/r/mainehistory
We're a hodgepodge team of students, educators, professional and armchair historians, local history wonks, genealogy geeks, map nerds, storytellers and story-listeners with one thing in common: a great love and respect for the history of Maine. Timeframe includes pre-statehood. Contributions are highly encouraged, from anybody.
This subreddit is dedicated to the history of Maine- old maps, newspaper articles, photos and basically any content in any way related to the history of Maine.
Please include a date and background of images if it's known.
Links:
/r/maine for any content related to Maine
/r/mainehistory
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Saga of the 2nd Maine
Hi all,
I'm doing a series of short videos on aspects of the history of the 2nd Maine during the American Civil War, with a particular focus on their mutiny/protest in 1863. The first video is now up here:
10:19 UTC
Forlorn Hope: Men from Maine Charge Into Oblivion
13:07 UTC
Central Street Bangor, Brady Gang shootout, then and now.
06:00 UTC
help me find the Circle Electric?
apparently there used to be a club called the Circle Electric in Auburn that was popular in the 80s, it burned down but where did it used to be? I can barely find any information at all about the club, I hope this isn’t too far fetched
15:47 UTC
May 15, 1801 issue of the Salem Gazette; a Portland street lined with lombardy poplar trees
It must have been quite the site to see this stretch of road for the first time. Dramatic! Examples of what it could have looked like to follow. Edit: I clipped this because I never hear about ornamental landscaping at this time in history.
12:45 UTC
May 13, 1717 issue of the News-Letter
This ad ran 304 years ago yesterday, on May 13, 1717, in the Boston News-Letter (the only newspaper in North America at the time).
Its an amusing visualization to consider the sight of an elder resident of Falmouth, in 1717, gazing out to Casco Bay around this time of the year. Out of nowhere, unexpectedly comes the gaggle of a dozen or more young lads in their teens and twenties, maybe singing a few classics from the likes of Jemmy's Pills. Then comes the site of their vessel towing a pair "150-footers" (white pine trees, from Falmouth) as they cruise on a southwesterly trajectory towards Newbury.
This ad's reference to Newbury is totally appropriate, even if it was a guess on the part of whomever wrote the ad. At this time, not only was Newbury a shipbuilding "ground zero" for the New England region, but also, a great many of its 1717 inhabitants were previous residents of Falmouth who returned to where they came from during King Phillip's War.
..and with those former-Falmouth dwellers who returned to Newbury, Ipswich, etc., along with them came their legally-binding deeds to lands in the Casco Bay region.
They knew that, but did whomever paid for this ad? Probably not. Reason: the official records for Falmouth were lost during a prior Abenaki raid, in which were the records of most first-time parcel issuances, along some conveyances.
So back to the advertisement; those who were complained about by felling the white pines of the vicinity for ship masts, might very well have been doing so on lands that were owned by their parents. ...or they were trespassing, lol.
The bottom line, is this: the shipbuilding in Newbury produced enough liquidity for shipbuilders there to resettle Falmouth, as proprietors.
Among the families from Newbury who returned to Falmouth on lands already owned, were surnames Brackett, Clark and (I think) Sawyer. First-timers from Newbury around this same time period were Lunt, Lowell and Noyes, all of whom, it appears, played a pivotal role in launching a ship-building operation on the banks of Back Cove.
Edit: I should be clear about land boundaries: 1717 Falmouth included all of what is today the City of Portland, as well as a good swath of Westbrook.
20:12 UTC
Metal detecting
Anyone interested in allowing me to detect on their property? I fill my holes and pack out any junk I find.
19:29 UTC
I made a podcast about strange/spooky tales of Maine's History and this week's episode was about Ghost towns. Feel free to give it (and my other episodes) a listen on your podcast host of choice
15:38 UTC
WVOM’s transcript of a mother calling in for help with her baby and another regarding an abandoned dog during the ice storm of 1998. [BOOK: Only in Maine WVOM and the Ice Storm by WVOM & Charlene Coleman]
20:55 UTC
“On Halloween night in 1940... events in Rockland, Maine, took a turn for the worse, and over the next week or so a story emerged in the Rockland Courier-Gazette... John B. Phelps, 54, got in an argument with his 16-year-old stepdaughter Pauline Young...“
18:49 UTC
“Workers hired through the New Deal Works Progress Administration make repairs to the Swinging Bridge between Brunswick and Topsham. The repairs were necessary after the 1936 flood damaged the bridge.”
00:51 UTC
“...Giovanni and his wife opened the first [Amato’s] store in Portland, which they ran for 50 years until selling it to Dominic Reali in 1972.”
21:49 UTC
1863 Diary of a member of the 28th Maine Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War
My grandfather inherited this. I decided to take pictures of the pages and upload them in case anyone out there finds historical value in it. The writing is a little hard to read but if anyone finds any interesting passages, please post them.
18:07 UTC
A 1903 description of Lewiston and Auburn in 1828 (interview with my 3rd great-grandma, clipping found in my grandpa's stuff)
17:40 UTC
1929 Map of Maine Coast from York Harbor to Saco Bay with Sea Monsters!
16:20 UTC
A word about Betsey Thomas
...who died on 15 FEB 1870
- .pdf: http://bit.ly/3qqb6j0
- .jpg: http://bit.ly/3aifOJV
Planting an old obituary here is generally outside of the meaning and intent of this sub it would seem, but I feel exceptions are appropriate from time to time. This one, hopefully, is one of those. I'm placing this here now as a precursor for an event that happened two days later, which I'll talk about on this sub on Wednesday.
(source for the above: http://bit.ly/3dhDPzJ)
04:47 UTC
Garden house for the Anderson farm on the River Road in Windham. Charles A Alexander, architect.
22:10 UTC
Red Sox legend tries to become a Maine legend
20:22 UTC