Located off Atlantic Highway just a stone's throw from the place known as Duck Trap, this Lincolnville Beach farm of just over 40 acres has been in the same family since the time of a King's Grant from which this parcel was long ago divided. With the death of Thomas Flagg in 2009, the farm has continued in the family line with Jane Flagg Jipson following the precedent of ownership on both maternal and paternal sides of the family for a period of more than two hundred years.

For an online record of the Flagg genealogy, that includes Thomas Eben Flagg (1918-2009) click www.rolandrhoades.com/FlaggFamily.pdf

     In 2010 the Curran Homestead constructed an onsite blacksmith shop. Among the first students of this fledgling blacksmithing school was Dana Jipson, husband to Jane Flagg Jipson. Dana and Jane Jipson were in the process of moving from Saco, Maine retiring to the family farm that Jane had grown up on in Lincolnville Beach after the death of her father Thomas Eben Flagg in 2009. Thomas Flagg had maintained a blacksmithing shop on his farm for much of his adult life and had long hung a sign at the road's edge as claiming his services as a "blacksmith." Amongst the later donation from the farm to the Curran Homestead were many examples of not only Thomas' work but his grandfather Isaac's, including the iron handles of a large wooden bin which held potatoes. Very much interested in blacksmithing, Dana Jipson had wished to learn to use the forge and tools that stood idle since his father-in-law's death. Dana learned of the classes that were being offered at the Curran Homestead and signed up. Shortly after finishing the ten week beginning blacksmithing classes and becoming acquainted with the organization's mission, Dana contacted us and wished us to meet with his wife Jane who was interested in donating some tools and equipment fron her father's farm. 

      The Flagg Farm donation was sizeable, and it involved numerous trips between Orrington and Lincolnville Beach. Jane and her sisters Dolores and Eleanor saw the donations as an opportunity for their father's well maintained tools and equipment to both remain in the State of Maine as well as continue to be maintained and utilized for the purposes of farming as it is the mission of the Curran Homestead to not only continue to use much of these items but to use them for the hands-on education of farming practices for succeeding generations. Like many Maine farms of relatively small size the Flagg Farm under Thomas Flagg's stewardship continued farm methods that had long disappeared from much of the rest of the American landscape. Horse drawn implements were a fixture of Jane Flagg Jipson's childhood and early adulthood on the farm that looks over the Atlantic; During the process of moving many of these donation much time was spent around the farmhouse kitchen table sharing memories. Jane's father's favorite work horse "Colonel" wasone topic of these memories and among the most relished by representatives of the Curran Homestead.  Jane shared her family's photos spanning more than a hundred years on the farm site passing on the stories behind each much as Thomas Flagg himself often liked to do with family members and guests.  
      
      The Flagg Donation is far more valuable than the tangible tools and equipment transported to the museum site, for unlike previous donations, this gift can be characterized as a complete archive that includes both a thorough narrative shared by family members about the history of their farm and details about the use of specific tools and a photos that document many of these objects in use in the field. We hope that these photos and narratives will serve those interested in understanding a little bit more about rural life particular to eastern Maine's heritage.