Photos depict Maine women’s KKK

The two small photos on the back page of the summer issue of The Griot are enough to give you the creeps. Each depicts a round seal with Women of the Ku Klux Klan in lettering across the top.

One is marked Bath Klan, the other Capital City Klan, for the group based in Augusta. The seals were found in Old Orchard Beach by Scarborough resident Steven Flynn, who donated them to the African American Collection of Maine.

The Griot is the newsletter of the collection, located at the University of Southern Maine, and the photographs accompany an article by professor Maureen Elgersman Lee, faculty scholar of the collection.

We may have read of the Klan in Maine, its activities in towns such as Dexter, and its targeting of Jews and Catholics as well as black people, but Lee’s essay adds to the history. What a turn these WKKK women took in the 1920s, so soon after gaining the right to vote.

The WKKK, by the way, was not an auxiliary of the main Klan. There also was a separate women’s auxiliary of the KKK.

Lee’s article is helpful in that it lists bibliographic information, guiding us to other resources. To obtain The Griot, write AACM at USM, P.O. Box 9301, Portland 04104-9301.

The “History of St. Albans, Maine,” by Gladys M. Bigelow and Ruth McGowan Knowles, originally published in 1982, is again available. Two addenda have been added by Knowles, the new edition including 56 new pages of deaths, marriages, military news, current business, poetry, biography and illustrations. For information, call 277-4771, or write Ruth M. Knowles, 116 Deer Run Lane, Ripley 04930.

By the way, the 1982 version is available at Bangor Public Library, the University of Maine’s Fogler Library in Orono, Maine State Library in Augusta, and the University of Maine at Farmington. The 1995 version is at the Maine State Library.

The Mid-Coast Genealogy Group will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27, at the LDS Church on Old County Road in Rockport.

Susan Tolman of Oakland will talk about using maps in genealogical research. Early maps have many blank spaces and mythical imaginings, but not much accuracy about the land. Maps became more accurate and less expensive from the 1850s through World War II.

Today there are many kinds of maps that pinpoint where ancestors live. The public is invited. For information, contact Marlene A. Groves at 594-4293.

They came from Florida, Utah, Michigan, Rhode Island and many places in Maine to attend the Dow reunion at the Old Customs House in St. Francis. The 65 descendants of Absalom Smith Dow and Lorena (Drew) Dow especially enjoyed the history table during the busy event.

This line runs through immigrant ancestor Thomas Dow, who settled in 1639 in Newbury, Mass., and later through John Dow, who married Phebe Smith in Watertown Parish, Queens County, New Brunswick, on Jan. 12, 1809.

John and Phebe came to New Limerick. Their children were: Eliza Ann; John Emery, who married Sophia Jane Barlow; Henry, who married Jane Hathaway; Mary Frances; Elijah Smith, who married Caroline Elizabeth Merrill; Absalom Smith, who married Lorena Sanborn Drew; Phebe Amanda, who married George Gardner Green; Eleanor Amelia, who married John Balloch; Margaret Taylor, who married George William Merrill; Oliver Smith, who married Pauline Wentworth Sewall; and Catherine Annie, who married Thomas Merrill Bradbury.

The descendants also have come up with a 2004 Dow Calendar with the theme “People in Uniform.” Those who think they may be relatives of these Dows, or are interested in the calendar or future reunions, may e-mail Jean Gibson at jdg@sjv.net or write 79 Main St. St. Francis 04774.

3233. ANDREWS-BOWKER-CLARK. Seeking information about the Andrews family, who were among the first settlers of Cutler, settled 1765, incorporated as a town 1826. Was known as 11 ED and Washington Academy Grant. Would like to hear from descendants of Nathan Andrews, who md. at least twice: 1) Olive Bowker; 2) Abigail Clark. Eight children. David J. Huntley, Box 2196 Cutler Road, North Cutler, ME 04626.

3234. MARSHALL. I’m doing a genealogy on my father, Andrew F. Marshall. Trying to find out his father’s parents’ names. He was born in New Brunswick, Aug. 6, 1861. His father’s name is Geary E. Marshall. Mildred F. Brooks, 11 Parkway Loop 15, Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426.

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