Strong, a Mussul Unsquit village

Through Sleet, Snow, and Hail.....
Communication evolved as populations grew in Franklin County towns. Two hundred years before zip codes and email, mail delivery was relatively simple and unsophisticated. Bridle paths were the only tracks for early mail carriers through the wilderness north of Augusta. The first mail route to Strong was established in 1819.

These men rode through the villages on horseback with their mailbags. Mail carriers had a pouch for each town: Strong, Kingfield, Salem, Carrabassett, Stratton, Eustis, Bigelow, Phillips, Madrid, and Rangeley. The early mailmen wore tall hats with wide bands, and as they collected letters along the way, they tucked them into those hatbands.

The first postmaster was William Read, and the post office was in his home. The post offices continued in private homes without a formal name until 1837. When the newly-named Strong Post Office moved to a three-story structure, customers would enter at the basement level from the sidewalk.

This structure remains today as a private home in the center of town. The set-up was casual by today’s standards. Letters for residents were dropped into a bin on a wheel by the first letter of a person’s last name. That person would turn the wheel to that letter, open that bin, take out his mail, and close the cover. Even after the post office began using individual boxes, no one used a lock.

At the turn of the 20th century, Postmaster Nelson Walker was also the town’s undertaker. At that time, licensing and embalming were not required, and the caskets were kept in the back room and under the building, with access through a trap door in the floor. Imagine that casual an arrangement today!

Larger deliveries came through the railroad station at the base of Norton Hill. Lucky residents might collect a box of fresh bananas and oranges in midwinter, along with their store catalogs and other commodities.

Bringing Water To The Town
Water and continuous access to it has been a community focus. Most houses had a well, but as the village grew, residents formed the Strong Water District in 1908, laying a water line from nearby Day Mountain Pond.
The Strong Water Company was created by an act of the Legislature on March 15, 1899. A corporation of seven townspeople was formed to construct and administer the system. Most of the physical labor was completed between 1904 and 1905. A few years later, the town took over the administration of the Water Company. In 1913, the townspeople voted to accept the incorporation of Strong Water District, which was created by another act of the legislature.

This quasi-municipal non-profit organization had a board of three trustees elected by the voters of the district. Since this time the District has operated under the same regulations. The town got its water through a four- inch distribution line from Day Mountain Pond, but about 30 years ago, there was a landslide at the screen chamber of the gravity feed system. After that incident, some shale lodged in the pipe, causing a partial blockage. This incident, along with increased demands to the system, required the town to consider alternative sources of water supply. ­­­For several years, they maintained a water pump at the north end of town to supply a reservoir for fire protection. After a drought lowered the level of Day Mountain Pond to a point below the dam, the town had to install a suction pump to keep water supplied to the town.

In 1975, the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed, and the Department of Human Services required residents to boil their drinking water. In 1979, Strong began the process of designing and building a new system, consisting of a deep well pumping station on the South Strong Road. The town added a 500,000-gallon enclosed concrete reservoir at the north end of town, with a 12-inch distribution pipe.