Rockland's Sea Captains: Hiram and Albert F. Pillsbury

Guest Blog: Austin Nagel

(Dear Readers: Again one of you gave me inspiration for a new blog through an email to me. I have decided to make this a guest blog from Austin Pillsbury Nagel, who comes from a long line of sea captains who shipped out of our very own South End. I have included his own research into his family history and the long history of sailing vessels in Rockland. If you have comments for Austin, please email me at southendstories@aol.com and I will forward them to him. I will also add some comments of my own.)

The original email I received from Austin included the following information:

“I am the great, great, great grandson of Hiram Pillsbury. I stumbled into his name on your blog which was an answer to one of your questions ‘So you think you know the Southend,’ April 26 (2012). (The question was: ‘Name three sea captains who settled in the South End’; my answer was Alfred Stahl, Andrew Gray, and Hiram Pillsbury).

“Hiram was the father of Albert F. Pillsbury. Albert was the father of my grandfather, Edwin S. Pillsbury and my mother was Susan Pillsbury.

“I know for a fact that my mother had a notion of naming Hiram after Captain Hiram Pillsbury, but my father prevailed in selecting my name. Austin Pillsbury Nagel.”

Austin found much of his family’s history on Ancestry.com.

The following information which Austin sent to me also comes from Ancestry.com:

From the June 20, 1882 issue of the Rockland Courier-Gazette: “Albert F. Pillsbury, son of Capt. H.G. Pillsbury of this city, has purchased a captain’s interest in the sch. Jennie Greenbank, and will command her. Capt. Albert is but 18 years of age and this is his first command, thus adding one more to the list of Rockland’s smart young captains.”

The ship the John Standhope was probably also captained by Alfred F. Pillsbury

Austin believes that Hiram lived his entire life in Rockland, but that Alfred Pillsbury branched out a bit as per the information he found at:

 www.nps.gov/safr/parknews/upload/fthom_this_dec_2009.pdf

The Robert E. Blake collection of LASH (lighter aboard ships) documents (HDC 1584), has plans, manuals, and documents of West Coast innovations in development and construction of these ships. The "LASH" system made it possible to load barges (or "lighters") aboard larger vessels for transport through open seas. The Albert Freeman Pillsbury papers (HDC 1584) consists of documents, photographs, logbooks, correspondence, framed prints and photocopies about the life and career of this founding partner in the marine salvage businesses Pillsbury & Curtis, Inc. and Pillsbury & Martignoni, Inc.

Could this be the beginning of the big container ships we see today or the piggy-back system of putting semi trailers onto trains?

The following information links Captain Pillsbury to the famous Snow family who owned Snow’s Shipyard in the Southend. Note the last sentence. “From this link, I got a little data regarding my great grandfather Captain Alfred F. Pillsbury:”

http://archon.mainemaritimemuseum.org/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=48&q=&rootcontentid=640#id640

Captain Israel D. (Dade) Snow, son of Captain Israel Larken Snow (1829-1899) and Luella Austin Keating (1838-1920), was born on March 4, 1863 in Rockland, Maine.  Capt. I. D. Snow came from a long line of seafaring men. His great-great grandfather, Capt. Elisha Snow (b. 1739) of Wessaweskeag in South Thomaston, Maine, launched some of the first ships in that area. His great grandfather, Capt. Robert Snow, commanded the schooner Barbados. Sadly, Capt. Robert Snow died of yellow fever while aboard the schooner Barbados in 1803. His grandfather, Capt. Israel Snow I, began the Snow shipyard business back in 1862. For clarity of lineage, below is list of the Snow men:

Capt. Elisha Snow, (1745-1826) great-great grandfather Capt. Robert Snow, (?-1803) great grandfather, commanded schooner Barbados Capt. Israel Snow I, (1801-1875), grandfather, began Snow shipyard in 1862 Capt. Israel Larken Snow, (1829-1899), father Capt. Israel Larken “Dade” Snow, (1863-1928), son

Capt. Snow started his seafaring life at a very early age.  When he was 15 years old, he was aboard the 13-ton schooner "Willie" owned by his family. He was often in the company of Albert F. Pillsbury who would later purchase Capt. Snow's interest in the schooner Jennie Greenbank in June of 1882.

Additional Research—Sandra Sylvester

A Google search gave me Hiram’s name listed in the 1877 edition of Greenough’s Directory of Rockland, Belfast and Camden: Also a Business Directory of Thomaston. It placed him definitely as a resident of the South End. The line on page 68 reads: “Pillsbury, Hiram, master mariner, house 7, Mechanic Street.”

I went to Eleanor Motley Richardson’s book, Mechanic Street: Uncovering the History of a Maine Neighborhood and found that house 7 is now number 18 Mechanic Street. According to Richardson’s story, pages 70-73, Captain Hiram Pillsbury and his wife, Sarah bought the house in 1873. They raised eight children there. For the complete story of his life including pictures of the Pillsburys and the house itself, please go to that book which can be found at outlets in the Rockland area. Ask for it at your local bookstore.

For more information on shipbuilding; the history of sailing vessels and their captains see The Shore Village Story, published by the Shore Village Historical Society, 1989, which can be found at the Rockland Historical Society’s office under the Rockland Public Library on Union Street. Our South End sea captains led the way for the generations to come as they went “Beyond the Southend” to explore the world and to bring back its treasures and knowledge.

I will continue this blog if Austin sends me more information to share with you. Until then, thanks for listening.

Winter Scenes 2014

These pictures of our winter this year were posted on Facebook lately.



It's snowing somewhere in the South End.
Photo by Becky Wilcox-Brann

Photo  of Jean Rowling Monroe's farm, which I believe is in Hope.

Photo by Jane Karker

The following shots were taken by my great-nephew, Jake Sylvester,
 up in Camden on Ragged Mountain.

This picture is from Scout Torello Tisone

 

This picture is from Susan Groder. Several people posted this photo on Facebook. We're not sure who shot it or where it came from originally.

Bremen Revisited

View from the back field at the Hilton Homestead
 overlooking the Medomak River.

My dear readers, thank you for commenting on my stories here at Beyond the Southend. This blog was inspired by Ellen Linn of Worchester, Massachusetts, who wrote to me in regards to a story I did on Alonzo Gibbs in January of 2013. He was a well known writer who resided for a time in Bremen. I will discuss her email later in this story.

Today we will revisit Bremen, Maine, one of my favorite places. I have written a few stories on this area already, mostly in the November 2011 archives. I have also written about the Hilton Homestead along with my cousin Mary Sue Hilton Weeks, who as the last surviving Hilton, now owns and continues to lovingly care for and restore the Homestead. Much of this information will be new to you. I thought it only right that a place where I spent so many happy hours deserved a more complete picture. I hope this blog inspires you to travel over that way and visit the area.

William Hilton

William Hilton originally of Plymouth, Massachusetts settled the area now known as Bremen in 1735. As the story goes, Hilton settled the area as part of Bristol. He was driven off during the French and Indian Wars, but returned after the Battle of Louisburg in 1745. In May of 1755 Hilton and his three sons were ambushed by Indians while getting out of a boat. William was killed and his namesake was wounded.

                                             

Bremen

Bremen, named after a town in Germany by the same name, was settled largely by German immigrants and developed as a farming and fishing community. The town was incorporated on February 19, 1828 and at first was known as Broad Cove.

Bremen is on the Pemaquid Peninsula and its eastern mainland border is situated on the Medomak River, and is bounded by Waldoboro on the northwest; Damariscotta on the west; and Bristol to the south. Bremen includes the villages of Broad Cove, Turners Corner, Medomak and Muscongus. Several large islands lie offshore on the Medomak River and Muscongus Bay. Bremen Long Island had a year round population of 143 in 1880. Hog Island, now owned by the National Audubon Society, was a gift from Dr. Millicent Todd Bingham and Dr. James M. Todd. In 1936 the Todd Wildlife Sanctuary was opened as a nature camp to the public. Every summer teachers and students of wildlife visit the area.

Bremen is in Lincoln County. The population as of the 2012 census was 806.

The Hilton Homestead

 (from the Hilton Homestead blog)

I am living on a 100-acre farm that has been in my family through my great-grandmother's side for over 200 years. My great-grandfather William Bainbridge Hilton bought the farm from his wife Rhoda Little's family, and from then on it was known as the Hilton Homestead. I live next door to the family home where I grew up in the one-room school house where I went to school grades 4 - 8. In 1998 my sister Diane and her husband Lee retired from Washington, DC and took over the family home. They both passed away last year, and having no children, I acquired the family home.

Diane Hilton O’Connor

My twin cousin, Diane Hilton O’Connor, built a modern home and connected it to the old farm house via the country kitchen which was remodeled. She was instrumental in revitalizing the old Homestead including renting the land to experimental farmers who are still active on the farm.

(From her obituary in the Lincoln County News)

She spearheaded the Bremen Town Forest Trails Project. Feeling a need to conserve the open space in Bremen, she sponsored an article in the town warrant to establish a conservation commission in the town and to establish a Land Conservation Reserve Fund to make land conservation and future land acquisitions possible. She was the first chairman and wrote the first conservation plan for Bremen which resulted in Bremen being named the 2009 Sterling Dow State of Maine Conservation Commission of the Year.

The twin cousins Aunt Freda Hilton with Diane on the left; my mother, Evangeline and I on the right as we visit on the farm.

Residents of Bremen

Many people from away, including Alonzo Gibbs, have made Bremen and that area home. Which brings me to the latest communication I had with Ellen Linn.  Ellen is Music Director for a church in Worchester, Massachusetts. Her email reads in part: “I was actually reading about Alonzo Gibbs…very interesting stuff (in regards to my story on him). My connection with Bremen is that my parents, Elly and Joe Kelly lived there from 1986 until last March, (when they came to live with her). For many years they ran JoEl Pottery in Bremen, making beautiful blueberry pottery. They also belonged to the Bremen Union Church, and that’s how I know that it’s up and running…and very friendly church that’s becoming more and more active in the community.”

She referred me to their blog space and I also found them on Facebook. She’s right, they are very active today, and unlike I reported in the story on Gibbs.

The following history of the church was the reason I didn’t realize the church is now active again. I remember it as a place for special events in the 1940s such as the wedding of my cousin Cynthia Wass.  Cousin Diane and I were flower girls at that wedding. They celebrated their 50^th anniversary a few years ago and she passed away last year. That is the only time I remember being in that church. This picture is from my parent’s 25^th wedding anniversary in 1955 at the Fulton Street house. Mary Sue on the left and my sister, Sally on the right, being five and six years younger than Diane and I, wore our flower girl dresses to the party. It looks like they had hoops in them, which I had forgotten also. The picture of Diane and I in the dresses was lost in the flood. I hope to get it from a relative later on. I do remember that they had little blue flowers on them.

History of Bremen Union Church

( excerpted from their blog site)

Around the time of the Revolutionary War, the original meeting house was constructed at Greenland Cove on what is now the Old Shore Road in Bremen. Three buildings were constructed: one in Greenland Cove, another in Walpole, and the Harrington Meeting House. As travel by roads replaced travel by boat, more people moved from the islands to the mainland, and the Meeting House from Greenland Cove was taken down and reconstructed at the present site on Route 32, where it stands today.

The church reopened as the First Congregational Church of Bremen, and by 1829 services were again held in the church building. It remained active year round until the end of the tenure of John J. Bullfinch who was pastor from 1878-1912. Services were not held consistently after that and from 1929 to the 40s, the church was used mostly for summer worship.

Many natives of Bremen remember coming to the church for graduation from the Bremen School.

In 1991, Sadie Ames and a group of former members meeting for Bible study and prayer became the backbone for the re-opening of the Bremen Union Church year round. It opened June 11, 1991 and has been serving the Bremen community ever since. It continues to be a non-denominational Christian church.

Resources

If you would like to read more about Bremen, please go to their site: www.bremenmaine.org/

Diane has a wonderful slide show on Bremen at www.tidewater.net/~bremen/ This is the Bremen home page. Just hit the slide show link at the end of the story.

Today at the Homestead

I leave you with these delightful pictures which Mary Sue posted to Facebook recently. She said, “A flock of robins, at least 8 landed in my crabapple trees today (two days ago).” Do you think they need a new GPS or can spring really be far behind?

Thanks for listening.

 

                                                   

 Stick to Your Ribs Winter Recipe

Here’s a hearty recipe for those cold winter days. Add a baked potato and some veggies and you have a dinner. This recipe came from Facebook from my friend Judy Davis Dorr via Mike Ames. If I can find this sauce I’m going to try it out. I’ll let you know how it comes out.

 

Sweet Baby Ray’s Crockpot Chicken

 Ingredients:

4-6 chicken breasts

1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce

¼ cup vinegar

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

Mix all ingredients but the chicken. Put chicken in crock pot—frozen is ok. Pour sauce over chicken. Cook for 4-6 hours.

SAIL POWER AND STEAM MUSEUM

 

Study for your USCG license this winter

January, February, March

Call for scheduling

207-701-7627

Find out about all the fun you can have
 and how you can help your museum.
Call 207-701-7627

 

Take a woodworking class

 at the museum this winter.

Call 207-701-7627 for details

 

 

Turn it Down!

From photobucket

This blog is a grudge fest. Blame it on the fever I’ve had off and on this past week. I may be delusional at this point. So if you’re looking for lighter reading fare you might want to check on the old man who lives at the top of the granite towers on the bottom of Mechanic Street who writes a column for the Courier; or our friend, E.O., who writes a blog for the BDN.

This discourse is an attempt to explain the difference between sound and noise. We all have sounds around us every day. However, when those sounds become irritating to you we call that NOISE!

Listen up all you rap fans out there who run around with your pants down around your knees and your underwear sticking out for all to see. When you park in front of my apartment and turn up your despicable rap music (if you can call it music) and it spews out of 1000 lb. speakers mounted in the trunk of your car at who knows how many decibels, TURN IT DOWN. Better yet, TURN IT OFF. No one wants to hear that stuff.

I read a book by Michael Crichton called Timeline. Published in November 1999, it tells the story of a group of history students who travel to 14th Century France to rescue their professor. A scene in the book that really struck me was when this group was standing in an open field. The leader of the group asked the rest to listen for a minute. “What do you hear?” They stood quietly and listened and were suddenly amazed at what they heard, nothing. They heard a few sounds from nature, but otherwise than that there was no engine noise, no overhead airplane noise, no traffic noises made by combustion engine-run vehicles; simply nothing. Can you even imagine what that would be like?

With that scene in mind, jump forward to the present and my apartment in the city again. I would like to know what lame-brained engineer (had to be a man) set up all six heat pumps, count ‘em six, which service my section of this building, right outside my bedroom window. As these pumps also run for the AC in the summer, guess what? I have to learn to live with them when I’m trying to sleep.

I’m a person who likes quiet when they sleep. For the most part this building is quiet at night as far as people activity goes, but coping with the heat pumps is about to drive me crazy. I’ve tried ear plugs, cotton ball plugs, earphones hitched up to the radio and shear grit. On any given night I have a 50-50 chance of really getting to sleep. I have to be really tired not to hear anything.

During the day, however, I’m one of those people who like to have some kind of background noise on when I’m alone. They call that “white noise.” I especially like to have some music on while I’m working, especially writing. Right now I have the Sirius radio on the 50s channel. When they banned earphones at my last job I cried. The phones closed out the rest of the noise around me so that I could concentrate on the job at hand. I’m not sure I did such a great job after that. Good thing I retired before they noticed.

There are times when I’m stressed about something that I long for those sounds I enjoy the most. Probably many of these are on your list too: the purring of a cat as they sleep by your pillow (no, Butchie won’t do that); a baby’s laughter; music from my past; the sound of wind through the trees by the Maine shore; the sound of waves, especially at high tide, as they break upon the shore when you are sleeping at night in a cottage down in Spruce Head; and the sound of rain on a skylight or on the roof of an open beam cottage, especially in Spruce Head.

The only thing I can hope for at this point is a final resting place for this old head in my own home once again in a quiet restful setting. I can dream, can’t I (that is if I can get to sleep).

Thanks for listening.

 

By Ted Sylvester

(Aunt Fanny was a fictitious person Ted used to write to in this column. She resided up in Aroostook County when Ted used to work up that way for the BDN. Note the school controversy. Sound familiar?)

Dear Aunt Fanny:

It’s been a year since our last correspondence. We are sending greetings and holiday wishes from the good folks of Midcoast Maine. All in all, it has been a pretty good year along this, the best section of the coast. Sure, we’ve had some difficulties, controversies, and tragedies, but we are all looking forward to a happy and prosperous new year.

The tourist season along the coast was superb, judging from all the traffic along Route 1 that at times was backed up from here to Bath and beyond. There was plenty of economic development hereabouts. The industrial park continued to attract tenants. There was construction of a brand new shopping center that opened in full force this year, and the enlargement of a competing supermarket in a shopping center down the street.

Unemployment was at an all-time low. In fact, Knox County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at last report. Even the weather cooperated most of the year. Oh sure, we had some heavy storms last winter and more than our share of snow. But the summer was especially nice, and we always seem to be spared the disastrous storms. The major flood in April virtually avoided us.

Some of the major events of the year involved a number of subjects, ranging from fish odors to school board reapportionment. At year’s end, the fish odor controversy was far from over, but the school apportionment issue was finally settled after court battles, school board battles, and a final decision by the State Board of Education. During the controversy, the towns of Owls Head and South Thomaston considered withdrawing from the district. These efforts fizzled when they failed to gain voter support.

On the city level, the major developments, or non-developments, during 1987, besides the continuing controversy over whether Seapro should be allowed to continue its fish-rendering operations, included indecision and the lack of a fish-pier operation, numerous court battles with developer Theodore Stone, and a furor over whether a small public park should have been used for a new playground. It was, and is, used extensively. The community effort to collect more than a million pennies for the project was the most commendable example of public spirit this city has seen for many years.

The basketball and golf teams from Rockland also created considerable excitement this year. Both the boys and girls basketball teams went to the Eastern Maine finals against teams from Mt. View. While the local teams didn’t capture the gold, their efforts were outstanding. And as usual, nobody in the state can touch the RDHS Gold Team.

There were so many changes in personnel this year, at both the city and school levels, one needed a score card to keep track. Some of the changes in SAD 5 included a new superintendent, new principal, and new football and basketball coaches. At City Hall, newcomers included an assessor, a finance director, and a public works director. At year’s end, both the city clerk and city attorney had announced their resignations to be effective early in 1988.

There also was a changing of the guard on the elected boards. The council and school board saw two new faces being seated on each. As the two bodies looked at the new year, leaders promised that cohesiveness and cooperation would be the order of the day. On the city level, it appeared that a restructuring of departments was in the making, with the addition of a city planner and a full-time city attorney.

Well, Aunt Fanny, that’s just touching some of the highlights of the year. I couldn’t close though without reporting on the trials and tribulations of the Friendly Do-It-Yourselfer. Overall, he had a pretty darn good year if one overlooks just a couple of deeds, like his self-inflicted gout with a spade, falling face first, naked, onto the floor of the shower room at the Trade Winds, and a bout with wifemate’s car in attempting to hook up a clock.

Happy New Year, Aunt Fanny, and have a Cool Yule.

Ted

Note: I believe that the following year, my nephew, Stuart Sylvester, Ted’s son, applied for and got the job of City Clerk since the position became vacant in 1987. He celebrated 25 years of service in 2012 I believe.

Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland, Maine. He has a history degree from Gordon College in Wenham, MA and graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He also received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze(Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Merriam has written more than twenty books and plays. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death. On April 29, 2010, Merriam was appointed Rockland, Maine’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, an honor from his hometown Merriam cherishes.

SNOW MOON

For Shubhra

A foot of heavy shoveling snow                       

every time clouds

let down their

heavy white tears

after shoveling, supper

a walk in the crisp moonlight

wearing boots, not sandals

kids sliding up the street

something I did at age ten

and came back

to the same warm house

with moon looking in on

a worn carpet

where now we have

bare spruce wood

Thai elephants

and calla lilies

from the supermarket

our two tiny tigers

prefer the heat

after years outside

someday, in full moon

you will meet them

Kendall Merriam, Home, 12/16/13  6:42 PM

Listening to a CD “Folk Songs of the World”

SOLSTICE MOON

                     For Ruth Barnett

As we were walking

To Joan’s house

For a pre-Christmas dinner

The full moon rose

A golden globe

Up from the harbor

Now, later on, it’s silver

Casting its light

On three feet of snow

Tomorrow we leave for Florida

I wonder if they have

A moon there

To glisten over the orange tree

In Nick’s backyard

In whose house we will be staying a week

He told us on the phone yesterday

It was in the 80’s

Here it was 6 degrees

And the plumes of sea smoke

Reminded Phyllis of of pictures

She had seen of Old Faithful

There are so many

Moon sightings

On Mechanic Street

I fill books with them

I think you are in England

Doing important work

For the Roma and Sinti

What do they offer you

As moon lore

Please write and tell me

So I will be accurate

Kendall Merriam, Home, 12/18/13   10:46 PM

Listening to Phyllis feed Girl Cat

SKY RIDE

Did Li Bai

anticipate airplanes

or did he fly on

heated yellow wine?

Would he be able

to dash off a poem

above the clouds

and receive bags

of silver

from merchants

who cannot write

but want something

to prize

for a long life?

Kendall Merriam 12.26.2013

Aboard Southwest Airlines between Orlando and Baltimore

POEM FOR VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY

I’ve sent poems to this town twice

They were ripped up

By girls who didn’t know

How to put a bullet through the heart

Here in my black and yellow blouse

You laugh at the radish

And don’t know the hole

You tore in my undershirt

I don’t curse you, you unknowing

You who have lost the key

To my identity

I am just filing a complaint

To the Complaint Bureau

To get back my poems

Since I still own the literary rights

You, Brik

And you, Lila

You have stolen my words

And for what

Not the revolution

You don’t care a fart for that

Not that

But to give me grief

And to hold on to some other man’s

Body in a tantric trance

You, your husband, the publisher of goatskin books

Who drinks light beer to my dark

He has never gripped your hair in his face

As I have

Or cupped your Swedish face

In his bad left hand

This town has a jail

And I’ve been in it

And while I told of my orchidectomy

You or some representative of you

Screamed in the next room

“My God, My God, I didn’t know, I didn’t know!”

No you didn’t, how could you

My sweet whisperer of secret prayerbooks

Not found or given to Checka by your husband

If I returned to Kiev

And read your secret prayerbook

On stage with Burluik and the piano

Who would laugh then, these bourgoise

These apple eaters, horse beaters

And if I added my own words to yours

They would knash their teeth to splinters

To hear us fight

Out of loneliness

And not of love

You have offered me nothing but a glimpse

Of your breasts beneath your undershirt

While I have immortalized you

In words

God’s precious ants

If you burnt it up

That’s not my fault

For me,

I’ll have a raspberry liqueur

Kendall Merriam, time, place, date unknown

Published in Contact II  NYC

Sonny’s

Sunshine Corner

Happy New Year to all of you out there who continue to enjoy “Beyond the South End” blogs every month. Readership is now over 39,000. Thank you very much. Thank you also for your feedback. Many of you have contacted me on Facebook or by email, especially in the past month. I appreciate your comments. Contact me by FB, email at southendstories@aol.com, or just type a comment at the end of a story you like on the blog. Once I read and approve it, it will appear in that space.

Nanci and I went to see “Frozen,” the Disney film, on Christmas. Going to the movies on Christmas has become a tradition with us. We enjoyed the movie very much and we both highly recommend it for people of all ages. The detail in the film was exquisite and shows how much Disney has come technically since the first animated Disney film I saw, “Cinderella,” which I re-watched on TV during the holiday season.

We also decided to give ourselves a break and pick an easy Christmas dinner. We choose baby back ribs from a local BBQ place. The South does BBQ the best of anyone, and we wanted to take advantage of it one more time before we eventually leave these parts. We added vegetables and apple pie and we were all set.

Speaking of apples, I recently met up with a Facebook friend from home, Ruth Wade, up at Starbucks off I-85. It was pouring rain but Nanci and I met with Ruth to pick up some Macintosh apples and Maine yellow-eyed beans, which I forgot to pick up this summer. You can’t buy either of them down here and she was nice enough to bring me both when she saw I was bemoaning that fact on Facebook. She was making a trip down to North Carolina and said she wouldn’t mind bringing me some. God Bless, Ruth and God Bless Facebook!

As for the year just passed, we lost three people we know: Mrs. Norma Tiffany, a high school teacher; Darold Poulin, a 1959 classmate; and Linda Knowlton Stanley, sister of one of my best friends in high school. We were happy, however, when our dear Aunt Virginia, who turned 103 on December 7, is back home after a fall sent her to the hospital and nursing home care for a while. We look forward to having her with us in the New Year.

Nanci and I followed another tradition of ours and went to the calendar store at the mall on New Year’s Eve day to pick up new calendars for the coming year. We always put up a cat calendar on the wall in the kitchen/dining area. This year we have Maine coon cats. Nanci picked up another Harry Potter daily calendar and I got my small pocket-sized appointment calendar to keep track of my appointments.

This past year my book, “The South End” continued to sell. I thank you all for that too. I am still working on the next book. One note about the story in December’s blog, “A Boy and his Dog…A Christmas Story.” The story is entirely fictional. I did use local references and the paper route is the actual route my brother Ted took when he had a paper route for the Courier when he was a kid about the same age as Quint. The name Quint also did come from a swimming instructor I had as a camper at Methodist Church Camp.

Coming up in the blog, once I can coordinate everything, I will bring you some of the research Austin Nagel has sent me concerning his connection to the Pillsbury family, long-time seafarers from Rockland.

If I get the information in time and am able to travel downeast, I may end up at my 50^th college class reunion at University of Maine at Machias, which was called Washington State Teachers College when I attended. We’ll see how it goes.

I leave you with a couple of fun things you might want to look into. The first is the sweepstakes for HGTV’s new vacation home in Lake Tahoe. You can enter in two places online: www.frontdoor.com/dreamhome; pick up the other link from there to HGTV’s site and don’t forget the second chance drawing for a GMC car. You can enter every day.

The other fun thing I just did online is a test to see what character you are most alike on Downton Abbey, which returns to TV soon. The link is www.buzzfeed.com. I came out as Anna. Nanci came out as Anna’s Mr. Bates. How’d that happen?

They describe me in relation to Anna as: “You have a heart of gold and are willing to look past physical attributes like pudginess and uneven walking ability. You even stand by your SO (whatever that means) when they’re convicted of murder. You’re Grade-A wifey material!”

So there you have it. Have fun and I wish you and yours a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. And please, won’t someone go down to my brother Ted’s house and unclog their frozen pipes. He says they’ve been that way for two days. Brrrr.

Butchie wishes everyone a begrudgingly good New Year.

Thomaston Library News

Intergenerational Book Club to Discuss The News from Spain

On Tuesday, January 21st, at 2:30 PM, the Intergenerational Book Club will discuss The News from Spain by Joan Wickersham.

The News From Spain is a collection of seven stories, or variations, by Joan Wickersham. Each of the stories is called The News From Spain, though none take place in nor really relate to the country, and as a whole they are concerned with heartbreak, regret, and intimacy. In one story, a paralyzed ballet dancer, married to an unfaithful choreographer, finds emotional respite with her caregiver. In another, a wife, discovering her husband is an adulterer, worries about how easily she and he are falling, in spite of everything, back into stride.

The collection is ultimately a nuanced look at relationships: at what makes them and what causes them to come apart.

On the third Tuesday of every month, the Intergenerational Book Club, a group of men and women of all ages, comes together to share their opinions and ideas about the book selection. Extra copies of the books are purchased by the Friends of the Thomaston Public Library from the Annual Appeal funds. We thank you for your donations. All are welcome at the Thomaston Library on January 21st at 2:30  p.m.

If you live in Thomaston and need a ride to the discussion, please call the library at 354-2453.

Friday Night Films are open to the public and free of charge, but donations are gratefully accepted.    The Thomaston Academy Building is handicapped accessible from the parking lot Light refreshments will be served. For more information call the library at 354-2453.

 Assistant Librarian, Joanna Hynd, reading to children.

Thursday is Children’s Story Hour

The Children’s Room has a number of new themes slated for Thursday Story Hour in January. We will be starting the month with a block party, that is, a party of building with blocks. Have fun finding hidden shapes in the Children’s Room and make your own picture frame. We will read a shape-finding story by Eric Carle. The next week join us for a fun pizza craft and to read Jamberry by Bruce Degen during a “yummy” themed Story Hour. We will play alphabet games and read about letters the following week. Then join us for a pajama party when we will be doing a glow stick/firefly craft. The last week in January we will be “Going on a Bear Hunt!” and eating a yummy panda bear snack.

            January 2^nd- What Shape is it?

            January 9^th- Yummy Yummy

            January 16^th- Now I Know My ABC’s

            January 23^rd- Tuck Me In

            January 30^th- Going on a Bear Hunt

The Thomaston Public Library is located at the old Academy Building at 60 Main St. in Thomaston. Parking is located at the rear. Story Hour is every Thursday starting at 11am. We request that all children under the age of 13 visit the library with a parent or guardian. Hope to see you there.

Bernard Langlais Art Reception

Friday, January 24, 5:00 to 6:30 PM

The Thomaston Public Library will host a reception on January 24th to display the wood-sculptured artworks of Maine artist Bernard Langlais, which were gifted to the library late in 2013 and will now be on permanent display. The pieces are wood-relief wall hangings, two of them abstract and three figurative.

In 2010, Colby College received a large bequest of artworks by Bernard “Blackie” Langlais (born in Old Town, Maine) from the artist’s widow, Helen Langlais, along with the couple's 90-acre property in Cushing. Recognizing the site's importance, Colby contacted Kohler Foundation of Wisconsin about possible preservation of the collection and site.

Colby made a gift of nearly 3,000 Langlais artworks to Kohler Foundation, who preserved and gifted these works, which include wood reliefs, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, to non-profit institutions throughout Maine and the United States. Thomaston Public Library is pleased to be one of those recipients.

Kohler Foundation is also conserving the outdoor sculptures on the Cushing property. A portion of the estate will be preserved as a sculpture park and will be named in honor of Bernard and Helen Langlais. The Georges River Land Trust of Rockland, Maine, will take ownership of the property and will collaborate with the Colby Museum on programming at the site.

The reception at the library on Friday, January 24, will provide the first opportunity for the local community to see the Langlais pieces the library has acquired. The reception will also feature detailed information about Bernard Langlais's life and work.

 

 

 

Saltwater Film Society Screening of Waiting for Guffman,

 Thursday, January 23, 6:30 PM

The title an obvious reference to Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, Waiting For Guffman is a mockumentary film by actor/director Christopher Guest of Spinal Tap fame. The film centers on the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri. A group of delusional townspeople, led by the eccentric director Corky St. Clair (played by Guest), are preparing to put on a show entitled Red, White, and Blaine, a musical chronicling the town's history to be performed in honor of the town's sesquicentennial.

The film follows the comically disastrous results of St. Clair's attempts to put on a show with no talent and a shoe-string budget, with musical numbers like "Nothing Ever Happens on Mars," a reference to the town's one-time UFO visitation, and "Stool Boom," a song that explains the town's epithet, "the stool capital of the United States."

The film will be shown in Room 200 of the Thomaston Academy Building.

For more information about the Saltwater Film Society, please see their website, http://www.saltwaterfilmsociety.org/.

Library to Participate in 6th Annual MLK Jr. Food Drive
The Thomaston Public Library is pleased to be a collection point for the 6th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Food Drive for Local Food Pantries. Starting Tuesday, January 21st, two large receptacles will be in place in the main room of the library for your nonperishable food items. We will continue to collect for the food drive through the end of February.

Anyone preferring to make a monetary donation can drop off checks at the library's Circulation Desk. Please make out your checks to Thomaston Food Pantry.