Arriving at the jail, the city marshal told James M. Lowell he’d get the best accommodations possible and brought him to the northwestern corner cell, where the local newspaper editor noticed that the bones collected on Switzerland Road — thought to be the remains of Lowell’s wife — were still bound up in a mat in the corner, some of them protruding into the air.
Steve Collins
Columnist
Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.
Posted in175th anniversary
Chapter 6: Rounding up a suspected killer
After James Lowell stepped down off a wagon, where he was loading rags at the Munroe’s Paper Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, Officer E.D. Wiggin of Lewiston handed him a copy of that day’s Boston Journal, which carried an account of the discovery of the headless skeleton in Lewiston.
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Posted in175th anniversary, Androscoggin County, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
When trolleys came to town . . . they were pulled by horses
Lewiston and Auburn residents were happy to ride rather than walk on muddy, manure-filled streets.
Posted in175th anniversary, bPlus
From ‘bone-shakers’ to ‘penney-farthings’ and beyond: How bicycles rolled out in Lewiston in the 1800s
‘Bicycle fever’ reached Lewiston in 1879, according to the Lewiston Evening Journal, and would go on to shake, rattle and roll into everyday life.
Posted in175th anniversary
Chapter 5: Lizzie’s mother has a strange dream
Though the dream had no impact on the discovery of the skeleton, it likely contributed to the stir caused by the find in a spot eerily similar to what Sarah Burton imagined.
Posted in175th anniversary, bPlus
Lewiston grew from small town to booming mill city thanks to rail
From trains to trolleys, rail lines once tied the Twin Cities to the world.
Posted inElection 2022, Lewiston-Auburn
Rick LaChappelle seeks to jump from city council to state Senate
Local businessman challenging Democrat Peggy Rotundo for newly redrawn Senate District 21 seat.
Posted inElection 2022, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Republicans say Lewiston key to victories in November
At Friday’s Maine GOP Unity Rally party leaders say things are looking bright for their candidates this year.
Posted inElection 2022, Maine
Maine’s 2nd Congressional District race looks awfully familiar
The three candidates vying this year for the district’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives were on the ballot in 2018.
Posted inElection 2022, Maine
Republican voters give Bruce Poliquin another shot at U.S. House
Despite making a stronger challenge to Poliquin than anticipated, Liz Caruso said late Tuesday she had phoned Poliquin to concede — and promised to get behind him.