8 SOUTH COBBTOWN ROAD, 1905: School Superintendent Mary Ames had been up since before dawn just as she was every school day. It was raining this morning, the perfect time to catch up on some paperwork. Her children wouldn’t stir for an hour or more, and on such a dark morning even Leslie was still abed.  She relished these early, quiet hours, such a contrast to the rest of the day when the sheer energy of so many children under one roof kept both Mary and Annie Wade, her housekeeper, constantly vigilant.

Thanks goodness for Annie; even though it often meant the addition of Annie’s nine–year-old to the household, Mary wouldn’t be able to work without the other woman’s presence. She’d been sorry when, after her divorce, Annie decided to move back home with her father, John Alexander, down on Howe Point Road.  Mary and Leslie had taken in Annie and her young son, Asbury, just after she’d left her husband. With Annie living there Mary found it much easier to manage keeping her house and teaching school. Having another woman in the house to watch the baby, help with the cooking and the laundry just made sense. Most days there was more work than one woman could do anyway. No wonder so many households contained two and three generations. Now Annie came five days a week to help her, bringing Asbury along when there wasn’t school. It was a short walk from the Alexanders across the bridge to the Ames’ house on the corner of the Cobbtown Road and Atlantic Highway.

Mary turned up the kerosene lamp to give a brighter flame and sat down at the roll top desk that she shared with her husband. Its many compartments overflowed with their work. The drawers on one side held the town’s business. Leslie had been elected town treasurer at the 1902 town meeting and was into his fourth year. He claimed to enjoy the work, though Mary suspected what he liked was keeping tabs on how the town spent its money. He took a day every month balancing the books and writing the checks. He often grumbled about the way the three road commissioners kept their accounts. With dozens of men working a day here, a couple of hours there, each trying to work down their taxes, it was a bookkeeper’s nightmare trying to keep track of it all.

The middle drawer held Leslie’s store accounts. With an inventory of mainly groceries and some general merchandise, his store, L.D. Ames, held its own in Ducktrap village. Sitting just across the lane and on the Atlantic Highway, it was well-located for passing traffic. Of late, though, with activity slowing down at the Trap, Leslie had been seeing some drop in business. Mary turned in her chair to look out the window. Ducktrap Stream, which still lay in darkness below the house, sounded a low, constant roar as the rain-swollen waters poured over the dam. Normally, all was quiet in the late summer and fall when the Stream dwindled to a mere trickle at the dam’s head, but this year had been an exceptionally rainy one.

The dark sawmill building drew her eye, its mass dense and black against the lighter rock and gravel of the mill yard. She still expected to see Bill Howe at work in his mill before dawn, light flickering in the windows as he walked about carrying his lantern, puttering with the machinery, planning the day’s work. Even with low water and no possibility of sawing, Bill would find enough to occupy himself in the old building each day. But the mill had been silent and dark for months now, ever since that awful day last March. He’d been struggling to make some adjustment to the machinery, turned powerfully by the combination of wheel and raging, spring stream. Somehow, he‘d caught a button of his sweater in the whirling mechanism, and before he could extricate the clothing Bill Howe himself was pulled into the unforgiving gears.

Mary had been teaching that day. His cry reached all the way up the hill to the Trap schoolhouse, the sound leaving little doubt as to the seriousness of the accident. A shock ran through the classroom, as the children raced to the windows to watch men and boys running toward the mill from all around the Trap. After they’d watched Bill Howe’s still form being carried up to his house, [5 Howe Point Road], with his distraught wife, Ruby, running alongside, Mary had shooed them all back to their seats.

She’d had her hands full then, trying to keep their minds off the accident for the rest of the day, all the while waiting for someone to bring her word of Bill Howe’s fate. It was one of those times that having one’s own children in class was hard. Knowing them as well as she did, she yearned to pick up little Harold, to hug Lena, to reassure Aubrey in the face of the drama unfolding outside the schoolhouse windows, but of course, she had to maintain her schoolteacher’s poise, and set aside her motherly compassion.

Bill Howe died from the results of the accident, and since that day the mill had been silent, joining the defunct lime kiln, the closed tannery, the long-gone shipyard. Ducktrap still had its boatbuilders [Walter Alexander and Stimp Rhodes were known widely for their salmon wherries] and its fishermen [the Wades and Leslie’s brother and father, Robie and George, still set out weirs]. Two stores, Leslie’s as well as Levi Bullock’s across the bridge, were still open, but the place was definitely quieter these days. She knew Leslie worried about their future here. Mary sat up straighter. This wasn’t getting anything done. She turned back to the desk purposefully.

Mary’s half of the desk held the records of Lincolnville’s eleven schools. Appointed to the post of Superintendent of Schools just a few months ago, Mary was just now realizing what a lot of traveling she’d be doing during the school year. Only the Beach and Ducktrap schools were nearby; the others—Deantown, Heal, Center, Hills, Lamb, Miller, Rackliffe, Wiley and Youngtown—were scattered all over town. Her duties consisted of visiting each school periodically, then writing a report on her observations. She struggled to find words that didn’t bite too deep to describe what she found in some of the schools.

Little Deantown, located near Stevens Corner on Youngtown Road, had only nine pupils this year, too small for either students or teacher to maintain an interest in learning, she felt.  The Beach School, on the other hand, was averaging forty pupils, too many for one teacher to handle. The average size was about twenty. Getting experienced teachers willing to work in these rural schools was getting harder. This year she had four first-year teachers, girls barely out of school themselves. Still, some of the others had taught as many as forty terms; at three terms a year that meant many years in the classroom. And these teachers worked hard, often going beyond what was expected. Youngtown School recently purchased a new dictionary and curtains, Rackliffe was newly papered inside, and the Trap School had new curtains as well, all through the efforts of teachers and their pupils.

The past few mornings she’d been trying to formulate the report she would make at the March town meeting. “If parents could be induced to visit the schools more and see for themselves what is being done,” she wrote, “we should get better work from both teachers and pupils, and fewer complaints in regard to our schools.” She thought a moment, then decided to take the bull by the horns: “We were obliged to pay higher wages than in the past and shall be obliged to continue doing so, if we wish to keep our best teachers and secure good teachers from away.” She put down her pen and looked out at the now-lightening horizon, and wondered what the town treasurer would say when he read her words.

2017 dog licenses are available now at the Town Office. You can also license your dog online if you have a current rabies certificate.

The Book Group meets this Tuesday, October 18 at 6 p.m. to discuss “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates . This award-winning book, written as a letter from the author to his son, has been praised as a powerful commentary on race in America. Everyone is welcome to join the discussion, even if they have not read this book. 

 On Wednesday, October 19, 7 p.m. sharp, the second of this season’s Library Presentations will feature Nanette Gionfriddo, owner of Lincolnville’s great little book store, Beyond the Sea. Nanette will talk about her relationship to books and art and how that all came about. Although not a published writer herself,  her journey to "Beyond the Sea" is quite entertaining!

Mike McFarland, Islesboro’s favorite mailman, and his group The Postman Cometh [Mike, his son Max, and Bill Hahn] will provide the music half of the program with new takes on old favorites. Contact Rosey Gerry, 975-5432, to reserve seats, $10 each. These are always great programs, and the seats fill up fast. Hope to see you all there!

Julie Turkevich starts up her popular, monthly Family Art Projects with Halloween Lanterns. Children and parents are invited to come make Halloween lanterns and spooky glowing eyeballs on Saturday, October 22 from 10 a.m. to noon at the library. There will be plastic containers that can be decorated with Halloween images and then turned into lanterns by adding flameless candles inside or to be used for Halloween treats. Julie also promises to show us how to make glowing eyeballs out of Ping-pong balls; who wouldn’t want to do that?? All materials are provided, and the program is free. Bring the kids or grandkids, and if you have none of your own, invite a neighbor child for a fun morning in our own library.

 As always, if you have questions about a program, have a suggestion, books to donate, or want to order a book from another library, contact Sheila Polson, Librarian, at 763-4343 or by email.

The Great Disappointment …

For those who are interested in the idea of a green cemetery the concept will be discussed at a meeting this Sunday, October 23 from 2-4 p.m. at the home of Jeff and Robin Brawn, 26 Brawn Road South (off of Slab City Road). Allison Rector and Helen Sahadi will be there to share their knowledge of Green Cemeteries and how the lower portion of French Cemetery might be converted to this use. There are many ramifications to the idea, and everyone’s input will make a lively and interesting discussion. Also, the Brawns will come with information from John Long and Julie Clement of Long Funeral home as to how they can assist clients looking for this option. Please let Jeff and Robin know if you are coming by email.

Family Fall Harvest Festival