CARIBOU — Northeast Historic Film and the Caribou Historical Society turned a cold January night into a nostalgic evening of “delightful charm” Tuesday by showing a 69-year-old silent film made in Maine.

“Timothy’s Quest,” made in 1922, entertained about 100 people at the VFW Hall. Danny Patt of Union provided piano music, playing a score he created for the long-lost film. Included were popular tunes from the turn of the century to the 1920s.

“Timothy’s Quest,” discovered last year in a California collection, was produced more than half a century ago in Portland, Hollis and Bridgton. The source of the movie was an 1890 novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin, who modeled the location after Hollis, where the author spent her summers.

“It was a thrilling experience to be playing again for silent movies after so many years,” said Patt, who wowed listeners. His career as a professional musician began in 1924 when he was 12 years old and playing for silent movies in Union.

“A young mother and children were in front of me,” Mildred Hatch, 78, of the Caribou Historical Society said afterward. “I thought, `Isn’t this nice? They’re seeing something that we used to see.’

“It was a beautiful thing about two little orphan children who had to find their way. They got into this place in Maine where there were mostly elderly maiden ladies and found something God had planted for them.

“They prayed. It took a while. After a while, the hearts of the ladies softened and they took them in. The audience was so quiet. I thought, `Gee, we were never quiet like that.”‘

In the film, Miss Vilda, “the most well-to-do woman in town,” and Samanthy Ann, her housekeeper, were presented with a dilemma when orphans Timothy and Gay arrived on their doorstep and asked whether the women needed a baby.

The story contains themes and characters typical of 19th century New England fiction: a fallen woman (Miss Vildy’s sister, Martha, gone to the city, disgraced and dead at an early age), a gossip, and a comic farmhand, Jabe Slocum.

The rare silent feature movie was written by the author of “Rebecca of Sunnybook Farm” and directed by Sidney Olcutt, who produced a one-reel version of “Ben Hur.”

The show took about two hours, including a break to change reels. Cheese and crackers were served, along with squares and popcorn brought by Phil Turner of Caribou’s historical group.

Hatch said there were people in the audience who remembered seeing “Timothy’s Quest” when it first came out, and films of similar vintage.

“Oh yes, and quite a few young people. We were so happy to see them there. Stacy Griffin remembered things about silent films. He spoke up and answered questions about things he remembered. They gave us a folder with questions for people in Maine who saw silent films before 1930. They’d like us to answer them.”

Actor Charles Cronin of Bangor introduced “Timothy’s Quest,” portraying C.O. Richardson, who first brought motion pictures to Maine, in 1896. “He wore a top hat and a beautiful suit,” Hatch said of Cronin’s Richardson. “Everyone did a fine job.”

The Maine Humanities Council and Expanding Arts, Maine Community Foundation, awarded grants to Northeast Historic Film, the Blue Hill Falls moving image archives, for a yearlong program, “Going to the Movies: A Social History of Motion Pictures in Maine Communities.”

As part of the project, Northeast Historic Film is seeking people who went to the movies in Maine before 1930.