98-year-old retired teacher receives Boston Post Cane

ORRINGTON – Ninety-eight-year-old Worth L. Noyes currently lives at Bangor Nursing and Rehab, but Orrington residents know he’s still one of their own.

Like the oldest resident in hundreds of towns throughout New England, Noyes has received the Boston Post Cane from his community.

Most towns now retain their cane after making the presentation to the oldest resident, and give the honoree a certificate or other item signifying the original cane.

Town Manager Dexter Johnson on Friday gave Noyes a hand-carved cane made by Philip Brown to represent the Boston Post Cane. The town also honored Noyes in 1999 when at 94 he was the grand marshal of the Orrington Olde Home Week Parade.

The original holder of the Boston Post Cane in Orrington, according to Barbara Staples’ “More Boston Post Canes: The Pine Tree State and Little Rhody,” was George Brooks.

Brooks was born June 21, 1815, in Orrington to James and Elizabeth Brooks. He became a schoolteacher after attending Hampden Academy and Kents Hill Academy.

His many businesses included making drainpipes and pottery, quarrying, ice harvesting and banking. He was said to come from “good old New England stock.” He received the Boston Post Cane on Oct. 17, 1909, as part of a promotion by the Boston newspaper.

Like Brooks, Worth Noyes was a well-known teacher, as well as a farmer who often donated produce to families in need. At the University of Maine, he was a school record holder for distance running events.

Other holders of the Boston Post Cane for Orrington in recent years have included Bernice “Bunny” Hanscom, widow of Harry E. Hanscom, who received the cane at age 96 in June 1999. She rode in the back seat of a Model-T later that year in the Orrington Olde Home Week Parade.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Frona Thornton held the Boston Post Cane for Orrington.