DEAR COOP: I do a lot of genealogy and wondered if you could share the enclosed items. Many of my families are in Livermore, Buckfield and Hartford.
Here is the first item. Is it possible that someone has a picture of the former home of the Reverend Nathaniel Chase. The house was built in the early 1800s and demolished in the 1970s. The last resident was Al Jordan.
The house was at the corner of Jordan and Back Bryant roads, above the “Four Corners” in Buckfield.
A bit of genealogy: Ethan Allen Chase, was born here in 1832. James Briggs, who was my great-great-uncle, was killed here, by lightning, at age 21, in 1890, while working for the Reverend.
Folks may remember the large Chase barn that was used by David Gammon for his cattle for many years. Someone did a painting of the house way back, but it would be wonderful to have a copy of a real picture. I would appreciate a call at 207-487-5429.
On another topic, where is Swan Pond in Hartford, Maine? It’s an area in South Hartford that was once a thriving farm area with many homes and businesses. The Irish family had a steam saw mill on the Pond outlet.
The Bicknells had a bottled water business and at the time of this writing the stream and spring are still there.
Lillian Holmes wrote of a “Custard Pie Social,” held in a building on Swan Pond. The pond was fished. Most places burned down over the years. Some were left to nature.
There was a Line School House, now gone, too. The Swan Pond Cemetery is still there on the mossy knoll where many of the ancestors of these families are resting. They include the families of Irish, Marble, Holland, Bicknell, Chesley, Purkis, Dearborn, Allen, Shaw, Hutchinson, Cushman and Newton.
Some, like the Newtons, came from Dixfield and lived on the Chesley place. Levi and Add Newton had a large family there. The place is different today – one can hardly find a foundation.
This poem comes to mind:
Where Have All the Children Gone
by J. Kerschbaum
The creeking silence of age,
echoes through the streets,
sounds like old wooden floors under heavy feet.
All of the children once
running arround have evacuated or maybe
they’ve just disappeared.
Where have all the children gone?
Just yesterday they were tieing ribbons in
trees and swinging from the branches.
They were leaping over
hot coals and swooning
at anything.
Where have all the children gone?
Those of us who remain
wander around like
abannoned children in
shopping malls.
Where have all the children gone?
Mabey this is just a dream
mabey they are sleeping in rooms filled
with metal shelves.
If we put our ears to those shelves
they would tell us stories of how they were emptied
emptied by the fingers of fathers.
Emptied into the flesh of their sons and daughters.
Where have all the children gone?
We hope they’re just hiding
we hope they’re playing a game.
but we know this is really happening.
Where have all the children gone?
I hope there are still people out there who care about these memories. I know that I do. – Yours respectfully, Beverly of Burnham.
COOP SAYS: Hopefully a reader will have the information you seek, Beverly. Be sure to let us know if you hear from anyone.
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