The United States government wasn’t very well regarded in Lincolnville as the 1930s unfolded. For one thing the federal government only rarely came knocking. The U.S. Census occurred just once every 10 years, and the enumerator who came to each door was a familiar, local man temporarily doing the government’s duty. The only other instances of governmental intrusion were generally seen unfavorably. During the Great War of 1918 local men were drafted. After the war they were disappointed when the promised bonus never materialized. Then, not long after that, in 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution forbidding the use or sale of alcohol was enacted. A certain element of the citizenry bent on consuming alcohol spent the next ten years or so dodging the Feds on the Bay and back roads.

      Then came the stock market crash of 1929 and the country slid into an economic decline. By the early 1930s the situation had been dubbed the Depression, and both Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved into action. FDR had promised a “new deal” for the American people, and by 1933 a veritable alphabet soup of helping agencies was developing. Little Lincolnville, Maine, was a recipient of the largesse, whether she wanted it or not.

      The Works Progress Administration or WPA set up shop in 1936 at Stevens Corner, the intersection of Beach and Youngtown Roads, in the former Stevens farm. The WPA was meant to provide employment for needy workers on public works projects. Although it had a few vocal critics in town — some translated it as “We Putter Around” — it proved to be a lifesaver for many families who might otherwise have been in truly dire straits.

      Lack of work brought a double dose of anxiety to the usually-male breadwinner. First came the obvious worry about putting food on the table and shoes on the kids, but second was the shame of “going on the town.” For a man to admit defeat and ask assistance from the town fathers was the ultimate humiliation. The WPA enabled them to sidestep that; the men were paid, by the government to be sure, but a distant, anonymous Government, not by the local “overseers of the poor” as the selectmen were so tactlessly called in town reports. And further, the work they did benefited the town.

The men worked on a variety of projects including a rock retaining wall in Sleepy Hollow, granite bridges on Ducktrap, Youngtown and Tanglewood roads, and general repair of bad spots on roads throughout town. The WPA had a garage at their Stevens Corner headquarters where they stored tools and other equipment. After some theft occurred, Kenneth Calderwood was hired as night watchman on the site, patrolling the various buildings every hour. It was a lonely spot in the middle of the night, and Kenneth reported hearing mountain lions scream.

 Young Tom Flagg, not long out of high school, was hired to transport the men who gathered at the office each morning to the various job sites. Some days Tom would hang around for hours waiting for them to need him, other times he’d be on the go all day, transporting men to and from the CCC camp in Camden to job sites in Lincolnville. The brand-new dump trucks the government provided had to be filled with gravel by hand-shoveling. One winter day Tom and Mel Dearborn were sent over to a gravel pit, (located at 1 Tanglewood Road, the site, today of Camp Tanglewood’s office) that was so frozen they had to stand under the overhanging bank and pick through ice for the gravel.

A few of the WPA projects gave the program its reputation as a “make-work” gimmick. Clarence Thurlow remembers coming upon little paper flags in the woods and fields around Fernalds Neck, indicating that a WPA crew had already covered that territory. Their mission was to pull up all gooseberry and currant bushes growing wild or cultivated. Those plants are hosts to the white pine blister, and so were seen as a threat to Maine’s white pine forests. But Clarence never saw a white pine infected with the blister, making him wonder how critical it was to uproot every single gooseberry and currant.

The Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC was another New Deal project designed to provide work for young men. A camp was set up on the site of Sagamore Farm, which had burned to the ground in 1930. Rows of barracks held young men from all over the state.

The main project for the Camden CCC was to carve a park out of the Camden Hills, including a Recreational Demonstration project at Frohock Brook, under the auspices of the National Park Service. Though no Lincolnville men are found on the CCC’s roster of 200, the town benefited in other ways. Much land was purchased from Lincolnville farmers to become part of the new park. Most of this consisted of woodlots, although some abandoned farmsteads fell within the boundaries. Hikers still come upon cellar holes and old stone walls up in the hills. A section of the park which came to be known as Camp Tanglewood along the Ducktrap is wholly within Lincolnville; the camp has 940 acres. The total holding of the park today, with land in both Camden and Lincolnville, is 5,532 acres.

The CCC crews cut trails, built shelters on Bald Rock and down on the shore across from the old Sagamore site. Eventually, that would become the entrance to the new Camden Hills State Park. At Camp Tanglewood they constructed cabins, a dining hall, staff quarters, sewer and water systems and an infirmary using locally-purchased materials. After it was completed the Bangor YWCA contracted to use the new facility for a summer camp. Once the park, including Camp Tanglewood, was finished it was turned over to the state of Maine to administer as a state park.

Undoubtedly though, the New Deal program that would have the most far-reaching effects on Lincolnville was the Social Security Board, established in 1935. Through the SSB older folks could count on having an income when they were too old to work or if they became sick or disabled. The effects of this program wouldn’t be felt for years, but once they were, the whole fabric of the town was altered. Where once elderly parents had to live with their grown children, now the monthly social security check gave them enough income to remain independent, and multi-generational families living under one roof became less common. It is as profound a change as any that has occurred in town.

         The book group meets Tuesday, October 13 to discuss Harper Lee’s new novel, Go Set a Watchman. Last month the group had a lively discussion on Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. All are welcome, even if you haven’t read the book. this will be a chance to compare the two novels published many years apart. Everyone is welcome, even if one hasn’t read the book, and the group always welcomes suggestions of other good ones to try. 

Indoor Flea Market

Butterfly Barn, a nature and garden-based preschool for children 2 1/2 to 6 years old, is opening this fall at Lincolnville Beach. Piper Stiles, whom many may remember as the woman selling beautiful flowers at the Lincolnville Farmers’ Market, is owner and teacher of the new venture. The school will be open Monday through Friday, year round, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Piper plans on having some farm animals as well as gardens for the children to explore. “We’ll be outside a lot,” she says. Contact her by phone, 504-3016 or email.  It’s so nice to see a new business opening in the studio so lovingly built by artist Harry Swanson, for many years known as Swanson Gallery.

Whether you have an apple tree or not, it’s hard to miss noticing how loaded the trees are this year. Our Fletcher Sweet, Lincolnville’s own “lost” heritage apple, was planted several years ago when Fedco first offered them.

This year, we’re really enjoying them, big and sweet, just as advertised. The other day, while cleaning up one of the many piles of paper in our house, I came across an item I wrote in my old Camden Herald column. Figuring you probably don’t remember it, even if you did read it then, I think it’s appropriate for this wonderful apple year, as well as for remembering an old friend:

         We’ve hung the feeders and suet outside our front windows; within hours the birds had returned, nuthatches, chickadees, titmice and goldfinches. Of course, the latter have lost most of their summer gold, so it’s not a particularly colorful group out there. Even so, they’re lively and quick, flying in from the forest across the road, whirling around each other, darting to the ash tree our front. We’ve come to appreciate shades of gray, black and beige as well as a touch of rust on the smaller nuthatches. I’d love to hear what birds come to your feeders. Let me know….