Browse Items (5850 total)

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…

The Railroad Comes to Bethel by Randall H. Bennett Grand Trunk Railway station at Bethel, circa 1880 Editor’s Note: The following is an edited version of remarks made by Society Curator of Collections Randall Bennett on 10 March 2001 at…

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…

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…

Western Maine Saints: Mormon Missionaries in the 1830s by Mary E. Valentine Umbagog Lake from the highlands of Letter B Township, now Upton, Maine Editor’s Note: The area discussed in this article, and subsequent installments, includes the…

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…