Did you remember Mom on her special day last weekend? Flowers? Candy? A cruise, or maybe a new car?

It would be hard to top the gift of one grateful son whose tribute to his beloved mother was a gift that kept on giving, and it has been a continuing benefit to his friends and neighbors in Greene for more than 50 years.

You may have heard of the Araxine Wilkins Sawyer Memorial, a beautiful stone building a bit off the beaten track. It sits atop a ridge on Sawyer Road east of Route 202 and Greene Village overlooking fields, woodlands and Sabattus Pond. Many people enjoy free programs of an educational and entertainment nature there to this day.

It all began about 100 years ago with the flip of a coin. John Marshall Sawyer was about 20 years old, and he was ready to strike out for the excitement of America’s western states. John and a brother, Lyndon, shared that ambition, but one of them would have to stay at home and tend the family farm, a family store and the Greene Post Office.

They decided to leave the choice to a coin toss, and the brothers watched the spinning half dollar land on the back of Lyndon’s hand. He slapped it flat and both of them leaned close to learn their fate.

“Well, it looks like you will be heading west,” Lyndon said to John, as he offered his hand in congratulations.

That was the start of a path that took John from life in a small Maine town to business wealth beginning with sheep ranching in Montana. It wasn’t easy. In fact, his formation of the Maine-Montana Sheep Company, with the help of friends in Greene who bought stock, led to the embarrassment of bankruptcy. He promised his friends that he would pay them back, and he did.

John became manager of a store on the Crow Indian Reservation. Before long, he had founded and developed a chain of grocery stores throughout Montana and Wyoming. The Sawyer Stores, Inc., had 30 branches at one time. John sold his holdings and returned to Greene, almost a millionaire. He was active in town affairs and an anonymous benefactor to many at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

His greatest contribution to the town was the memorial he built to his mother. The large building seats 200. Its sandstone construction has a look that is much like the Bates College Chapel, and there’s a story connected with the stone John obtained for the project and for farm walls.

John learned that great ledges of sandstone were being carved out of the Portland waterfront as development progressed there, so he rounded up a crew of his neighbors to bring a trainload to Greene. They were friends, not hired hands, and on the last night of their work, John reserved an entire row of seats at a Congress Street theater as a gift to them. They had no dress clothes with them and had been camping in tents during the project, but John reassured them, and he walked down the theater aisle with them for an evening of entertainment.

These accounts of the memorial’s history came from an article by Edith Labbe in a 1963 edition of the Lewiston Evening Journal Magazine Section. She also emphasized John Sawyer’s appreciation for the high moral principles instilled by his mother, and she also told of the delight the man sometimes took in deflating bureaucratic nonsense.

When filling out a driver’s license application, he came to the question, “Any physical defects?” He wrote, “One ulcerated tooth,” and his wry Maine humor brought what was described as “a stinging letter that buzzed in with the next mail from a certain administrator who took sarcastic exception to his statement.”

The article said, “Chuckling with glee, John Sawyer informed his correspondent that within the past six weeks he had been through the Mayo Clinic and that one ulcerated tooth was all they found wrong with him.”

Later in his extremely active life, he was warned that he needed to slow down and relax. He bought a boat, a trailer and plenty of fishing rods, but he never used them. He was too busy.

The Araxine Wilkins Sawyer Memorial at Greene is still presenting its free programs twice a month between March and November. Information about the programs can be found on the website at www.sawyer-foundation.com.

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