Postcard Delivered Fifty Years Late

Officials have a history mystery on their hands in the form of a cellophane-wrapped postcard mailed from a post office long closed to a town manager long dead.

The postcard mailed from East Sumner, Maine, was postmarked Aug. 14, 1957, and bears a 2-cent stamp. It was addressed to the late Town Manager Harry Flood, who served from 1945 to 1963, and was written by a woman who must have been a friend since she only used her first name, Alice. Read more ->

Molly Ockett, Abenaki Healing Woman

By Nancy Lecompte – “Canyon Wolf”

Her Indian name was Singing Bird. Her Christian name was Marie Agatha. She probably pronounced it “Mali Agget” which sounded like Molly Ockett (Wikipedia) to the English settlers. Molly is undoubtedly the most well known Abenaki who ever walked in the forests of Western Maine. Legend, romance, and mystery have always been favorite topics for writers and Molly definitely has received her share of these stories. It has been very frustrating to sort out truth from fantasy.

Who was Molly, really! Molly was once referred to as “Androscoggin Valley’s Florence Nightingale”. A romantic title for a lone Indian squaw, but very well deserved. First and foremost Molly was an Abenaki healing woman. She wandered throughout the Upper Androscoggin and Connecticut Rivers in traditional Abenaki manner. She collected her healing medicines and provided for herself as she had been taught by her ancestors. Molly was a fine hunter. If she made a large kill near a settlement she would seek help from the locals in dragging the kill out and shared generously with her assistants. She administered her remedies to the settlers whenever and where ever there was a need, never accepting more than one copper penny for her services. Molly was the only doctor available to most of these early settlers. A story told by the Hamlin family of Paris Hill tells of her saving the life of the infant Hannibal Hamlin and predicting that he would become a very famous man. She touched their lives in many positive ways. Read more ->

Dr. Wilson and the Round Schoolhouse

Brookline’s round schoolhouse – possibly the only one in the country – built in 1822, was designed by its founding instructor, Dr. John Wilson, a distinguished-looking British gentleman who was also the town’s part-time physician. Solidly constructed from red brick, with windows facing all directions, the school is a unique piece of Vermont architecture. Its architect is no less unique, for Dr. Wilson – if that was indeed his name – was indisputably a man of mystery.

Why, the locals wondered, would such an aristocratic gentleman work as a lowly schoolteacher? And why would he hole up in tiny Brookline when his medical skills could earn him a fortune in Brattleboro or Burlington? His behavior was an ongoing puzzle. Though brilliant and eloquent, he would never talk about his past. And why did he occasionally walk with a noticeable limp and invariably wear high collars or thick scarves when neither fashion nor weather required them? And, the ladies wondered, why was he so charming yet remote? Read more ->

Paper House of Mr. Stenman

At Pigeon Cove, Mass., there is a house made of newspapers. Mr. Elis F. Stenman, with the help of his family, began in 1922 to prepare the paper material to be used in constructing the walls of this unusual house. The newspapers were made into different layers, each having been pasted and folded. The walls when finished consist of two hundred and fifteen (215) thicknesses.

Today, paper furniture graces the paper house. For the furniture, the newspapers were made into rolls of different sizes.
Approximately 100,000 copies of newspapers have been used in the construction of the house and furniture. This work was started merely as an experiment to see what could be done with newspapers without destroying the print. The experiment has proved a success both in strength and stability. Read more ->