CHCS archives donated to Bangor library

BANGOR – Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas gifts for children, shoes and boots and schooling, coal and bedding and tickets to visit family in other states. Who was coordinating all that in Bangor more than a century ago?

Why, the Board of Lady Visitors, “who were charged with a definite section of the city and who met twice a week for the consideration of the needs of the families visited.”

They still couldn’t vote, but it was the women representing several churches who, in 1883, had formed Associated Charities, the forerunner of today’s Community Health and Counseling Services.

The organization’s history, from 1883 to 1966, is now preserved in books and on microfilm at Bangor Public Library, where the event was celebrated on Nov. 7 by CHCS board members and community members.

In 1894, all board members of Associated Charities were women, as were the officers: president, Mrs. Caroline C. Mason; vice presidents, Mrs. Sarah C. Palmer and Mrs. S.C. Reach; secretary, Mrs. Frances H. Noble; and treasurer, Delia C. Chase.

The members were upper-class women wanting to help the less fortunate even as they made judgments about those they “visited.” Records from 1886 described one mother of four young children as “deserted by husband who is a very miserable intemperate man, squandering all his earnings. She is said to be a worthy woman and makes the best of a hard lot.”

Notable accomplishments of the organization have included assistance to the Relief Committee after the Great Bangor Fire of 1911, aid during the Halifax Harbor Explosion of 1917 and the influenza pandemic of 1918, as well as the World War I relief effort.

CHCS Board President Chip Hutchins, whose grandfather served on the board, called the volumes “a history of Bangor that cannot be replaced.”

The collection includes handwritten notes, budget information, newspaper clippings and information about the organization and the community, explained Sharon Brasslett, leader of the Preservation Grant Project Team.

Also on the project team were William Cook, Dr. Marli Weiner, the Rev. Dr. James Haddix, the late Charles Bragg II, Suzanne Svendsen, Joe Pickering and Ann Wiersma.

The project was funded with a grant of $1,996.55 by the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board for the Historical Collection Grant Program with funds from the National Historic Publication and Records Commission.

Considering the anti-Catholic attitudes prevalent when Associated Charities was formed, pointed out Haddix, pastor at All Souls Congregational Church, “it was remarkable the way the women of the churches had included everybody. It was sort of the beginning of an ecumenical coming together.”

Over the years, services of CHCS have expanded to include counseling, wound care and chemotherapy, diabetes education, high-risk pregnancy monitoring, home health and homemaker services, hospice, intravenous therapies, pediatric nursing and ventilator care. For information, call 947-0366.