Downtown Dover examined from monument’s point of view

Passed by them often, I have, those men of granite. They’re the Civil War statues in Dover-Foxcroft, Abbot and Dexter. Abbot’s Peleg Washburn paid to have them built a while after the Civil War.

I couldn’t have guessed that the one in Dover, as we Piscataquis County natives call it, was erected as recently as 1893. It must be so, because I read it in the Shiretown Conserver, the newsletter of the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society.

I was particularly taken with Louis Stevens’ “If Only He Could Talk,” written from the point of view of the “soldier” in Monument Square in Dover. The article was reprinted courtesy of the Eastern Gazette.

Especially touching, for me, was the comment about Foxcroft Academy: “But it’s the old wooden Academy Building that I miss the most. I remember how it would come alive every September with students and family coming up the walk.”

Foxcroft Academy was the alma mater of my grandmother, Edith Roberts (Steeves), who graduated in 1924. She played basketball there, too, I might add. I never really thought about where the school was, or that it was so near the Civil War monument.

I also enjoyed Madelyn Betts’ “Aunt Hannah’s Hill,” and Estella “Tootie” Bennett’s “Long Journey Home.” The subject of Bennett’s tale was a trunk that had belonged to Civil War soldier Gen. Edward Ward Hinks, born in 1830 in Bucksport. He served in the war from Massachusetts and was nearly killed at Antietam.

Bennett and her husband, Wayne, researched Hinks’ history, and the trunk’s owner, Dan Connors, donated it to the Cambridge Historical Society in Massachusetts.

The Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society is looking for items pertaining to history, culture and genealogy of the area. Perhaps you could share photos, yearbooks, diaries, letters, programs of social events, minutes of clubs or groups or even historical clothing. The society has a museum in the old Piscataquis Observer building, as well as its Blacksmith Shop.

Write the society, or send along $5 for an annual membership, to Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society, 28 Orchard Road, Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426.

Here’s my idea, and I’m sure that together we can do a pretty good job of it. Let’s make a list of Maine towns back in World War II that got a page in the Bangor Daily News to run pictures of their people in the service. There are two that I can think of already:

. Abbot, Nov. 22, 1943.

. Sangerville, Jan. 3, 1944.

Kaye Sakahara sent me the date for Abbot’s page a couple of years ago when the Abbot Historical Society was compiling photos of the six Carr brothers who served in World War II and-or Korea.

“Piscataquis County Town Has 44 Boys in Service,” the headline explained. Of course, the number was even greater by the time the war was over. The town page included the picture of my dad, Gayland Moore, right next to Howard Crabtree.

A couple of months later, when Sangerville’s page came along, my other hometown had 113 men and women serving.

While these pages don’t list everyone who served in World War II from this area, they are certainly a great resource. It would be a help to genealogists, and certainly to librarians, to have at hand a list of when each page ran in the newspaper.

Let me know when your town’s servicemen and women were honored, and we’ll add it to the list together for reprinting in this column.

The Penobscot County Genealogical Society will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Bangor Public Library. Penobscot County Register of Probate Susan Almy will discuss probate records, will, guardianships and other items of interest to researchers.

The Wassebec Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Moosehead Manufacturing office on Main Street. Virgil Valenti will give an illustrated presentation on researching his Italian ancestry and his trip to southern Italy. For information, contact Tootie Bennett at 876-3073, or Nancy Battick at 564-3576.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, in the Caribou Room at the Caribou Public Library. Dick and Angie Graves will give a presentation on photography and dating photos.

Those who have questions or donations for the society may write ACGS, P.O. Box 142, Caribou, ME 04736-0142.

3246. CROWLEY-LOWNEY. I’m looking for parents and town in County Cork, Ireland, where Jeremiah Crowley was born in 1798. He and his wife, Ellen (Lowney), came to Bangor about 1836. Jeremiah Crowley died in Bangor in 1866. Ellen Crowley was born in 1799 and died on March 26, 1872. They are buried in Birch Hill section of Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Ohio Street. Please send information to Winifred Collins, 456 Orange Road, Orange, N.J. 07050; or send e-mail to winnie19@verizon.net.

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