The Curran Homestead

December and January, 2010-2011

Record Numbers Attend Our Annual Membership Dinner, January 17, 2011

     We held our Annual Gathering and Recognition Dinner at the Oriental Jade Restaurant, Bangor Mall Boulevard, Bangor on January 17. The dinner was sponsored by the Bangor Letter Shop, 99 Washington Street, Bangor, so there was no charge for members ( who paid their 2011 dues ion advance or at the door), donors and honored guests.
      This year has been unprecedented in terms of the Curran Homestead's mission to "preserve rural Maine heritage!" In every category of collecting, recording, recreating and educating, our track record has eclipsed all previous years! The evening's programming included Curran Homestead Board members' presentation of "The Year in Review" that was accompanied by a slide presentation. Irv Marsters, our Treasurer, shared our accomplishments and recognized volunteers and donors from the past year; he also shared some of our tentative plans for 2011 and the future.

Earle, Ron, Dan, Linda & Fred, Helen, Bill & Deedee, Gloria & Bill, Connie, Charles & Alice, Barbara & Gary, Louise & Carroll, Tom & Anne, Paul & Vicki, George, Gloria & Hank, Patricia, Robert, John & Pam, Jane & Andre, Bruce, Kay, Richard, Louise & Michael, Bill & Janice, Lois & John, Clayton, Alan, Greg & Betty, Phyllis, Judith, Larry & Lorna, Bob & Jill, Charles, Stephanie, Jeanne & Lou, Dorothy, Peter, Dick & Cindy, James, Winnie, Henry, Amy, & Ed...

The names you see above are only a representative list of people who have been loyal donors to the Curran Homestead Annual Fund over the past two decades. While their individual gifts may have been modest, they have totaled hundreds of dollars over the years. Their consistent support has had a direct impact on the Living History Farm and Museum and been an important part of the changes The Curran Homestead has undergone since they began giving.

Steady gifts of all sizes from business and professional supporters, neighbors, event guests, donors and friends all add up and help proviode the critical support that:

Not every donor can make a large gift, but with annual support from donors year after year, every gift adds up to huge importance. While larger gifts from foundations and grants get a lot of media attention, the vast majority of our donors make more modest gifts. These donors have no idea how powerful their quiet support becomes---they truly are the lifeblood of the Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum!

New Discoveries

This image, dated 1908, recently came to light. The man in the hat is Horace Field, husband
of Matilda Field, who, according to research, died of arteriosclerosis on March 14, 1928,
aged 93 years, 6 months, and 12 days; on Horace's lap is Mildred Alice Field
("born 7/7/07," later Mildred Williams), his granddaughter. The house in the background is likely
the Field House on Fields Pond Road in Orrington on the present site of the Curran Homestead.
Peter Field, Horace's father, originally settled the property in 1804.

Martha Alice Field Williams

Augusta Field Bryant

Augusta Field Bryant, 1938, age 86 (born c. 1852)

October-November, 2010

The Homesteader, Newsletter of The Curran Homestead,
372 Fields Pond Road, Orrington, Maine

We are a community-based 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the preservation of eastern Maine rural history.

Recent Goings-on ( September 15, 2010): Carmel 7th and 8th Graders Experience Living History at Camp Roosevelt

Historical reproduction artist and living history Native "woodland" interpreter Ken Hamilton recently set up his historically accurate trade camp with authentic and facsimile objects of his own creation and shared his vast knowledge of Native American life in Colonial America with the 7th and 8th graders from Carmel Middle School under the direction of teacher Anne Moody. The school has been a long time participate in this annual outdoor learning experience, and many of the parent chaperones on this field trip that includes two nights at Camp Roosevelt particpated in the same program when they too were in middle school. This is an important learning experience when you have individuals like Ken Hamilton who has devoted his lifetime to learning the minutiae of life, including the traditional arts of silversmithing, blacksmithing, and stone carving, as it was in places like the Maine wilderness of yore. Former Penobscot Nation chief Barry Dana was also a contributor to the programming that focused on Maine history before the Civil War. Adriaan Gerber, who has taught our beginning blacksmithing classes, shared some of the fundamentals of hand forging with students, and some got to bend hot metal under a watchful eye. Adriaan is a full-time bladesmith emplowing solely hand forging methods to produce unique knives and axes, among other metal objects. Such outdoor programs can include a variety of other hands-on activities for a unique learning experience at your school or through an arrangement in which you come out to the Curran Homestead. Contact us, if you are interested in a hands-on living history program tailored to your curriculum or needs. You can also contact Ken Hamilton directly for his living history programs: pawaganininini@aol.com and Adriaan Gerber: sharp@adriaangerberknives.com for blacksmithing demonstrations or private blacksmithing lessons.

July-August, 2010

The Homesteader, Newsletter of The Curran Homestead,
372 Fields Pond Road, Orrington, Maine

We are a community based 501c3 non-profit dedicated to the preservation of eastern Maine rural history

Upcoming Activities and Events:

There will be a Giant Yard Sale on Friday,July 23 and Saturday, July 24, 8-2PM. There will be a raffle for a handmade child's wooden barn (Donated by Larry Littlefield of Orrington). There will be plenty of stuff to look through including office equipment and supplies, TVs, motorcycle helmets, toys, baby swing, furniture, some antiques, downhill skis, boots, and poles, ski-wear, Jeep double child stroller, baby and toddler clothing (50 cents a piece or $5 a bag), lamps, videos, books, fans, mini-fridge, a Franklin stove, and much more. Donations of items for the Curran Homestead to sell to benefit the farm can be dropped off between 6-8PM Thursday, July 22. Hot dogs will be on sale during yard sale hours.

On Sunday, July 25, 10-2PM, we will have Open Farm Day at the Curran farm. Dan Hughes from Wee Bit Farm will have one of his shaggy-haired Scottish Highland cows on hand, and Carla Brown will have lambs and goats too. We will have an early 20th century laundering hands-on demonstration for the kids, a blacksmithing demonstration, a crosscut saw demonstration, and the interested can peruse some of our new acquisitions from eastern Maine family farms. Depending on weather we will have a hay ride.

Looking Back...

Recently,Andrew Nagelin and his mother Alice Lorraine Ladner and her husband visited us at the farm sharing their recollections of their late relatives, Catherine and Alfred Curran. Mrs. Ladner is the daughter of Alice Louise Curran (1889-1988), who was a sister to Sarah "Sadie" Curran (1881-1969) who owned the farm right next door to that of "Mike Curran" ( Catherine and Alfred's father ), The Curran Homestead. Alice Ladner remembers visiting her Aunt Sadie's farm.

(This In Memorium card was recently discovered tucked in a book at the Curran farmhouse evidencing Katherine Curran attendance at her cousin Sadie's funeral)
The house that was built for Catherine Curran in 1959 and presently the site of Wilson Stables separates the Sadie's farm and farmhouse from The Curran Homestead. Sadie spent her young adult life as a nanny in Boston before taking over the farm after the death of her father, Nicholas Curran (1835-1920) ( husband to Alice Hammill Curran and father to five children including Sarah "Sadie", Helen "Nellie", twin boys: James and Daniel, and Alice "Allie"). Sadie was an independent spirit who never married and alone worked the farm, although the two Curran farms fields were often combined for planting, harvesting, and pasturing. Photos (left-right): Sadie's father Nicholas Curran in front of the farmhouse with a favorite work horse [the water pump no longer exists], swimming down at Fields Pond, ( this exact spot is still frequented by many ) and Sadie as young woman on the farm and in middle age, Edward and Arthur Conquest ( Arthur Conquest owned both Sadie Curran father's farm and Mike Curran's farm before 1914. Conquest had retired to the Orrington area to raise horses through the assistance of his son Edward, a Bangor businessman. In an oral history done with Connie Conquest Russell, daughter of Edward, and granddaughter of Arthur Conquest, it was related that the farm later owned by Sadie Curran had a barn on it, and after selling the farm and its livestock to a presently unidentified buyer ( someone other than Sadie Curran's father) there was a request for Edward Conquest to buy back the property as its new owner could not afford the mortgage. Edward refused and shortly thereafter the barn burned with all the horses in it which weighed heavily on Edward's conscience for many years later as he regretted that if he had bought back the farm back the horses may not have met their end. in this way.

On April 24, we had an Abenaki Council Girl Scout Event at The Curran Homestead. There were some 30 scouts and additional parent chaperones at the farm sawing wood with crosscut and buck saws under volunteer Richard Bowden's tutelage. Volunteer Charlie Hydek did a blacksmithing demonstration allowing the girls to mimic the steps of hand forging metal using a ball peen hammer and clay on an anvil. Charlene Bowden led the baking of blackberry muffins in the kitchen, while Board member led the girls in song in the sitting room. There was also dress up, the creation of a new perennial garden (Thanks to Theresa England!), Model T rides, and just good fun exploring the barns and grounds.

Summer Activity, 2010:

With the addition of a lean-to roof to our smithy, we will be acquiring more riveter's forges that are light weight for easy set-up and take-down during our warm weather blacksmithing activity outdoors. The hole for the steel-reinforced concrete pad for a brick double aperture, side draft forge has been dug, and we will be preparing for the concrete pour and the eventual brick construction. This has been made possible through volunteers. Wyatt Picard, a local stonemason, has lent his expertise and will be assisting us in the construction. We had another metalcasting workshop with Peter Grant, and this involved casting a brass sundial. In the week to come we will cast our first cast iron firepot from a pattern painstakingly created by Peter. After an exhaustive search, we have finally acquired a ice harvesting plow to lend to the greater historical accuracy of our annual ice harvest on Fields Pond. This example is missing its original steam bent oak handles; we will be replacing them. In addition to the ice plow, we have recently acquired a large double door farmer's ice box. This originally comes from a farmhouse on Essex Street in old Bangor.

Recent Acquisitions: we have been fortunate with the recent donation by Jane (Flagg) Jipson of many of the domestic and farming, tools, utensils, and equipment of the Farm of Thomas and Mildred Flagg, her parents, of Lincolnville Beach. Among these acquisitions there is a cord saw in pristine working order (used by Thomas Flagg on his John Deere 40 tractor until recent years ), a butter churn, a horse drawn dump rake with its original wooden tongue, a logging bobled, and a log scoot that were always stored in the barn. We also disassembled a basement pantry, and shelving, canning jar, and pickling crocks will be exhibited at the Curran farmhouse in the future. Many reproduced photos of the farm and equipment during Thomas Flagg's life as well as anticipated oral histories of this family farm experience through eyes of surviving members of the family will make a valuable addition to this collection.

Recent Developments ( Photos left-right): Achitect Brian Ames of Bangor has donated much time and energy to the future realization of a modern public bathroom at the Curran Homestead; we need such a facility in order to eventually have school groups at the farm and to offer year round educational programming. Brian's work has also included a master plan that includes a future visitors' center and parking lot. Peter Grant has donated much time sharing his considerable knowledge of metal casting with two recent workshops in the old equipment shed at the farm. Another workshop is planned for early August ( it will be announced on our home page). The Hampden Historical Society will have its monthly meeting at the farm on August 23; Rodney Stanhope, of the Society, donated a circa 1915 to the museum that has since been restored to working order. It will be used in future hands-on demonstrations of early laundering practices starting on our Open Farm Day, July 25, 10-2. We are currently building overhanging roofs at both ends of the smithy for the purpose of winter storage and warm weather blacksmithing thanks to the volunteer efforts of Byron Aubrey, Larry Littlefield, Dick Stockford, and Adriaan Gerber.
Bob Daigle and Dick Hanson have insured a warm winter with a large, well-stacked wood pile between the carriage ell and sugar shack. The wood comes from Jeff and Sandy Green down the road and the Brewer Historical Society that recently had a large Norway maple cut down that was threatening the Clewley House Museum on Wilson Street. With an invite from Bill Wilkins of Corinth, who took one of our blackmithing classes, some of us took a reconnaissance trip to the June 27th Antique Tractor Show and Jitterbug Pull in Farmington. Maybe a similar event on a smaller scale might be held at the farm in the future? A 1922 Buick jitterbug was our favorite and pulled 6 tons! Hugh Curran donated this late 1980s photo of our benefactors Alfred and Catherine Curran. Board member Fred Hartstone donated both time and funds to refurbishing and improving one of our most treasured pieces of equipment---a lightweight trailer. We have been given a pristine 25 foot horse-drawn hay wagon and a circa 1910 threshing machine in recent months, but we still need someone to offer their services in getting these to the farm, or donated the use of an appropriate size trailer for a couple of days for volunteers to move these valuable contributions to our collection. The use of your equipment could be a tax-deductible charitable donation.

September, 2010

Works-in-Progress:

Restoring our Sears and Roebuck Tractor Conversion Kit Tractor

For those of you who have been out to the farm this year, you may have noticed the rusty half-tractor, half Model A Ford we have parked just within the white picket fence. This machine was purchased from a scrap yard in Milford, Maine. The story told by its seller was that it was discovered 10 years or more ago in the woods in the area now occupied by Al Benner Homes off of Route 1A in Holden. It may have belonged to a farmer that once farmed the site many years before. These rigs were a common feature of the small Maine farm. Desiring mechanization the farmer of modest means could convert the old family car into a serviceable tractor. Kits were sold by Ford, Sears and Roebuck, and Montgomery and Ward, to name a few. The Model T and the Model A were popular choices for these conversion and many of the surviving kits were especially engineered for these Ford models. The one purchased by us is a Sears and Roebuck model attached to a 1928 Model A Ford. The previous owner related that he had researched the serial number on the rig and that he had discovered that this kit was sold in Bangor in 1918. This would mean that this particular kit had once been attached to a much earlier automobile as the marriage between kit and car resulted in the total transformation of the car to the point that it could not be used as a passenger vehicle again, so farmers weren't using anything of value to make their homemade tractors except the kit which was marketed to the "thrifty farmer."

Our tractor conversion was sometime recently intended to be used as a lawn ornament; someone had welded the front end to stabilize it and added a front axle and wheels from a 1941 Ford to the rig. The original front axle was missing. Given the lack of a engine and cracked bell housing of the extant transmission we have decided to remove the entirety of the tractor conversion kit and attach it to a stripped down, functional 1928 Model A that we purchased for the purpose. We seek volunteers to help gets this project underway! Contact us, if you are interested in making this tractor conversion do what it was intended to do.