Browse Items (56 total)

Atherton Bernard Furlong: Artist, Singer, Poet Atherton Furlong (1849-1919) Photo courtesy of the Greenwood Historical Society Editor’s Note: The following obituary of Atherton Furlong appeared in the 24 October 1919 issue of the Norway…

Indians of the Androscoggin Valley The Indians of the Androscoggin River Valley were members of the Anasigunticook tribe, a sub-group of the Abenakis, the major tribal grouping which encompassed the Indians from the Pennacooks in New Hampshire to…

Society Marks First Decade Society founder Eva M. Bean at Woodland Cemetery No one seems to know who first conceived of a Bethel Historical Society, but in 1855 thirty citizens gathered for what was recorded as an antiquarian supper with a…

Maine Music Festival Note William Rogers Chapman (1855-1935), founder of the Maine Music Festivals Editor's Note: This first short essay, entitled "The Influence of the Festival," appeared in the 1925 Maine Music Festival Program. Although…

1796: A Special Year in Bethel's Past The town we now call Bethel began as Sudbury Canada in 1768. It was granted to recognize the services of soldiers who fought in one of several abortive campaigns by Puritan Massachusetts to conquer the…

Western Maine Saints [Part 4]: The York and Carter Families by Carole York Conversion to Mormonism and Western Migration “I first embraced Mormonism in 1834 in the town of Newry, Oxford County, State of Maine. The first elders I ever heard…

Crossing by Ferry on the Androscoggin by Frank Worcester West Bethel Ferry, Androscoggin River, circa 1910 The ferryboat was retained in its proper position on the river by means of a large steel cable suspended across the river from two large…

Western Maine Saints: A Newry Family Who Joined the Latter-Day Saints in Seeking a Home in the West by Mary E. Valentine Martha Fifield Wilkins, author of Sunday River Sketches, at the Sessions-Chapman-Bennett House near North Newry in…

Western Maine Saints: Mormon Missionaries in the 1830s by Mary E. Valentine Umbagog Lake from the highlands of Letter B Township, now Upton, Maine Editor’s Note: The area discussed in this article, and subsequent installments, includes the…

The Bethel Antiquarian Suppers of the 1850s Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True (1812-1887) Founder of Maine's first Farmer's Club (1853) at Bethel Originator of the Bethel Antiquarian Suppers (1855-1857) American life in the mid-nineteenth century…

The Last of the Pequakets: Mollockett Written for the Maine Historical Society by N. T. True, M.D.,and published in theOxford Democrat, Jan. 2, 1863 The Pequakets were a powerful tribe on the Saco River. The Lovewell Fight at Fryeburg, in 1725,…

Grafton, Maine: A Historical Sketch by Margaret Joy Tibbetts Grafton, from the 1880 Atlas of Oxford County, Maine The Town of Grafton surrendered its charter in 1919, the year in which I was born. The only buildings in Grafton which I can…

The Irish Neighborhood by Margaret Joy Tibbetts Irish Neighborhood School, 1903, Guy Coffin Photographer, First Row (Left to Right): Carl Lufkin (?), Grace Deardon. Second Row: Mary Harrington, Mary Deegan, Margaret Pool, Nellie Harrington,…

Bethel Doctors, 1900-1950 by Margaret Joy Tibbetts Dr. Raymond R. Tibbetts (1875-1958) Editor’s Note: A version of this essay was presented as a lecture sponsored by the Bethel Historical Society on 7 November 1991 held in the Dr. Moses Mason…

Harriet Beecher Stowe Finds "Intellectual Activity" in Western Maine Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), circa 1865Photo courtesy of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission Editor’s Note: The letter quoted below was apparently written by…

From The Courier, Vol. 31, No. 2 (2007): The Diary of Edgar Harvey Powers Edgar Harvey Powers (1843-1894) Photo courtesy of Bethel Masonic Lodge # 97 AF & AM Editor’s Note: This transcription has been made from a small diary that was…

Mountain Days by Daisy Peabody Members of the Peabody family assemble at the Peabody Tavern (1799) at Gilead, Maine Photo taken 1895; courtesy of Joanne Peabody Stewart Editor's Note: This circa 1884 account by Daisy Peabody of Gilead, Maine,…

Memories of Broad Street by Margaret Herrick Oakes Broad Street, Bethel Hill village, circa 1910 Editor's note: Margaret Herrick Oakes (1896-1992) was the daughter of Judge Addison E. and Mary Chase Herrick and spent her childhood on Broad…

The Bethel Agricultural Fair and Riverside Park by Yvonne B. Nowlin Grandstand at Riverside Park fairgrounds, ca. 1895 Editor's Note: The following history of the Bethel Agricultural Fair and Riverside Park was originally written as an…

Bethel's Hall House: The "Artistic Bungalow" by Danna Brown Nickerson The Hall House, circa 1942 Owned by Society members George and Danna Nickerson, the Hall House is Bethel’s most recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places.…

Well-Known Indians of the Bethel Area by Catherine Newell Note on Indian Names: The names which have come down to us identifying certain Indians are usually corruptions of the French Christian names received at baptism in Canada. There are, for…

Guy Coffin and His Family by Blaine Mills Guy Coffin (1880-1942)Courtesy of the Greenwood Historical Society The photographer Guy Coffin was born 5 June 1880 at Locke's Mills village in the town of Greenwood, Maine, the son of Jacob Gilbert…

Dr. Nathaniel T. True by William B. Lapham Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True1812-1887 Editor’s Note: This sketch of Dr. True was read by Dr. Lapham before the Maine Historical Society, 17 March 1892. Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True was born in that…

Bethel in the War of the Rebellion by William B. Lapham The following lightly edited text is taken from the History of Bethel, Formerly Sudbury Canada, Oxford County, Maine 1768-1890, compiled by William B. Lapham and published in 1891 by the…

Capt. Charles A. J. Farrar Wilderness Writer and Adventure Provider by William B. Krohn On October 13, 2012, Dr. William B. Krohn, retired wildlife scientist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maine in Orono, presented the annual Hall…