Moore, Ruth

Weir in a Cove on Beals Island (2004)

1903 Birth, July 21 on Gott’s Island at the mouth of Blue Hill Bay. 1917 Goes to the mainland; stays with relatives while attending Ellsworth High School. 1921 Graduates from Ellsworth High, attends New York State College for Teachers in Albany. Her writing talent is recognized and encouraged by an English professor. 1925 After college,…

Native Americans by County, Percent

Map: Native Americans by County 2010

In 2010 the three counties in which Indian reservations exist had the largest proportion of Native American residents.  Washington leads with 4.5 percent of the county’s population.  Aroostook (1.5%) and Penobscot (.9%) follow.  The Native American population statewide is 0.6%. County Percent Washington 4.5% Aroostook 1.5% Penobscot 0.9% Piscataquis 0.6% Kennebec 0.5% Somerset 0.5% Androscoggin…

Nearing, Helen Knothe

Mail Box at the Good Life Center (2008)

(1904-1995) was a self-sufficient organic farmer and author whose life with her husband, Scott Nearing, struck a powerful chord with thousands of people. Later labeled the “back-to-the-land movement,” generations of people, some disenfranchised by McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and the greed of modern society, adopted new values exemplified by the Nearings and others. These included…

Nevelson, Louise

Louise Nevelson, ca. 1955, Smithsonian Archives of American Art

(1899-1988) was a prominent sculptor, painter, and printmaker, born on September 23, 1899, in Pereyaslav, Russia. At the age of five, she came to Rockland with her mother, older brother, and younger sister to join her father, Isaac Berliawsky, who had immigrated a few years earlier. Although she took the commercial course at Rockland High…

Norcross, Leonard

(1798-1864) was born on June 18, 1798 in Readfield and became a millwright and a mechanic. He later moved to Dixfield where he developed several inventions. According to Stover in Eminent Mainers, they included a threshing and separating machine, a nail-making machine, patented in 1824, an accelerated spinner for hand-woven wool, patented in 1835, a…

Nordica, Lillian

Lillian Nordica, courtesy Maine State Museum

(1857-1914) was born on the family farm in Farmington as Lillian Bayard Norton. According to one observer, she was “America’s first and most glamorous opera singer to attain true international prominence.” After the financial failure of the farm and, two years later, the tavern they bought, her family moved to Boston in 1864. Eventually Lillian…

Parsons, Stephen

Stephen Parsons House (1983)

(1778-1862) A model of early 19th century upward mobility and entrepreneurial skill, Stephen Parsons  came to Edgecomb in 1801 with his wife, Margaretta Frederick Randall, daughter of Benjamin Randall, founder of the Free Will Baptist denomination. His career from that point was marked by continuous success for most of the rest of his life. Beginning…

Patch, Edith Marion

Edith M. Patch House (2001)

Dr. Edith Marion Patch taught entomology at the University of Maine and served as director of entomology at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station from 1903- 1937. Patch was the first woman to head a state agricultural experiment station department and was honored for her scholarship and educational leadership in 1930 by being elected president of…

Perkins, Frances

Frances Perkins Center on Main Street in Damariscotta (2014)

While she was born in Boston, Frances Perkins considered her family’s “Brick House” in Newcastle to be her home. As the National Park Service observed in its National Landmark Nomination document: The Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, is nationally significant as the ancestral home and lifelong summer residence of Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor…