Browse Items (34 total)

  • Collection: Bethel: A Historic Town images

Allen's depot at West Bethel

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The end of passenger and mail service on the Grand Trunk Railway in this region in 1960 caused the abandonment of many small stations along the line. The conversion to more efficient diesel locomotives also drastically reduced railroad employment…

Anasagunticook House

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One of several medium-sized hotels that catered to the tourist trade in Bethel a century and a half ago, the Anasagunticook House was erected in 1859 by John S. Chapman on an elevated site opposite and a little downriver from West Bethel village. …

Bartlett/Bean Ferry

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A half-dozen primitive but picturesque river ferries positioned along a fifteen-mile stretch of the Androscoggin once provided safe transport for Bethel's citizens. Shown here is the Bartlett/Bean ferry, which operated (utilizing the waterway's…

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Bean's Corner village (East Bethel), circa 1900

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Bean's Corner village (East Bethel), circa 1900. Local photographer Irving Kimball captured this classic farm scene only a couple of decades after Bethel reached the peak of its agricultural production. In front of the "English barn" at right, two…

Bennett's Garage

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The twentieth century brought major developments to Bethel, beginning with the arrival of the first automobile in 1901. The popularity of the "horseless carriage" eventually transformed Bethel from a place of numerous shops where a wide range of…

Bethel 1880 map

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Bethel's system of roads extended into every district of the town by the time this 1880 map was published in the Atlas of Oxford County, Maine. In 1843 a two-thousand acre area of Bethel (upper right hand corner of map) lying north of the…

Bethel Chair Company

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One of this community's largest nineteenth century industries was the Bethel Chair Company, established in 1886. The firm originally restricted itself to the production of Shaker-type rockers, but a variety of styles were eventually introduced. In…

Bethel Civil War monument dedication

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The dedication in 1908 of Bethel's Civil War monument gave townspeople yet another opportunity to celebrate and commemorate the past. Fundraising efforts towards the purchase of such a memorial had begun as early as 1866.

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Bethel Hill-Mayville covered bridge

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To prepare the way for a permanent and dependable crossing over the broad and often unpredictable waters of the Androscoggin River, a toll bridge company was organized by town vote in 1861. It was not until 1869, however, that this huge three-span,…

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Bethel railroad station

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The arrival of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad in Bethel took place on March 10, 1851. First proposed in 1844 by Andover native John Alfred Poor as a way of boosting Portland's dwindling mercantile trade and providing a winter link to the sea…

Clark S. Edwards house at the 1896 centenary

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The Vernon Street home of General Clark S. Edwards was trimmed in patriotic bunting for the 1896 centenary of Bethel's incorporation as a town. Visible behind the porch roof balustrade, Edwards distinguished himself in several major Civil War…

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Constitution and Records of the Female Cent Society of Bethel, West Parish

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One of the most important elements of town life in early Bethel was the church, and before 1820 Congregationalism remained the dominant religion, despite inroads made by the local Baptists and Methodists. The "Female Cent Society" of the West Parish…

Eber Clough birch and stave mill

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The Colonial period settlement of Bethel began with the construction in 1774 by Joseph Twitchell of both a sawmill and gristmill at the foot of Mill Hill (Route 5). Necessities in the founding of most New England towns, these mills were the first…

Engraving of Bethel mountain scenery

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The town of Bethel is surrounded by some of northern New England's most dramatic mountain scenery, as evidenced by this engraving from the Guide Book of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, published in 1853. Such artistic renderings greatly…

Flat Road schoolhouse

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Modest, one-room district schoolhouses were at one time valuable centers of learning throughout small New England towns like Bethel. These forerunners of today's modern educational facilities provided a solid education under often less-than-ideal…

Honest Corner

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The commercial heart of nineteenth century Bethel was "Honest Corner," at the junction of Broad, Church, and Main streets in Bethel Hill village. Several structures shown in this circa 1885 photograph are still standing today.

Jonathan Clark House

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Long associated with the famous 1781 Indian Raid on Bethel and surrounding settlements, the Jonathan Clark House (which was actually built about 1785) was a much-venerated local landmark that finally succumbed to neglect in the 1920s. This ancient…

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Kimball Block

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The largest commercial structure in Bethel for many years, the Kimball Block stood from 1865 to 1965 at Bethel Hill near the site of the town's new fire station. In the pre-automobile age, this community, and others like it throughout the Nation,…

Late 1760s Bethel lot and range plan

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Arranged in a grid-like pattern, this "lot and range" plan of the late 1760s clearly shows the narrow forty-acre parcels of fertile "intervale" land near the Androscoggin River, which were much sought-after by Bethel's early settlers. Of this plan,…

Log drive

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Logging was an extremely difficult and dangerous task before the advent of mechanized transportation, but furnished a winter's occupation and supplementary income for many Bethel farmers. Stimulated by the development of papermaking facilities in…

Middle Intervale Meetinghouse

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Bethel's oldest surviving religious structure, the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse was begun in 1816 and extensively remodeled in 1857. Once the site of early Bethel town meetings, as well as Methodist and Baptist church services, the building has…

Molly Ockett gravestone

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Baptized by the French as "Marie Agathe"—a name that became "Mali Agit" when pronounced with difficulty by the Abenaki—Molly Ockett (the English version) is a legendary figure in Bethel's past. Though she died at Andover, Maine, in 1816, it was not…

Nineteenth century women working

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Women's work in eighteenth and nineteenth century Bethel was often tedious and backbreaking. Few today can imagine the difficulties faced in the never-ending routine of home life during this earlier time.

Pleasant Valley Grange No. 136

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Following on the heels of the Farmer's Club movement, the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange) became highly popular throughout northern New England in the 1870s. Such organizations not only provided important social activities for isolated farm…

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Prospect Hotel

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The Prospect Hotel was Bethel's largest nineteenth century hostelry. Begun in 1863, the hotel faced north from a site very near the present Bethel Inn. From its rooftop cupola, five stories above the ground, guests could take in an unobstructed view…