Browse Items (1596 total)

To Improve the Farmer's Lot: The Grange in Maine by Stanley R. Howe For over half a century, beginning in the 1870s, the Grange in Maine numbered some 50,000 members in more than 400 locations throughout the State. Active on behalf of Maine's…

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 [Part 3]: A Bethel Family (Frost) by Jayne W. Fife, with Roselyn Kirk Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt. Photo courtesy of Jayne Fife Mary Ann Frost Stearns was a small determined woman, a widow with one child, when she…

Women in the Grange By Jean F. Hankins The following article is based on a paper delivered in September 2008 at the Bethel Historical Society’s conference on the Grange. Jean F. Hankins, of Otisfield, Maine, is an independent scholar, active in…

John Howell Crosby (1867-1936) By Donald G. Bennett J. Howell Crosby in 1909. Courtesy of Donald G. Bennett Editor’s note: This is the second “Grandfather’s Theme” to be published in The Courier since the request for such manuscripts went out…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

FRAGMENTS OF LOCAL HISTORY. Concerning the Bethel Common. Number 1.—By a Sudbury Native. It is an every day saying that persons, objects or things which drift into our environment for a long, unbroken period, often sink to the level of the common…

FRAGMENTS OF LOCAL HISTORY. Concerning the Bethel Common. Number 2.—By a Sudbury Native. In the previous number we have endeavored to outline in a crude, unpolished manner, an upward growth in our Common’s physical condition; from an uncleared…

COL. EDWARDS’ LETTER. Bethel, Jan. 25th, 1896 My dear friend Stevens:— Your kind letter came to hand in due time; many thanks for the same. You say I may have forgotten you; my answer is, No, I well remember you and other sergeants of that old Co.…

DEATH OF GEN. CLARK S. EDWARDS An Honored Citizen—A Distinguished Soldier—A Noble Hero and Patriot has gone to his rest. Passed quietly away at his home last Sunday Evening, at 8.45 o’clock, after an illness of but a few days. A hero and patriot…

ECHOES FROM THE SIXTIES. Official Report of One of the Most Bloody Conflicts of the Civil War. The following is the official report of the Fifth Maine at Fredericksburg, as given by Col. Edwards to General John L. Hodsdon.It has not been revised…

ECHOES FROM THE SIXTIES. Official Report of One of the Most Bloody Conflicts of the Civil War. [Continued from last week.] Soon the shouts of the enemy immediately in our front, warned us that they were advancing, and every man stood ready to…

ECHOES FROM THE SIXTIES. By Col. C. S. Edwards. Bethel, May 3, 1900. Thirty-seven years ago this day, was fought the great battle of Chancellorsville, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, who at that time was commander of the Potomac Army. We…

The Boys of ’61.Bethel, May 4, 1901 This day, forty years ago, our lovely village was excited as never before in its history. In the early morn, carriages were seen coming in from every direction, in some cases, wives to bring their husbands, in…