Finding inspiration for Sherman’s celebration

    SHERMAN, Maine — My inspiration for celebration of the Town of Sherman’s 150th anniversary of incorporation was after I had been riding around taking pictures of old farms and buildings in the area after realizing that many of them were already gone. I saw one of the old “Welcome to Sherman” signs and after seeing the picture I realized that 2012 would be the sesquicentennial year. I talked with people to see if anyone was interested in celebrating the occasion and I didn’t find anyone that wanted to begin the process. Early this year I requested articles asking to form a committee responsible for planning a celebration and secondly asked for funding. The articles were approved at town meeting in March and I was elected as a member of the committee along with four others.
While waiting for town meeting, I talked with people around town and asked if they thought it would be a good idea to compile a book containing history of Sherman from the time Alfred Cushman became the first settler on June 12, 1832 and highlighting events up to the present time. I got many favorable responses and made an outline of what I thought the book should contain and presented it at town meeting along with the articles voted upon.
My second inspiration for the book was an autobiography written by my maternal grandmother, Kate Tozier. At the time of her death, I had asked for the bedtime stories she had written and read to my sister, Maureen and me. I received two suitcases full but never found the time to look at them until six or seven years ago. When I started looking at the material I got the surprise of my life. Along with poetry, drawings and other writings, there was a hand-written story that began when she was three years old in her native country of Denmark. Her note at the beginning of the writing was dated April 29, 1959 and she kept adding pages until about five years before her death in 1969. She came to this country at the age of 16 and did not speak the English language but attended school first in Fort Fairfield and later in Houlton. In her personal belongings, I found a report card from the Houlton school with a B in English. Along with information on her family she also included a few lines about people that employed her. She mentioned working for Charles Fogg and his wife, who were only a few years older. While she was employed by them and attending school in Houlton, they taught her to cook. He showed her about preparing meat and some of the main dishes while his wife gave her lessons on pastries and desserts. Mrs. Fogg had received training from a cooking school in Boston.
After the sign and my grandmother’s story, I thought back and realized that to my knowledge there had never been a book published about the history of Sherman. While working at the library, I had seen histories on several local families and I also knew that Nina Caldwell Sawyer had done research and published a book about Island Falls. Verda O’Roak Mitchell too had researched and wrote a series of articles on Sherman history for the Houlton Pioneer Times somewhere around the ‘70s and ‘80s but all of their writings were not in a place where everyone with connections to our town could see them.
After the March town meeting, I started meeting weekly with my committee and a few volunteers planning events and getting items for a book, none of us knowing what compiling a book entailed. Each week new volunteers appeared until there now are more than 20. Without them, their various talents and energy, my idea for the celebration and books could not have been accomplished. With many hours of research, interviews, photos collected and computer entries, we now have a book with more than 300 pages. I also need to thank the people who allowed us to use their photo albums, scrapbooks and other items they had collected for our research. Alfred Cushman and Mrs. William Gilchrist’s diaries have been used for reference as well as the writings of Verda Mitchell, Nina Caldwell Sawyer and others.
The book is titled, “Memories of our Hometown, Sherman, Maine” and it is now with the printer. More than 30 brief histories written by families are included along with photos, some statistics, memories and more, as well as more than 30 pages of ads paid for by businesses and individuals. We are hoping to have the books for sale at the Labor Day weekend celebrations of Sherman Old Home Days and Sherman’s 150th Birthday.
In addition to the book, my committee and volunteers have worked hard to raise money for a fireworks display and other entertainment. We have sponsored an ATV ride, food sale and a dinner-dance. To our knowledge, this is the first fireworks to be held in Sherman’s history. We have a picture of some of our committee and volunteers in the new book but some couldn’t be present when the photos were taken. Although I may miss some of them, I will try to name those not in the photo. They are as follows: Town Manager Debbie O’Roak and her assistant Linda Smith, Jeff Packard of UVEC, Roberta Lane, Phyllis Blakely, Fran Sleeper, Reinelle Robinson, Cheyenne Robinson, Craig Greenier, Carlene Campbell, Jarice Kelley, Charles Morrison, Tim Sides and Brian and Sandra McNally.
The 150th activities planned for Labor Day weekend will be on the Sherman Old Home Days poster. A presentation by a genealogist is being held before and I’m hoping that our efforts to preserve some local history will inspire others to start collecting information for future generations. Memories of the past are important but as with me, it may take fifty years or more to see the value. In school, I only studied history for good grades on my report card. In the past five months or so I have probably studied more history than I ever did during my school days.