SOUTH THOMASTON — It was a great day for Edgar Post, of South Thomaston, as members of the South Thomaston Select Board passed to him the Boston Post Cane, which is awarded to the oldest person in South Thomaston.

Post is 94 and will be 95 in March 2016. He has been a lifelong resident of South Thomaston and married to his wife Ellen for 73 years.

Select Board member Jan Gaudio made the presentation of the cane and a certificate at Post’s home on Island Road Tuesday, Oct. 13. The ceremony was attended by family, friends and town dignitaries.

Born in St. George, and with the exception of 38 months of military service, Post has spent his entire life lobstering around the peninsula.

“Even as a kid I always had three or four traps,” he said. “There was a time we would take the lobster into town and couldn’t even sell them and that was at 10 to 15 cents a pound.

“I had about 150 traps in my later years. When I got too old, I took a job as a night watchman over here at Atwood’s. I did that maybe 12 to 15 years. Caring for my wife is my full time job now.”

Gaudio explained that in August 1909, Edwin A. Grozier, Publisher of the Boston Post, forwarded to the Board of Selectmen of 700 New England towns each a gold-headed ebony cane

The cane came with the request that it be presented with the compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be used by him as long as he lives (or moves from the town), and at his death handed down to the next oldest citizen of the town. The cane would belong to the town and not the man who received it.

Gaudio said that in 1930 women became eligible to receive the cane.

It is the trustees of the town who are charged with ensuring it will always be kept in the oldest person’s hand.