History Commons^™

Reconstructing Wabanaki History, The Editors

Maine History

Beyond the period of European contact and the colonial wars, the Wabanaki are poorly represented in the annals of Maine history. In the past twenty-four years, only twelve articles on Wabanaki topics have crossed the editor’s desk — about one every two years. In this environment of scarcity, it is our pleasure to present our current issue.

Maine Historical Society Library Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary, Suzi Swartz

Maine History

No abstract provided.

Journal Cover And Toc

Maine History

Cover, Editors and editorial board, and table of contents with authors' names.

The Historian’S Dilemma: Choosing, Weighing, And Interpreting Sources, Pauleena Macdougall

Maine History

In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture. In scientific language, culture is not a function of race. –Ruth Benedict, Race: Science and Politics, 1940.

Henry Red Eagle, Popular Literature, And The Native American Connection To The Maine Woods, Dale Potts

Maine History

Returning to Maine in 1936 after several decades working in

the American entertainment industry, Henry Red Eagle (1885-

1972), a Maliseet from Greenville, wrote in an area newspaper of

his love of the northern forest: “what I really like is to ease around in an

old flannel shirt, or no shirt at all if the place and the occupation permit—

and let the rest of the world go by. I like to get off on some unfrequented

part of the lake or stream in my canoe or in the woods where

the noise of the crowds can’t reach me. I …

Tribal Dissent Or White Aggression?: Interpreting Penobscot Indian Dispossession Between 1808 And 1835, Jacques Ferland

Maine History

“I now come to the time when our Tribe was separated into two factions[,] the old and the new Party. I am sorry to speak of it as it was very detrimental to our tribe as there was but few of us the remnant of a once powerful tribe.” So spoke Penobscot tribal leader John Attean, recalling the 1834-1835 breach in tribal politics that shook the edifice of community and cohesion among the Penobscot people. A watershed event in the long struggle to represent and defend the Penobscot way of life in the face of an indifferent and sometimes hostile …

On The History Of Its History: St. Croix Island Celebrations And The Missing Indians, Richard D'Abate

Maine History

The following presentation was delivered at the 400th Anniversary celebration of the founding of the French Colony on St. Croix Island by explorers Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in 1604. The colony was short-lived, but its timing was auspicious. The first European settlement in Maine, it was followed in 1607 by the Popham Colony, now coming up on its own 400th anniversary. In his talk, delivered in Calais on June 25, 2004, Director Abate reflects on the previous celebrations of this founding event and, like other authors in this issue, expounds on the meaning of Native American history …

Book Reviews, W. Stanton Maloney, Stanley R. Howe, David Chaplin

Maine History

Review of Sea Struck. By W.H. Bunting (Gardiner,Maine: Tilbury House, 2004. Pp. xvi+366.Maps, photographs, notes, index. $30.00).

Even Santa Has Bad Days: The Rainy Day Christmas Card, Charles "Chip" Kaufmann

Maine History

The Rainy Day Christmas Card, donated to the Maine Historical Society Library by Earl Shettleworth, was designed by Rafael Tuck & Sons in London and printed in the 1880s or 1890s at the First Fine Arts Works Studios, Saxony. Other Victorian Christmas cards produced by Tuck (1821-1900) contain similarly un-Christmas-like images: a bouquet of damask roses; wild flowers; apple blossoms; green Scottish heathland; idyllic fishing nets in a rural village; a country churchyard with newly-green birch trees beyond a waterfall. Clearly, behind the clouds of an English Christmas, somewhere, the sun must be shining.

Research Note: Searching For Democracy In Colonial Southern Maine, William Robbins

Maine History

The following article was originally written as a seminar paper for James Henderson’s colonial history class during Robbins’s brief tenure as a graduate student at the University of Maine. The methodology used in this research was quite innovative when it was written in 1966, as the so-called new social history had only just emerged. This era marked an exciting time in the social sciences, with new methods that allowed the historian to approach history “from the bottom up.” Using census records, land records, tax lists, suffrage lists, and an array of other data, historians were able to uncover what life …

Journal Cover And Toc

Maine History

Cover, Editors and editorial board, and table of contents with authors' names.

The Enigma Of The “Jumping Frenchmen Of Maine”, Stephen R. Whalen, Robert E. Bartholomew

Maine History

The “Jumping Frenchmen of Maine” exhibited unusual reactions when startled, and they became a component of local folklore in northern New England during the late nineteenth century. Medical scientists of the time examined the condition, but came to no definite conclusions. Modern scientists in the late twentieth century also disagreed on its origins. The syndrome appears to have resulted from the unique social and environmental factors peculiar to the logging camps of the time. Stephen R. Whalen has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maine. Retired from public school teaching, he is currently a member of the History …

Research Note: The Hazardous Search For Ancestors, Gordon W. Stuart

Maine History

The following is an account of the search for an old family cemetery and the events that impacted the farm on which it was located over a 250 year period. Gordon Stuart, who recorded these events as a way of illustrating the perils and triumphs of genealogical research, is a retired hydrologist with national experience in water quality issues on forest and agriculture land. He volunteers with a lake association, a river watch group, and participates in woodlot education programs in Southern Maine.

Henry Mowat: Miscreant Of The Maine Coast, Louis Arthur Norton

Maine History

This article follows the career of Captain Henry Mowat as he took charge of operations for the British Navy off the Maine Coast during the Revolutionary War. Mowat was involved in three decisive actions during this time: the dismantling of Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River; the burning of Falmouth, or present-day Portland; and the defeat of the Massachusetts naval expedition to the British-occupied Bagaduce Peninsula on the eastern side of Penobscot Bay. The author asks the question: did this British officer deserve his reputation among Mainers as an “execrable monster?” Louis Arthur Norton is a professor …

The Two Faces Of Ballstown: Religion, Governance, And Cultural Values On The Maine Frontier, 1760-1820, Marie L. Sacks

Maine History

As the Maine back country was settled in the late eighteenth century, evangelical congregations were established in the frontier towns. This evangelical religion has been credited with fostering a fiercely independent mind-set that promoted Jeffersonian ideals of governance. This study places the political and social development of two towns, Jefferson and Whitefield, in closer perspective, showing that denominational similarities do not always lead to similar emphases on independent thought and religious diversity. Marie Sacks is an independent researcher, an archivist for the Whitefueld Historical Society, and a graduate of the American and New England Studies program at the University of …

The Battle Of Hampden And Its Aftermath, Robert Fraser

Maine History

The successful British attack on the Penobscot Valley in fall 1814 was to annex eastern Maine to Canada, a move taken to protect the important line of communications between Halifax and Quebec. New England merchants had opposed the War of 1812, as it destroyed their international trade, and most New Englanders tried to remain neutral during the fray. At Hampden, enemy threats brought them out to defend their homes. Although Great Britain returned the area to the United States at war’s end, the occupation of the Penobscot Valley had lasting implications for the District of Maine. Between 1954 and 1984 …