This Week in Lincolnville: What it means to live in Lincolnville

Has the town changed in the last 51 years? Of course and absolutely not

Mon, 01/05/2026 - 9:13am

Ed O’Brien

Sunrise from Old Stone Road. (Photo by Maria Rossi)

Sunrise from Old Stone Road. (Photo courtesy Maria Rossi)

Happy New Year, Lincolnville!

One of my favorite topics to return to in this little column is what it means to live in Lincolnville. I am obviously heavily influenced by my mom, Diane Roesing O’Brien, Ma, who wrote some iteration of this column since around 1978, before handing it over to me, three years ago, with the approval of her editor.

Ma is the current president of the Lincolnville Historical Society, which she helped found with Jackie Young Watts some 50 years ago, and the author of books documenting the stories of our town.

Ma is from away.

Adopted as an infant by Frank and Ruth Roesing of Kenilworth, Illinois, she was the biological child of a nursing student and a young officer bound for the Italian Front in World War II. She grew up in an idealized Midwestern suburb on the North Shore of Chicago.

She ended up in Maine after heading East for college, transferring to Colby after two years at Pine Manor in Massachusetts.

Something about this cold rural place must have appealed to her, as she took a job after graduation teaching middle school English in Rockland.

My dad grew up in Augusta, in a bit less than idealized circumstances, the descendent of generations of poor Central Maine farmers. He met my mom in the late 1960s, when he was the teaching principal at Owls Head. This old place in Lincolnville was purchased, they were married, raised some boys, along with cows, pigs, dogs, and chickens. Also, oh so many barn cats.

By many strict small town definitions, my father is also from away.

I sat down with my older brother the other day. He is the one of us boys who stayed away the longest. Headng straight from college to teaching overseas, he did return to Lincolnville for several years when his girls were young, but the pull of the larger world took him away again.

Most recently he has purchased the house built and lived in by Gary Masalin, up on the Back Belmont Road. As he related to me, “I pull off Route 52, and I’m on Tucker Brook Road, and then the Masalin Road, and finally Back Belmont and home, and I haven’t turned once.” I may be due to write another column abut the roads of Lincolnville.

My brother had last settled in a small New Hampshire town. Living in Switzerland, or Australia, or Taipei, or Bali, he hadn’t felt it so much, but after living for several years in rural New England without ever feeling at home, it started to hit him. Maybe everything was all too familiar but still missing something.

He talked to me about the layers of connections you make in the place where you grow up. He bought his first car from a man who many years later officiated his best friend’s wedding and more years still, headed up a historical hike my brother went on. Reconnecting with old classmates who went in completely unexpected directions. The ways in which we change from the people we were in high school.

There is something special about looking around the place you live and still seeing the things that were there before; the store that stood there, the family that lived in that house.

My brother talked about all the people that he knew here who had no prior connections to this town. He specifically talked of two families who arrived the same time in 2007 when his family first returned to Lincolnville. While my brother may have left again, they are still here, they and their children part of this community.

He brought up the question I often ask myself. “Are we really from Lincolnville?” Yes, we were born and raised here in this old farmhouse at the top of Sleepy Hollow, but it is the Frohock house, not the O’Brien house. We cannot trace our ancestry in Lincolnville past 1970, when Lincolnville Central School hired the new principal with the suspicious beard and a wife who dressed like a hippie.

While my uncle and aunts on my father’s side had and have strong Maine accents, my dad never did, which was probably a conscious effort on his part — for him, maybe leaving Maine for the Air Force allowed him to separate from a difficult upbringing in more ways, even if he did return after his four years of service were up.

Did we fit into Lincolnville I grew up in? I didn’t even really know what a “skidder” was until well into adulthood. We didn’t own snowmobiles, my dad hunted, but never really encouraged us boys to follow him into the woods. His mechanical skills were always subpar. He did his best, but this usually involved a lot of swearing and screws going flying out the barn door.

I would have to ask the same questions of my younger brother to confirm, but I think we grew up in a “gray area” of old and new Lincolnville. Through the 1980s, Midcoast Maine went through a bit of a transformation, a thing that is still going on today. Traditional rural values versus alternative ways of looking at the world. If we pay attention to local discussions, it can be seen everywhere. Even with the newcomers. People who moved to the Midcoast looking for a quiet progressive community, people who came looking for a traditional way of life.

There are many people I know who are technically “from away”, but embrace the “traditional rural Maine” far more than myself. They knew what a skidder was before age three, around the same time they learned how to operate a four wheeler.

Are we from here or from away? My dad is a Mainer, my mom is a transplant. She also knows more about the history of this little place than almost anyone. My brothers and I know about the last 50 years in Lincolnville, and I often consult with those a bit older than I to fill in the blanks.

There are people who moved here who are committed to making our community better, serving on town organizations, the Select Board, the School Committee. There are people whose roots go back generations and just complain, without the commitment of time. And vice versa.

Has Lincolnville changed in the last 51 years? Of course and absolutely not.

Change is inevitable, but sometimes small places like ours can only change so much. We don't divide ourselves between the Beach and Center as much (though the 789 landline prefix will always be superior), so we have found new ways to divide. This is okay, with moderation. If it gets to the point where you don’t greet your neighbor at Mike’s, or Dot’s, or Owen’s, or Drake’s, Green Tree, at Western Auto or the Beach Store — the problem might be you.

I like living in the place I grew up. This isn’t the case for everyone, it certainly wasn’t for my parents, though we took regular Sunday drives to my dad’s Augusta stomping grounds, and my mom’s parents and eventually her brother settled here in time.

I am happy that my mom is just down the stairs, and I am within 20 minutes from both of my brothers. I have my in-laws just an hour down the coast, and they have snowmobiles and four wheelers. And every time I leave my front door, I am likely to run into old friends and acquaintances, or their parents, or children, or grandchildren.

Being from Lincolnville is not about your roots. It is about being present, in this little place, in this very moment.

Library Happenings

Join the weekly needlework group every Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. to knit, weave, crochet, spin, or felt together. Get out of the house and spend some time in a cozy spot with your neighbors. Or come to Cribbage for Everyone, Thursday, January 8, and either learn to play or hone your skills in a relaxed environment.

Alright, Lincolnville, stay warm. It is time to dig out your ice fishing gear, should you be so inclined. I see the little community on the ice of Norton’s Pond has formed again; I much more prefer the seclusion of Coleman should I spend time on the ice.

I will be preparing a baked ham with all the trimmings this Sunday afternoon- I don’t do a big Christmas dinner, but my youngest boy decided he needs ham, and it seems like a good way to prepare for us all to head back to work and school Monday.

Home is where you make it. My home is Lincolnville. Reach out at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

Municipal Calendar

Monday, January 5

School Committee, LCS, 6 p.m.

Select Board, Fire Station Tours, 6 p.m. Center Fire Station

Tuesday, January 6

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Wednesday, January 7

Comprehensive Plan Review, 6 p.m. Town Office

Thursday, January 8

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street