Swift-Wiley Block and Charles Davis stage

The Swift-Wiley Block on Main Street, with the Charles Davis stage in the foreground, circa 1896. Transporting "baggage, express, and mail matter," as well as passengers, this open coach (with canvas curtains that could be dropped during stormy weather) for many years covered the twenty-eight mile route from Bethel to the Lakeside House hotel on Umbagog Lake, near Upton. Davis's stage, and others like it, made daily connections with the morning train from Portland and the afternoon train to points east.

Circa 1896