DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am looking to buy a wooden swing — not a glider. I moved and couldn’t bring mine with me, so I’m looking for a new one one in very good condition.

I went to Aroostook Farms on Lisbon Street, but all they have are gliders and one old gray round wood swing, which I don’t want.

Help an old lady find one! I don’t have a computer to look them up. — L.G., Lewiston

ANSWER: The Internet didn’t help Sun Spots answer this question, rather it was her weekly trips from her home to the newspaper. Along the side of Route 202 in Greene she has often noticed wooden picnic tables and other outdoor furniture for sale.

Her editor, Pete, who also travels that route to work, was kind enough to retrieve the phone number for her. It is 207-946-4721.

Sun Spots called and spoke to Russ. He said he thought he could help you with your swing, but wanted more details than what Sun Spots has. So give him a call. (Sun Spots mistakenly remembered your name as Ida, so don’t be confused if he calls you by the wrong name!)

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Thanks for printing the information about the so-called potato trains (June 10) in response to my May 15 question.

The bits and pieces I had were that there was a shortage of food (?year) and the older people and young children were loaded into trains and taken up to the Dead River Basin around Langtown, Flagstaff and maybe Portage. They were left to fend for themselves, and many died.

After I wrote to you, my sister-in-law said that her mother knew the story but would never talk about it. My nephew, her grandson, said that he has seen a cemetery in the woods up there with the names Bubier, Niles and others.

It was apparently a sad bit of history that was not to be repeated. Some of the people who survived changed their names so that they would not be associated with the story.

You can give my email to the person who requested it, but I have no further information and was just wondering if this really happened. — Charlotte via email 

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Just to keep matters straight, in the June 10 letter from Local Expert it is stated that Rangeley was at the end of railroad service and that that service ended when a bridge over the Androscoggin River was lost during the March 1936 flood.

That bridge was a part of the Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. Its route was from Rumford to Bemis, Oquossoc and finally Kennebago Station. It never went to Rangeley.

Rangeley was indeed served by rail but that line was the narrow gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad. It originated in Farmington and traveled through Strong, Phillips and Redington before reaching Rangeley. Service was suspended in 1935, mainly for lack of business. — Dennis Breton, Rumford Historical Society, db316@gwi.net

DEAR SUN SPOTS: With regard to the entry in Sun Spots concerning the “potato trains” and their possible connection with the Bubier family (June 10), I question whether the overseers of the poor of Lewiston relocated the family to the vicinity of Rangeley. That would be really shortsighted of them under the laws of the time.

Persons were entitled to needed support from a town only if they had legal “settlement” there as determined by the detailed provisions of state law. Residence clearly was not the same as settlement. The latter depended upon a combination of factors such as family relationships, age, duration of residence and previous support as a pauper.

Everything I have read about the Bubiers indicate that they went to Dallas Plantation near Rangeley willingly, but then soon fell upon hard times. The overseers of Rangeley were required to provide help to the Bubiers, but the Bubiers had legal settlement in Lewiston because they had not been in the Rangeley area for five years.

Therefore, Rangeley required Lewiston to pay for the aid given to that extended family. As a result, Lewiston actually sought to relocate many of the Bubiers from the Rangeley area back to Lewiston!

The only way I can think of potatoes figuring into the story is that Lewiston might have tried to provide some relief to the Bubiers by sending them potatoes to eat. So the potato train referred to the transport of the potatoes, not to the transport of people, as indicated in the original query. — Doug Hodgkin, dhodgkin@bates.edu

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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