CARTHAGE – When Dorothy “Dot” Mason agreed to take the part-time job as town treasurer in the mid-1950s, she told then-Selectman Hubert Johnson she’d do the job until he could find someone else.

Now, at age 88, she has decided that, yes, someone else can do the job.

Last week, she handed over the financial records and the town checkbook, ending her 52-year career that paid $100 a year when she started.

One example of her devotion to her duties was when she kept the books, balanced the monthly statements and wrote the checks from her bed at the Maine Medical Center in Portland while recovering from what she described as a “small” heart attack a few years ago.

Mason lives at the end of Dorothy Drive in the hamlet of Berry Mills on the farm once owned by her parents, former Carthage Selectman Erlon Berry and former Town Clerk Harriet Savage Berry.

That’s where people have dropped off checks and conducted other treasury business over the years.

When Mason began the treasurer’s job, she set up a card table in the general store she and her husband, Richard, owned in Berry Mills. The safe was in the store, as were the pens and pencils and the town account books. She eventually moved the operation to her dining room table across the street.

“People would come by early or late. We were open all the time,” she said. “Most would call first.”

Now, residents have to go to the town office during regular business hours.

At one time, only a couple of hours a month were required to do the job. For that she was paid $100 a year. She retired at a salary of $2,000 a year, which does not reflect the amount of work and number of hours needed now to maintain the financial operations, she said.

The greatest change she’s seen over the years, Mason said, is the number of property tax liens and the number of people who must be reminded to pay.

“People don’t pay like they should,” she said.

First Selectmen Steve Brown said he will sorely miss Mason.

“She has always signed the checks. She has a record of dependability, and she is a real example of someone interested in contributing to the town,” he said.

In 1982, the annual town report was dedicated to her. No one knew then that she would serve another 26 years.

Although she will no longer be the town’s treasurer, her expertise won’t go to waste. She has agreed to be the deputy town clerk, with no stipend at all, to help newly elected Nancy Blodgett, who also lives in Berry Mills.

And little grass will grow under Mason’s feet. She is a trustee at the Carthage Union Church, treasurer for the Newman Cemetery and a member of the Carthage Historical Society. She is also a notary public. She estimates she has performed more than 50 weddings over the years and she plans to continue.

The part-time beautidican has nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren to keep her more than occupied. A widow since 1980, she has two daughters. Her son, Larry, died a few years ago.

“It’s time for me to quit. There are other things to do,” she said wistfully, “But I’ll miss seeing the people.”