WHITING — Maine wardens will honor 13 of their comrades who died in the line of duty during a ceremony Monday at the Gardner Lake Road Cemetery.
Washington County Warden Joe McBrine said the 13 game wardens were from throughout the state.
The Whiting cemetery was chosen because it is the burial place of Warden Lyman O. Hill.
Hill and fellow Warden Charles W. Niles were shot to death by Calvin Graves of Hancock on Nov. 8, 1886. Niles and Hill, who were cousins as well as working partners, confronted Graves about using dogs to hunt deer in Township 36 near the Machias River.
Hill lost his arm during the Civil War, and his grave marker notes that he gave his arm and his life for his country. Hill’s granddaughter, Laura Dennison, lives in Whiting and will attend Monday’s ceremony, McBrine said.
The Maine Warden Service dates from 1830, when the first warden was appointed by the governor to enforce moose and deer laws enacted that year. The Legislature officially created the service in 1880, and the Warden Flying Service was set up in 1937.
Hundreds have served in the service, and records show 13 died while on duty.
Warden Arthur G. Deag drowned in the Penobscot River in July 1921 when his canoe capsized as he was attempting to run Pockwockamus Falls.
A car wreck during a snowstorm in the Ripogenus area of Township 2 claimed the life of Leslie Robinson in September 1921.
The next year in November, Wardens David F. Brown of Greenville and Mertley E. Johnston of Patten disappeared while investigating illegal beaver trapping at Loon Stream near Big Bog on the Canadian border. A search crew found a spot where the two had set up a blind with a view of an illegal beaver set, but their bodies were not discovered until May. It was suspected that they had been shot and put under the ice by a Canadian trapper whose .22-caliber rifle was found near the blind.
Warden Jean Baptiste Jalbert drowned while he was patrolling the St. Francis River in May 1933 after his canoe struck a half-submerged log and overturned.
Warden Supervisor Robert L. Moore was killed on an abandoned line of the Somerset Railroad near Moscow on Oct. 22, 1935. Moore was traveling in an old car that had been converted to run on the railroad tracks when he was struck by another vehicle at a road crossing.
A heart attack took the life of Warden Randall E. Shelley while he was working with another game warden on June 3, 1943. Shelley got out to push their vehicle, which had gotten stuck, and he died at the scene.
Warden pilot George E. Townsend and wildlife biologist Nathan W. Fellows Jr. died Aug. 27, 1956, when Townsend’s new plane stalled and crashed just after taking off from Maranacook Lake.
Warden R. Lyle Frost Jr. was killed in Franklin on July 1, 1968. Frost was removing nuisance beaver dams along a railroad bed and had successfully dynamited one dam when a problem developed as he was attempting to blow up another. When he went to check the charge, it detonated, killing him.
Warden pilot Richard E. Varney drowned Sept. 27, 1972, when the engine on his helicopter failed and he crashed into Maranacook Lake.
Warden William F. Hanrahan died of a heart attack Nov. 12, 1992, while trying to apprehend some night hunters in the Farmington area.
McBrine said he became interested in tracing the number of wardens who died in the line of duty after someone showed him Hill’s grave in Whiting.
McBrine approached Maj. Tom Santaguida about the project and received his support.
Santaguida will participate in Monday’s ceremony as will Washington County Assistant District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh.
The public is invited to attend the service, which will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 8.
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