The eight pages of Noble genealogy is just one of many reasons to read Carol B. Smith Fisher’s “Rev. Seth Noble: A Revolutionary Soldier’s Promise of America and The Founding of Bangor, Maine and Columbus, Ohio.”
Smith Fisher, of Bangor and Camden, does a wonderful job telling the story of the minister who hand-carried the petition to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seeking to incorporate the community of Conduskeag as the town of Bangor.
Contrary to local lore, Smith Fisher believes that Seth Noble was neither distracted nor tipsy on that day in June 1790, and that he knew what he was doing when he wrote “Bangor” in the blank space on the petition.
I agree with her.
After all, the hymn “Bangor” was prominent and cherished during the Revolutionary War — Noble himself was a soldier at the Battle of Machias.
And the hymn was said to be a favorite of Gov. John Hancock, who approved the incorporation in 1791. Smith Fisher presented a copy of the signed document to the city of Bangor in 2003, with descendants of Noble in attendance.
But what about “Sunbury?” Isn’t that the name the people wanted, and a name that Noble himself had endorsed while a minister in Maugerville, Nova Scotia, now New Brunswick?
Yes, and yes. But Noble knew that Sunbury was on the 1787 petition for incorporation, one that already had been rejected.
The 1790 petition, with the name Bangor, was approved in 1791, but it had to have been bittersweet for Noble.
While he had been in Boston, his wife, Hannah, had died. He ended up placing two of his children with her relatives in New Brunswick so that they could get proper schooling. And during his 11 years as a minister here, Noble never did get the pay he was promised as minister. He petitioned Massachusetts five times to get land in Bangor to build a church, and always was denied.
Orrington, on the other hand, which included what is now Brewer, made good on its promise to build him a church.
Noble eventually moved to Ohio, where he did get his land, and there is a Noble Street named for him.
I think it likely that Seth Noble is a cousin of mine, given his descent from Thomas Noble of Westfield.
My Isaac Bennett, who with brothers John and Nathaniel was among the first seven settlers of Guilford in Piscataquis County, married Margaret Noble in Gloucester, Mass.
In the 1700s, the Nobles seemed to be pretty much a Westfield family, though I didn’t find Margaret in Lucius Boltwood’s “History and Genealogy of the Family of Thomas Noble, of Westfield, Massachusetts: with genealogical notes of other families by the name of Noble.”
Bangor Public Library has this book, and Maine State Library has it on microfilm.
Smith Fisher’s book on the Rev. Seth Noble would be a great resource for history teachers, especially in Maine, Ohio and Massachusetts.
What does a land grant look like? Noble’s grant for 320 acres of land in Ohio, signed by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison, can be found here.
What’s a cadastral map? It’s one that has houses or house lots shown, as well as proprietor of each lot. These include the 1801 survey map for Franklinton, Ohio, and Park Holland’s 1801 survey of settlers before 1798 in Bangor.
The appendix to this book is a treasure in itself, with documents, maps, letters and the hymn “Bangor.”
“Rev. Seth Noble: A Revolutionary Soldier’s Promise of America and The Founding of Bangor, Maine and Columbus, Ohio” is available for $24 at Lippincott Books on Central Street in Bangor, 942-4398, or at www.HeritageBooks.com.
A wonderful opportunity to hear Josee Vachon, Franco-American singer-songwriter, is set for 7 p.m. Sunday, July 11, at Holy Family Catholic Church, Pritham Avenue, Greenville.
A Quebec native transplanted to central Maine as a child, Vachon performs traditional and original songs in French with guitar, spoons, clogging, energy and charm.
Her first performances at the University of Maine and New England Franco-American festivals inspired her to document her Quebec roots in original songs as well as in popular and traditional songs from Canada.
The wonderful thing about this type of music is that it resonates with you whether you speak French very well, a little bit or not at all.
Vachon has recorded 12 solo albums in French, and two with Franco-American folk group Chanterelle. In 1999, she was awarded the National Culture Through the Arts Award from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers for her work in schools.
The concert is sponsored by the Franco-American Moosehead Lake Identity; Holy Family Catholic Church; the Franco-American Centre, University of Maine; and Chez-Nous Chapter 56 of Royal Arcanum. Donations will benefit FAMLI activities.
William Sawtell’s latest work is “The Brownville Junction Railroad YMCA (1917-1966),” a 25-page booklet.
Dedicated to Gerald Kirby and Brian Artes, it features memories from Cecil Miller, Evelyn M. Hamlin, Andrew A. Michaud, Priscilla Chapman, Charlene Thibodeau, Gerald MacLean, CeCe Harmon, Dick Tanguay, Carol Melanson, Ron Knowles, Gerald Kirby, Jared Weston and Sawtell.
Historian Sawtell has produced books of varying length over the years about communities, organizations and businesses, many of them in Piscataquis County. His writings often include memories of something that is long gone, but should be preserved in history.
A community center, a sports venue, even a hospital? Indeed, the YMCA was used as a hospital in 1919 when a passenger train and a freight train collided near Onawa.
Later, during the Depression, there were vegetables available to the community, planted by the janitor and three gardeners from Italy.
Supply trains and troop trains came through during World War II. Women rolled bandages for the Red Cross in the YMCA dining room twice a week during the war.
Square dancing, pingpong, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, dance lessons, baseball, football, bowling, pool, playgrounds, boxing — the activities held at the Y were numerous.
A photo of the C.P.R. Beavers baseball team in the 1930s shows Fred Essency, Albion Farnham, Henry Gerrish, Ray Farnham, Perley Cail, Hap Crozier, Lefty Lockhart, George Caron, Roy Durant, Wallace Lockhart, Don Dillon, Roy Towle, Danny Marr, Vaughn Marr and Buffy Butterfield.
“The Brownville Junction Railroad YMCA” is available for $5 at Mr. Paperback in Dover-Foxcroft and at stores in Milo and Brownville. To order by mail, send $5 plus $3.50 postage to William Sawtell, PO Box 272, Brownville, ME 04414-0272.
The Wassebec Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society will hold its annual potluck supper at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 8, at the home of Bill and Jane Macomber, 114 North Shore Road, Whetstone Pond, Blanchard. After dinner, Sam Shepherd will present a program about Bowerbank. For information or directions, contact the Macombers at 876-4125.