Browse Items (193 total)
- Collection: Courier / Bethel Courier Collection
1796: A Special Year in Bethel's Past
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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…
Tags: Bethel (Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Addison Emery Verrill: Eminent Zoologist
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Addison Emery Verrill Eminent Zoologist by Stanley Russell Howe Addison E. Verrill (1839-1926) One of the most eminent zoologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Addison Emery Verrill was born on Patch Mountain, Greenwood, Maine,…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Atherton Bernard Furlong: Artist, Singer, Poet
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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…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Barn Redux: Bethel's Most Modern Barn in 1950
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Barn Redux: Bethel's Most Modern Barn in 1950 by Donald G. Bennett Introduction The idea for this story came from two sources: the 2005 display of the Smithsonian exhibit “Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon” at the Bethel Historical…
Tags: Barn Motel (Bethel, Me.) | Bethel (Me.) | Breau's Dairy (Rumford, Me.) | J. A. Thurston Company | Mayville (Bethel, Me.) | River View Resort (Bethel, Me.) | Thurston Farmstead (Bethel, Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel Doctors, 1900-1950
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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…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel in the War of the Rebellion
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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…
Tags: Bethel (Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel's Civil War Soldier's Monument Dedicated 100 Years Ago
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Bethel's Civil War Soldier's Monument Dedicated 100 Years Ago by Stanley Russell Howe The year 2008 year marked the centennial of the dedication of Bethel’s Civil War Soldier’s monument on Memorial Day 1908. The account of this event in the 4…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel's Elusive Androscoggin Steamboat
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Bethel's Elusive Androscoggin Steamboat by Randall H. Bennett Steamboat landing site on Androscoggin River at Bethel, circa 1910 "I know of no place in the United States where as varied and rich scenery can be witnessed as when on the…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel's First Meetinghouse Re-Discovered
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Bethel's First Meetinghouse Re-Discovered by Randall H. Bennett Portland's Cumberland County Courthouse of 1785, which served as the model for Bethel's first meetinghouse, built in 1807 From Portland in the Past (1886) Thanks to the research…
Tags: West Parish Congregational Church (Bethel, Me.) | West Parish Congregational Meeting House (Bethel, Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel's Hall House: The "Artistic Bungalow"
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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.…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bethel’s Robert A. Chapman and Frances C. Chapman
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Bethel’s Robert A. Chapman and Frances C. Chapman by Stanley R. Howe Hon. Robert Andrews Chapman and Frances Carter Chapman Photo from Maine: A History (1919) Hon. Robert Andrews Chapman, the second owner of the Bethel Historical Society's…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Bowler versus Chisholm, and the Ill-fated Bethel-Rumford Electric Railway
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Bowler versus Chisholm,and the Ill-fated Bethel-Rumford Electric Railway by Randall H. Bennett In 1882, Canadian-born Hugh J. Chisholm (1847-1912), a lumber enthusiast and successful partner in the Portland based Chisholm Brothers…
Tags: Rumford Citizen (Rumford, Me.) | Rumford Falls and Bethel Street Railway Company | Rumford Falls Times (Rumford, Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Capt. Charles A. J. Farrar: Wilderness Writer and Adventure Provider
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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…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Hannibal Hamlin’s Birth
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Commemorating the 200th Anniversaryof Hannibal Hamlin’s Birth Editor’s Note: On August 7, 2009, the Bethel Historical Society’s annual Hall Lecture was presented by H. Draper Hunt, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, University of Southern Maine. His…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Crossing by Ferry on the Androscoggin
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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…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Dr. John George Gehring and His Bethel Clinic: Pragmatic Therapy and Therapeutic Tourism
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Dr. John George Gehring and His Bethel Clinic Pragmatic Therapy and Therapeutic Tourism by William D. Andrews Dr. John George Gehring, 1912. As this photograph suggests, Gehring was slight, trim, and dapper. He wasknown to smoke cigars and…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Dr. Nathaniel T. True
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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…
Tags: Gould Academy
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Dr. True As Historian
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Dr. True As Historian by Randall H. Bennett The productive years in the life of Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True (1812-1887) were a propitious time for antiquarian efforts. Indeed, the ground work of what we know today of Bethel's beginnings is in…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Edward Sylvester Morse: Dr. True's Star Pupil
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Edward Sylvester Morse: Dr. True's Star Pupil by Stanley Russell Howe Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) Courtesy of the Maine Historical Society Few connected with Bethel's Gould Academy are aware that one of the leading figures in the fields…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Enoch Foster, Jr.: Third Owner of the O'Neil Robinson House
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Enoch Foster, Jr.: Third Owner of the O'Neil Robinson House by Stanley R. Howe Sarah W. Foster and Enoch Foster, Jr. Photos from Maine: A History (1919) Enoch Foster, the third owner of the Society’s O’Neil Robinson House, was born in…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Ernest M. Skinner
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Ernest M. Skinner by Stanley Russell Howe Ernest Martin Skinner 1866-1960 In Bethel’s Woodland Cemetery, not far from the Gothic Revival tomb, is the grave of Ernest M. Skinner, one of America’s leading organ makers whose fame spread across…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Eva M. Bean and East Bethel Road
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Eva M. Bean and East Bethel Road A Fifty Year Perspective By Stanley R. Howe Eva Marion Bean (1895-1969) Editor’s Note: A version of this essay was delivered during a Society program held on 14 May 2009. It has been edited and expanded for…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
General Oliver Otis Howard Speaks at Bethel
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General Oliver Otis Howard Speaks at Bethel by Stanley R. Howe Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), ca. 1865 Courtesy of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission Civil War General Oliver Otis Howard spoke at Bethel on the afternoon of 15 July…
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Gilead Memories
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Gilead Memories by Emeline V. Heath Old and New Androscoggin River Bridges at Gilead, 1920s Editor's Note: The following sketch was written by a Gilead native and Society member whose roots were deep within the town. Miss Heath, a former…
Tags: Gilead (Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier
Grafton, Maine: A Historical Sketch
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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…
Tags: Grafton (Me.)
Collection: Featured Articles from The Courier