YOU CAN HELP
assure that this web site stays online!
Did President Grant Visit and Stay in Lincoln?

Pres. Grant as he looked in 1871 several months before his alleged visit to Lincoln.

Did President Ulysses S. Grant visit Lincoln on 1871? And, did he stay at the "Lincoln House" during his visit? The answer is yes, no, and maybe!!

On October 17, 1871, President Grant reportedly "zipped through Portsmouth, New Hampshire by train, on his way to Maine". It was described as a "whistlestop trip". The president had been invited to Bangor, Maine for a 2-day celebration on October 18 and 19, for the opening of the European and North American Railway Company in Bangor. The railroad tracks were completed in 1869. Now, after his stay in Bangor, did he travel to Lincoln? And, if so, why? And if he did, how long did he stay (in Bangor AND Lincoln)??

Well, we don't know for certain. He was still president so he had his duties to perform, but he may have also wanted a short vacation AND it was hunting season up here. We do have proof however - sort of - that President Grant did actually come AND stay in Lincoln!

Tom Burr is the son of the former Lincoln House owner Robert J. Burr, who owned the hotel/motel from shortly after WWII until 1963. He recently wrote us that he can remember seeing the Hotel Register that showed President Grant had signed in to stay at the hotel in 1871!!! Unfortunately, the original Hotel Register is long lost and no copies of it exist, as far as we know. So, we just have Tom's memory to go by BUT he would really have no reason to make the story up.

So there you have it. President Grant was 45 miles away in Bangor for up to two days in 1871. That we know. We have the son of a former owner of the local hotel who says he saw the original hotel register with the president's name in it. What do you think? If and when we get further information on this interesting story, we'll publish it here. Until then, well, your guess is as good as ours, but I'm leaning towards him having stayed in Lincoln, Maine - at least one night!

- Lee Rand

Here's the Grand Army of the Republic, in a photo taken in the 1880s in Winn!
Paul Aldrich of Bristol, Maine donated these photos to the Lincoln Historical Society. He writes, "When my mother used to refer to that house [pictured above] as Dr. Fuller's house, I presumed him to have been a medical doctor. However, I did a US Census search and learned he was a dentist, in Bangor in 1910, and Lincoln in 1920 and back in Bangor in 1930 where he and his wife had a number of boarders."

The house was located on Main Street near Cole-Whitney Ford, but is now just a memory.

Mr. Aldrich says that in 1920, Robert and Margaret Dauphinee also lived in the Fuller house. Mr. Dauphinee was an insurance agent who also sold Watkins products door-to-door, and later owned Globe Printing.
The two soldiers pictured above were quartered at the Fuller house. Mr. Aldrich took these photos of Happy and Big Joe, who here to guard the railroad trestle over Mattanawcook Stream during World War II. The rail lines through the area needed protection from possible sabotage by the Nazis, since trains provided a vital link to move men and supplies from Boston to Halifax for shipment to Europe during the war.

Happy and Big Joe came to town with other black soldiers in a couple of personnel carriers and a Jeep. Their arrival was a surprise to many of Lincoln's residents. The men served in four-hour shifts, 24 hours a day.

Sometimes your car just won't start, then you have to improvise. This photo was taken in 1909 on Boyd Street in Mattawamkeag. In the driver's seat of the car was Chalmers Fitzherbert. The man holding the reins was "Johnnie" Fournier.

We've been told that these folks are Odell and Emma (Harkins) Fellows, but we don't know where and when the photo was taken.
At left is Cliff Barker's 1923 model-T Ford, bought in 1944 for $100. Maximum speed was 40 mph! He's had it in the Burlington 4th of July parade every year since 1978. The picture is circa 1944. On the right is Cliff in his car shortly after it was purchased. In the rear seat are his brother Bruce, Chester Clark and Cliff's dog Trixie.  Standing behind the car are Cliff's father Perry Barker and Paul Clark. Cliff drove the car for two years prior to entering the Army Air Force in 1946 and putting the car into storage. It was removed from storage in 1969 when Cliff retired from the US Air Force.
Those of you who have lived in Lincoln for a long time might remember Charlie Clay's store on Main Street. This news article is from 1939.

Two brothers, Asa and Nehemiah Kneeland, came from Harrison, Maine in 1823 and settled on Fish Hill on what they named the Jameson Farm. One or two of their brothers served in the Revolutionary War. The Kneelands have been traced back to King Alexander of Scotland in 1225!! Nehemiah later moved to Topsfield where he named the town after their original home in Massachusetts. Asa moved to Half Township. His children and grandchildren are buried in the Half Township Cemetery. Asa? Probably there too, but no one knows for sure! Steve and Jim Kneeland, as well as Lee Rand, all of whom live in Lincoln today, are their direct descendants.
Click here for links to information on those buried in local cemeteries.

Many of Lincoln's original families have descendants living here today. Are any of the early settlers in your family tree?

These enterprising young men were Lincoln News paperboys many years ago. We think we can see John Greenleaf, Bob Tomilson, Bob Dow, Dennis Gray, Tom Whalen and Mike Carney in this group. Can you see anyone you know? E-mail us if you can provide any information.

Mae Fowler Coburn rowing a boat with her aunt from Canada when Mae was approximately 15, around 1934 or 35. It was taken down by the dam on Mattanawcook Lake. Mae came to Lincoln when she was 9 with her family from New Brunswick. She grew up on Mattanawcook Street and was always on the lake. Her parents were Silas and Elsie Fowler (he had his own plumbing business in town: Silas Fowler Plumbing and Heating).

Christie Cole of Lincoln and her soldier sweetheart (we're not sure of his name) fell in love but never got the opportunity to marry. Christie died at only 18 years of age. Below are some postcards the young man sent to Christie. Louise Lancaster shared these pictures with us.

Ticket courtesy of Lee Rand
We're not sure what year this picture was taken. This is Ray Little's Radio Cow-boy Show!
Four sets of twins graduated from Mattanawcook Academy together in the early thirties. The girls in this photo are Ressa and Tressa Mott. The boys in the center in the back are the Carpenter twins. The boys in the back in white shirts are Harvard (left) and Howard (right) Emery. The two boys seated in the center are Myron and Byron Buck. This was scanned from a photocopy of the original photo.

We've received some responses from our viewers regarding the photo above. Laurie Carpenter Rowan of Kittery writes: "The Carpenter twins are my dad and uncle, Hervey and Henry. I believe that my dad Hervey is on the left and Henry on the right, although it's difficult to tell in photos we have of them up until they are in their twenties. Our family has several copies of this photo. Four sets of twins in such a small high school were indeed unusual."

Dottie Harding of Lincoln writes: "Ressa and Tressa Mott were adopted by Milford and Agnes (Butler) Mott. Their biological parents were Leroy and Amber (Foster) McAlpine. Amber was a first cousin to Milford. Amber died in 1918. Her children were split up among friends and relatives.

Ressa and Tressa were born in 1914. Ressa died in 2002. She has a daughter, Derry Farnsworth Riggs, who lives out of state with several grandchildren. Tressa died in 1998. She was married to Ken Scott and Norman Furrow, and has four children.

Their two oldest sisters were brought up in New Brunswick. Luther McAlpine was their brother. Roger Allen's wife Velma was the "baby" sister, two years younger than the twins.

Keep watching this page for more photos. If you have any old photos or clippings about the Lincoln area that you'd like to share, please let us know. If you have access to a scanner, you can scan your photos and e-mail them to us in JPEG format. If you can't scan them yourself and live in the Lincoln area, you can bring them to our office and we'll scan them and return them to you. Please give us as much information as you can about people and places. If you have a mystery photo taken in the Lincoln area, perhaps one of our viewers can help us with more information!