TURNER — Volunteers at the Turner Museum have put together special informational exhibits to help celebrate Maine’s 200th anniversary of statehood.
A brief history of our beginnings is available, focusing on the hardship and determination of the early settlers.
Turner was first called Sylvester-Canada. It was granted in 1765 to the heirs of Captain Joseph Sylvester of Scituate, Mass., and his company for military service rendered.
It was incorporated as the Town of Turner in 1776 and became a part of the state of Maine in 1820. In that year, Turner’s population was 1,726.
The first families began arriving in 1775 and started building sawmills and grist mills. Then they were able to move from log cabins and build frame houses, roads and schools. Church meetings and schools were first held in private homes.
In the 1820s Turner was mainly a farming community. Close neighbors were almost like family, and many were family. The families were large and often consisted of extended family members. They were self-sufficient for the most part, but also sold or bartered some of their produce as well as their labor and expertise when needed.
Joshua Whitman recorded details of day to day life during that time. Some “tidbits” include:
He did haying, gardening and lumbering with oxen. He grew wheat, rye and “swingled” flax, selling much of it. He sheared his sheep and sold chickens. The three things he bought most frequently “at the store” were rum, tobacco and molasses. He spent time digging rocks and building stone walls. 1823 was a very dry year, and he helped “watch” a fire in town that lasted for six weeks. Much timber was burned and a few homes were lost.
The pictured exhibit shows many of the early homesteads that still remain today.
The museum is at 98 Matthews Way on fourth floor of the Leavitt Institute Building and is open noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday.
