Thursday, April 1, 2021

1912 Photograph of Students in the Class of 1914 at Boynton High School in Eastport, Maine


Photograph taken on the steps of Boynton High School in Eastport, Maine, on November 18, 1912 of students in the Class of 1914.

Identificatons on the reverse were penned by Karl Wilfrid Jewers (1896-1977).
The Students

If you can identify the student whose last name is MacIntyre, or if you have information to share on any of the students, please leave a comment. 

Monday, March 29, 2021

c1914 Photograph of Students in Eastport, Maine; Most IDed

c1914 photograph of students at Eastport, Maine; most are identified, presumably long after the photograph was taken.  Nothing on the reverse.

Click on the photograph to enlarge it.

If you can identify one of the unidentified students or correct an incorrect identity, or if you have information to share on any of the students, please leave a comment.

Front row:

Middle Row:

Back Row:

Aftermath of the Accident of a Hudson Motor Car at Calais, Maine; owned by Sullivan of Lubec, Maine


Vintage snapshot of the aftermath of an accident at Calais, Maine, on July 20, year unknown, involving a Hudson Motor Car owned by a Mr. Sullivan of Lubec, Maine.


Hudson Motor Cars were in production from 1909 until 1957.  The company was founded by Detroit department store owner J. L. Hudson.  In 1929, the peak year of production, some 300,000 Hudson and Essex cars were built.  Hudson merged with Nash Motors in 1954, creating American Motors.

Perhaps you have a theory as to the particular Mr. Sullivan who owned this vehicle; if so, please leave a comment.

Vintage Map of MacMaster Island in New Brunswick in Passamaquoddy Bay


Reprinted, with permission, from the Heirlooms Reunited blog

Vintage postcard sized piece of MacMaster Island, situated in Passamaquoddy Bay near L'Etete and Little L'Etete Passages and St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.  The card was printed by Stanford's Geographical Establishment, London.

There's nothing printed or written on the reverse.

Someone appears to have typewritten over whatever was the original Letter A entry and substituted Willingdon Harbour, on the Little L'Etete Passage side.

Willingdon Harbour may have been named for Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Viscount Willingdon, who was the Governor General of Canada from 1931 to 1936.    


Vintage Postcard of Bocabec River, Bocabec, New Brunswick, Canada


Old postcard of a view of the Bocabec River at Bocabec, New Brunswick, Canada, not far from St. Andrews and Passamaquoddy Bay.  

Smith College historian William Francis Ganong (1864-1941), who was born at Saint John, New Brunswick, conjectured that the name might derive from where the gorge-like area of the stream opened up into a wider section subject to tidal effect.  An original Passamaquoddy name for the region sounded like Po-ka-besk.  More of Ganong's theory can be read here.

Many Loyalists settled in this area after the American Revolution.

Map of the Bocabec river or stream:


View Larger Map


Sunday, March 28, 2021

Two Old Photographs of Dwellings at Robbinston, Maine; Johnson family & Sherman Hill Road

Early 1900s

Reprinted, with permission, from the Heirlooms Reunited blog.

Two large, old photographs of what appear to be dwellings in Robbinston, Maine, one of them belonging to the Johnson family and another on Sherman Hill Road.

A paper scrap taped to the reverse of the photograph, at top, of the Johnson farm:

Lelia Johnson (Tremble) in door Johnson Farm.  Delilah Johnson right (Robbinston)  Route 1 by store/jewelry maker on left - Machias.

Lelia had a younger sister named Delilah, but there's no one younger than the girl in the doorway.  Either the woman at right is an aunt Delilah or other relative or the person making the identifications got the sisters mixed up.


The second photograph may be older than the first one shown.  From the paper scrap taped to the reverse: "house on Sherman Hill Rd 3/4 way on right (recently burned) (8/02).

Possibly late 19th century


From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Lelia J. Johnson (1897-1990) was born at Robbinston, Maine, on 28 January 1897, daughter of Malcolm Johnson and Margaret A. (Jollotta) Johnson.  As noted in the identification on the top photograph, Lelia would marry Herman Henry Trimble (1895-1979) [not Tremble].

Lelia's younger sister  Delilah Margaret Johnson [shown as Deliah on her birth record] was born at Robbinston, Maine, on 29 November 1906.

If you have information to share on the Johnson and Trimble families or who lived at the dwelling on Sherman Hill Road, please leave a comment or contact me directly.


Six Washington County Women at Gorham Normal School in the 1890s; inscribers in an Autograph Album

Six women from Washington County, Maine, inscribed pages in the mid 1890s in an autograph album while they were students at Gorham Normal School in Gorham, Maine, now part of the University of Southern Maine.

One of them, Mary Elinor Harvell, would have been fairly young to have been a student, but it's possible.

See a another blog post about the album, belonging to a Myra, which contains the inscriptions of students from other places in Maine and out of state.

In alphabetical order by name:

In alphabetical order by Home Town:

South Addison, Maine

Helen J. Reynolds of South Addison, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School in Gorham, Maine, on January 1, 1894

West Lubec, Maine

Esther A. McFaul of West Lubec, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School on February 27, 1893

Machiasport, Maine

Annie B. Hanson of Machiasport, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School on March 13, 1893

Perry, Maine

Lizzie Doring of Perry, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School on January 6, 1894

Sadie C. Lincoln of Perry, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School on March 29, 1893

Robbinston, Maine

Top: Mary Harvell of Robbinston, Maine;
inscribed at Gorham Normal School 

If you have information to share on any of these women, please leave a comment.