Newsletters offer much family data

Just as you don’t have to come from Maine to love Maine, you don’t have to be Franco-American to enjoy the Ste. Agathe Historical Society newsletter.

I was some excited to read the six-page “Le Magasin a Gerard” by Jacqueline Chamberland Blesso in the fall issue.

Gerard Chamberland was “mon oncle” to my husband, and was one of the older brothers of my mother-in-law, Rosette Chamberland Saucier.

His daughter Jacqueline, who teaches at Fairleigh-Dickinson University, did a great job writing about her father’s store, where people came from miles around to buy everything from cracked corn to barrels of molasses to hardware and building materials.

Then, too, there was Gerard’s work on the construction of houses at Loring Air Force Base, the Plourde apartments in St. Agatha, and Wisdom High School.

Information I didn’t know included the fact that the Chamberland parents, Belone and Edithe, had moved from “les concessions” on the back roads of town to where the store is now in 1928. Belone died the following year. Gerard and Eva ran the store for a half-century before turning it over to son James, who operates it as Gerard B. Chamberland & Sons Building Supplies.

“Mon oncle” could fix a broken appliance for someone, or help him understand a letter if he didn’t read English well. People would drop by his house, also, to join him in listening to “Seraphim” on the radio – a memory that brought a smile to my husband’s face.

Gerard was one of 13 children, and a reunion of those children and their descendants in the 1980s drew more than 500 people.

My point is that we all have interesting people in our families, and it doesn’t take a whole book to pay tribute to them. A shorter story like the one on Uncle Gerard can bring together a good amount of family and local history, and offer enlightenment about a culture.

The “news” part of this most recent newsletter focuses on the construction of the Cultural Preservation Center at the historical society.

The new home of the 1926 McCormack threshing machine will also have room for genealogical research and a gift shop, allowing the Pelletier-Marquis House to be the historical centerpiece. Some $56,000 has been donated toward the project, not including $5,000 from the town and a $10,000 piece of land from Edwin Pelletier & Sons.

More work and more fund raising need to be done, and plans include an open house next year, to coincide with the society’s 25th anniversary.

To help, write Ste. Agathe Historical Society, P.O. Box 237, St. Agatha, ME 04772. That’s also the address to write if you want to become a member and receive the newsletter. Membership is $8 a year, or $40 lifetime.

The society continues to offer many items for sale, including “Le Centenaire de St. Agatha Maines,” $25; “History of St. Agathe Parish 1889-1989,” $10; “St. Agathe Cemetery Records 1889-1989,” $10; and “Marriages of Ste. Agathe, 1889-1989,” $10.

The 2003 calendar, with a picture and history piece for each month, is $7. Topics include the Martin, Chasse, Michaud, Marin and Desrosiers families; and class pictures for 1928, 1953 and 1978. The calendar is $7.

Mailing costs for the above items is $3 for the first item, $1 for each additional item, using the above address for the society.

Justin Briggs’ beaver top hat has come home. I know this only because I read it in “Curator’s Corner from Jim Bryant,” a feature of the Brownville-Brownville Jct. Historical Society newsletter.

The September issue of the newsletter tells us that the society has increased its holdings with the gift of some 200 items from Clarence Ellis.

Articles included “Another Brownville Story from Ken Zwicker’s Book,” and Grace Leeman’s “Walter G. Morrill, Our Local Hero.”

Morrill, born in Williamsburg in 1840 to Aaron and Eliza (Willard) Morrill, was one of 29 Mainers to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Civil War veteran received his medal, in the mail, while living in Pittsfield in 1898. He is the subject of “Yankee Warrior” by Robert Haskell.

Another brief piece I want to mention from the newsletter is Reuben Lancaster’s brief account of trapping porcupines in the 1930s. His best season was 1936, when he earned $25.75 – 25 cents per porcupine.

You may join the historical society by sending $5 a year, or $100 lifetime, to Brownville-Brownville Jct. Historical Society, 72 Church St., P.O. Box 750, Brownville, ME 04414.

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail to familyti@bangordailynews.net.