With the kind generosity of the Lion’s Club Denmark Historical Society has been able to protect and digitize its collection. We appreciate the financial assistance that the Lion’s Club has shown over the years.

Created March 15, 2018 las

With generous donations of $14,000.00 from the Birch Cove Fund of the Maine Community Foundation from 2013 to present day, Denmark Historical Society is able to digitize its collection of ledgers, photos, postcards and ephemera. Denmark Historical Society will be able to post the digital files in an online catalog for all to view. We appreciate the gift the Birch Cove Fund made to the historical society and our community.

The Denmark Historical Society with the assistance of the Fatica family and our Acquisition Fund were able to purchase items from the estate of Addison and Amelia Sanborn Pratt. The family home is located on Wilton Warren Road.

(For a closer view of photos click each one!)

The Sanborn family: Husband Abel, Wife Amelia, Brother Walter and son, Frank:

New Addition!

Purchased from a private seller a piece signed by John Caldwell & Joshua Chamberlain in memory of Job Sanborn who served in the army from August to December when he died in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

More photographs of the Sanborn brothers may be seen at the end of this post.

We purchased an intact red paint cradle. The cradle was constructed in the 1850’s.

Wa are amazed to find no repairs or rot.

And the beautifully sewn child’s quilt.

Message attached to quilt written by Amelia Sanborn Pratt:

Note that the fabrics are pre-Civil War and are machine stitched. The bindings are hand-hemmed. At future programs you’ll be able to view the quilt displayed with the cradle.

Names of family members were embroidered in each square.

The stitches are tiny and barely legible!

Message attached to the quilt:

“This was made by my grandmother for her first baby – 1860 – Her first two children wer twins. One was born dead, the other died in infancy. She later had *unreadable* Amelia Sanborn Pratt”

We purchased photos and documents:

Photos from the autograph album:

Autograph of future husband to his wife. Students together at Fryeburg Academy.

Braille entry

Photo Album:

Beautifully handwoven and embroidered wool blankets constructed by Betsy Lord Sanborn and Amelia Thompson Sanborn:

Amelia Thompson Sanborn???

Daniel & Job Sanborn, sons of Jonathan and Betsy Lord Sanborn, were soldiers in the Civil War.

A lock of hair from Amelia’s lost sons

Photos by Astrea Fatica, Linda Whiting and Lee Ann Shand; Text by Lee Ann Shand February 25, 2018; edited March 20, 2018 & March 26, 2018

Perley L. Pingree, son of Edwin & Lunette Hale Pingree, was born in Denmark in 1890. He married Julia Drown, daughter of Alonzo & Mary Trefethan Drown of Peak’s Island, in September of 1918.  Perley lived on South Road, in the home now owned by Bob & Penny Morris. Perley passed away in 1953.

This article is a clipping from The Bridgton News November 30, 1951 edition. With the E911 changes South Road was renamed Bull Ring Road. Jordan’s Corner would be the intersection of Routes 117 & 160 at the Civil War monument.

Please click on the article to read the complete text!

Memoriam List 2017:

We, the volunteers of Denmark Historical Society, are continually revising and updating our website. We have worked especially on the two resources pages. One for Denmark, Maine-related resources on the internet and “Other Resources” page which has links to a wide variety of sites to Maine-related sources – government, military, newspaper, museum, cemetery. We envision this page to be your go-to site for links in your history and genealogy search.

Happy searching!

Published in Small Farmer’s Journal:

Reality

On the nighttime frenzy freeway

Stream interminable jets of light,

Relentless, swift, impersonal.

More unsettling than jagged streaks of lightening,

They stab and jam encompassing ebony sky,

Distort sensation,

Drown all earthy sounds,

Taint all fragrance,

Blur the scene,

Oh for the sound, the feel of wagon wheels,

Homeward bound,

Gritty on gravel,

Then soft and almost silent

On the pungent velvet of downy dooryard grass!

Laura: Her Farm

She looked for beauty where she walked;

The shady, dewy places under trees,

The cool and short-cropped pasture grass,

The rock-filled streams, old barns – she noticed these.

There, she dreamed, she’d spend her days

Where blossom-fringed lanes go crooked by,

Where fields are rimmed with grey stone walls.

And tops of elm trees sweetly grace the sky.

She scanned for beauty where she rode,

With friends she’d chat while auto zoomed the hills,

But glimpse of Fleeting, shining glade,

A meadow caught and lost, she’d then grow still.

On way ot office through the crus

Of traffic din that she could not accept,

Recalling still, idyllic scene

Of hedges framing dooryard phlox, she wept.

Gift of Jay and Carol Rhoads

January 2018

Alfred Wood Belcher moved to Denmark from Fitchburg, MA. He served in the Army during the Civil War. He is buried in L. A. Berry Cemetery in Denmark village. While living in Denmark he once served as the town clerk.