Text By: Strong School 7th and 8th Graders, 2011-2012
The Strong School 7th and 8th graders and Mrs. Polk researched the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. We brainstormed topics that would be important to the town and to us. For some topics it was a real challenge to find information; for other topics we found a lot of information. The 8th graders also worked on a digital map. The project topics chosen were:
The Porter Family
Porter Lake
Other Recreation
Prominent Women
The Railroad
The Cheese Factory
A Murder In Strong
Soldiers of the Civil War
G.A.R. In Strong
Our Conclusions
As we looked at the lists of the hundreds of men who served in the United States military and even a few who served in the Confederate Army, we realized that the Civil War had a dramatic effect on the people of our area. The sheer volume of the soldiers who served from Strong and Freeman shocked us, and it was difficult to select just a few soldiers to research from that long list. We also found it interesting that the War affected so many areas of rural life. For example, because of the need for soldiers’ wool uniforms and blankets, Maine farmers raised more sheep. So many Maine soldiers perished or migrated as a result of the War that the rural population was affected.
Additionally, many local farms were abandoned by the end of the War, by farmers, who chose to never return to Maine. Our two classes feel like we have learned a great deal about our town from our research about this time period. Knowing that so many men bravely fought for freedom makes us even more proud to be from such a patriotic and historically rich town.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have supported our learning during this project: Carl Stinchfield, Janice Pike, Steve Pinkham, Joy York, June Flagg, Valerie Tucker, Jami Badershall, Delena Sargent, Larissa Vigue Picard, Rachel Miller, Dani Fazio, Ben Godsoe, Yolanda Smith, Candace Dunham, Amy Ryan, and Joanne Sweeney.