Marie Darice “Velma” Gaudreau holding her guitar in 1939. Born in Brunswick on July 23, 1922, Velma Gaudreau was a first-generation American on one side of her family, and a second-generation American on the other. Velma’s father, Elzear Gaudreau, was born in Cap-Saint-Ignace, Montmagny, Quebec, Canada, and emigrated to Maine in the early 1900s. He became a citizen in 1913 and married Diana McDuff, born in Brunswick to French-Canadian parents, in 1916. Velma Gaudreau sang at numerous functions in the Brunswick area, primarily country music. She was offered a spot on yodeler Ken McKenzie’s television variety show in the 1950s, which ran from 1954-1971 in northern New England, but she turned him down. She sang at many weddings and funerals at St. John the Baptist Church in Brunswick. Velma died on March 10, 2005.

Photo of Dr. Salustiano Fanduiz. Fanduiz, from the Dominican Republic, graduated from the Medical School of Maine at Bowdoin College in 1892. He went on to practice for several years in Brunswick, eventually returning to the D.R. because he wanted to serve his home country as a physician. He opened a clinic, and later was jailed for a period of time because of protesting undemocratic government practices.

Pejepscot Village in Topsham grew as an independent village specifically because of immigrating Eastern Europeans, primarily Slovak and Polish. They came to work in the Pejepscot Paper Mill (pictured here under construction) in the early 1900s. At its height, there were about 300 families in the village. It had a school, gas station, railroad station, post office.