Browse Items (1596 total)

Twenty-five Years of the Courier: A Personal Memoir by Stanley Russell Howe Masthead from an issue of Bethel's first newspaper, The Bethel Courier (1858-1861) When I became Director of the Bethel Historical Society in 1974, there was almost…

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…

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…

Lafayette Grover: Would-Be President Maker by Stanley Russell Howe Lafayette Grover1823-1911 Born in Bethel, Maine, on 29 November 1823, the third son of Dr. John and Fanny Lary Grover, Lafayette Grover was educated at Gould Academy and…

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…

William Berry Lapham Local Historian and Genealogist by Stanley Russell Howe William Berry Lapham 1828-1894 William Berry Lapham (1828-1894) was one of the most prolific compilers of local history and genealogy that Maine produced during the…

Lucy Larcom's Bethel by Stanley R. Howe Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) Observing nature was a major focus of the life of Lucy Larcom (1824-1893), who spent much time in the White Mountain region and especially in the western Maine town of Bethel.…

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…

O'Neil Watson Robinson First Owner of the Robinson House by Stanley R. Howe O'Neil W. Robinson (1797-1867) As certain as can be currently determined, the Broad Street building acquired by the Society in 1998 was built about 1821 by O’Neil…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

Subject Issue(s) 100th Anniversary of Bethel News/Citizen Vol. 19, No. 3 150 Years of Hotel Keeping in Bethel Vol. 7, No. 2 1796: A Special Year in Bethel's Past Vol. 20, No. 2 19th Century Medicine in Bethel,…

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…

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…

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,…

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…