BUCKFIELD – John Crockett, 98, has been presented the Boston Post cane as Buckfield’s oldest resident.

Crockett and his wife, Marion, reside at Market Square Health Care Center in South Paris. The presentation was made by his granddaughter, Joan Abrams. Others attending were Crockett’s three children, Alice Allen, Rose-Anna Gammon and Lester Crockett; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild, Carmer Crockett, along with friends.

Town Clerk Cindy Dunn sent a congratulatory letter to Crockett, along with a framed certificate recognizing his honor. The cane remains the property of the town.

In August 1909, Edwin A. Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post newspaper, sent 700 gold-headed ebony canes to be presented with compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male resident in New England towns. In 1930, eligibility was opened to women.

The canes were made by J.F. Fradley Co. in New York from ebony shipped from the Congo in Africa. The top has a two-inch gold head decorated by hand with a ferruled tip. The head is engraved with, “Presented by the Boston Post to the oldest citizen of (name of town).”