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St. Andrews Village News
Genealogy Workshop at St. Andrews Village Offers Tools to Trace your own Family Tree
When Emily Schroeder was in seventh grade, she traced her relatives back to the Civil War as part of a class project.
Filling in the blanks in her family tree with the names of real people, who had homes, and occupations and achievements of their own gave her a sense of who she was and where she came from, said Schroeder, a reference librarian at the Maine State Library. And in the process, she discovered a life-long passion for history on a personal scale
“It is the tying together of history and people and places and why people lived where they did and why they did what they did. It all adds up to why we are who we are,” she said.
Schroeder, who teaches genealogy classes at the Maine State Library and writes a monthly column on genealogy for the Capital Weekly in Augusta, will offer a class at St. Andrews Village Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. That class will focus largely on how to start your own genealogy study with resources available in the Maine State Library or through the Internet.
Genealogy has grown in popularity over the years as has the number of different resources available to amateur sleuths.
At the Maine State Library there are family histories, town histories, ship passenger lists and many other resources for Maine as well as records on many other parts of New England as well.
Because the Maine State Library maintains a membership in many online databases, anyone from Maine is welcome to log on to sites such as www.ancestry.com from computers at the library and search their own history.
Schroeder said many people become interested in genealogy out of an interest in learning more about where they actually came from, and sometimes out of a desire to get to the truth about old family legends.
“I think they feel a real personal connection to their family history.”
People who have taken her class have been able to trace their ancestors to the Revolutionary War and even find records of their ancestors’ service.
Schroeder will provide information about resources available at the Maine State Library as well as online at the class, including many handouts.
“There is a lot here and people need to know about it and use it,” said Schroeder. For more information about genealogy resources at the Maine State Library call Schroeder at 287-5600. The program at St. Andrews Village is free, but space is limited. Please call Laury Dalton at 633-0920 to RSVP.
Historian Jerry Wiles will speak on Hannibal Hamlin,the first man from Maine to hold the nation’s second highest office at St. Andrews Village on December 18 from 2 – 3 p.m.
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, rose to prominence in the years before the Civil War largely through his reputation as fierce opponent of slavery, but his service as Abraham Lincoln’s Vice President, was also a time of great frustration.
Hamlin served as Vice President during the Civil War but found his duties so meaningless he often left Washington for Maine and at one point even joined the Maine Coast Guard where he insisted on being treated like a normal recruit.
Historian Jerry Wiles will speak on the first man from Maine to hold the nation’s second highest office at St. Andrews Village on December 18 from 2 – 3 p.m.
Wiles has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in history from Eastern Kentucky University. He taught American and Maine history for 33 years at Greely Middle School in Cumberland. The talk on Hamlin is the last of a series of three thought-provoking lectures offered by Wiles at St. Andrews Village, all on the third Sunday of the month
The son of a farmer who was also a physician, Hamlin had to leave school early to run the family farm when his father died, but later studied law in Portland before making his way into politics. He was known during the early part of his political career for his strong stance against slavery.
His political career began in 1836 with a term in the Maine House of Representatives. From there he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before joining the U.S. Senate in 1848.
In 1856, he quit the U.S. Senate and left the Democratic Party to protest the Democratic party’s support of slavery. After being elected Governor of Maine, however, he served less than two months before resigning in 1857 to return to the U.S. Senate as a Republican.
His strong stance against slavery gained him nationwide attention that paid off with the unwanted offer of the vice presidential nomination during the Republican Convention of 1860, when it was decided that a northerner was needed to balance the ticket, which featured westerner Abraham Lincoln on the ticket.
Notified while playing cards in a nearby hotel, Hamlin at first tried to refuse the honor but was convinced to accept the nomination on the grounds that turning it down would be seen as a vote of no confidence in the ticket.
After the election, Hamlin was asked what he thought would happen next and reportedly replied “There is going to be a war, a terrible war, just as surely as the sun will rise in the morning.”
Lincoln and Hamlin had never met until after the Republican Convention and their relationship after was not particularly close, although there does not seem to be much evidence of discord either.
Still, Hamlin was frustrated by the fact that the office of Vice President was largely ceremonial and Lincoln did not respond to his early advice to emancipate the slaves and to arm black Americans. He complained that he was the “fifth wheel of a coach,” and could also do little for his friends in the way of patronage.
In 1964, when it came time to run for his second term, Lincoln chose a new Vice President, southerner Andrew Johnson from Tennessee. And whether acting out of boredom or principal, Hamlin joined the Maine Coast Guard as Private Hamlin and even reported for drill and KP duty with his fellow recruits before leaving after about three months.
His term as Vice President ended in March of 1965, only a few weeks before Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater, where one of Hamlin’s daughters also happened to be attending the play.
After the war, Hamlin continued to serve in various offices, including two additional terms in the U.S. Senate and one year as Ambassador to Spain, before he retired to Bangor where he died while playing cards at his club on July 4 of 1891 at the age of 81.
Louis Sockalexis Presentation at St. Andrews Village on Nov. 20 from 2-3 p.m.
The short brilliant career of Native American baseball player Louis Francis Sockalexis, a member of Maine’s Penobscot Tribe is a Greek tragedy played out on the landscape of 19th century America.
Like a Greek hero, Sockalexis was gifted with enormous talent – a rifle arm, unrivaled speed and amazing skill with a bat – along with a fatal weakness for alcohol. The high, short arc of his career is the subject of Wile’s talk at St. Andrews Village on Nov. 20 from 2-3 p.m.
Wiles, who has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in history from Eastern Kentucky University, taught American and Maine history for 33 years at Greely Middle School in Cumberland.
The talk on Louis Sockalexis is the second in a series of three, all on the third Sunday of the month. On December 18, the subject of the lecture will be Hannibal Hamlin, the 15th Vice President of the United States, who served under President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
Sockalexis played his first professional game in 1897, seven years after the massacre at Wounded Knee.
During his three years in the major leagues, he broke racial barriers, endured taunts, was exploited by the owners and left behind a wealth of incredible statistics and stories.
Among them are that could throw a ball from Indian Island, where he grew up, across the Penobscot River, was so fast that he stole three bases on three consecutive pitches and could hit the ball 600 feet – one of his home runs broke windows on the fourth floor of the Brown University Chapel.
But perhaps the best evidence of his talent is reflected in the accounts of the professionals who watched him play.
“He should have been the greatest player of all time,” Detroit Tigers manager Hugh Jennings once wrote, “greater than Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Roger Hornsby, or any other man who ever made history for the game.”
“I don’t remember ever seeing a quicker bat or a stronger arm. Among the moderns, possibly one player worthy of comparison is that young man Joe DiMaggio. He has a trace of Sockalexis’s stuff, but I don’t believe he can run or throw with the Indian.” – Red Sox Manager Bill Carrigan
His time in the major leagues, however, was cut short by alcoholism and after less than three years, he retired home to Maine where he coached baseball and worked in the woods before dying in obscurity at the age of 41 or 42.
He died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve. According to one account, his fellow loggers only learned his history after finding yellowed clippings of his time in baseball inside his coat.
He is buried on Indian Island in a grave marked by a stone that states that his athletic achievements at Holy Cross College and later with the “Cleveland Major League Baseball Team” won him national fame.
Teddy Roosevelt Lecture October 27th - "Becoming Teddy Roosevelt"
Before he charged up San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders, Teddy Roosevelt was a privileged, asthmatic Harvard student who climbed Mount Katahdin with Bill Sewell, a guide from tiny Island Falls in Aroostook County.
The friendship that grew between the two men, and how that relationship shaped the Teddy Roosevelt who broke the business trusts that had a stranglehold on the nation’s economy and created the National Park system , is the subject of Andrew Vietze’s book “Becoming Teddy Roosevelt.”
Vietze, an award-winning writer, former Managing Editor of Down East, a Maine Guide and a seasonal park ranger, will read from his book at St. Andrews Village on October 27 (Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday). Following the talk, he will answer questions and sign copies of his book.
The idea for the book came to Vietze after reading John W. Hakola’s account of how Percival Baxter assembled the 200,000 parcel of land that would eventually become Baxter State Park. Hakola gave a short account of Roosevelt’s trek up Mount Katahdin with Sewall and as Vietze learned more about the two men’s relationship, he became hooked.
“What surprised me most about the relationship between Sewall and Roosevelt was simply the length and depth of their friendship. Roosevelt told an early biographer that Sewall was the person who knew him better than anyone else, from his childhood on,” said Vietze.
The two men first met on the porch of Bill Sewall’s farm house on Sept. 7 of 1878. Roosevelt had traveled from New York with his cousins West and Emlen Roosevelt and his friend Will Thompson on an expedition to a corner of America that was then just as much a wild frontier land as the American West.
Weighing 135 pounds, Roosevelt had asthma, a weak heart and poor vision. More profoundly, he was still recovering from the death of his father seven months earlier. He did not make an overwhelming first impression on Sewall, who was strong and fit at six feet four inches in height with a full beard, gray-blue eyes and bear-sized hands.
But when they set out to climb Mount Katahdin, it was only Roosevelt, wearing little more than bedroom slippers who summited the mountain with the guides. The rest of the party turned back.
Sewall later followed Roosevelt to New York and then to his ranch on the banks of the Little Missouri River in North Dakota. The two men remained such close friends that near the end of his life, Roosevelt sent his biographer to Sewall and also sent a letter to Sewall, telling him to spare no detail in the telling of Roosevelt’s life.
“There is no one who could more clearly give the account of me, when I was a young man and ever since,” wrote Roosevelt to Sewall.
Later, however, while many biographies have been written about Roosevelt, the role of the rugged Maine Guide had been largely forgotten.
“Somehow the counsel of Island Falls’ most famous guide has faded with the passage of time. This might be because the very virtues he championed – the importance of character and integrity, the strength of the individual, the richness and beauty of small-town life, the enlightenment that the ‘academy of nature’ can provide – have also diminished in stature in this Information Age,” writes Vietze.
Please call Laury Dalton at 633-0920 for more information and to RSVP. Andrew Vietze’s talk is open to the public but space is limited.
Lecture Series by Historian Jerry Wiles Begins Oct. 16 at St. Andrews Village
It is the little things that Historian Jerry Wiles bring to his lectures that make history come alive: the way Margaret Chase Smith answered the phone, or the effect than playing on Skowhegan High School’s state championship basketball team had on the life of the first woman to be nominated for President by one of the two main political parties.
Wiles, who has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in History from Eastern Kentucky University, taught American and Maine history for 33 years at Greely Middle School in Cumberland. Retired in 2001, he continues to offer his popular history lectures from his home on Chebeague Island.
On the third Sunday of October, November and December, Wiles will offer lectures from 2 – 3 p.m. at St. Andrews Village on Margaret Chase Smith (Oct. 16), Hannibal Hamlin (Nov. 20) and Louis Sockalexis (Dec 18), a Native American from Maine’s Penobscot tribe who is often considered the first Native American to play professional baseball.
As a historian, Wiles likes to communicate with stories.
“Stories catch people’s attention whether they are two years-old or 100 years-old. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like a good story,” he said.
Margaret Chase Smith was born in 1897 and grew up in Skowhegan in a struggling middle class family.
As a girl, she was a member of the basketball team that won the state championship and was also the team’s manager. Later in life she would tell people that the experience taught her that problems presented themselves and you had to fight through them.
After graduating from high school, Smith taught in a one-room school house, worked as a telephone operator, managed circulation for the Skowhegan Independent Reporter, and served as an executive with a local textile mill.
In 1930, she married Clyde Smith, a respected political leader who was much older. She followed him to Washington, D.C. and served as his secretary when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936. After his death, she was elected to the House of Representatives in her own right and later went on to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1948.
As a politician, Smith’s hallmark was her accessibility to her constituents. She always answered the phone with “What can I do for you?” or “How can I help you?” said Wiles. She seemed never to forget a face or a name of people she had met only once or twice.
“Even though years had gone by, she would remember their names and where they were from,” he said.
She was a Republican and a supporter of women’s rights, but not a militant feminist and not an ardent Republican. She believed that in order to get their rights, women needed to earn them.
She is perhaps best known for her “Declaration of Conscience” speech, which she gave in opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy when his hunt for Communist sympathizers and “fellow travelers” was destroying lives and careers. At the time, she was practically alone in her opposition of McCarthy’s fear mongering tactics and it cost her dearly politically.
“It was a sterling example of someone with great courage,” said Wiles.
St. Andrews Village Lunch to Benefit Food Pantry
BOOTHBAY HARBOR – With the approach of winter, Richard Annino, Co-President of the Boothbay Region Food Pantry, knows the need for food grows.
Heating bills are a big part of the problem and for many working families; the loss of seasonal work also shrinks the family income and forces difficult financial choices. A struggling economy in recent years has also increased economic pressure on many in the community.
Between 2004 and December of last year, the average number of clients served by the food pantry has more than doubled, from 59 families and 130 individuals in 2004 to 119 families and 391 individuals in December of 2010.
But as the need has grown, so has the generosity of the community, which has reached out with food drives and cash contributions.
Those wishing to help the Food Pantry can enjoy a delicious lunch at St. Andrews Village Nov. 9 while also donating to the pantry. There will be two seatings: one at 11:30 a.m. and the other at 12:30 p.m. Donations are appreciated ($10 is suggested). All proceeds will benefit the food pantry.
The menu will include tomato bisque or Italian wedding soup, assorted sandwiches, Mesclun greens with fruit, onion, bacon, egg and feta cheese, lemon trifle with raspberry cream and finally, coffee and tea.
Money donated to the food pantry helps purchase food at the Good Shepherd Food-Bank in Lewiston. The Food-Bank obtains millions of pounds of food each year from food manufacturers, grocery stores, farmers and others and supplies staples to food banks throughout the state at a small fraction of its cost.
Food from Good Shepherd is supplemented by items donated by local stores, including Hannaford and Wal-Mart. Fresh food items that can’t be stored are provided in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed for eggs, milk and butter.
People who receive food from the pantry must live on the Boothbay peninsula and they must meet certain income guidelines. Annino said the pantry serves people from all parts of the community.
Some are elderly people who have lost a spouse and are living on fixed incomes. Others are families with small children, including single-parent families and families with both parents. In the past ten years, the pantry has also seen more working families.
Everyone receives four days to a week of food. And for all of them the food is vital.
“It is a Godsend to them. Over and over we hear they don’t know what they would do if we weren’t around. It keeps them going,” said Annino.
Restoration Expert Les Fossel to Speak at St. Andrews Village
To restoration expert Les Fossel, old New England capes and colonials are more than just beautiful structures, they are an expression of the values that built our democracy.
In 18th century Maine, homes were built to reflect a middle class society that believed in the individual. Unlike in earlier periods, rooms were smaller because houses were designed so that everyone could have their own room, said Fossel.
The people who built those homes also built the foundation of our form of government on that same belief in the primacy of the individual, said Fossel, of Alna, a Maine State Representative as well as owner of Restoration Resources (www.oldhouserestoration.com).
Fossel will give a talk at St. Andrews Village on old and historic homes on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 2 – 3 p.m. The talk will include a slide show on early American buildings, including some from the midcoast area or nearby, said Fossel.
People are encouraged to bring their own questions. The talk will be more of an informal conversation with the audience than a lecture, he said.
Fossel’s own love of old homes began when he was a child growing up in old homes with parents who themselves loved older homes.
“Buildings are the visible representations of the community. Where you find beautiful buildings, you find wonderful communities,” he said
Like the best designed computers or other technological devices today, there is a level of craftsmanship and an attention to detail in many older homes that reflects a quest for perfection.
That desire to make something that is the very best it can be drove the builders of Maine homes centuries ago just like it drives the creators of Apple products today, said Fossel. “That is why Apple products are interesting and that is why old houses are interesting.”
The legacy of those builders is the special resource that exists in Maine today.
“What surround us are the originals. If you go to a subdivision in Dallas you will see the copies,” he said.
Fall Prevention Awareness Day at St. Andrews Village Sept. 23 About Living a Full and Active Life
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Romee May (on right) and Wendy Johnson will offer mini classes on yoga and Pilates respectively at Fall Prevention Awareness Day at St. Andrews Village Sept 23. The event is designed to help older adults live a full and active life by offering information and demonstrations on ways to improve their balance and avoid falls. |
For the past five years, Mary Baudo, Wellness Director of the Boothbay Region YMCA has taught “A Matter of Balance,” a program designed to reduce the fear of falling and encourage older adults to remain physically active as they age. When she sees participants sign up for exercise classes, she knows the program has been a success.
A fear of falling can be a barrier preventing older adults from engaging in activities they love, such as gardening, visiting friends or taking walks. As those fears limit physical activity and lifestyle choices, they increase the risk of a self-defeating cycle. Unfortunately, falling is a legitimate concern for many.
On average, a Maine resident over 65 is hospitalized every seven minutes from a fall-related injury.
Nationwide, one out of three adults age 65 or older falls each year and among those 65 or older, falls are the leading cause of death as a result of injury, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control.
How to prevent falls and maintain an active healthy lifestyle is the theme of the Fall Prevention Awareness Day at St. Andrews Village on Friday, Sept. 23 from 2 – 4 p.m. There will be mini classes on fun and enjoyable exercise programs that can help people of all ages maintain their balance and fitness as well as opportunities to learn how medications or home safety problems can put you at risk.
The good news, according to Elaine McMahon, Program Manager for Clinical Services for MaineHealth’s Eldercare Services, is that falls are not a normal part of aging and there are many things people over 65 can do to decrease their chances of suffering a serious fall-related injury.
Elaine is the featured speaker at Fall Prevention Awareness Day. She said that there are a number of steps anyone can take to reduce their chance of falls: reviewing their medications with their doctor or pharmacist – some medications are often implicated in falls, increasing physical activity, regular eye checkups and checking your home for hazards like loose rugs and poor lighting.
Participants can also have their blood pressure checked by Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice and have their medications reviewed by a representative from Waltz Pharmacy. Physical Therapist Jim Stevens from Lincoln County Healthcare Wellness will also be available to screen participants for their risk of falls.
Mary Baudo, Wellness Director at the Boothbay Region YMCA will offer a sample of the Matter of Balance class, Seniors in Motion and Get Fit While You Sit classes. For more information contact Mary at the Y at 633-2855 or mbaudo@brymca.org.
Romee May, of the Yoga Firm Studio in Boothbay Harbor will offer mini classes on yoga
Yoga is an ancient system of poses and breathing exercises that can be practiced by anybody in practically any place, even in a chair. Yoga tones and strengthens the body while also helping practitioners to become more aware of their body and improve their balance.
“The physical aspect is that you strengthen your muscles and you open your joints. As you move, you become conscious and aware of where your body is in space,” said Romee. www.yogafirmstudio.com
Wendy Johnson will offer a mini Pilates mat class.
Pilates is a system of exercises developed by Joseph Pilates in the 1920’s designed to develop core strength and flexibility. By strengthening the core muscles or “powerhouse” (the deep abdominal muscles), Pilates helps improve posture and prevent falls. Participants find increased stability while moving through daily tasks and activities. Exercises are done in a slow, controlled manner and can be modified for all levels.
For additional information or to RSVP, please call Laury Dalton at 633-0920. There is no charge for this program but space is limited.
Archaeologist Tim Dinsmore Will Speak on History of Damariscotta River Shipbuilding at St. Andrews Village Sept. 25
BOOTHBAY HARBOR – Archaeologist Tim Dinsmore will speak at St. Andrews Village Sunday Sept. 25, from 3 – 4 p.m., on his work excavating the home sites of two of the earliest shipwrights on the Damariscotta River.
Dinsmore is a historical archaeologist who specializes on the American Colonial period and has worked on almost 50 historic digs in Maine, including the homesteads of 18th century shipwrights George Barstow and Nathaniel Bryant, who moved with their families to the upper Damariscotta River in 1765 from the North River in Massachusetts and helped build the shipbuilding industry in the area.
A sort of history detective, Dinsmore locates home sites by piecing together clues about their location from what records remain of them in the archives. Once a site is located, he requests permission to search for artifacts under what are often now well-cared-for lawns.
By piecing together the many clues gathered during digs, Dinsmore hopes to paint as vivid a picture as possible about the lives of the two shipwrights and their families.
For the Bryants and the Barstows, that picture is one of hardworking and prosperous families. Both families appear to have been fairly well supplied with the latest ceramics. According to surviving records, when Nathaniel Bryant died at age 33, he was one of the most well-to-do people in Newcastle.
For the past 15 years, Dinsmore had overseen digs for the Damariscotta River Association’s Archaeology Field School, educating class members on the basics of archaeology, including how to excavate, identify and catalog found objects.
Most often, the artifacts are small items such as pins, nails, pottery fragments, beads or musket balls. But however small they are, each artifact adds another detail to the story of people whose lives had an enormous impact on the surrounding area.
More than 200,000 artifacts have been recovered from the Barstow and Bryant sites. Copious notes are taken during the process, describing artifacts, where they were found as well as the soil depth and color.
“It’s controlled, slow, painstaking work,” said Dinsmore. “Archaeology is inherently destructive. Once you excavate a site, you can’t put it back. It’s imperative that we take detailed field notes and record our findings. And excavating to find things is only a third of the job. The remaining time is spent washing, identifying and cataloging items.”
Once funding is located to help catalog the massive collection of artifacts, Dinsmore hopes to develop exhibits so that this new-found information can be made accessible to the public.
Tim Dinsmore has more than 25 years of experience in Maine Colonial history and historic archaeology. A native of Damariscotta, he has focused much of his research attention on mid coast Maine where he specializes in the 17th and 18th centuries.
For more information on St. Andrews Village, call Laury Dalton at 633-0920.