Strong, a Mussul Unsquit village

The Strong Historical Society received a grant from Maine Historical Society, through the Maine Community Heritage Project, to develop a web-based project about the town's history. The project team, comprised of Historical Society members, the Strong Public Library, the Strong Elementary School, and the High Peaks Alliance, pledged to meet monthly and develop five unique presentations, with a community celebration to share their work in June. They joined grant recipients from the coastal towns of Surry and Swan’s Island in July, 2011, and January, 2012, at the Maine Historical Society in Portland. The three teams learned to build their exhibits and websites for their projects. Each month, the Strong MCHP team members met to fine-tune their theme, select complementary artifacts and photos, and document "good history." In September, 2011, they launched the project at a community celebration.

Ben Godsoe, a Muskie School for Public Service graduate student, has helped develop the Sandy River Land Trust and High Peaks Alliance and a new 45-mile Fly Rod Crosby Trail. Ben assisted teacher Crystal Knapp Polk with class mapping activities in the Strong Elementary School and wrote an exhibit on Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby.

Valerie Tucker is a freelance writer and a member of the Strong Historical Society. She enjoys researching local history and ancestry. Originally from Vassalboro, she regrets not appreciating her hometown roots, but she’s making up for that neglect by working extra hard on this project.

Carl Stinchfield, an officer of Strong Historical Society, was born and raised in Strong. Although he left for 28 years, he returned to the family homestead and has become active in tracking down the many unidentified people and unknown locations in Society’s archived photos. He started a Facebook page and has posted many intriguing photos of the town's history.

Kathy Lambert was born and raised in Phillips, but has raised her family in Strong for the past 42 years. She and her husband Roger are history buffs and were among the founders of the Strong Historical Society. They have a wonderful collection of books and artifacts, and they enjoy genealogy.

Crystal Knapp Polk teaches social studies and reading at the Strong Elementary School. Students in her 7th and 8th social studies classes participated in the local history research for this project. She and her students also created an interactive Google Earth map based on historical locations that are part of the Maine Memory project.

Below: Kathy Amoroso, Director of Digital Projects for Maine Historical Society, shows (l-r) Kathy Lambert, Valerie Tucker, Ben Godsoe, and Carl Stinchfield how to organize narratives and photos for their website.

At the July training, each team shared their work to date, presenting an outline of one of five exhibit topics. Carl Stinchfield's “The Bridge that Changed the Map” recounts how a $5,000 suspension bridge drove a wedge between residents in 1856 and resulted in the secession of East Strong to New Vineyard. Maine maps had to be redrawn to reflect that change.

The team has uploaded narratives and artifacts from the wood products industry, history of town schools, groups and organizations, and the story of the bridge. Crystal Knapp Polk's 7th and 8th graders have researched Strong's post-Civil War life and the story of Fly Rod Crosby, Maine's first registered Maine Guide. Larissa Vigue Picard, Maine Memory's Community Partnership Coordinator for the three teams, has guided the teams' website development. For examples of other inspiring and creative grant project results, visit Maine Memory Network's Community Partners page. Each project has provided a unique and very personal look at the past from their hometown perspective.

We have had wonderful support from Maine Historical Society, with visits from archiving expert Jamie Kingman Rice and photographer and Image Services Coordinator Dani Fazio. Other contributors include Cheryl McLeery, the Director of the Strong Public Library; Jami Badershall, Strong Elementary School's librarian, and Steve Pinkham, author of Mountains of Maine: Intriguing Stories Behind Their Names.

At right, Dani Fazio, Image Services Coordinator for the Maine Historical Society, taught a photography workshop for students. They learned about lighting, angles, and shadows that will best display some of the artifacts that the Strong Elementary School and Historical Society will upload to Maine Memory Network. Student Liam McCarthy Edwards adjusts his camera and tripod to photograph a butter mold that is part of the SHS collection.

Strong Elementary School Librarian Jami Badershall was cleaning the back room of the library, and she started going through cardboard boxes. She found two old books, both in fragile condition, but she didn’t know what to do with them.

“I just left them there for awhile, but I thought I should do something,” Badershall said.

When she showed them to social studies teacher Crystal Knapp Polk, they decided the best place for them would be the Historical Society and presented them to the society’s archivist, Carl Stinchfield. He was astonished by the unexpected gift.

“These contain names of Strong High School students from 1895 to 1933, terms they were in school, and their grades,” he said. “This is a wonderful gift for our Historical Society.”

A second book contained neatly handwritten records of school board meetings. One directors’ report included an entry that George W. Norton was approved to start in September as a teacher at the Free School, with a salary of $62.50 a month. The student records also included letters from former students who needed to provide employers with a record of their grades.

The donation of the records coincided with the society’s start of the yearlong Maine Memory project to research and map local homes, businesses and townspeople’s lives after the Civil War.