One of Rotary International’s founders, Hiram Elmer Shorey, was born in Litchfield.
LITCHFIELD – Some locals know only his oddly shaped tombstone: a dark, granite sphere balanced on a moss-covered platform.
Few of the 2,500 people in this country town even know his name. Yet, many thousands of others around the world know both the name and the legacy.
Almost 100 years ago, Hiram Elmer Shorey of Litchfield and three friends met in a Chicago office. It was Feb. 23, 1905.
Together, they came up with an idea for a new service organization, one that would accentuate small-town values even in the big cities. It was called the Rotary Club.
As someone from a small town – Litchfield had roughly the same population then – Shorey would have colored the organization with his beliefs. He became the group’s first secretary.
“You have to believe that he used some of his own experiences, growing up in Litchfield,” said Daniel Mooers, a Rotarian from South Portland who is leading Maine’s effort to remember Shorey.
Worldwide, about 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries.
This summer, Rotarians from around the country plan to gather in Litchfield to dedicate a new family research center in Shorey’s name. People from Maine’s chapters have promised more than $50,000 to create the center, which is to be part archive, part library.
The new center will be located in the basement of the Town Office. Volunteers are doing most of the work themselves.
Meanwhile, the Rotary donations will pay for a new computer, a scanner, a microfilm reader and a humidity and air conditioning system aimed at preserving records.
A historical marker will also be placed outside Shorey’s boyhood home, about 1 mile from the Town Office. The Black Crow Bakery is now located there.
The new center will give local people a chance to research their family histories more effectively, said George Rogers, a Litchfield native who works with two local history groups.
They had begun archiving records into microfilm and electronic media, but the progress was slow.
“Without Rotary, we couldn’t even have thought about this many changes,” Rogers said.
The official dedication, scheduled for July 24, will also include a cookout for the whole town.
Meanwhile, similar events are planned for Rotary’s other three founders, Gustave Henry Loehr, Silvester Schiede and leader Paul Harris.
However, Shorey remains somewhat of a mystery. Few details survive about why he left Maine, how he ended up in Chicago or what he did for a living.
And though he certainly helped create the group, he left within six months of its formation.
“We really don’t know why he could not remain active,” said Mooers, who is a past president of Rotary International.
The most concrete descriptions came from Harris, who went on to lead Rotary for years.
“He was an agreeable fellow,” Harris wrote in his book, titled “This Rotarian Age.”
He described Shorey’s occupation as a “merchant tailor” and his departure as due to events “beyond his control.”
Harris wrote:
“He had never quite reconciled himself to life in a large city; in fact, through all the years his thoughts have constantly reverted to the state of his nativity. There he spends his summer vacations, and to the rock-ribbed state of Maine he will eventually return to spend his remaining days.”
Shorey died in 1944. His ashes were buried alongside his parents, beneath the dark, granite monument.
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