News Notes – Fall 2007

TRESCOTT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
                             … AND SOCIAL CLUB

Our nice summer weather stretched into mid–October. It was not unusual to see people in shorts raking up piles of leaves. Several interesting queries have lately come through our web–site on the Parker, Guptill, Wilcox and Whittier families, and about the old Staples Steamship Line of Lubec and Fall River, Massachusetts.

At our February meeting the steward of Lubec’s Hamilton Cove conservation area asked if anyone could help find what types of commerce went on out there prior to the 1880s. Dam and millsite remnants are still evident. Is it possible that a Trescott–born Balch family member was engaged in shipbuilding there? This month’s field trip was a visit to the town’s farrier, Tavik Benabdallah, on the Commissary Point Road, to see if he could identify a ‘show and tell“ item brought to a recent meeting. It was made of two horseshoes welded together with a two inch space between them. As it turns out, it was used as a rack to hold horse tack or a salt lick nailed to a barn wall....not designed to make a mare feel fashionably taller.

In March the incumbent board of directors was returned to another three–year term, and a surprise ‘quiz’ was given on Trescott and Lubec history. No scores were recorded, but we quickly found out how much more there is to learn about Trescott’s earliest days.

Later in the month we visited artist Fred Hartman’s studio, gallery and gift shop overlooking the East Stream.

Robert Kord, the author of Way Down East to Cutler, will lead a field trip to that town’s Norse Pond, close to the Trescott line. His book explains a number of theories about when the man–made pond got there, who built it, for what purpose, and how, back in the 1880s, it came to be called the Norse Pond. And, related to the same topic, a great program was presented by Gary Mason of Edmunds, who spoke to us about his study: The Vikings…Did They Make It Beyond Newfoundland? Forty five adults and children attended, and the question and answer period was as lively as Mason’s description of Norsemen exploits in the first year or two of the second millennium.

Many local people flocked to a mid–April program sponsored by the Whiting Historical Society. It focused on the June, 1936 drowning deaths of twelve young school children at their annual Gardner Lake school outing. The talk was given by Vickie Reynolds Schad, author of Remember the Children. Mrs. Schad, a Lubec native, lost three family members in what is clearly the area’s greatest tragedy.

Two of our members participated in workshops offered by the Maine Arts Commission on writing effective press releases, and on marketing products such as fund–raising items. Other members continued with our society's on–going community and cemetery. projects. On a clear spring Sunday we met at Lily Lake (Trescott’s only lake or pond)…a quiet and pretty spot for bird– and frog–lovers and for all the local trout aficionados [who catch mostly pickerel].

August kept us busy. Our annual picnic was held at Quoddy State Park. Two weeks later we set up a kiosk at the Machias Blueberry Festival, selling 1881 Maine county atlases, prints and wild lupine seeds. Thanks to everyone who helped make both events successful.

We have been loaned some old records for photocopying: fifty deeds of land in Trescott and Whiting, and the business and membership ledgers from the Bailey’s Mistake Church. A set of Washington County census reels has been donated to us by Carl Morrison.

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