Meeting Dates
Oct 26 '06
Minutes for October 26, 2006
Present: Sue Carlson, Ros Strong, Jo Cameron, David Cole, Becky Townsend, Rose-Marie Ballard, Peggy Schuler, Zibette Dean, Ann Poole
The minutes of September 28 were approved with corrections: Alison Carver, last month's speaker, uses Adobe Dimensions and Adobe Illustrator for her work; Sue Carlson recommended Sketch-Up, a graphics program designed "by architects for architects." Since Ruth Bryant was absent, President Sue Carlson read the Treasurer's Report: Since the September 6th balance of $3,018.94, there has been income of $40 in memberships and $1.86 interest, totaling $3060.80. However, mailing and other expenses have not yet been figured in.
Maine State Preservation conference: Rose-Marie will be attending. The release of the Edgecomb Survey has been held up, waiting for some photographs to be returned by the State.
Baptist Cemetery: The Deck House School students are continuing to make this cemetery a community project. They have done some Fall clearing.
Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial: Jo Cameron said she was in process of writing a reminder letter to the Reny Foundation, which will not deliberate on grant applications until later in the winter. In further progress, she has spoken to Jim McQuaide and Michael Mayne about the "Small Ships Event," and will consult Bob Norton, Edgecomb's harbor master, about coordinating with the Coast Guard.
Material about Maine State Archives grants was presented. Jo suggested obtaining a copy of the complete Moses Davis diary to publish. Zibette recommended to go to Lawrence Davis' heirs or Jimmy Hall for permission.
Edgecomb Explorers: Ann Poole summed up this after-school activity's October 19 meeting: 27 children have signed up, nearly 1/3 of the school! They plan bi-weekly meetings, to study how Edgecomb has evolved from the 18th century on. Their first activity has been for each member to make a personal time line, moving backward from self to parents to grandparents and beyond. Another activity has been to compile "Explorer Kits" of notebooks and writing implements, measuring implements, cameras and other equipment. Their first field trip will be to the North Edgecomb Cemetery to make grave rubbings, and look for well-known names. Sue offered the club an EHS copy of the 1857 map, and recommended they go to the edgecomb.org website to look on the EHS page at our collection of Ivan Flye photographs.
Material was distributed about an Oral History workshop by historian Jo Radner for the North Wayne Historical Society on March 17. For more information, call Betsy Bowen, 377.4380.
Peggy Schuler gave a brief summary of the efforts to convince the Schmid Preserve Committee to provide upkeep and maintenance to the Mt. Hunger Road East access to the Preserve. She pointed out its convenience to and importance for East Edgecomb, since it opens on the one-time community of farms which turned toward Newcastle and Damariscotta for their markets. Sue Carlson expressed the opinion that the entire Mt. Hunger Road, an historic thoroughfare, should be re-connected and re-opened through the Preserve, not only for the convenience of visitors but also, greater use will discourage vandals, an on-going problem in the Preserve.
In discussing the mailer for this meeting, Sue and Ros commented on their excursion to discover Bronson Cottage, which has a miniature Stonehenge on its grounds!
Before adjourning the meeting at 3:30 p.m. to re-group for a field trip along Clifford Road, David Cole and Rose-Marie Ballard gave briefings on each of the turn-of-the- 20th-Century homes to be found there. A general note: All front doors face the Sheepscot River, with a communal right-of-way along ther river front. Noted were certain high walls along what is still known as Cow Pass Hill, a tunnel under what is now Route 27. The first building , a big yellow former farmhouse, once owned by the Pinson family; the next, owned by Maxwells, Mr. Maxwell a wealthy man with a number of huge yachts, who took his meals at the Dodge Inn, where Eddy Pinson, jr. was once maitre d'. Then the Neal and Betty Creamer home, a former blacksmith shop with an old right of way behind it. Next, Jim Wadlow's, followed by the home once owned by Bill Clisby, the Edgecomb Woodcarver, and his shop, now an empty outbuilding, where he mass produced his duck decoys, boat models and half-models on multi-lathe machinery bought and adapted from an old cotton mill.
Next, the home formerly of Bill and Darcy Perry; then, a cottage named Winooski, then Ruth's brother Bob Bryant's home, and at the head of the neck, the Cole home built in 1903 as a summer cottage by a Herr Miete, headmaster of a Hudson River NY private school, who also owned Winooski and used it as a summer camp for his students.
When the group completed this walking tour, we were invited in for high tea by Iska Cole, for which we were most grateful and appreciative!
Respectfully submitted,
Joanna M. Cameron
Secretary