President's Message
Dear Members and Friends,
It seems difficult to believe that we are about to begin our 48th season as an historical society and our fifth season in our new 100 Main St., Bar Mills location! How time does fly! Again this year, we are offering many interesting and informative programs and events. So, please be sure to mark your calendars as you check out our Upcoming Events 2018 section!!!
Back in the snowy and cold winter of 1923, a young woman by the name of Alida Rogers, then recently graduated from teachers’ college, spent six months teaching at the S. D. Hanson High School in Buxton Center and living as a boarder a mile or so up Long Plains Road in the then Florence Haseltine house, now the home of Don and Ba Kopp. Evidently, her experiences in Buxton made quite an impression on Alida, as over the years she made multiple references, copious and often repetitive notes, and journal entries about her time in Buxton. It was these notes that one of her sons, Robert (Bob) E. Wolf, a retired minister, found after her death in 1998, just two months prior to her 100th birthday. Bob compiled and edited these notes, being careful to use his mother’s words and then decided to share them with the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society in the fall of 2016, inquiring if we might be interested in them. We were!
It seems difficult to believe that we are about to begin our 48th season as an historical society and our fifth season in our new 100 Main St., Bar Mills location! How time does fly! Again this year, we are offering many interesting and informative programs and events. So, please be sure to mark your calendars as you check out our Upcoming Events 2018 section!!!
Back in the snowy and cold winter of 1923, a young woman by the name of Alida Rogers, then recently graduated from teachers’ college, spent six months teaching at the S. D. Hanson High School in Buxton Center and living as a boarder a mile or so up Long Plains Road in the then Florence Haseltine house, now the home of Don and Ba Kopp. Evidently, her experiences in Buxton made quite an impression on Alida, as over the years she made multiple references, copious and often repetitive notes, and journal entries about her time in Buxton. It was these notes that one of her sons, Robert (Bob) E. Wolf, a retired minister, found after her death in 1998, just two months prior to her 100th birthday. Bob compiled and edited these notes, being careful to use his mother’s words and then decided to share them with the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society in the fall of 2016, inquiring if we might be interested in them. We were!
Alida’s accounts are revealing, informative and often humorous glimpses into challenges of rural life from the perspective of a young city woman (Portland at the time). “Alida’s book” is a collection of her experiences in Buxton, along with other historically significant additions, including: photographs; a map of the area; a sample teacher’s contract and salary information, history of the Hazeltine house where she boarded, interviews with Hazeltine neighbors Bill Lewis, Katherine Curtis, Dana Sawyer and Louis Emery, all courtesy of Don Kopp; as well as Hanson School history. Included, too is historical information on the Hanson Coat Shop and S. D. Hanson, who “developed a large business and accumulated what was probably the largest fortune ever acquired by a Buxton man from business “done in town”...“while better than his financial success was his great love of his townspeople, his kindly personality and sterling character.”1
“Alida’s book”, with additions, was completed in December of 2017 and is now on sale in the Museum Store. We think you will enjoy it and we hope you will make a point to look for it when you visit your historical society!
Happy spring and we look forward to seeing you soon!!
Jan Hill, President
Notes
1. Taken from the 150th Anniversary Book, Town of Buxton
“Alida’s book”, with additions, was completed in December of 2017 and is now on sale in the Museum Store. We think you will enjoy it and we hope you will make a point to look for it when you visit your historical society!
Happy spring and we look forward to seeing you soon!!
Jan Hill, President
Notes
1. Taken from the 150th Anniversary Book, Town of Buxton