I was at the local food store the other day, just stocking up for the big storm. A local lady, younger than I made a small comment about the old days. Both of us knew firsthand about some of those olden days. Soon the conversation touched lightly upon living without electricity. Now a days, that is called “living off the grid” I have seen a few small clips of how some of these folks live off the grid. These small videos are nothing such as my Great Grandfather had to do.
Around the mid 1800 Great Grampa took his family to Lewiston and Auburn with the hopes of working in one of the mills there. Only to find there was a great many others there waiting for the jobs. Him and his family was just part of a growing number of folks without any work. The two cities needed to do something to lower the number of folks on their welfare roll. So, they contacted a large landowner up around the Rangeley area. Rangeley at this time was indeed a growing community. It was with the hopes these folks could indeed find work in that area. The plan then, was to select a group to send to that area. A section of land was designated by this large land holding company for this purpose. These folks were then given a small amount of money and tools to go there and build themselves homes. So, with axe and crosscut saws they were shipped to this area north of Rangeley. Log cabins were hastily built because winter was indeed on its way. That first winter with just a wood stove and kerosene lamps was a tough one for them. But they did indeed survive and began improving on their living conditions. In the year of 1890 my grandfather was born there.
As a young fella, he married a young Indian lady, and they began their journey. Grandpa was able to purchase a sawmill and cut out enough lumber to build an actual house. This house indeed had floors and everything one would expect. Well, other than running water and electricity. Today that would be boasted as living off the grid. But it was the only way of life for them. They pretty much had only what they could get from the land. It was in this house that my mother was born.
Mother and Dad got married and soon had a bunch of children. This seemed the natural thing to do in those days. Raise a lot of kids to help with the farm. But Dad was not the farmer type. He was constantly in search of a better job to feed and clothe his family. In 1949 when we moved to Strong, Dad had a job at the local lumber yard. Dad and my brothers hastily built a house on a section of land on Church Hill. This was not a fancy house. It was all they could afford, but it was home. Yes, it was covered with tar paper, and had a nice wood stove. But again, no electricity and city water. We were happily living off the grid. Because that is all the parents could afford with ten children. Let’s not forget, what the times were like in the late 40’s and early 50’s. But we survived and grew up tough.
My original thought for writing this story was to show folks how tough those before me had to live. Their main drive was finding ways to feed the family. Work was work and it needed to be done. They had a family to feed. Folks would put all of their belongings into a covered wagon and go searching for a better life. This was not an easy life. They had to be tough to survive. These were the type of people that made our nation strong. A nation we could all be proud of.
Now, I must stop before I go on a political rant and apologize to these hard-working folks. It saddens me to think of the hard times they had just to live. They would be very sad to see how our nation is run now. To you fine hard-working folks that built this nation, we apologize. We desperately need people to stand as you did and do the right thing. You taught us to “work or go home”. Ken White mountainman COB
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