On Malaga Island

Down East:

Between July 1911 and November 1912, the state of Maine purchased the island,
incarcerated a fifth of its [black, white, and mixed race] inhabitants on
questionable grounds at the Maine School for the Feebleminded in New Gloucester,
and forcibly evicted everyone else on the orders of Governor Frederick Plaisted.
The islanders had dismantled and taken their homes with them, but state
officials made certain no trace of the community remained. They took down and
relocated the schoolhouse (to Louds Island in Muscongus Bay), then dug up the
seventeen bodies in the cemetery, stuffed them into five group caskets, and
unceremoniously buried them at the School for the Feebleminded (now Pineland
Farms).

A Web site devoted to Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold, a radio documentary produced by Rob Rosenthal, can be seen here.

- John C.L. Morgan

Booknotes: Grievances

(Editor's Note: I recently bought a copy of Ronald Banks's Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts, 1785-1820, so I figured I'd kick off a new feature of the blog that will include thoughts on Maine-themed books I'm currently reading.)

Just as Thomas Jefferson used the Declaration of Independence in July 1776 to air out the American colonists' grievances against their British governors, attendees of a January 1786 convention devoted to Maine's independence from Massachusetts listed seven reasons for why the District of Maine should separate from Massachusetts.

Unlike the Declaration of Independence, though, Maine's own declaration of independence did not enjoy widespread support and proved to be inconsequential, due in large part to the fear of mobocracy and radicalism that took root in both Massachusetts and Maine as a result of Shays's Rebellion, which began in August 1786. Nevertheless, the critiques expressed by the first movement for independence (described by Banks as taking place between 1785 and 1789) laid the intellectual groundwork for the subsequent movements for Maine's indepedence.

Below is a paraphrased version of Banks's paraphrased version of the original document:

1. What's good for Massachusetts wasn't necessarily good for Maine. In fact, what's good for Massachusetts actually "retarded the growth of Maine."
2. Massachusetts's Supreme Judicial Court was responsible for dispensing justice for such a large geographical area that it was impossible for "proper and expeditious justice" to always be achieved. Moreover, because the official clerk's office was located only in Boston, any inquiry into public records "necessitated costly and time-consuming trips" to the city.
3. Trade regulations reduced the price of lumber, which benefited Boston at the expense of the many Mainers involved in the lumber trade.
4. Because only towns with 150 elgible voters were allowed to participate in statewide elections, "scores of settlements" and citizens in Maine went without actual representation.
5. Taxation on Mainers' estates were inequitable to the taxation of those who lived in Massachusetts proper. One example: A sheep raised in Maine required more feed and care due to the longer winters in the Pine Tree State, yet Maine farmers were expected to pay the same tax rate on their sheep as Massachusetts farmers did for their livestock.
6. Excise taxes and import taxes were unfair for Mainers, when compared to the excise and import taxes Massachusetts residents needed to pay. One example: Due to the scarcity of apple orchards (and thus hard cider) in Maine, Mainers were forced to "import vast quantities of rum to meet the legitimate expectations of working people." And because the tax on rum was higher than the taxes related to hard cider, this was cited as yet another case of Massachusetts proper ignoring the pecularities of Maine.
7. A fixed fee on deed transfers dealt Mainers a greater financial blow than it did to those from Massachusetts, because land in the District of Maine was bought and sold at a higher rate than it was in Massachusetts.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Booknotes: Longfellow's Provincial Bloodlines (June 15, 2010)

On Vintage Base Ball

PPH:

The players of the Dirigo Vintage Base Ball Club of Augusta -- or ballists, as
they were called in the 1860s--hefted long, narrow bats and waited their turn to
strike. "I love baseball and I love history," said Rohman, a Civil War
re-enactor. He organized the Dirigo side five years ago after researching
everything from the rules of the period, the uniforms and the terminology.

Anyone who hasn't seen the old Conan O'Brien skit on old-time ballists can check it out here.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: The Presumpscots of Cumberland Mills (April 9, 2009)
Related: Prince of the Poor Man's Media: Or, This Week's Episode in Shameless Promotion (April 6, 2009)
Related: The Sportswriter: Boston Red Sox (July 29, 2008)

Booknotes: Longfellow's Provincial Bloodlines

(Editor's Note: I recently bought a copy of Ronald Banks's Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts, 1785-1820, so I figured I'd kick off a new feature of the blog that will include thoughts on Maine-themed books I'm currently reading.)

Though Mainers' drive for statehood did not culminate until the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the genesis of the movement can be traced to the September 17 and October 1, 1785 editions of the Falmouth Gazette, when notices calling for a public meeting "to discuss the advisability of taking steps leading to a separation" were published. Interestingly, of the thirty men from Cumberland, Lincoln, and York counties who attended this initial meeting that took place 22 years before Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1807 birth, a couple of them figure prominently in renowned poet's family tree:

As near as it is possible to determine, most of those present were
representatives of the "more substantial" separationist element, who evinced
little interest in stay laws or the emission of paper money. It was no surprise,
therefore, that two men, William Gorham and Stephen Longfellow, Jr., both of
whom belonged to this element, were chosen president and recording secretary
respectively. The only significant result of this first meeting was the
appointment of a seven-man committee headed by Peleg Wadsworth.

Stephen Longfellow, Jr., was the poet's paternal grandfather, and Gen. Peleg Wadsworth was the poet's maternal grandfather. The former is described in Charles C. Calhoun's Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life as one of the "acknowledged leaders of Cumberland County," whereas the latter was a merchant in Portland who went on to establish the town of Hiram.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Booknotes: The More Things Change... (May 27, 2010)
Related: Booknotes: Thank You, New Hampshire (May 24, 2010)

Booknotes: The More Things Change...

(Editor's Note: I recently bought a copy of Ronald Banks's Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts, 1785-1820, so I figured I'd kick off a new feature of the blog that will include thoughts on Maine-themed books I'm currently reading.)

Ronald Banks:

Economically, the District [of Maine] before the Revolution was poor. Even by
1782, according to Moses Greenleaf, the total wealth of the District was only
one-tenth of that of Massachusetts proper.

I guess the good news is that Maine has narrowed that wealth gap in recent years. The ratio is now more like 7 to 1, as Maine's Gross State Product (GSP) in 2008 was $49.7 billion, and Massachusetts's GSP in 2008 was $349.9 billion.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Booknotes: Thank You, New Hampshire (May 24, 2010)

c. 1800

Booknotes: Thank You, New Hampshire

(Editor's Note: I recently bought a copy of Ronald Banks's Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts, 1785-1820, so I figured I'd kick off a new feature of the blog that will include thoughts on Maine-themed books I'm currently reading.)

Given our geographical and cultural proximity to New Hampshire, we Mainers have long had a natural and bitter rivalry with our neighbors to the south. The 260-year-old boundary dispute between the two states regarding ownership of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, for example, was finally decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2001. Then there's the fact that our southern neighbors are often depicted as our fiscal and economic foil, the granite-ribbed John Galt to our flabby-bellied beggar (see here, here, and here for just a few examples). And most recently, the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 population estimates not only highlighted the fact that we were one of only three states to actually lose residents, but it is also rubbed our noses into the fact that more people now live in New Hampshire than in Maine for the first time since 1800.

Despite these rivalries (and let's face it, slight jealousies), though, we Mainers do owe New Hampshire a big thank-you. Why, you may ask? Well, simply for existing:

Thus, from 1691 to 1820 there was no political
entity known as Maine, only Massachusetts, which included all the territory
between New Brunswick and Rhode Island except for a segment of New Hampshire
that inconveniently protruded to the sea. It was this wedge of land that denied
to Massachusetts that complete and binding integration she desired, for through
the years this geographic fact of life served to remind those in Maine as well
as in England that the union of Maine and Massachusetts was not only
an unwilling but an unnatural one.

[Emphasis mine]

- John C.L. Morgan

2010 v. 1895

Though I focused mostly on the baby-making aspect of Greg Kesich's column on the need to grow Maine's population (see below), his riff on the need for immigration is also key:

Short of putting fertility drugs in the public water supply, Maine needs to find
a way to attract new people. One of them will be learning how to be friendlier
to "people from away." For a state that has made a whole comedy genre out of
being unhelpful to tourists, this won't be easy.

W.W. Thomas, Jr., a key player in Maine's recruitment of Swedish immigrants to Aroostook County following the Civil War (hence the County town of New Sweden), recalls sounding a similar alarm in the 1870s, when it was determined that Maine was one of only two states in the country (New Hampshire was the other) to experience a net population loss after the Civil War. Here's Thomas in an 1895 speech commemorating New Sweden's twenty-fifth birthday.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: More Babies, Please (May 5, 2010)

Find of the Day

All Things Maine has unearthed an 1870 news clip describing the Fat Men's Convention held that year in Auburn Hall:

The Committee announced that they would proceed to weigh the fattest men and
conduct the contest for the prize. It was agreed that the prize lay between Mr.
Brackett of North Hermon, and Mr. Haven of Chelsea. Those gentlemen were
escorted from the rostrum which trembled under their tread, amid uproars of
applause, and the Committee proceeded to their duty. The scales were Fairbanks',
noted for their accuracy, courteously furnished for the occasion by Messrs. Owen
& Little of this city.

My self-esteem's officially been dampened a little bit, given that my 5'11" 210-pound frame would fit right in with this 19th-century meeting of the bods.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Old Westbrook, By Way of Old Lewiston (February 18, 2010)
Related: Prince of the Poor Man's Media: Or, This Week's Episode in Shameless Self-Promotion (April 6, 2009)

Old Maps

The David Rumsey Map Collection has an online collection of 222 vintage Maine maps.

- John C.L. Morgan

h/t: All Things Maine

Related: Westbrook Company Has Popular Map App (October 20, 2009)

Did You Know?

Did you know the State of Maine purchased the Blaine House to serve as its executive mansion in December 1919 for $184,548?

Purchased from the family of nationally-renowned politico James G. Blaine, the Blaine House was subsequently remodeled by the architect John Calvin Stevens and has served as the home for nineteen of Maine's First Families.

- John C.L. Morgan

FMI: Check out the Maine Humanities Council's "Blaine House Oral Histories."

Ice Breaker

This PPH story about the U.S. Coast Guard deploying cutters to the Kennebec River for their annual ice-breaking duties reminded me of an account of the icy Kennebec from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812:

Hallowell folks remembered the openings and
closings of the river the way people in other towns remembered earthquakes or
droughts. In 1785, the year of the long winter, the ice was still firm
enough on April 22 to hold a sleigh bearing the body of Samuel Howard, one of
the original settlers of the town, to his burying place at Fort Western. Not
until May 3 did the first vessels arrive from "the westward," bringing corn and
pork to the straitened town. People both welcomed and feared the opening of
the river. In bad years ice jams made ponds of fields and rafts of fences,
backing up water in the mill creeks that cut through the steep banks on
both sides. In good years, the opening water sent mill hands through April
nights, ripping logs and securing lumber unlocked by the spring thaw. Sometimes
the greatest danger was not from the river itself, though high water might pitch
a man from a raft to his death before his fellows could reach him, but from the
raging creeks on the shore.

Full disclosure: I serve in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: How Real Maine Men Sleep (February 5, 2009)
Related: Quote, Unquote: Robert P.T. Coffin (January 21, 2009)
Related: Quote, Unquote: Robert P.T. Coffin (December 3, 2009)
Related: On Maine Ice (February 28, 2008)

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Maine

You know there's a lack of general appreciation for Maine's independence from those dreaded begrudgingly appreciated Massholes when even an ardent Maine-phile such as myself neglects a timely notice of the event.

Nevertheless, raise a mug of Pine State Coffee (4 ounces of hot coffee, 2 ounces of Allen's, 2 ounces of heavy cream, and a dollop of whipped cream) to this state's 189th year of existence--even if you are four days late.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Statehood in One Minute (September 6, 2008)
Related: March 15, 1820: Maine Became the 23rd State (March 15, 2008)
Related: Just Do It: Read Maine Becomes a State (March 13, 2008)

Crystal Lake Crystals

Crystal Lake Crystals Explained

Carhartt overalls, work horses, and a corncob pipe all made their obligatory appearances at last weekend's ice-cutting demonstration on Crystal Lake in Harrison, Maine.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: On Maine Ice (February 28, 2008)

Did You Know?

Did you know German prisoners of war helped pick the potato crop in Aroostook County during World War II?

Imprisoned in Camp Houlton from July 1944 until May 1946, the POWs were paid an average monthly wage of $14.00 to replenish a labor supply greatly impacted by Aroostook workers' enlistments in the military and their migration to southern Maine for good-paying shipyard jobs.

- John C.L. Morgan

h/t: Gail Underwood Parker

My New (Media) Hero

Move over, Brian Lamb.

Dr. Marc Chasse, a chiropractor cum documentarian, has been recording the events and personalities of northern Maine since 1983, some of which can be seen here.

- John C.L. Morgan

Did You Know?

Did you know nearly twenty percent of Mainers were members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the mid-1920s?

According to C. Stewart Doty, professor emeritus of history at the University of Maine, the KKK reached its membership peak (150,141 members) in Maine in 1925, while the U.S. Census Bureau reports from 1920 indicate there were 768,041 residents living in the Pine Tree State. Also, in his essay "How Many Frenchmen Does It Take To...," Doty writes about the KKK's membership base and targets in the northeast:

In New England, the Klan appealed to Protestant
clergy, businessmen, members of the Masons and Odd Fellows, and farmers.
Unlike in the American South, the Klan's target in New England was French
Catholics and Jews.

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. The Maine Historical Society has an online collection of KKK paraphernalia, including photos of the KKK marching on the streets of various Maine towns and cities.

Statehood in One Minute

Sharon Cummins does a great job packing some of the history of Maine statehood into a short article.

Though mostly written with Wells's longtime opposition to statehood in mind, the piece does a great job touching upon the underappreciated Coasting Law and the politics that surrounded Mainers' drive for independence. Just one quibble: Her explanation of "Brunswick Arithmetic" is too vague and undefined, so I'll have to brush up on my Ronald Banks to fully understand the controversy again.

Nevertheless, a must-read.

- John C.L. Morgan

All Ax, No Lumber

There's a saying in Texas for wannabe cowboys, Texan poseurs if you will: All hat, no cattle.

Well, if you don't want to be accused of being all trap, no lobster. Or, whatever other mangled Maine metaphor is equivalent to the Texan catchphrase, I recommend you scoot over to the Maine Historical Society's collection of vintage (it's so hot!) Maine photos. It can be your way of saying, "I may not work on the water or in the woods like these folks did, but at least I appreciate their hard work."

Actually, I guess that attitude does make you all ax, no lumber. Whatever. Click here for the Historical Society's collection anyway.

- John C.L. Morgan