FARMINGTON — On Oct. 9, 1863, the Maine Legislature signed a charter making Farmington the site of the state’s first normal school, a college that established norms and standards for teachers.

On Oct. 9, 2013, a sesquicentennial celebration at the University of Maine at Farmington brought alumni, faculty, students and guests together to mark the past 150 years of Maine’s first institution of public higher education and to look forward to the next 150 years.

“An anniversary is a milestone, but it is not a destination,” said Paul Mills, a local historian, during a Charter Day ceremony Wednesday on the front steps of UMF’s Merrill Hall.

Several people, including Gov. Paul LePage, UMF President Kathryn A. Foster and Mills, spoke congratulatory words, remembered the school’s long history from the Western Maine Normal School to Farmington State Teachers College and the university’s part in the UMaine System since 1968.

Foster commemorated a student in the Class of 1903, Grace Louise Griffith, from whom the Charter Day Planning Committee borrowed the sesquicentennial celebration motto.

Griffith wrote of choosing a tree for her class to plant on campus. Of all the species, a common tree, a maple, was chosen, Foster said.

“Griffith wrote, ‘Firmly may it stand and well may it thrive,’” Foster said of the motto representing UMF and the school’s commitment to higher education.

Throughout the years, the school has thrived, making “quality, higher education accessible and affordable,” LePage said.

“The most important thing we need to do is to put our students, our kids, first,” LePage said. “They have to have a good education.”

When Ryan Low, executive director of governmental/external affairs for the University of Maine System, graduated from UMF in 1997, he had no idea what opportunities his Farmington education would open for him, he said. It’s a place where the faculty, staff and community shape a “world-class education,” he said.

Master of Ceremonies Craig Larrabee, Alumni Council president and CEO of Jobs for Maine Graduates, said of the approximately 90 people he employs, about one-third are UMF graduates.

In 1863, while the country was challeged by the Civil War, Farmington was an agricultural area with a fertile educational domain, Mills said.

When the Normal School Act passed, after considerable argument, in March 1863, a western and eastern site for a normal school was to be chosen. Farmington was considered, with its available railroad and boarding homes, for the western school, and Hampden for the east, he said. Hampden was passed over, making Farmington the first normal school.

The bond between the town and the university also was noted. The lines of separation have blurred as each endured what makes each unique, said alumnus Gerald Cayer, executive vice president of Franklin Community Health Network. He serves on the UMF Board of Visitors.

“Farmington, thank you for being there for us and with us,” Cayer said.

For 16 consecutive years, UMF has been named one of the “Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report, said Carlene Tremblay, representing U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. The school has also been a top producer of Fulbright scholars, with 11 faculty members achieving the honor. Four of the past six Maine teachers of the year have been UMF graduates, she said.

All the while, “from the Recreation Center to Mantor Library, the door has always been open to the community,” Tremblay read from the congressional record.

 abryant@sunjournal.com

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