2018 has seen its share of changes in our Town of Warren. This has been a year of transitions and change for all of us. From music to potlucks and informative talks we have gathered together and learned more about our community from the past to the present. We are seeing more people becoming interested in our history. Thank you to the Warren Historical Society Board and the Warren Field and Garden Club for maintaining and preserving the integrity of the Campbell House. Great changes are occurring at the Campbell House. The Music Room and the Dining Room have had the wall paper stripped, cracks filled and skimmed, and repainted with a Linen White color. The woodwork and the trim have been sanded and caulked and painted with a fresh coat of white paint. We hope to do the same with the remaining rooms as time and funds allow. Our goal to have the garage developed into a meeting area is closer to reality. The dedication of the Meeting Room was held in July honoring the Ferren 's, who dedicated many years to service for the Historical Society. We are much closer to having the Meeting Room become a heated space a reality this coming year. The back rear side of the garage was jacked and leveled with replacement of a side sill done because of rot. Brand new 6X6 support beams now make the floor much more stable. However there is still need for leveling and support to be done for the main floor of the garage. The exterior of the garage has had new boarding and clapboards in place. Hopefully we can get the rest of the work done this coming year.Our wish list includes new roofing, a heater for the garage, new fuel tanks in the basement as the present ones are fatiguing and the potential for problems increasing. We especially would like new members to continue the historical society legacy.
Historian's report by Karin Larson: It's been a busy spring and summer for me researching in our files to answer several requests for information we have had on email. Anne Sterling requested information on the Anderson and Dickey families who were the early settlers who created the Sterling settlement in Warren. Also she wanted a list of people buried in the Sterling Cemetery. After our open house on Warren Day I had two requests for information. Matt McGinley wanted information on his ancestor Norman Wallace and Knox Arboretum. Richard Boss wanted information on his house on Oyster River Road.I was contacted by a reporter from Pen Bay Pilot for information on the Warren shoe factory building that was moved from Limerock Street in Rockland to Four Rod Road in Warren and the history of the shoe factory. A short article about the shoe factory was published in September. A Mr. Robertson from Brunswick who collects old pharmacy bottles wanted information on Herbert Newmanwho ran the drug store in Warren village. He has a bottle from Mr. Newman's pharmacy. Recently a Mr. Stickney from Massachusetts contacted me wanting to know about his ancestor William B Stickney and Stickney Corner which is in Washington. Mr. Stickney and his wife came to visit the Dr. Campbell house in October and I shared my research on his family with him and he brought family photos that he graciously lent me to scan for our files. I found out where William B Stickney lived and his daughter Helen and son Joseph. I shared a lot of photos and news articles mentioning the family with Mr. Stickney. He and his wife were pleased to receive so much information and photos. I would say it was a successful trip for them. If you have questions about Warren's history or have ancestors who lived in Warren don't hesitate to contact us for genealogical information. Last fall we had our glass plate negatives scanned by Kevin Johnson the photo archivist at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport. Our goal is to have the glass plates on the Penobscot Marine Museum website for people to view. I am currently putting the scanned photos in a database for Kevin to put on his museum's website. I am giving the photos descriptions and I am identifying more photos that I couldn't identify when I first saw the photos. This project will keep me busy for the winter months.
Curator report on Acquisitions-- November 2017-October 2018 by Barbara Larson. Betsy White of Friendship donated a silver plate tankard presented to Thomas Walker when he left a mill in Laconia, NH before he came to the mill in Warren. Betsy White is Douglass Walker's daughter.The tankard is in the Woolen Mill display case. She also donated a hypodermic needle case, surgical mask and otoscope circa 1938. These items are in the Dr. Campbell exam room. The Thomaston Historical Society donated a Bicentennial Edition of the Alewife published for Warren High School in 1936. Eileen Howard of Waterville, ME donated a group photo of Warren High School students taken beside the Baptist Church, a group photo of Warren High School students in front of Warren HS, a photo of the Libby School and one of Libby School students. All photos are undated. ï‚· Clayton and Joan Winchenbach donated a Knox Arboretum Dedication program dated August 21, 1936. · Sharon Chadwick of Warren donated a box of Esso household wax, cost 25 cents for one pound of wax for preserving or laundry purposes and one brown glass jar that contained Homemade Boston Baked Beans from the Ben Eva Farm on Middle Road in Warren. Items are on display in the museum's kitchen. Marilyn Karasopoulas of Farmingdale, ME donated three newspaper articles on WWI soldiers memories, workers and women volunteers and a photocopy of a letter written May 4, 1918 to her mother from Miss Lilla S. Farris of Warren. Lilla writes from The Signal Mountain Hotel in Tennessee. She is on her way to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where she is a nurse for injured soldiers. Ida Clark of Warren provided W.H.S with three VHS tapes that the Society converted to DVDs for our collection. These tapes were recordings of interviews with Byron Crowe, Sharon Crowe and Jerry Rittersdorf regarding the history of Crowe Rope, the making of rope and employee management The VHS tapes were returned to Ida Clark. ï‚·Sharon Chadwick of Warren donated one round flat black sun hat, one pink sunhat, one light blue sunhat worn by her grandmother Eva Barbour and Benjamin Barbour's plaid raincoat and a black wool coat.They moved to the farm at 1293 Middle Road in 1939. Hope Creighton donated a DVD slide show of photos of her brother Sterling E. Norwood, a local contractor, who died on Dec. 7, 2014.· Mary Jane Boggs of Warren donated three hand-woven blankets made by James Anderson, son ofArchibald Anderson, a weaver from Scotland. He most likely wove the blankets in the states. These blankets were found in the homestead at 37 Stirling Road in Warren. She also donated three arrowheads from the archaeology work done by the state when the Route 1 widening occurred in 1990. With these arrowheads were Volumes I-IV of the ME Historic Preservation Commission Reports. Also, donated was a framed 1851 map of Warren updated in 1876. Grace Amoroso of Bar Mills, ME donated a Webster's High School Dictionary owned by the donor's great-grandfather's brother Oscar E. Starrett and a photo of Mary Bateman. Grace Moody Starrett or perhaps her daughter Edna Sarah Starrett called Mary Bateman Nancy Starrett Watson of Warren donated fourteen black and white photos of the 1936 Warren Bi-centennial, a photocopy of the booklet of the Bi-centennial Celebration of Settlement and photos of an unidentified one room school house, the Mathews Corner School and the Intermediate School at the old Court House.· The Town of Warren donated a notebook with photos of Boston Post Cane award holders for the oldest citizen in Warren and a printed history of the Old Court House and photos. Sandra Overlock of Warren donated sixteen postcards of Warren images including Crawford Pond 1937,Sandy Shores, Birds Eye Views of the village and river, Warren Mills, a school group in front of the village school, Edgar Ames Farm, Life Savers Lunch and the I.O.O.F. Building, 1907. Also donated were two stereoscopic views of Warren village, a bill from Wight's Hotel in Warren, a Warren High School Graduation Exercises program dated June 24, 1892, an advertisement for a closing out sale on High Street opposite Mont Butler's J.T. Whitmore store and an advertisement for Bull and Cow, owners Bernard and Gracie Young of Warren.THANK YOU to our generous donors. Historically speaking Warren does go beyond Main Street and we all want to encourage everyone to explore their neighborhoods and document their findings with observations and photographs. You can send your information to Warren Historical Society, PO Box 11, Warren, ME 04864 or drop it by the Campbell House.We usually have somebody available to open the house and give tours so just give us a call at 207-273-3154. We are having a membership drive and renewal as of this date. Membership is $10.00 per year for an individual, Couples are $18.00 per year, Sustaining Member is $25.00, Contributing Member is $50.00,Benefactor Member is $100.00, and a Business Member is $50.00. Please fill in the enclosed envelop and send it back to the Warren Historical Society PO Box 11, Warren, Maine 04864. We are limited in resources so memberships are very important to the survival of the Historical Society The goals of the Historical Society are to preserve records, documents, genealogies, artifacts and relics pertaining to the Town of Warren. This all happens only with the vision and help of the community and its existing groups and clubs. The Town of Warren has helped us out with a generous donation of monies which basically makes it possible to heat the Campbell House for the year.