Recreation dept. to see changes; Bog Road bridge replacement discussed

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members’ July 13 topics covered the entire town, especially the northern half: continued discussion of the recreation program and the Vassalboro Sanitary District; a state Department of Transportation (MDOT) presentation on plans for a new bridge on Bog Road in 2025; a resident’s proposal for traffic control in East Vassalboro; and the board’s own meeting schedule through the end of November.

Some members of the current recreation committee and town recreation director Karen Hatch have had difficulty sorting out respective responsibilities. The committee in the past focused on youth sports; the town program Hatch directs is expanding to serve residents of all ages.

Town Manager Aaron Miller said he met with recreation committee members, talked with other residents and consulted the town’s attorney. On his recommendation, select board members voted unanimously to seek volunteers for an expanded recreation committee that will include individuals in charge of fundraising, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, the snack shack at the town fields on Bog Road and senior programs and events.

Residents who would like to serve on the new recreation committee are invited to contact the town office. Appointments are to be made at the Aug. 17 select board meeting. Miller said the attorney advised him that the current sports commissioners may continue as usual in the interim.

After members are appointed to the expanded committee, Miller sees their first priority as revising committee bylaws to fit into the new town structure. Committee member Karen Howard reminded everyone that Vassalboro’s bylaws need to conform to the bylaws of the Augusta-based Dirigo League in which town sports teams play.

Select board chairman Chris French said reconciling the recreation committee bylaws with the town personnel policy should – and would – have been done soon after Hatch was hired, if board members had not been fully occupied with finding a new town manager and preparing for the 2023 town meeting and new fiscal year.

Discussion of Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD) financial issues repeated concerns explained at the June 22 select board meeting: to cover its debts and current expenses, the district needs either to raise rates to levels some of its 200 customers say are higher than their annual tax bills, or to find other funding sources (see the June 29 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

Miller said state Representative Richard Bradstreet had offered suggestions that VSD official Becky Goodrich said led to some financial help for some customers.

Part of the problem is an increase in the rate Winslow charges Vassalboro to send its sewage via Winslow to Waterville’s treatment plant. Select board members planned to request a meeting with Winslow officials. Miller offered to arrange it, and, if Winslow agreed, to host it.

Brian Nichols, a project manager in the MDOT bridge program, came to the July 13 select board meeting to ask permission to use town roads as a detour while the Meadow Brook bridge on Bog Road, between East Vassalboro and the Hussey Hill Road intersection, is replaced.

Nichols’ proposal is to close Bog Road and send traffic over Taber Hill and Gray roads. Before and after the detour, he said, MDOT and town representatives will inspect the roads; if the extra traffic does any damage, the state will pay to repair it.

At the end of the meeting, long after Nichols left, resident William Pullen pointed out that the sharp left (south) turn where Gray Road meets Taber Hill Road would be dangerous for big trucks going south. He recommended extending the detour north to Oak Grove Road, instead of using Gray Road.

Nichols would like an answer from the select board by September, when MDOT should have a final plan and be ready to seek bids. He expects construction in the summer of 2025, with Bog Road closed for about 45 days.

The current bridge was built in 1960 on 1911 abutments, Nichols said. It is no longer stable enough to be rebuilt one lane at a time, and there is no place to put a temporary bridge, leaving detouring traffic the only option.

East Vassalboro resident Raymond Adams proposed another traffic change: a four-way stop at the East Vassalboro four corners. Currently, drivers coming east off Bog Road and west off South Stanley Hill Road face stop signs; drivers on Main Street (Route 32) go through, mostly much faster than the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit, Adams said.

Ben Gidney, who also lives near the four corners, agreed speeding – and running the stop signs – are problems. But, he said, vehicles accelerating noisily away from the stop signs are another problem that would increase with two more signs.

Miller said he consulted with David Allen, Vassalboro resident and DOT regional engineer, who said if the town asked for additional stop signs or any other change, the department would evaluate the request.

Miller said Allen reported “one crash at the intersection within the last three years.” Gidney said Allen must count only serious accidents, as he has seen more than one.

After hearing other suggestions, like rumble strips, a blinking light or a portable sign recording drivers’ speeds, select board members decided to hold a public hearing at their Sept. 7 meeting.

North Vassalboro residents added that excessive speed is a problem in their village, too.

In other business July 13, board members:

  • Authorized Miller to sign a contract with Delta Ambulance to serve Vassalboro residents;
  • Agreed to set up an escrow account for receipts from sale of foreclosed properties;
  • Appointed Peter Soule an alternate member of the town conservation commission, to serve until 2026; and
  • Approved four permits for BYOB events.

Miller will follow up on resident Raymond Breton’s complaint about superfluous utility poles in North Vassalboro. At board chairman French’s suggestion, the manager will look into the cost of updating Vassalboro’s strategic plan, which was approved in June 2006.

Select board members agreed to consider at their Aug. 17 meeting questions for an opinion survey to be sent with tax bills.

After Aug. 17, they scheduled meetings for Sept. 7, Sept. 21, Oct. 5, Oct. 19, Nov. 2 and Nov. 16. On Nov. 30, instead of a third regular November meeting, they plan a workshop session to develop priorities for the rest of the fiscal year.

Webber Pond Assn. president issues post meeting report (2023)

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Webber Pond.

Webber Pond Association president John Reuthe recently presented his anual report from the annual meeting, which provides information that people have been asking.

Update on removing filamentous algae: I took an old metal kitchen strainer out today to get some algae samples. It worked so well, that I tried using it to clean off algae clumps on the boat ramp and in the fish holding tank at the dam. It was easier and faster than I thought it would be with such a small tool, took 10-15 minutes to do both. The clumps really compressed as they were scooped. And it was easy to turn the strainer upside down and knock the algae out of it. Should be able to do a lot more with something bigger. Not a magic wand, but something worth trying.

Original post: One thing that people could do to help control the filamentous algae is to physically remove algae clumps by netting or raking them from the pond surface. It is important to dispose of the algae mats away from the pond edge to prevent nutrients from reentering the pond as the algae decays. Physical removal is labor intensive and time consuming, but it’s something that we can all do to help the problem. It is also advantageous because it results in a removal of nutrients from the pond, which may help to prevent future algae growth. This also applies to pond weeds that gather on the shore when it is windy.

The WPA has removed additional boards from the dam to control water levels given all the rain, which is a mixed blessing. Rain is a clean source of water replacement, but it is also creating runoff, which contains phosphorus.

Long-term control of overabundant aquatic plants is best accomplished by reducing or redirecting nutrient sources from the pond. This can be done by reducing fertilizer applications near the pond, maintaining septic systems properly, redirecting nutrient-rich runoff away from the pond, and maintaining vegetative buffer strips around your pond. This is also something that we all can do.

WPA directors Jennifer Lacombe and Erika Bennett are available to help with this process through the voluntary LakeSmart program, which provides free analysis and advice, as well as some financial resources to address problem areas that allow nutrient runoff into Webber Pond. Participants are not required to follow the advice given.

Eastern student Olivia Bourque makes spring 2023 dean’s list

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Eastern Connecticut State University, in Willimantic, Connecticut, recently released its dean’s list for the spring 2023 semester, in which nearly 1,300 students were recognized for maintaining high GPAs.

Among them is full-time student Olivia Bourque, of Vassalboro, a sophomore who majors in Psychology.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Caring for the poor – Part 2

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Augusta city farm, circa 1932.

by Mary Grow

How towns cared for their poor

This article will continue the theme started June 14, how central Kennebec Valley towns took care of their poor residents, jumping across the Kennebec River from Augusta and Sidney to Vassalboro, Windsor, Palermo and China. The focus will remain – mostly – on the 19th century.

The excerpts about caring for the poor that Alma Pierce Robbins chose to quote from official records in her Vassalboro history are tantalizing. Although the first selectmen were elected May 22, 1771, it was not until 1793, the year after Sidney became a separate town from Vassalboro, that the selectmen were also titled overseers, presumably overseers of the poor.

The first mention of a “work house” Robbins found in town records was a discussion at a meeting sometime between 1807 and 1810. In 1811, she wrote, a blacksmith named John Roberts bid $140 to care for Vassalboro’s poor families – she did not say how many families or people.

In 1812, Robbins found, voters agreed to “hire a house for the Poor,” and the next year they paid Roberts $200 for a specified two acres plus “the premises now occupied as a Poor House.”

By 1829, Vassalboro’s paupers were again being bid off. That year, Robbins wrote, Alexander Gardner was the successful bidder, asking for $669.

In 1831, voters went back to providing a poor house. The Roberts farm having been sold, the town paid $1,371.50 to the heirs of Elihu Getchell, Jr., for a property that was designated the new “Town Farm.”

This building was called the Town House by 1845, when voters directed selectmen to buy “a stove and funnell [sic] to warm the Town House.”

In 1852, it was the town farm: town officials spent $2,282.27 for “a new ‘set of buildings.'” In 1867, records said Thomas S. Lang donated $150 of the $230.89 spent for repairs to the town house; and Robbins found another $100 appropriated in 1888.

An 1886 action that Robbins reported suggests where this poor house or farm was located. That year, she found, officials planned to lay out a road from Foster’s mill to the farm “on the west side of the Pond.”

Foster’s mill, according to Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec Country history, was on Seven Mile Stream, the farthest upstream of several mills using the stream’s water power. Since Seven Mile Stream runs from Webber Pond to the Kennebec River, it seems probable that the town farm was on the west side of Webber Pond.

The farm was still operating in 1931, when Harold Taylor, of East Vassalboro (many residents will remember his daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” Taylor, and a few might remember him), repaired its windmill. It was sold in 1945, for $9,805.88, Robbins found.

* * * * * *

Linwood Lowden included a section on care of the destitute in his Windsor history. Examples he selected from the first half of the 19th century indicate that Windsor (the town that was named Malta from 1809 to 1820, Gerry for two years, and Windsor after 1822) alternated between providing a poor house or farm and bidding off paupers, with other measures taken intermittently.

The first report he cited was from a March 1813 town report at which voters were asked if they wanted to build a work house or choose another method. On April 5, they voted to turn the house described as “Joseph Linscotts Meiggs house at his mills” into a “work house for the poor,” with Linscott the overseer. Lowden believed the house was at Maxcy’s Mills on the west branch of the Sheepscot River, in the southeastern part of town.

On Aug. 3, 1815, town meeting voters moved the poor house to a house Joseph Norris owned near his “dwelling house” on the east side of the Sheepscot. Lowden located this house on the Cooper’s Mills Road, a little south of Maxcy’s Mills.

On April 1, 1822, voters moved the poor again, to “John Cottle’s old house,” with Cottle the overseer. Lowden located this house only by original and 1993 owners (Jabez Meiggs and Bernard Dow).

Another house that Lowden called “Linscotts Chadwick house” often housed paupers. In 1816, for example, voters said David Linn’s wife and children could live on the porch and their cow could graze on the Chadwick land, with the selectmen to determine how much to pay Linscott.

(Lowden did not explain, and your writer declines to guess, why the two houses had double names.)

Other town meeting decisions in 1816 and following years:

  • A widow named Betsey Trask and another woman named Molly Proctor were to be given half a bushel of corn every Monday.
  • Three of Molly Proctor’s sons were bid off, two to their uncle Jonas Proctor and the third to Robert Hutchinson.
  • In 1818, the Kennebec County Probate Court granted Calvin McCurda guardianship over five younger brothers and sisters. Lowden explained that their father died in the War of 1812 and “there were pension funds to provide a financial base for the family.”

On April 4, 1837, Lowden wrote, Windsor voters decided to buy a poor farm. They appointed a three-man committee, who bought Thomas J. Pierce’s 90-acre farm.

(Editor’s note:) The possible location of the town farm in Vassalboro, on the west side of Webber Pond. The large island is referred to as Town Farm Island, in an area that was farm land before the dam was installed to form the lake as it is today. The rock lined road to the farm still exists under water.

The farm, Lowden said, was on both side of Route 2 north of the Windsor four corners, partly on the south side of Choate Road, which intersects Route 32 from the east. The farm buildings were on the west side of Route 32.

Lowden surmised that the vote was hotly debated and close. At another meeting a month later, he wrote, voters approved selling the farm and contents; in November 1837, George Briggs of Augusta bought it for $135.

In following years, Lowden wrote, voters went back to bidding off the poor, apparently as a group. In 1848, he wrote, Richard Moody offered to assume the responsibility for $425. Part of the job was to send pauper children to school and provide their school books.

* * * * * *

In Palermo, according to Millard Howard’s history, there was a poor farm for many years, operated as “a private enterprise” rather than owned by the town. Other paupers were bid out; or a relative was compensated for providing room and board.

In 1846, Howard wrote, James A. Huntoon, who was supporting Malvina Huntoon at town expense, “received payment for large quantities of port wine and brandy (medicinal, I assume).”

Howard described the indenture system that Palermo, and other towns, provided for minors who fell into poverty. He gave an 1848 example: after Elvira Brown became a town charge, the Palermo overseers of the poor bound out her son Arthur as an apprentice to a farmer named Charles Hathorn. Brown was to work for Hathorn from March 8, 1848, to Oct. 13, 1865, when he turned 21.

(Your writer notes that these dates say that Brown was not yet four years old when he was apprenticed.)

In return for Brown’s labor, Hathorn agreed to train him as a farmer; to teach him to “read, write and cypher”; and to provide “sufficient clothing food and necessaries both in sickness and health.”

Another issue that Howard discussed at more length than other historians was disputes among towns as to which one was responsible for a pauper who moved around. The rule was that wherever the pauper established “settlement,” that town was responsible. Such disputes seemed especially numerous in the 1840s, he commented.

For instance, in 1843, Howard said, Palermo went to court against Clinton, claiming a family named Chamberlain was not Palermo’s responsibility. Alas for Palermo, the court found that in 1823, Palermo had assisted the Chamberlains, thus assuming responsibility. The case cost Palermo $149.24 in damages paid to Clinton and another $50.26 in legal expenses.

On the other hand, Howard found an instance of cooperation between two towns’ officials: in March 1857, Freedom overseers warned Palermo officials not to be generous if a “smart, healthy young woman in her teens” who “seems very willing, if not desirous, to be a town pauper” showed up on Palermo’s side of the town line.

* * * * * *

China, like neighboring towns, vacillated among methods of providing for paupers, according to the bicentennial history. From the 1820s, they were usually bid off, sometimes individually and sometimes with one bidder assuming responsibility for all the town’s poor.

After decades of discussion and brief ownership of a farm in 1838, a March 31, 1845, town meeting appointed a five-man committee to find a suitable farm and report back in a week. Committee members examined, they reported, between 20 and 30 farms and recommended paying $2,000 for the farm owned by Seth Brown, which the town had owned in 1838.

There were cheaper farms available, the committeemen added, but it would cost more to adapt them.

The history says the farm was on the east shore of China Lake a little north of Clark Brook “and was considered one of the best-situated farms in town.” Between September 1846 and Mach 1849, voters appropriated about $2,800 to pay for the farm (with interest); to provide livestock and equipment; and to pay a superintendent. In March 1850 another $200 was appropriated “to enlarge the farmhouse.”

The history describes the farm as having “a large house and several barns and sheds.” In the 1850s, there were usually 15 or 16 paupers, “most of them old and infirm.” The superintendent and his wife, the able-bodied poor and when necessary hired hands tried to keep the farm at least partly self-sustaining.

A March 1859 inventory listed “two oxen, six cows, sixteen sheep, three swine,” plus supplies of “hay, corn, oats, wheat, vegetables, beef, and pork.” Hens were added in 1867.

Other paupers were living off the farm by the 1860s; in 1868, taxpayers spent more on the farm – over $540 –than on off-farm support – about $400. The farm had sold animals and crops, but had failed to cover expenses; and, the selectmen commented, all of the buildings leaked.

Due to space limits, the story of China’s poor farm will be continued next week.

Main sources

Grow, Mary M. , China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Howard, Millard , An Intro­duction to the Early History of Palermo, Maine (second edition, December 2015).
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).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Vassalboro scouts hold Blue & Gold banquet

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Tiger Cubs Declan McLaughlin, Lux Reynolds, Samuel Madison, and John Gray are awarded completed adventures and their Tiger Rank by their Den Leader Christopher Reynolds (yellow shirt) and Cubmaster Christopher Santiago. (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

On Sunday, June 11, Vassalboro Pack #410 held its Annual Blue & Gold Banquet along with their Charter Organization, American Legion Post #126, at St. Bridget’s Center. The camping themed banquet saw the recognition of the 17 scouts within the unit as they advance in rank. It was a family celebration that discussed many of the highlights from the year and featured an Arrow of Light Ceremony, a Crossover Ceremony, and a Flag Day Ceremony.

Bear Cubs Maxsim LaCroix, Eli Richmond, Tucker Lizzotte, and Henry Gray are awarded their completed adventures and their Bear Rank by their Den Leader Lindsay Lizzotte. (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

Webelos Scouts Christopher Santiago, Hunter Brown, and William Vincent are recognized for having completed their Webelos rank and the beginning of their journey towards the Arrow of Light along with Cubmaster Christopher Santiago. Photos courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

Vassalboro appraiser explains property tax scenarios

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by Mary Grow

If I raise everyone’s property valuation by 20 percent, most Vassalboro taxpayers will see little if any tax increase, assessor Ellery Bane, of RJD Appraisal, told select board members and an interested audience at the June 22 select board meeting.

If I do not raise everyone’s property valuation as planned, many, probably most, taxpayers will see a tax increase, he continued.

Bane went on to explain the state standards and regulations that govern his work as assessor in Vassalboro and other Maine towns.

State assessors also value property state-wide, he said, and have a state valuation for each municipality. By law, the local assessor’s valuation must be within certain limits compared to the state’s, neither too much higher nor too much lower.

Because of steadily increasing home prices, property values are rising faster than he has ever seen before. Assessments need to keep pace.

The state already has a 2024 valuation for the Town of Vassalboro, Bane said. It is significantly higher than the valuation he will have, unless he implements the 20 percent increase – enough higher to trigger financial penalties for the town. For example, homestead and veterans’ exemptions will be lowered; Vassalboro’s taxes on the Summit gas pipeline and Central Maine Power Company’s electric line will be reduced; annual state school funding will be cut.

Bane estimated if he leaves valuations unchanged, Vassalboro stands to lose about $100,000 in revenue.

Tax bills are primarily determined by the amount needed to fund expenditures, as approved at the annual town meeting. Each individual property value is multiplied by the tax rate to determine how much each property-owner is asked to contribute.

Therefore if the valuation goes up, the tax rate can go down and still raise the needed total.

People whose properties are unchanged should see only the small increase corresponding to the overall 2023-24 budget increase – select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr, estimated it at about four percent. People who have improved their properties may see a larger increase, just as they would have without a town-wide change.

Bane plans to give select board members a set of recommended tax rates in August, as usual, and select board members will set the rate. Tax bills usually go out late in August. By town meeting vote, the first quarterly payment is due Monday, Sept. 25.

The topic that drew most of the June 22 audience was also financial: the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s lack of money.

District officials Raymond Breton and Becky Goodrich explained that VSD has more than $3 million in loans it is repaying, mostly for the cost of hooking Vassalboro’s system into Waterville’s via Winslow. Two pump stations need repairs that could cost another million dollars or more. Winslow is increasing the rate it charges Vassalboro by 25 percent.

Also mentioned were the manhole cover changes, needed as the state Department of Transportation repaves Route 32, that were discussed earlier. Town Manager Aaron Miller said the estimated cost is $4,500 this year and more next year (see the June 1 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

VSD expenses are being shared among about 200 North Vassalboro and East Vassalboro customers. Audience members quoted quarterly sewer bills ranging from $270 to $500; some people, they said, paid higher sewer bills than tax bills.

Miller, who met previously with VSD officials and customers, said the trustees had postponed a planned rate increase to October. He and Goodrich said other funding sources are being explored.

Residents’ proposal is that some of the money VSD needs come from Vassalboro property taxes. They do not expect taxpayers town-wide to foot their entire bills, just to reduce them.

The comparison, one man said, is school funding: people without children in local schools still support education funding. Granted, educating children benefits everyone; but the sewer system that helps protect water quality in Outlet Stream also benefits residents all over town, he said.

Select board members expressed sympathy and said they will consider the problem. An early step is information-gathering, finding out things like how other municipal sewer systems are financed and how high other towns’ residents’ sewer bills are.

In other business June 22, select board members elected Chris French the new board chairman, succeeding Barbara Redmond, and welcomed new member Michael C. Poulin.

Miller explained what he is doing to apply for a grant through the state-wide community resilience program. Select board members unanimously approved a proclamation that is part of the process.

By another unanimous vote, they approved reappointment of town committee members whose appointments would otherwise end on June 30, the last day of fiscal year 2022-23. The exception was the recreation committee, with whom Miller intended to meet; board members therefore postponed action.

They signed a quit-claim deed to the South Stanley Hill Road property sold to Mark Grenier (see the June 15 issue of The Town Line, p. 2) and accepted a request from the East Vassalboro Water Company to reimburse it from the proceeds of the sale for unpaid bills.

Following their usual custom, board members scheduled only one July and one August meeting, for July 13 and Aug. 10.

New public park being constructed in Vassalboro

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Eagle Park as it looks today. (photo by Laura Jones)

by Laura Jones

The Town of Vassalboro is excited to announce a new park, tentatively name Eagle Park, is being developed on Rt 32 in East Vassalboro, just north of the village area. The park will include beautiful frontage on the China Lake outlet stream where Eagles and other wildlife can be viewed regularly. Once complete, there will be a parking lot, lawn area for playing and picnicking, as well as native trees and shrubs. To kickstart the parks installation, the Conservation Commission applied for, and was awarded a grant of $3,200.00 through the Project Canopy program for the “Restoration of this newly acquired park from invasive plants and replanting with native shade trees.” The Project Canopy Program is managed by the State of Maine Department of Agriculture.

Public works crew creating a parking lot. (photo by Laura Jones)

Eight Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum) were purchased with the grant funds. The Vassalboro Conservation Committee is coordinating on the project with Vassalboro Public Works department, Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG) and Youth Conservation Corp (YCC). The Vassalboro Public Works department has completed the necessary grading and fill work to establish the parking lot. Future work to complete the park will be accomplished over the coming months.

Volunteers planting more trees. (photo by Laura Jones)

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Society of Friends in Vassalboro

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The Abel Jones House, on Jones Road, in South China Village, dates from 1815.

by Mary Grow

An address at the Vassalboro Historical Society

On Sunday afternoon, June 18, Joann Clark Austin, of South China, a semi-retired lawyer and self-described “fifth-generation China Quaker,” spoke on the local history of Quakerism at the Vassalboro Historical Society.

An Englishman named George Fox (July 1624 – Jan. 13, 1691) founded what became known as the Society of Friends, or Quakers, Austin said. Growing up in a multi-denominational society, Fox constantly questioned religious leaders, seeking a faith that was honest, non-commercial and peaceful.

He realized that the Bible, only recently available in English (the King James Bible was published in 1611), presented an image of Jesus as the exemplar of love, forgiveness, equality, cooperation and other traits he searched for. He felt Jesus talking directly to him, and “developed a personal relationship with a living, loving Jesus.”

Fox’s insight became the basis of the Society of Friends. He felt called to spread the news; Austin said his travels included visits to Rhode Island and Boston, where he confronted the Puritans.

Quakers were often persecuted, but persecution only made them more aggressive about preaching their doctrines, Austin said.

Their religious observances took the form of sitting together quietly, waiting to hear the inner voice. Sometimes, an on-line source says, “some participants would feel the presence of the Lord so strongly that they would begin to shake, or ‘quake'” – hence the name Quaker. It was intended as an insult, but Friends proudly claimed it.

Austin said that “Quakerism had a huge impact in Vassalboro and China,” more than in other parts of Maine. She explained that in 1771, British landowners, notably the Vassall family, had a surveyor named John Jones lay out lots in the wilderness that became Vassalboro.

Despite the difficulties of traveling to and in what was then a wilderness, and the further difficulties of clearing space to build a house, grow food crops and graze livestock, the lots sold, and there were Friends among the buyers.

Vassalboro and China Friends connected with Friends elsewhere. Doing title research for the Bristol Historical Society, Austin was amazed to find that a cemetery in Bristol with unmarked graves (typical of early Friends graveyards) had been deeded to Vassalboro Friends meeting.

By the 1750s and 1760s, Austin said, Friends were numerous enough in the American colonies to control governments in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (founded as a haven for the group) and North Carolina.

The Revolution was not a good time for them, however, because one of their beliefs is that war is not a solution to problems. Many were pacifists and therefore were accused of Tory sympathies; and many left colonies like Massachusetts for the Maine frontier.

One Friend who came to Maine in 1777 was a New Yorker named David Sands, Austin said. Reaching Vassalboro, he and his companion were invited to the spacious home of a magistrate named Remington Hobby (some sources spell the name Hobbie).

Hobby welcomed them in his warm kitchen, where, in Quaker fashion, they sat in silence. Thinking his informality had offended his guests, Hobby had a fire built in the best parlor – where again they sat silently.

As Hobby began to wonder if these men were trying to make a fool of him, Sands broke his silence. “Art thou willing to be a fool?” he asked. “Art thou willing to be a fool for Christ?”

Sands converted Hobby, and on future visits helped Hobby increase the number of Friends in Vassalboro.

Austin diverted from history to explain how someone like Sands would decide to travel. The person – not necessarily a man – would feel a call from that internal voice, she said, and would tell the other members of his or her local meeting about it.

Members would decide whether the call was genuine and should be approved. They could, and often did, appoint a second member to accompany the traveler.

Local meetings were held weekly in a member’s house, until the group became too large and built a meeting house. There were also quarterly (four times a year) meetings that brought together regional groups, and yearly meetings with an even wider geographic spread.

Meeting houses were simple and unornamented. If a Friends group outgrew a meeting house and built a larger one, the first one would likely become some family’s home.

A feature of Friends meeting houses was a panel that dropped from the ceiling to divide the room in two, women on one side and men on the other. Each group would discuss the day’s issues and come to its own conclusion, with the women not being overborne by the men.

The process of reaching a decision at such a business meeting Austin called getting “the sense of the meeting.” It is not consensus, and not compromise, but hearing and attempting to answer each person’s concerns. If after discussion one member still disagrees, there is no decision.

Holly Weidner, a Vassalboro Friend, explained from the audience that since everyone in the meeting has within him or her the same divine spark, the clerk of the meeting, who is leading the discussion, has to find the place where everyone is satisfied.

Austin mentioned another Vassalboro Friend, John Damon Lang (May 14, 1799 – 1879), a mill-owner who was appointed and sent West by President Ulysses Grant in 1870 as one of nine Indian commissioners. The commissioners’ mission, according to their report, was to “civilize, educate and provide moral training to the original inhabitants.”

A handout Austin had prepared included photos of three China friends known internationally, Eli Jones (1807-1890), his wife Sybil (1808-1873) and their nephew Rufus (Jan. 25, 1863 -June 16, 1948). In her talk she mentioned Eli’s sister, Rufus’ Aunt Peace (1815 – 1907).

“Her name was Peace?” an audience member asked.

Yes, and the Jones genealogy in the China bicentennial history records women named Comfort, Grace, Mercy and Thankful.

Quakers in central Kennebec Valley

Friends, or Quakers, are important enough in the history of the central Kennebec Valley and surrounding region to merit a separate chapter in Henry Kingsbury’s 1892 county history, a chapter written for the book by Rufus Jones, of China.

China’s first settlers, in the summer of 1774, were a family named Clark: Jonathan, Sr., and Miriam and their four sons. Jones wrote that Miriam and two of the sons, Andrew and Ephraim, were Friends; Jonathan and the other two sons were not.

In addition to books written by and about noted China Quakers and other documents, tangible reminders of their presence include five buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and seven Friends cemeteries.

Friends Meeting House, in Vassalboro.

Three of the buildings have long been private homes, and two still are. In the order in which they were built, they are:

  • The Abel Jones House, on Jones Road in South China Village, dates from 1815 and is one of several Federal-style houses still standing in town. Rufus Jones was born and spent his early childhood there. The South China Library Association now owns the building, barn and land.
  • The Eli and Sybil Jones House on the northwest side of the intersection of Dirigo Road and Route 3 (Augusta Road), dates from 1833 and was the home of the famous missionaries.
  • Pendle Hill, off the west side of Route 202 (Lakeview Drive) was built in 1916 and was Rufus Jones’ summer home until his death in 1948.

The older of the public buildings is the Pond Meeting House on the east side of Lakeview Drive. It dates from 1807 and was used for worship for years; it is now part of the Friends Camp,

The South China Community Church, built in 1884, began as a Friends meeting house, succeeding the Pond Meeting House. It is still a house of worship, now non-denominational.

According to the China bicentennial history, there are seven Friends cemeteries in China. The oldest is behind the Pond Meeting house; here is the grave of Jerusha Fish, daughter of Jonathan and Miriam Clark. Jerusha married George Fish, a British Friend who was lost at sea.

The next oldest China Friends cemetery is on the east side of Neck Road, near the site of a former meeting house. The earliest date in that cemetery is on the grave of Isaac and Nancy Jones’ son Isaiah, who died Aug. 27, 1836, aged eight months. Also buried here is Denmark Hobby, identified in the China history as “a former slave of the Vassalboro Quaker Remington Hobby.”

Two more Friends cemeteries are close together on the east side of Dirigo Road not far south of Route 3, again, the history says, near a former meeting house.

The other three are scattered around town. Jones Cemetery is just south of South China Village, on former Route 3 that runs south parallel to contemporary Route 3. Hussey Cemetery is on the east side of Pleasant View Ridge Road, north of the Bog Brook Road intersection. Lakeview Cemetery is on an eminence on the west side of Lakeview Drive, north of Friends Camp and the Pond Meeting House.

In Vassalboro, according to Alma Pierce Robbins’ history, a Friends meeting house for the “River Meeting” was built in 1786 overlooking the Kennebec River, where the Oak Grove chapel now stands. There is a Friends’ cemetery behind the chapel.

The second Vassalboro meeting house was built in 1798, for the group initially called the “12 Mile Pond” and then the “East Pond” meeting. (China Lake was originally known as Twelve-Mile Pond because it is 12 miles from Fort Western in what is now Augusta.) This meeting house on South Stanley Hill Road is still in active use; there is an adjacent cemetery.

Earlier articles in this series have focused on some of the people and places mentioned today, including stories about Rufus Jones (July 30 and Aug. 6, 2020, issues) and about historic buildings (July 1, July 8, July 15 and July 22, 2021).

Main sources

Austin, Joann Clark, Presentation at Vassalboro Historical Society, June 18, 2023.
Grow, Mary M. China, Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Vassalboro planners approve two site review applications

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The new Oak Grove Foundation building will be located behind the historic Oak Grove Chapel, pictured.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members approved both site review applications on their June 6 agenda.

Kassandra Lopes has a permit to run a retail store in one of two existing buildings Raymond Breton owns on the east side of Main Street, in North Vassalboro; and the Oak Grove School Foundation has a permit for a new building behind the historic Oak Grove Chapel, on Oak Grove Road, near the Riverside Drive (Route 201) intersection.

Lopes said she is currently selling clothing and displaying art works, her own and those of other, mostly local, venders. She seldom has more than half a dozen people in the building at a time.

Board members have reviewed and approved new uses of the building frequently – five times, Breton said. Lopes said she plans no changes to the building or the landscape.

The Oak Grove Foundation’s building is to have two main purposes: it will provide a meeting room for the foundation’s board and a “caretaker’s cottage,” a home for someone who will be designated the Oak Grove Chapel caretaker.

Foundation spokesmen Jody Welch and Susan Briggs and contractor Lance Cloutier explained that the project includes a new leachfield and a new well.

They plan to use existing parking spaces. Welch said should they occasionally need more parking, they and the adjacent police academy have an informal agreement that each can use the other’s lot for overflow parking.

The new building will include a kitchen and bathrooms that can be used when there are functions in the chapel. Be­cause the chapel is listed as a historic building, planners did not want to add modern facilities there, Welch explained.

The Oak Grove Chapel dates from 1786, Briggs said. It was renovated in 1895. Until recently it had been used intermittently in warm weather (there is no heat) for reunions, weddings and other functions.

Welch and Briggs said construction on the new building is scheduled to start immediately. They hope the chapel will see more use.

Planning board members scheduled their July meeting for the second Tuesday evening, July 11, instead of the usual first Tuesday, which is Independence Day this year.

Vassalboro volunteer receives thanks badge from Girl Scouts of Maine

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Jessica Prentiss

Jessica Prentiss, a troop leader and Product Sales Supervisor within the Arnold Service Unit, was recently awarded the Thanks Badge from the Girl Scouts of Maine (GSME). The Thanks Badge is awarded to a volunteer or staff member whose significant service has had an exceptional, measurable impact on meeting the mission delivery goals of the entire council or the entire Girl Scout Movement.

Over the last seven years, Prentiss has undertaken the highly crucial role of coordinating fall product and cookie sales for her service unit. As a product sales expert, she conducts thorough trainings, and responds to any and all questions from adult members and volunteers who are new to the organization. Prentiss steps far beyond her local area, participating in GSME statewide Q&A programs for new leaders across Maine.

More recently, Prentiss initiated and now organizes a council-wide opportunity for service units to offer incentives and rewards during the cookie program. At the Fall Product Supervisor Training, she collaborates with GSME to offer her wisdom on the subject through an insightful presentation. Prentiss has made an impact on the Girl Scout community at every corner of the state, and GSME is honored to present her with the Thanks Badge.

To learn more about the Thanks Badge, visit https://www.girlscoutsofmaine.org/volunteer-and-alum-stories/2023-annual-celebration-thanks-badge-recipients.