The Patron Saint of Hollis
by Nancy Ponzetti
Kate Douglas Wiggin writes in her book My Garden of Memory...“A dozen years ago our Dorcas Society was an ordinary little rustic organization...We began by helping the historic old Orthodox Church on Tory Hill in Buxton...we extended the sphere of our activities to include many departments of village work...All this has meant a considerable expenditure of money, the most we earn at the Dorcas Fair given every August for many years at Quillote, my summer home...As to ways of entertainment at the Fairs...at intervals eight of the junior Dorcas members give morris or *Maypole dances on the greensward...wearing picturesque costumes suited to the period.”
On November 23, 1897 Kate Douglas Wiggin founded the Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton, a non-denominational religious, charitable, literary, and educational organization. The society was named for the Biblical Dorcas who was raised from the dead by Peter, and who performed charitable works especially sewing for the poor. Kate started this society assisted by her sister Nora Archibald Smith because-Maine needs greater public spirit and “togetherness” in village life. If the chain is never stronger than its weakest link, then our small hamlets must bestir themselves, for we cannot make a great and prosperous state out of abandoned farms and stagnant towns, from which our young people depart in order to secure elsewhere greater opportunities for advancement.
To promote this “greater public spirit”, the Dorcas Society undertook the Maintenance of the Tory Hill Meeting House, painting the church, scrubbing the pews, and replacing the carpets. They renovated the old train station into the community Parish House in Bar Mills. A record of the annual Dorcas Society meeting of 1910 listed the following recipients of the society’s charity: Grange $25, Baptist Church $25, Mrs. Nellie Tarbox $5, Bar Mills Village Improvement Society $10, Salmon Falls Village Improvement Society $10, and the Schoolhouses’ Beautification Committees $25. The Dorcas Society was able to distribute such charity because of the proceeds collected at their annual fair. 2
The Dorcas Society Fair and Lawn Party began in 1907 during the month of August at Quillcote’s barn and grounds. Baked goods, flowers, aprons, postcards, and autographed copies of Kate and Nora’s books were sold, and members of the Junior Dorcas Society danced around the maypole. The main attractions of the afternoon were the barn concerts with “music of the quality one usually goes to an opera to hear.” 3 Singers from New York City such as the soprano Edith Chapman Gould frequently appeared at the summer fairs. The other attractions of the afternoon were the tours of the house itself and the presence of Kate Douglas Wiggin Riggs as hostess for “those upon whom she smiled are her adorers forever. The secret of it all is her daring to be herself and such a fascinating self it is.” 4
The Dorcas Society Fair and Lawn Party began in 1907 during the month of August at Quillcote’s barn and grounds. Baked goods, flowers, aprons, postcards, and autographed copies of Kate and Nora’s books were sold, and members of the Junior Dorcas Society danced around the maypole. The main attractions of the afternoon were the barn concerts with “music of the quality one usually goes to an opera to hear.” 3 Singers from New York City such as the soprano Edith Chapman Gould frequently appeared at the summer fairs. The other attractions of the afternoon were the tours of the house itself and the presence of Kate Douglas Wiggin Riggs as hostess for “those upon whom she smiled are her adorers forever. The secret of it all is her daring to be herself and such a fascinating self it is.” 4
Newspaper articles of the time reporting on the fairs indicate a growth in attendance from 550 in 1908 to more than 2,000 by 1913. People arrived in Hollis by carriages, autos, barges, and trains, and then had to walk or take hayracks the two miles from the train station to the fair. Quillcote would be decorated in green and yellow bunting, and Old Glory would hang over the house entrance. By 1913 the fair had grown into a two-day event and had to be moved from Quillcote’s grounds to the eighty-three acre Woodman Farm on the Saco River that had recently been acquired by the Appalachian Club of Boston.
The August fairs were not the only fund-raising activity for the Dorcas Society whose membership was close to ninety in 1911. Harvest suppers, pie sociables, old folk’s concerts, apron sales, and a subscription paper were available throughout the year. In 1911, Kate edited the Dorcas Dishes cookbook and published a novelette she had written in California under the name Genevieve Knight. Kate considered the work “too juvenile and over-romantic” for publication under her own name, and she gave the rights to Love by Express to the Dorcas Society for fund-raising purposes. 5
One of her books, The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church published in 1907, was dramatized by Kate for performances in the Tory Hill Meeting House, the place where she envisioned the story, a romance between Justin Peabody and Nancy Wentworth, while waiting for the carry-all to bring her home after a day of cleaning the church with the Dorcas Society. Kate dedicated the book “to a certain handful of dear New England women of names unknown to the world, dwelling in a certain quiet village, alike unknown. We have worked together to make our little corner of the great universe a pleasanter place in which to live.” 6
The Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton continues its work today. Its responsibilities include the continuing maintenance of the Parish House and the Tory Hill Meeting House, funding a college scholarship at Bonny Eagle High School for one student planning an education major, and continuing the annual performances of The Old Peabody Pew on the first Sunday of December.
Notes
1. Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton Maine, “About Us”, www.dorcassocietyme.org/
2. Newspaper article, box 2, “Nora Archibald Smith Papers”, Bowdoin College Special Collections, Brunswick, ME.
3. “Were Entertained at Quillcote”, Portland Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1908, evening edition, 94-95.
4. “The Dorcas Fair”, Portland Daily Advertiser, August 28 1909.
5. Nora Archibald Smith, Kate Douglas Wiggin As Her Sister Knew Her (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925), 342.
6. Kate Douglas Wiggin, The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1907), vii.
*The Buxton-Hollis Historical Society is sponsoring their own Victorian White Party envisioned by Quillcote owner, Carla Turner, complete with the laces and tucks of Vintage style white clothing, along with Maypole Dancing, music, refreshments AND tour of Kate’s Quillcote library on Sunday, May 20th from 1 - 3 P.M. See Program Listings (pg. 4) for more information
The August fairs were not the only fund-raising activity for the Dorcas Society whose membership was close to ninety in 1911. Harvest suppers, pie sociables, old folk’s concerts, apron sales, and a subscription paper were available throughout the year. In 1911, Kate edited the Dorcas Dishes cookbook and published a novelette she had written in California under the name Genevieve Knight. Kate considered the work “too juvenile and over-romantic” for publication under her own name, and she gave the rights to Love by Express to the Dorcas Society for fund-raising purposes. 5
One of her books, The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church published in 1907, was dramatized by Kate for performances in the Tory Hill Meeting House, the place where she envisioned the story, a romance between Justin Peabody and Nancy Wentworth, while waiting for the carry-all to bring her home after a day of cleaning the church with the Dorcas Society. Kate dedicated the book “to a certain handful of dear New England women of names unknown to the world, dwelling in a certain quiet village, alike unknown. We have worked together to make our little corner of the great universe a pleasanter place in which to live.” 6
The Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton continues its work today. Its responsibilities include the continuing maintenance of the Parish House and the Tory Hill Meeting House, funding a college scholarship at Bonny Eagle High School for one student planning an education major, and continuing the annual performances of The Old Peabody Pew on the first Sunday of December.
Notes
1. Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton Maine, “About Us”, www.dorcassocietyme.org/
2. Newspaper article, box 2, “Nora Archibald Smith Papers”, Bowdoin College Special Collections, Brunswick, ME.
3. “Were Entertained at Quillcote”, Portland Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1908, evening edition, 94-95.
4. “The Dorcas Fair”, Portland Daily Advertiser, August 28 1909.
5. Nora Archibald Smith, Kate Douglas Wiggin As Her Sister Knew Her (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925), 342.
6. Kate Douglas Wiggin, The Old Peabody Pew: A Christmas Romance of a Country Church (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1907), vii.
*The Buxton-Hollis Historical Society is sponsoring their own Victorian White Party envisioned by Quillcote owner, Carla Turner, complete with the laces and tucks of Vintage style white clothing, along with Maypole Dancing, music, refreshments AND tour of Kate’s Quillcote library on Sunday, May 20th from 1 - 3 P.M. See Program Listings (pg. 4) for more information