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On Our Website
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Trescott Historical Society
Newsletter
Download this
newsletter in PDF format -
THS-Newsletter-Fall-Winter2011.pdf |
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Looking east from Moose Cove toward
Eastern Head and Little Moose Island, South Trescott. |
News Notes
Fall / Winter 2010 / 2011
Since our last News Note the society has
carried out a number of activities. We had a guest speaker, and
uncovered a number of old (and current) records, documents and
publications.
Here is a run-down of our recent meeting agendas
and discussions.
Our 85th meeting was held in
January, 2010. We renewed the QuoddyTides
subscription as a gift to the Lubec Memorial
Library. A collection of $80.00 was taken at the
holiday party, and with matched THS funds $180.00
was donated to the Whiting Food Pantry. This year
has been particularly difficult for the area’s many
unemployed. The annual election returned the same
slate of officers and Board of Directors members. |
February’s agenda included a discussion about a
proposed fishermen’s memorial or plaque to remember
the many fishermen who have been lost in local
waters over the years. The memorial plaque would be
erected on or near Lubec’s working waterfront.
It
was voted that we contact all area real estate
agencies requesting notification of any local
historical materials that may have been left behind
in homes listed for sale, or that may turn up.
The March meeting was spent
preparing press releases for our April Lecture
Series guest speaker, Dean Preston, the
Superintendent of Washington County’s Unorganized
Territories. The latter part of the evening we
presented Alan Furth, Director of the Cobscook
Community Learning Center in Trescott. His talk focused on the
Center’s planned creation of a for-profit food production
enterprise as a branch of their present non-profit 501(c)(3)
facility. The initial plan calls for the marketing of an
all-local seafood chowder.
At the April meeting discussions
centered around who owns the various cemeteries in
Trescott Township. A study done by two of our
members concludes that all but one
cemetery/graveyard has at least one U. S. veteran
interred therein. Maine statutes direct towns and
cities to see that such hallowed sites shall be
maintained by the municipality, if no owner of
record can be found. Exactly how this relates to
Trescott and other unorganized townships is unclear
at this time. We are in the process of nailing down
the applicable statute(s).
The guest that we had lined up for our April Speakers’ Series:
Dean Preston, Supervisor of the County’s Unorganized
Territories, was a no-show.
Because of a number of members’ summer commitments the May, June
and July meetings were cancelled.
However, two field trips took
place: in September to Cal Cole’s video yard sale, and in
October a canoe trip down the East Stream and South Branch of
the Cobscook River to Saunders Point in search of an old bronze
burial marker, observed as recently as a year ago. Our search
came up empty. We’ll try again in the spring.
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Finally August arrived and picnic
baskets, equipment and a new gas grill were hauled out to the
West Quoddy Head Lighthouse for our annual picnic. We wish all
our members could have made it, but most of you do live at long
distances. For us, the social highlights of the year were the
holiday party in mid-December and the picnic in late August. We
really do have a blast at both these events. Maybe you could
make it to one or another of these “extravaganzas” down the
road. These affairs are freebies and everybody is always
welcome.
View from Haycock Head, South Trescott,
looking south-west across Haycock Harbor. |
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At the September meeting Rick Tanney brought the Charles
Blaskowitz 1775 map of the Passamaquoddy Bay area. He made copies from the Net and University of Maine’s Fogler Library. This map is an eye-opener because it names
“Bailey’s Mistake” as early as 1775. Later published maps of
Passamaquoddy Bay by John Wright and Frederic DeBarres also show
this inlet as Bailey’s Mistake. But the myth continues that the
place was named for the captain of a schooner whose ship managed
to “climb the rocks” in a blizzard sometime in the 1830s, while
he (Bailey) thought he was making a run for the Lubec Narrows.
Portion
of the Charles Blaskowitz map, drawn in 1775 from a
1770 survey, shows that Bailey’s Mistake was named
at some point earlier than 1770. So who was the Bailey
it was named for? |
Copies of old Washington County newspaper clippings were given
to each member whose family names appeared in them. Members Carl
and Kim Zils sent some page copies from “a couple of books I
recently came across at my parents’ used book store, Prescott
Hill Books, in Northport Maine.” They were Maine Place Names, A. Chadbourne, 1955, and
The Pine Tree Coast, S. A. Drake, 1891.
Drake says, “From Little River to West Quoddy Head, a distance
of five leagues, no shore could wear a more weird or forbidding
appearance. Look where you will, nothing is to be seen but wild
waves lashing an iron shore, with a pine here and there rearing
its tall head above the dark fringe of vegetation. Except about
Moose River and Haycock’s Harbor (sic), which afford some little
shelter, the coast shows an unbroken front of half-mountainous
ranges of ashen cliffs, a league or more in width, from which
monster headlands protrude far out, and against which the sea
breaks so violently as sometimes to throw the water a hundred
feet in the air. But the rough weather and inhospitable
coastline are not the worst enemies the navigator encounters
here.”
October was not a great month for “ooh and ahh” foliage, but our
meeting was colorful with a decorated table full of Halloween
refreshments. A list of the best genealogy websites was given,
and Soni Biehl was voted Vice President, pro tem, in the absence
of Rick Tanney, who secured a temporary teaching position in
South Korea.
Plans were made at the November meeting for the holiday party in
December, which turned out to be full of fun and festivity. We
raised $61.00 for the Whiting Food Pantry, which was then
matched with THS funds for a $122.00 donation.
The year went like a shot, but as
with any small organization, there is so much to do with too few
people. We know you appreciate all that the meeting members
accomplish and we recognize that we can still do a lot more with
your ongoing help and and encouragement.
Special thanks go to those who have kept the THS computer up and
running; clipped newspaper articles; purchased materials for our
holdings; sent us their family genealogies; researched Trescott
records; helped with constructing a new website after a year
without one; brought goodies to meetings…. and to you through
your active memberships.
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TRESCOTT THEN AND NOW - 1910 and 2010
The 1910 U.S. Census numbers the Trescott population at 462. The
2010 census shows 315 full-time Trescott residents. The peak
population was 661 in 1870. In 1910 there were 109 resident and
38 non-resident taxpayers. In 2010 there were 381 property
owners in Trescott Township. Of these, only 126 were full-time
resident taxpayers and 255 were from away, so to speak, and paid
a property tax on a seasonal structure or on vacant land.
[The
Town of Trescott deorganized in 1945 and become an unorganized
township.]
So, looking at the above figures it is clear that our
non-resident future neighbors account for at least
three-quarters of Trescott’s property tax assessments. That’s
huge.
AND HOW ABOUT THIS?
Taken from the 1910 Trescott Town
Report:
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Real Estate Valuations |
Residents
Non-Residents |
$39,671.00
5,587.00 |
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Personal (horses,cows,autos,pianos,boats,wood,etc.)
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14,058.00 |
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Total Trescott f/y 1910 assessed
valuation |
$59,906.00 |
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Total tax levy f/y 1910 (includes school budget)
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$
2,346.48 |
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. . . . and there were 117 students enrolled in six schools in
the Town of Trescott in 1910.
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The Trescott Historical Society is a non-profit 501(c)(3)
organization. All memberships, donations and contributions to
the Society are tax-deductible. And thank you very much. |
Annual dues are due: $10 single; $15
family. Dues cover
one year from the date they are received. And, contrary to those
persistent rumors, we
are still welcoming new members.
Visit our contact page and add your
email address to receive news from the Trescott Historical
Society |
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