Bicentennial
THE ARCHIVED WEBSITE OF THE BICENTENNIAL WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON!
HERE IS THE ORIGINAL CALL FOR COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THE PLANNING OF THE 2002 CELEBRATION:
Our community is planning and holding events leading up to the big day – June 23, 2002. A large and enthusiastic committee meets monthly in the town office to plan for the big year. A Bicentennial is the time for a town to explore its past while making sure we’re on the right course for the future. Our Bicentennial committee is trying to do both. Several historical projects are in the planning stages for the big celebration. Among these are walks along old roads and to interesting sites, a bus tour to Lincolnville’s one-room schoolhouses, and erecting signs at cemeteries, old school sites and other historical sites.
Lincolnville, Maine is a rural place. Most properties share at least one boundary line with the woods or fields giving everyone easy access to the uninhabited parts of town. Old roads lead to the settlements, farms and neighborhoods of an earlier time. Buried under the leaves and woodland debris can be found cellar holes, foundation rocks, wells, stone walls, abandoned vehicles and tools.
1770 is traditionally cited as the year of first permanent settlement by a family of European origin. Though there are no official records we know people had been living as squatters along the coast for many years before that. And much evidence of Native American occupation of our shores exists as well. The roads we travel every day are built on the wagon tracks and footpaths of these earlier people; the beaches we enjoy have been visited by canoes and coastal schooners, our frozen lakes the site of industrious ice cutting and wood hauling.
Most towns today have such transient populations that people barely know each other. Here, though, we find a large number of people descended from the earliest settlers; sometimes it seems as if everyone’s related. Such close family ties preserve many of the stories of the past. This collective memory is lost in most communities today; in Lincolnville it is one of our most unique features.
Each of us, no matter how long we’ve lived in Lincolnville, can know something of this history just by talking with our neighbors. We can walk the woods as a detective would, looking for clues to what occurred there. If we’re one of the descendents of Nathan Knight (the first permanent settler), Noah Miller, Joshua Lamb, William Moody, Chesley Heal or others of the thirty-three Heads of Household listed in the 1790 census, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to Lincolnville’s story. We can search through family papers, photographs and memorabilia, adding them to what’s already known about our town.
GETTING EVERYONE INVOLVED
One of the goals of the Bicentennial committee is to have as many people involved in planning and carrying out the activities of the year 2002 as possible. One way is for YOU to volunteer for a project. If you live "away" and are only here part of the year, you are urged to get involved. Send a note to the Bicentennial committee c/o Skip Day, our secretary, at the town office, Hope Road, Lincolnville, Maine 04849 and let us know of your interest. To send a donation address it to Bicentennial Year, c/o Rosemary Winslow, Treasurer, RR 1 Box 4265, Lincolnville, Maine 04849, or email us at the Lincolnville Historical Society.
The Bicentennial committee meets the second Sunday of each month at 7 p.m. in the town office. The meetings are open to any and all participants. Summer residents are urged to join us when they arrive.