Henry Holden, presented the planning board with a petition of 100 names signed in opposition to the planned development as currently proposed.

One common refrain spoke to concerns about changing the “rural character,” of the town. One attendee noted that 12 new homes on a 27 acre parcel would be a 1000 percent increase in population density compared with the current average in Palermo. Another worried that, with no plan to restrict development to single family homes, the lenient zoning ordinances in Palermo could potentially allow the 12 lots to be built up into a mix of up to 27 single family and multifamily units, even more with the allowance of Auxiliary Dwelling Units. Board Chairman, Janelle Tirrell, commented that, while preserving and protecting the rural character of Palermo is enshrined in the towns Comprehensive Plan, rural is in the eye of the beholder, and not necessarily determined by lot size. Boyle responded by citing another section of the Comprehensive Plan, which identified the need for at least 70 new housing units to be built in Palermo by 2040 to keep up with demographic changes. He pointed out that “relying of market forces and natural housing stock,” as recommended in the previous Comprehensive Plan from the 1990s, has seen median house prices in Palermo double in recent years, from $165,000 to $323,000.

Another neighbor, Pamela Paige, spoke extensively about the potential negative impacts the proposed development could have on the environment, specifically the Sheepscott Lake Watershed. The development site sits squarely within the watershed and the activities of clearing the land and building the structures could inevitably introduce nonpoint sources pollution into Sheepscott Lake and River by way of Belden Brook and disturb the natural ecosystem for wildlife present. Sheepscott Lake supports populations of lake trout and landlocked salmon and Sheepscott River is one of only seven rivers in the country to maintain a wild Atlantic salmon run. “As habitat blocks shrink and are fragmented,” Paige said, “entire wildlife species are driven away.”

Chanel Cyr also spoke to impacts to the watershed, but in the context of the recent phenomenon of many area wells running dry. The climate trends in Maine towards hotter temperatures and less annual precipitation has had a detrimental effect on groundwater levels. An additional 12 households drawing water from the same source would only make the problem worse.

Finally, resident Loraine Eliot spoke to the unsafe conditions and unreasonable congestion that could be brought to Hostile Valley Road with the Pine Hill Development. Running through the numbers, Eliot made the case that 12 new lots could easily result in 72 new driving adults traveling on the road, potentially hundreds during holidays or in the case of someone starting a home business. The intersection with Level Hill Road is notorious in town for being dangerous and difficult to see. In the event of new signage or a traffic light being deemed necessary to accommodate the increase in traffic, Eliot asked, who is expected to pay for that?

The meeting adjourned with the board unanimously approving the preliminary application as complete. Boyle took extensive notes during the period of public comment and asked concerned citizens to contact him directly to include their input in the plan as it moves forward.

Veteran columnist Marilyn Rogers dies at 95

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Marilyn Rogers

SKOWHEGAN – Marilyn Houston Rogers-Bull, 95, passed away on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at the Cedar Ridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, in Skow­hegan. Marilyn was born April 29, 1929, in the village of Flagstaff, the daughter of Doro­thy Steven Jones and Benjamin Houston and step-father Clarence Jones.

She graduated from Flagstaff High School soon to marry Frank Rogers. In 1949 Marilyn, Frank and son Mark moved to Solon when the residents of Flagstaff, Dead River and Bigelow towns were displaced by CMP as the Dead River Dam was built. Their family grew to include David, Peter and Mary.

Marilyn was very active in community affairs and organizations. She was a member of the Solon Congregational Church serving in numerous capacities for many years. Over the years, she wrote articles for The Somerset Gazette, The Somerset Reporter, The Morning Sentinel and The Town Line. She was well known for her opening line “Don’t worry be happy.” and closing with a bit of wisdom from her beloved cat Percy.

She was a 4-H leader, Extension member, Registrar of Voters for Solon. She was a barber and waitress, and became an expert in wallpaper hanging for many homes in town. Marilyn was a teacher’s aide for the Solon School. She was instrumental in forming what became the Solon Summer Recreation for all the children in town. Her future son-in-law remembers the sandwiches she made for the crew cleaning out the chicken barn at Lewis Adams farm every summer. She was a gifted and naturally taught artist and had won many awards for her paintings, and became the art teacher for the Skowhegan School of Adult Education. Over the decades she was the Solon Coolidge Library librarian. In her 50s and 60s Marilyn operated her own shop called Grams selling much of her knitting and crafts, but most of all she loved meeting people.

In 1995 her husband Frank died. In 2011, she married Leif Bull, of South Solon. They enjoyed traveling all around the state and eating in many of their favorite restaurants. In the last few years of her life dementia progressed to where she needed 24-hour care. The staff at Woodlands Memory Center, of Madison, and eventually Cedar Ridge did just that for Marilyn. From a remarkable family and village Marilyn grew up with strong and steadfast values that embraced community and faith. She was gifted to know and understand right from wrong, and good from bad. Her faith caused her to live bravely and courageously throughout her life. She was a blessing for all who knew and loved her.

Marilyn is survived by her husband Lief Bull; sons Mark Rogers and wife Karen, of Dunedin, Florida, David Rogers and wife Eleanor, of Falmouth, Peter Rogers and wife Sherry, of Solon; daughter Mary Walz and husband David, of North Anson; stepson Dean Bull and wife Cheryl, of Jasper, Georgia; stepdaughter Cindy Fitzmaurice and husband Allan, of Anson; and brothers Steven and Larry; 13 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and one great-great- grandson.

She was predeceased by her brother Tom.

There will be a graveside service in the spring at the Flagstaff Cemetery, in Eustis.

Emmett Appel receives MPA Principal’s award

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Emmett Appel

Headmaster Jamie Soule has announced that Emmett Appel, of Windsor, a senior at Erskine Academy, in South China, has been selected to receive the 2025 Principal’s Award. The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals’ Association, recognizes a high school senior’s academic excellence, outstanding school citizenship, and leadership.

Appel is a consistent high honors student in a highly competitive academic program that includes honors or accelerated level classes and numerous Advanced Placement and Concurrent Enrollment courses with nearby colleges. He has been commended and honored within the school for his exceptional academic achievements, extracurricular involvement, leadership, and community service. Appel is currently ranked among the top students in Erskine Academy’s Class of 2025, and was one of only two students in the state to be selected to represent Maine at the 63rd annual U.S. Senate Youth Program (USSYP) Washington Week this month.

“Emmett’s dedication and commitment to his academic studies, extra and co-curricular activities, and to causes he cares deeply for, perfectly exemplifies our school’s core values of scholarship, leadership, stewardship, and relationships. Emmett has consistently distinguished himself as an exemplary representative for Erskine Academy, and I am proud to honor him with this well-deserved award,” noted Headmaster Soule.

Appel, Soule, and other award winners and their principals will attend an Honors Luncheon at Jeff’s Catering, on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. The event recognizes outstanding students by presenting a plaque and awarding ten $1,000 scholarships in the names of former Maine principals and MPA Executive Directors: Horace O. McGowan, Richard W. Tyler, and Richard A. Durost.

The Principal’s Award is presented in more than 100 Maine public and private high schools by member principals of the MPA, the professional association representing Maine’s school administrators.

Pi Day at VCS

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This year, Sarina chose Assistant Principal Tabitha Brewer as her target, having pied math teacher Stephanie Tuttle last year. Estabrook again honored Michaud. (contributed photo)

Two seventh-grade girls won the annual Pi Day contest at Vassalboro Community School on March 14 – the same two who won as sixth-graders last year, in reverse order. The contest requires reciting from memory as many digits as possible of pi – an endless number defined as the “mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159.” Principal Ira Michaud said this year’s winner was Mariah Estabrook, who memorized 347 digits. In second place was Sarina LaCroix, with 328 digits. In the 2024 Pi Day contest, LaCroix placed first with a mere 167 digits, according to last year’s The Town Line report. Winners earn the right to throw a pie in the face of a school administrator or teacher.

ICE OUT 2025? Take a guess. Win a prize!

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SEND US YOUR BEST ICE OUT GUESS FOR 2025

Write down your best guess (one per person) and send it to The Town Line, PO Box 89, South China, ME 04358, or email us at townline@townline.org with the subject “ICE OUT 2025“. If more than one person guesses the correct date, a drawing will be held to determine the winner. Get your guess to The Town Line office by noon, Friday, March 21, 2025.

Email: townline@townline.org. Or use our Contact Us page!

PRIZE: To be determined

The records below, of ice out dates on China Lake, were provided by China residents Bill Foster, Captain James Allen and Theresa Plaisted.

Bill Foster brought in the ice out dates from 1874 to 1883. They came from a 215-page log/diary. In the log/diary are recorded the comings and goings from 1870 to 1883 of the F. O. Brainard Store, as well as personal notations of special and everyday events.

Captain James Allen brought in the ice out dates from 1901 to 1948. They had been recorded on the outhouse wall of the old Farnsworth house, also located in China Village.

Theresa Plaisted brought in the ice out dates from 1949 to 1991. She explained to us that a friend and neighbor, Ben Dillenbeck, had kept the record on his cellarway wall until his death on December 12, 1987.

Theresa transcribed Mr. Dillenbeck’s record and has kept the record up to date ever since.

This year, we will be checking China Lake to determine the official date for “Ice Out” in 2025. We will not be looking in hard-to-access areas for that very last crystal to melt, so the definition of “Ice Out,” for the purpose of this contest, is: “When, to the best judgment of the assigned viewer, the surface of the lake appears to be free of ice.” The judge’s decision is final.

Can you guess the day The Town Line declares China Lake free of ice?

Ice Out dates for the last 150 years!

1874 – April 22
1875 – May 6
1876 – April 30
1877 – April 16
1878 – April 12
1879 – May 3
1880 – April 21
1881 – April 19
1883 – April 29
1901 – March 27
1921 – March 28
1932 – April 27
1933 – April 20
1934 – April 19
1935 – April 25
1936 – April 4
1937 – April 20
1938 – April 20
1939 – May 4
1941 – April 16
1945 – April 2
1947 – April 12
1948 – April 8
1949 – April 6
1950 – April 14
1951 – April 9
1952 – April 19
1953 – March 19
1954 – April 19
1955 – April 13
1956 – April 27
1957 – April 10
1958 – April 16
1959 – April 22
1960 – April 21
1961 – April 30
1962 – April 20
1963 – April 22
1964 – April 21
1965 – April 18
1966 – April 18
1967 – April 29
1968 – April 13
1969 – April 23
1970 – April 23
1971 – April 30
1972 – May 1
1973 – April 8
1974 – April 2
1975 – April 23
1976 – April 11
1977 – April 18
1978 – April 21
1979 – April 12
1980 – April 10
1981 – March 18
1982 – April 22
1983 – April 1
1984 – April 17
1985 – April 6
1986 – April 8
1987 – April 6
1988 – April 6
1989 – April 22
1990 – April 11
1991 – April 8
1992 – April 15
1993 – April 21
1994 – April 20
1995 – April 9
1996 – April 5
1997 – April 23
1998 – April 9
1999 – April 2
2000 – April 4
2001 – April 27
2002 – April 6
2003 – April 21
2004 – April 14
2005 – April 16
2006 – March 26
2007 – April 23
2008 – April 17
2009 – April 11
2010 – March 19
2011 – April 17
2012 – March 21
2013 – April 6
2014 – April 19
2015 – April 22
2016 – March 15
2017 – April 17
2018 – April 23
2019 – April 12
2020 – March 27
2021 – March 30
2022 – April 2
2023 – April 12
2024 – March 11
2025 – ????????

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Windsor High Schools

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by Mary Grow

Last week’s story covered primary schooling in the Town of Windsor, south of China and Vassalboro and east of Augusta in the Kennebec Valley. This week’s article will add a bit of information on Windsor high schools, plus a biographical sketch of an early area settler who was Windsor’s first primary-school teacher.

As described in previous stories in this subseries on education, the State of Maine’s 1873 Free High School Act required towns to provide high-school education. Some towns, including Windsor, did not wait for a state law.

Henry Kingsbury and C. Arlene Barton Gilbert both say Windsor’s first free high school started in 1867 in school District 1, in the municipal building at Windsor Corner (now the intersection of Routes 32 and 105).

Kingsbury’s version, in his 1892 Kennebec County history, is that town officials bought “seats and desks” for the second floor of the town house to open the school, with Horace Colburn the first teacher. Two high-school terms a year were held for about five years, he wrote (and Gilbert repeated, in her chapter on schools in Linwood H. Lowden’s 1993 Windsor history).

At a March 3, 1873, town meeting, Gilbert wrote, voters raised $200 for the high school; but they met again April 28 and rescinded the vote. To Gilbert, this sudden change of mind indicated “some dissatisfaction with the school.”

The problem was apparently resolved, because by 1877, voters were again supporting high school classes.

Gilbert quoted from Supervisor of Schools Joseph Colburn’s 1877 annual report saying District 1 had hosted two free high school terms, eight weeks in the spring, taught by Hattie King, from Whitefield, and 10 weeks in the fall, taught by Lizzie S. Milliken, from Augusta.

Colburn called the high school “very profitable to the district and vicinity, giving the scholars who attended an opportunity for improvement that they could not otherwise have had.” How many high-schoolers he did not say; the total in 13 Windsor schools that year was 400 students.

Gilbert then quoted from the 1878 report submitted by Supervisor George J. Moody, which covered only the fall term, beginning Sept. 4 and running 10 weeks. The teacher was Harry R. Thurston, of Belfast; there were 34 “scholars” (out of 376 in town), “most of them being well advanced and quite a good number having had experience as teachers.”

Moody listed 1878 high school courses as “reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, composition, history, physiology, geometry and algebra.” He praised students and teacher; wrote that the “closing examination showed that the term had been both pleasant and profitable”; and expressed the hope “that the district will again avail itself of this opportunity.”

(Kingsbury said that Horace Colburn or Coburn [1812-1885] had three sons. Two of them taught school, starting in their teens; each of those two served as Windsor’s supervisor of schools, Joseph from 1871 to 1886 [with Moody interrupting?] and Frank in 1888 and 1889.

(For more on Windsor’s Colburn family, see the June 8, 2023, issue of The Town Line.)

Gilbert wrote that Windsor continued to support a free high school until “about 1902,” not always in District 1. In 1902, she said, there was a spring term; but by then, the town was paying tuition to a four-year out-of-town high school, which she did not name.

(The two most likely high schools were in Augusta and South China. Augusta’s Cony High School was operating well before 1902. Erskine Academy, in South China, opened in September 1883, and the Maine legislature incorporated it in 1901.)

Windsor is currently a member of Regional School Unit #12 (Sheepscot Valley). The town has its own elementary school for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and continues to tuition out its high-school students.

The Rev. Job Chadwick

As mentioned last week, Windsor’s first elementary-school teacher was Rev. Job Chadwick. He was also the first teacher in what became China and for many years the townspeople’s “only spiritual guide” who lived in town, according to a 1931 family history compiled by Lillian Rich (McLaughlin) Gilligan, found on line.

Summary of Rev. Job Chadwick’s life

When Rev. Job Chadwick was born on 4 December 1756, in Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States, his father, James Chadwick, was 31 and his mother, Ruth Hatch, was 27. He married Mercy Weeks on 13 September 1784, in Harlem, Kennebec, Maine, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in Windsor, Kennebec, Maine, United States in 1810 and Gouldsboro, Hancock, Maine, United States in 1820. He died in January 1832, in Maine, United States, at the age of 75, and was buried in Chadwick Hill Cemetery, China, Kennebec, Maine, United States.

Gilligan began with the settlement of Jones Plantation (later China) in 1774. In the spring of 1782, she wrote, James and Ruth Chadwick came from southern Massachusetts with unmarried children Job, Ichabod, Elizabeth and Judah. They were followed in 1783 by married sons John and James, with their families and youngest son Lot, who’d been considered too young to move to the wilderness the previous year.

Gilligan guessed the Chadwicks came up the Kennebec to get to their new home, and mentioned a family tradition that they stopped first in Getchell’s Corner, in Vassalboro, not far from the river, before moving inland. Their China farms were in South China, including the area known as Chadwick’s Corner on what is now Route 32, leading from South China Village south into Windsor.

Gilligan said Job and his three older brothers were all born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Gear or Gayer (who never came to Maine – he went to Philadelphia about 1774 and then to Beaufort, North Carolina, for the rest of his life) and John were born in the late 1740s, James, Jr. in the early 1750s and Job on Dec. 4, 1756 (making him 25 in the spring of 1782).

(Henry Kingsbury’s version of the family’s arrival is that Ichabod Chadwick, with his sons Job, Judah and James, settled Chadwick’s Corner before 1797. The website WikiTree names James, Jr., Judah, Ichabod and Asa as Job’s half-brothers.)

On Dec. 13, 1784, in Harlem, Job Chadwick married Mercy Weeks, born in Falmouth Dec. 5, 1757. Gilligan said the couple settled “near the present town house” (on what is now Lakeview Drive) and had four children: Abigail, born Nov. 30, 1785, married Joseph Linn; Paul, born May 30, 1787, married Hanna or Hannah Leeman; Abraham, born May 27, 1790, never married; and Lot, 2nd (or Lott), born Sept. 24, 1792, married Sally Linn.

The FamilySearch website agrees with the information above and adds that Job Chadwick lived in Windsor in 1810 and Gouldsboro (Maine) in 1820.

Your writer found no source that explained where or when Chadwick got his religious education, if he had one. In his Windsor history, Linwood Lowden wrote that “according to his own testimony, by the year 1804, Chadwick had already spent fourteen years in the ministry.”

A summary biography in Rev. Joshua Millet’s 1845 The History of the Baptists in Maine, says Chadwick was “ord[ained] an evan[gelist] at Vassalborough, 1796.” (The entire book has been digitized and is available on line.)

Millet wrote that Vassalboro’s first Baptist church was organized around 1790. Some of its members lived in adjoining Harlem, and in 1796 a separate church was organized in southern Harlem, named the Second Baptist Church, with Chadwick its pastor from 1797 to 1805.

Millet called Chadwick and the Vassalboro pastor, Nehemiah Gould, “men…who were experienced in all the peculiarities of a new country, and therefore qualified to lead the flock of God in such times.”

(Kingsbury said the First Baptist Church of Harlem was organized in 1797, with Chadwick the first preacher; he “supplied the church for eight years, and occasionally for several years afterward.” After China was made a separate town in 1818 and reunited with Harlem in 1822, the Harlem First Baptist Church became the China Second Baptist Church.)

How Chadwick qualified as a teacher is another unknown, but he definitely served as one, first in China and then in Windsor.

The China bicentennial history says Harlem residents established their first school in 1795, on Michael Norton’s land midway of the east shore of China Lake. Classes met either in a house or in a log cabin built for a schoolhouse, and the teacher was Rev. Job Chadwick.

Kingsbury surmised Chadwick must have run a successful school, because “he continued to wield the ‘birch’ several terms in succession here.”

Lowden wrote that Windsor’s first teacher (and first resident preacher) was Rev. Job Chadwick, who had previously taught in China. In 1804, Lowden wrote, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sought a teacher for two small settlements, Hunts Meadow (later included in Whitefield) and Pinhook (in the southern part of what became Windsor).

Lowden quoted at length from a July 18, 1804, letter from a Wiscasset minister named Alexander McLean recommending Chadwick. McLean wrote that Chadwick planned to move his family from Harlem to Windsor; called him “well qualified to instruct children’; and added that he “has for some years been employed in the instruction of children.”

McLean explained that a recent “variety of misfortunes” had “stripped [Chadwick] of all his worldly property,” so he could probably be hired to teach “at as easy a rate as any.” He recommended a month-long term at Hunts Meadow and two months at Pinhook, if the Society could afford that much, to “moralize and civilize” the settlements, pointing out that Chadwick could double as the Sabbath preacher.

Chadwick got the job. In her chapter on education in Lowden’s history, C. Arlene Barton Gilbert wrote that his first term of school in 1804 was two month long, with an average attendance of 15 to 20 youngsters.

Chadwick was still in Windsor in the spring of 1809, Gilbert said: at an April 3 town meeting at his house, voters raised $50 for education and chose a four-man school committee.

Disagreeing with Lowden’s and Gilbert’s information, Millet, in his religious history, implied that after Chadwick finished his ministry in Harlem in 1805, he promptly became a missionary in what a reviewer of Millet’s work called “the destitute regions of Maine and on Cape Cod, Mass.”

He then became a pastor in Gouldsborough, from 1816 to 1831. He returned to Windsor, where he died Dec. 25, 1831 (according to Millet), or in January 1832 (according to other sources). The latter sources say Mercy Chadwick had died in China in 1826.

FamilySearch says Job Chadwick is buried in China’s Chadwick Hill Cemetery. Find a Grave lists 52 Chadwicks in this cemetery, none named Job or Mercy.

Family members buried here include Job’s father, James (July 5, 1725 – Sept. 6, 1786); his mother, Ruth (Hatch) (Aug. 15, 1729 – Jan. 15, 1786); two of his brothers, James, Jr. (Feb. 25, 1753 – Oct. 25, 1826) and Judah (Dec. 9, 1765 – Aug. 9, 1816); James, Jr.’s widow, Rhoda (Weeks) (1756 – Jan. 30, 1831); and Judah’s widow, Sarah “Sally” (Webber) (1766 – Feb. 25, 1854).

Also buried in Chadwick Hill Cemetery, according to Find a Grave, is Job and Mercy’s son Paul, the surveyor who worked for the Kennebec Proprietors and was killed by squatters as he worked in Malta (later Windsor) in September 1809 (see the March 7, 2024, issue of The Town Line for a summary history of the so-called Malta War).

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993).

Websites, miscellaneous.