These days, a computer keyboard and the Internet are often the tools we choose for  amateur detective work. A century ago, there was no World Wide Web, so searches for important family information could involve many miles of travel and years of investigation.

What chance would a small boy, tragically orphaned nearly across the country, have of finding a grandfather about whom he knew little or nothing?

That lad’s solitary journey brought him to East Auburn 150 years ago. There he got important clues that promised to bring his search to a happy conclusion.

The story is told in an article by Addison R. Whitman, prominent early resident of East Auburn, in the June 24, 1905, issue of the Lewiston Journal’s Illustrated Magazine Section.

“We had considerable excitement in 1857 here at East Auburn over a lost boy,” Whitman wrote. “I think his name was Flagg, and I tell you the town was stirred up in great shape for a while.”

A band meeting was being held in the square one night.

“When we got through ‘tooting’ we discovered a strange boy in our audience.” There was a crowd around the boy, and it was soon learned that the lad, probably 8 or 10 years old, was on an amazing quest to locate a grandfather. He had been on a trip to western states with his father, a book seller, and other members of his family were dead.

One night on a train, the boy was awakened by other passengers who told him his father had fallen from the train and was killed. The railroad gave the boy a pass over their lines so he could seek his grandfather’s home.

Whitman said the only thing the little fellow could remember was that his parents had once brought him to Portland to bury his brother.

“It appears that in the course of his travels the boy came to Portland and fell in with a sea captain who carried him to Nova Scotia to help him find his grandparents,” the story continued. Failing there, the captain brought the boy back to Portland and put him on a train to Lewiston. Whitman said the boy asked questions of everyone he met, and eventually he walked as far as East Auburn.

Whitman said the next day he told a neighbor, Frank Herridan, about the incident, and Mrs. Herridan immediately remarked, “I remember that boy. His parents had him with them when they went to bury their child in Richmond.”

“That gave us a clue to work on,” Whitman said, and he rushed to the nearby Berry homestead where the boy was taken to stay the night.

“He was playing with his blocks on the floor,” Whitman wrote. When asked about Richmond, the child recognized the name and wanted to head for that town even before daylight.

“Mr. Berry took him to the city next morning and told him he would take him to the lower Maine Central station. When they struck the Auburn side the boy bounded out of the wagon and ran like a deer across the bridge,” Whitman wrote.

“That was the last we ever saw or heard of him,” Whitman said. Did he find a family? The boy still had a long way to go and not much information to go on, but at least he had a chance, thanks to a group of concerned people.

Those efforts by residents of a whole section of Auburn emphasize how word-of-mouth was such a surprisingly important and effective resource in solving problems. Today’s computers and telephone communication might make the process faster, but old-fashioned concern among neighbors did the job very well many years ago.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He can be reached by sending email to [email protected].