BETHEL — Daniel Sparrin built the circa 1860 Tyler Street home where Jonathan Goldberg and his family live.

Soon after they bought the house in 1986, Goldberg began to research it’s history. Along the way he heard from a neighbor that there was once a Klu Klux Klan cross-burning on his lawn in Bethel.

Said Goldberg of Sparrin, “He was the minister, the milkman and he made ship knees … what I couldn’t figure out was, was he the victim or the perpetrator [of the cross-burning]? … that’s the incentive to take the course and delve into the resources available at the historical society.”

The class Goldberg refers to was led by Historical Society Director Will Chapman and titled, How to Research the History of  Your House. Held at the MBHS’s Robinson House the four-week class had three price tiers: $100 for non-members; $50 for members; and free for anyone willing to be a research library volunteer and help others.

The class began with participants learning how to use the Oxford County Registry of Deeds website to compile a history of past property owners.

By the third class, the eight students are learning how to research past owners by searching for their names in online newspaper sources. Chapman says he uses several websites to find information.  Some sites are free, others require a paid subscription, that he offers during in-house visits.

They start with Chronicling America which is the Library of Congress’ digitization of microfilm. The Oxford Democrat newspaper covered Bethel from 1833 to 1933. What is digitized is from 1850-1923 and is part of  Chronicling America. Issues before 1850 and after 1923 are available on microfilm.

To conduct internet searches, Chapman often uses the “with the phrase” window to more precisely pinpoint the person.

Karen Bean offers the name of her husband’s great grandfather, Amos Gilbert Bean, for the sample search which turns up a fictional story of a character named Amos Bean.  The next entry is a news account of a wedding, where Bean is the justice of the peace, “If you have a minister in your family, you’ll find a lot of news clippings,” says Chapman.

He types, “Amos G. Bean” this time then reads from a 1921 Lewiston newspaper, “For sale. Residence of the late Amos G. Bean, eight room house and stable. Ideal summer home on improved road.”

Says Karen Bean, “That’s the one I was looking for and couldn’t find. Herbert (his son) was advertising it.” She says while the house was for sale in 1921, it didn’t sell until much later.

Chapman uncovers more history of Amos G. Bean on a Maine genealogy website. The blurb is from a Bridgton newspaper column and says that Amos had gone to visit his brother who was a minister at the Methodist Church in Auburn.  Karen Bean smiles, as this piece is uncovered. She and the others learn from Chapman that sometimes area papers, like Bridgton, had columnists that might have covered Bethel. So, it’s important to widen the net.

Karen Bean, president of the historical society board of trustees, in a subsequent phone call relays more about Amos and her search. He was born in 1843 in Mason Township and fought in the Civil War leaving home at age 20 in 1863. He was paid $300 for fighting in the place of Milton Grover. Amos was injured but came home. His father, however was killed in the war. Amos died in 1921, explaining the advertisement to sell his house.

Karen Bean had brought a large scrapbook of old photos to class. Inside is a small black and white of Amos’ house and barn at 10 Picnic Hill Road in Albany, near Hunt’s Corner.  She is researching the property too, even though it is no longer in her family.

Bean’s mother-in-law worked on this ancestry project in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, far enough back that the Internet was not available.   She’d made 13 or 14 different books on family members, and one on Songo Pond where the family had a camp. Each book has text and photos.  Another nine books are of her own side of the family.

Bean said her two grown sons likely won’t want the books, “I’m looking at 30 books and I’m 77 years old… maybe some of the historical pictures get donated …”  Of her project to edit everything down, she said, “It’s voluminous.” She’d like to finish, and with the help of her niece, also a Bean, have some of it posted on-line for future generations.

Back in class, Chapman is explaining the importance of looking at the actual record, because sometimes the harvested data is incorrect. Jessicca Grover of Mason Township has an example. Her mother’s information is incorrect in the Gould Academy online yearbook archived by ancestry.com. Chapman said sometimes ancestry assumes everyone in the yearbook is a graduating senior, but there are teachers and others in the yearbooks, that were not born the same year as the high school seniors.

Questions in class range from a student asking how the county lines were drawn. Chapman responds that the original counties were vertical stripes. To another, wondering where Bethel Hill is. It’s here, it’s the village, responds Chapman.

At the Bethel Historical Society website, are the digitization of all the Bethel newspapers, Chapman tells the group. The first Bethel newspaper on the site is the Bethel Courier, published from 1858 to 1861. Thirty-four years pass before another newspaper is founded, the Bethel News in 1895. A few more years pass when E.C.  Bowler purchases the paper and in 1906 also establishes the Rumford Citizen. In 1908 he combines the two newspapers to form the Oxford County Citizen, which changed names several times, and today is The Bethel Citizen.

Laura Allen didn’t have to come far to attend Chapman’s class. She and her husband, Richard live in the neo-gothic revival, or gingerbread, house on Bethel Common. They bought their house in June. She had long ties to this area, having summered at the family camp on Songo Pond her whole life. Allen’s brother and his wife live there now in the house her grandfather built.

Their own house was built in 1852 and was called the Stiles’ Cottage. It was half it’s size when built with the back of the house currently looking modern. Richard Allen explains that from what he has read, it was the first house in Bethel to have balloon construction. Different from a post and beam house, the exterior of the house is self-supporting.

The Allens’ hope to find more information about the Stiles’ family. In the meantime, they are happy to live on the Common. “Front row seats,” said Richard.

Says Laura Allen, “It’s a connection that reaches back in time. I have a longing to know about the past … even imagine what it was like to have the horse in the barn which is now our garage. Everything about it is so interesting.

“We don’t know much about the people who lived here. For me I would love a moment where you could step back in time and be near them.”