Bradford man, 93, bestowed town’s Boston Post Cane

BRADFORD – The Rev. Lewis M. Mowdy, 93, received a plaque and the title “Holder of the Boston Post Cane” at a ceremony at Hilltop Manor Community Building in Bradford.

The tradition of passing the Boston Post Cane to the oldest citizen of Bradford was begun in the autumn of 1909. Edwin Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post, sent canes as a circulation-building promotion to selectmen of 431 New England towns.

His instructions were simple – present the cane with his compliments to the oldest male citizen of the town to be used until his death, and then passed to the surviving eldest man.

Mowdy, a retired Episcopal priest, was born in California and spent a large portion of his life in Pennsylvania before moving to Bradford to be near his family. In the 1930s, he spent two years in Japan as a teaching missionary.

He served in Army intelligence during World War II in North Africa and Italy. He came home and married Hazel Kafka in 1945, and worked for the American Car and Foundry Co. as an accountant.

In the 1960s, he completed studies for the ministry and was ordained in the Episcopal Church. He was pastor at churches in Jersey Shore, and Williamsport, Penn., and retired to Milford, Penn.

Family and friends gathered for the presentation and light refreshments.

The canes were made by the Fradley Co. of New York from ebony shipped from the Congo in Africa. They have hand-engraved 14-carat-gold heads. The town’s cane reads, “Presented by the Boston Post to the oldest citizen of Bradford, Maine, to be transmitted.” The selectmen were entrusted to keep the cane in the hands of their oldest citizen.

Grozier died in 1924. In 1957, competition ended publication of the Boston Post, once the largest standard-size newspaper in the nation. The tradition of passing the cane continues in towns fortunate enough to still have the canes after all these years. In 1930, after much controversy and debate, eligibility for the cane was opened to women.