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READFIELD – The Underground Railroad will be the topic of two book talks in April by local historian and author Dale Potter-Clark.
Potter-Clark will speak at 2 p.m. April 16 Sunday, April 16, at Vienna Grange Hall, 5 Vienna Mountain Road, co-hosted by the Vienna Historical Society and Dr. Shaw Memorial Library in Mount Vernon.
On Saturday, April 29, she will speak at 2 p.m. at Underwood Memorial Library, 2006 Main St., Fayette.
In the April 16 talk, members of the Vienna Historical Society will be on hand to answer questions about the Underground Railroad in the area.
Dale Potter-Clark’s interest in the Underground Railroad spiked several years ago when she discovered a couple named Mitchell had once lived in a Readfield house that she was researching. They had moved there from Jacksonville, Florida, in 1861, something Potter-Clark knew was unusual. She had researched more than 100 old houses and early families in Readfield and had never found one with an owner who had moved there from Florida during the 18th or early to mid-19th century. It seemed to her especially peculiar they would have done so during the havoc of the Civil War.
Potter-Clark suspected the Mitchells had been involved in the Underground Railroad and began to dig deeper to see what she could piece together about the Mitchells and the Underground Railroad in central Maine. She combined what she had learned with her imagination and her first historical novel took shape, “Escape from Bunker Hill.” Much of the story takes place in central Maine and includes actual people, places and happenings. Copies of Escape from Bunker Hill will be available for purchase at the talks.
For more information about the Vienna book talk contact Dr. Shaw Library, Mount Vernon, 207-293-2565; for the Fayette talk, contact librarian Michele Briggs, 207-685-3778.
