By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer
Books, fishing flies, bifocals document four people with interesting connections to Franklin County

FARMINGTON – Look for the commonality among Benjamin Franklin, Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, Elizabeth Akers Allen and Charles Forster, and you realize they all have ties to Franklin County.

Also, Crosby, Allen and Forster each have conference rooms named in their honor at Franklin Memorial Hospital’s Ben Franklin Center.

So Catherine Merrow, a senior at University of Maine at Farmington majoring in English and art, has been collecting artifacts related to them to display in their respective rooms. An intern at the hospital, she’s been working on this project since the beginning of summer.

Last week, she shared some of what she amassed and spoke of her vision and hopes for the four displays.

Cornelia Crosby

Born in Phillips in 1854, Crosby’s angling moniker was based on her passion for fly fishing. Plagued by poor health, Crosby took to the healing powers of nature in Maine’s woods under doctor’s orders and cast her first line into waters at the base of Mount Blue. Later in life, she wrote about the outdoors for various publications, including the Lewiston Journal, Portland Press and Phillips Phonograph.

Merrow has found old photographs of Crosby, a biography of her, a 100-year-old stuffed brook trout, fishing flies from the era and an old bamboo fly rod. She’s hoping to find an old fishing creel and articles written by the fishing guide. The Crosby exhibit will open Monday.

Benjamin Franklin

The elder statesman of the Continental Congress, Franklin County was named in his honor, as was the library wing at the hospital.

Merrow has found a reproduction of the kite Franklin used to study electricity. It is 1 square yard, with a 4- to 5-foot tail and was created by a woman in Ohio. Also included in the Franklin display will be a circa 1775 ladder-back chair, antique bifocal glasses and leather-bound biographies of the inventor.

She plans to create a small vignette with these materials where people will be able to sit in the chair next an old wood stove and read the books.

Merrow is still looking for an antique Franklin stove, engravings of early images of Franklin and documentation of his experiments. The Franklin display is scheduled to open Sept. 27.

Elizabeth Akers Allen

The poet, born in Strong in 1832 and educated at Farmington Academy, took the pen name Florence Percy. She was widely known for her poem “Rock Me to Sleep, Mother,” which was published in the Saturday Evening Post and put to music. A journalist too, she wrote for the Boston Evening Gazette from Europe, where she also met her second husband, sculptor Benjamin Paul Akers.

Merrow has found sheet music and antique fabric-bound versions of Allen’s work. She is still seeking more books by her or anything that has relevance to her most famous poem. The Allen Room display will open Oct. 20.

Charles Forster

Not much is known about Strong’s toothpick magnate, who founded the now-defunct mill in Strong. The largest toothpick manufacturer in the United States, Forster created a market for the dental aids by having Harvard students loudly demand them after finishing their meals at eateries in Cambridge.

This will be the last exhibit to open, on Oct. 27. So far, Merrow has been able to acquire an old photo of workers in front of the factory and several old boxes of toothpicks made there.

She is still looking for information on Forster, newspaper articles, clothespins manufactured there, copies of “The Woodline” – a company newsletter, advertisements, photographs or postcards relating to the factory.

Anyone willing to assist Merrow can reach her at 779-2103.