Jane Jeffrey: Helped establish library in Poland Spring

Maine Women in History Rediscovering Their Lives and Legacies

Jane Jeffrey (later Ricker) was a British citizen who served as a nurse with the American Red Cross at a U.S. Army hospital in France during World War I.

She was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery in 1919, one of a handful of women to be so honored. She was wounded when a German shell burst in the evacuation hospital where she worked. She was seriously injured in the attack.

After the war, she married Alvan Bolster Ricker of Poland, Maine. Her bequest in 1962 established the library in Poland Spring.

The construction allotment from the bequest was $60,000 plus funds in trust for its perpetual operation and maintenance. The library was to be called the Alvan Bolster Ricker Memorial Library and Community House in memory of Alvan B. Ricker, husband of Jane and grandson of Wentworth Ricker who constructed the Mansion House in 1797 to start the famed Poland Spring resort.

Jane Jeffrey Ricker was posthumously awarded a citation by the editors of Who’s Who in America, March 30, 1966. The citation was awarded to Mrs. Ricker “as the donor of the most substantial gift in relation to total annual income of an American library.”

Sources: Maine Historical

Society’s online museum www.mainememory.net and the Alvan Bolster Ricker Memorial Library.

Maine’s history is full of female pioneers who blazed a path for the women of today. The Bangor Daily News, in cooperation with the Maine Historical Society’s online museum Maine Memory Network, the Maine FolkLife Center and others, will highlight a different woman each day throughout March.

If you are just joining us for this series, you may find the installments you have missed at www.bangordailynews.com. Photo from the collections of Maine Historical Society. This image and thousands of others spanning Maine history are on Maine Memory Network, www.mainememory.net, Maine’s digital museum developed by the Maine Historical Society.

Click it For more information visit View a special Maine Memory network exhibit: Women, War and the Home Front on www.mainememory.net www.rickerlibrary.org