CALAIS – It began when duffers from two countries – the United States and Canada – purchased the former John Todd Farm overlooking the St. Croix River.

Today, the St. Croix Country Club, with its nine-hole golf course, is 75 years old. On Saturday night, more than 100 ardent and not-so-ardent golfers celebrated the occasion.

Club historian Rand Castile said that from the beginning the club was all-inclusive, and, unlike other clubs in the county that were men-only, the Calais facility began with 81 men and 14 women.

In addition, he said, what has set the country club apart from others has been its junior program that has produced state and national champions.

P.G. Wodehouse once was quoted as saying, “I wish to goodness I knew the man who invented this game. I would strangle him. But I suppose he’s been dead for years. Anyway, I’ll go and stamp on his grave,” Castile said in his speech. Castile said that Wodehouse had a knack for describing the game.

Before becoming a golf course, the land had been the John Todd Farm. Todd is listed in the city’s 1896-1897 directory as a farmer whose house was located on Main Street below Steamboat Street.

At one time the large Todd family had one foot in Calais and the other in neighboring St. Stephen, New Brunswick, because of their interests in lumbering and shipping.

Although not a lot is known of John Todd’s connection to the original Todds, the family is mentioned in Harold A. Davis’ book “An International Community of the St. Croix.”

William Todd produced 14 children including two Johns, John and John W. Todd.

Davis described William Todd as “a leader in the Milltown Congregational Church and an ardent temperance man. Todd found the task of supplying each of his lumber camps with a keg of rum in order to keep his men a most distasteful one.”

The farm was sold in 1927 for $6,300, Castile said. The buyers turned it into a country club. The clubhouse originally was the farmhouse.

“Dancing was not allowed on Sundays in the clubhouse, there was a committee for propaganda, one for tennis and winter sports, and no dogs were allowed on the veranda. We were not allowed to send a house servant outside on errands,” Castile told the group.

The club prospered until 1934 and the Great Depression. A $4,500 note was due to the International Trust and Banking Co., Castile said. “The club was then refinanced and recognized as the St. Croix Country Club, with some of the original investor members assuming new stock at a suggested subscription of $45. A subsequent discussion suggested selling stock at $25 per share and this was successful,” he said.

The founders list reads like the who’s who of Calais, with the Murchie, Fenderson, Taylor, Jewett and Lord families part of the original roster. The Canadian contingency was headed by the Ganong family, famous for its chocolates.

During the celebration Saturday, proclamations from Gov. Angus King and the Calais City Council were read.

Nancy DeFrancesco, executive director of the Maine State Golf Association, which promotes amateur golf in the state of Maine, presented the group with a plaque honoring their 75 years.

One of the association’s major functions, DeFrancesco said, was providing scholarships. “We give away $40,000 a year in scholarships and we always have somebody from this area that earns a scholarship,” she said.

Also present Saturday night was Mary Johnson. When she was 3 years old, club president John Marchese said, she lived in the Todd house. Her father, Jack Gillespie, was the country club’s first pro.