Maine’s top politicians clashed after the Civil War over the hanging of a former slave.
history
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, News
Auburn’s high-seas mutiny hangings
One of Maine’s last executions took place in Auburn in 1858, when two men went to the gallows before a crowd of 7,000 for murder and mutiny aboard a Bath brig in the Caribbean.
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Posted inHealth, Lewiston-Auburn, News
Medical pioneers in Auburn and Lewiston were a mixed bag
In an era of quackery and fraud, early doctors sought to provide health care.
Posted inbPlus, Lewiston-Auburn, sj-web
Dr. J.F. True’s Elixir: The medicine that made Auburn famous
AUBURN — If you believe the advertising in the latter half of the 19th century, gulping down a bit of Dr. J.F. True’s Elixir offered the best possible treatment for everything from a headache to a lizard living in your stomach. Regardless of whether it really worked or not, the dark and somewhat alcoholic liquid […]
Posted inMaine
Maine: It happened here first
The state’s do-it-yourself spirit has led to many innovations over the years, from earmuffs to doughnut holes and maybe even a universal snub.
Posted inMaine, sj-web
How a Bates College professor from Turner helped forge Edmund Muskie's political career
LEWISTON — Sometimes a life hinges on whether someone finds what they need at the moment they need it. A Bates College professor played that role for one of America’s leading politicians during the Cold War, former U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, a lanky young man from Rumford who walked into Brooks Quimby’s classroom […]
Posted inFranklin, Lewiston-Auburn
Dressing for the weather — 1800s' style
LIVERMORE — Staying warm today means dressing in the latest technology — you know those battery-powered long Johns for which you control the temperature with your smartphone? If the Washburn family, who lived in the 1800s, could see us now, they’d mock us — or be jealous. But for all this technology, when Western Maine […]
Posted inbPlus, sj-web
Remembering Roselle Coury, Maine’s ‘first lady broadcaster’
This past Thursday, Oct. 25, marked Roselle Coury Fortier’s 100th birthday. Known as one of the top radio personalities in New England in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, the well-known icon at Lewiston’s WCOU radio could do it all. The energetic, outgoing entertainer and broadcaster not only deejayed her own programs, wrote and delivered commercial […]
Posted inEncore, sj-web
History will come alive at 'Ghosts of Freeport’s Past' tours
FREEPORT — The Freeport Historical Society and Freeport Players invite all to join them in the Woodlawn Cemetery on West Street for the ghostly voices of Freeport blacksmiths and shopkeepers at the annual cemetery tour. Walk among the graves and learn about ancestors from the 19th century. All apparitions will be portrayed by actors from the […]
Posted inEncore, Livermore Falls Advertiser, Rumford Falls Times, sj-web, The Franklin Journal
Robert L. McCleery releases book on history of Farmington fire fighting
FARMINGTON — “History of the Farmington Fire Department 1850-2000: A Volunteer Fire Department” by former Chief Robert L. McCleery will be released this month. With firemen and events updated to 2017, this is a 150-plus year chronicle of Farmington’s glorious firefighting past. The book was compiled, edited and updated by daughter Ruth McCleery Watson. It […]