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…

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…

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…

The Robertsons of “Robinson Hill” By Randall H. Bennett The origins of Bethel's early placenames, and the meaning(s) they convey, have long been a popular subject of discussion among scholars and family historians, and many of these researchers…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

Life on the Home Front: Bethel During the Civil War by Stanley Russell Howe Major Gideon A. Hastings (1821-1905), 12th Maine Battalion Editor's note: Few events in American history have received more attention than the Civil War. A neglected…

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…

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…