In Millinocket’s early days, Fred W. Gates took on the role of police chief and fire chief in the rapidly growing town here in the woods. It appears that things tended to be a bit chaotic as the population grew, more businesses opened, more homes were being built and the town government was organized. Fred Gates became the town’s first fire chief in 1902 and continued in that position until 1936. MFD, a volunteer fire department, was organized after a May 1901 tow

In the 1920’s, Penobscot Avenue was a busy place. Other locally owned businesses and services could be found on other close-by downtown streets. Everything you needed, from coal to heat your home, school clothes for your children, a spinal adjustment…it all could be found along Penobscot Avenue or nearby. The following tells of a few of those businesses. Information is from the April 16, 1924 issue of The Old Town Enterprise. F. O. Daisey & Company were dealers i

Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM! By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. From 1868 to 1970, it was observed on May 30 no matter what day of the week. Originally called Decoration Day, since 1971, it is observed on the last Monday of May and known as Memorial Day. A long

“You can’t get there from here!” might well had been said often in Millinocket’s early days. Millinocket’s location was very different from many New England towns which were often situated on roads leading to nearby villages. Millinocket’s location, surrounded by woods, was serviced only by the B & A Railroad which passed nearby on its way to Aroostook County to haul potatoes to points south. The early logging operations of GNP were reached by a woods road that followed Milli

Magic City Becoming Famous As One of Vacation Centers reads a 1932 caption in the local newspaper. Sub headlines read: IS NEAR KATAHDIN and Good Fishing and Hunting Abound Near Town – Good Facilities. The article (found in a Chamber of Commerce secretary’s repot book) has the name Frank H. Speed handwritten on it. Speed was secretary of the Chamber at that time. The article highlights some of the area’s attractions and that the town “is fast becoming a recreation

The Millinocket Insurance Agency closed recently after many years of conducting business on Penobscot Avenue. The museum has recently received items from the business from third generation owner Robert Speed. From the beginning of town, Millinocket Insurance was the place to purchase railroad tickets. One item, a Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Time Table from 1907, has many rules and regulations “for employees only.” It outlines the movement for trains and includes

New housing areas continued to develop between the 1920’s and 1950’s and the older areas saw changes. Some of the Italian immigrants had paid off their debts for passage to America and built their own homes across the stream from the mill. Medway Road, the old tote road to Medway and the Penobscot River and the only route out of town at that time, saw homes built on the town end. Many of these small homes had mill wrapper paper on the inside and tarred paper plus

Millinocket’s housing story began with shacks on the mill site for Italian workers and tenement houses and boarding houses near the mill. Over the years, different areas were developed (Little Italy, across the tracks, The Flats, Tin Can Alley, The Pines, etc.) and are still known by the names they were called by early town residents. McLeod in Story of the Great Northern Paper Company quotes an ad in the Bangor Whig and Currier (July, 1899) asking for responsible

A National Guard Company was first established in Millinocket prior to WWI. Some information about Company E and Company I of the 3 rd Maine Regiment has been included in earlier writings. Company E met and drilled at the former Union Chapel building near the mill gate and eventually people referred to the building as the Armory. Company E members served in WWI in Europe. In later years, Company I members trained at the “new” armory on Spring Street and many of

On Jan. 6, 1928, a bronze memorial plaque on the front of the GNP administration building was unveiled in honor of Garret Schenck. The unveiling took place on the day of his funeral in Weston, Massachusetts. The plaque reads “To Garret Schenck, Founder and for Thirty Years President of the Great Northern Paper Company. He Planned and Constructed the Paper Mills at Millinocket, East Millinocket, East Madison and Madison, adding Much That Was Original in the Development of the

Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM! By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum Millinocket, Penobscot County Maine, population 2500, January 1904. This information is on page one of a map book by the Sanborn Map Company of New York. This book and three more are in the collection of the Millinocket Historical Society. The 1904 book shows the layout of the downtown area with street names and information regarding water facilities and fire protection.

Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM! By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum Shack Hill, Society Hill, Across the Tracks, New Development…words used to describe various sections of Millinocket through the years. And don’t forget Little Italy directly opposite the mill across Millinocket Stream. This neighborhood began when John Merrill, supervisor of GNP mill construction, went to Boston to secure Italian contract labor. Through Marco (Lavogne) Lav

In the early, 1970’s, Marion Whitney Smith & husband Kingman Smith wrote weekly articles for the Katahdin Journal. The following bits of information are from those articles. The Smiths had been in Millinocket from about the 1930’s and they also interviewed older Millinocket locals. The first “stores” in the new town were on the mill site and one was Kimballs’ General Store in the mill yard. (He later had a large store downtown.) Gonya Brothers Boots and Shoes and Wm.

Sixty-three years ago (March 1963), the Stearns High School Minutemen made basketball history! Following are excerpts from some of the news articles about the games. March 16-17, Bangor Daily News sports page…Stearns, Morse Make New England Cage Bids Tonight. For the first time, Maine will send two teams to the event, Morse High School and Stearns High School…and both teams face major hurdles. Stearns faces a tougher assignment (than Morse)…but Stearns has display

As the U.S. was coming out of the Depression of the 1930’s, Millinocket saw new growth including a new post office and a new school. Under the leadership of Father Quinn, a funding campaign began for the construction of a Catholic parochial school, St. Martin of Tours school. It would be a brick structure located beside the St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church and be constructed mostly by volunteer labor. (At that time the original Catholic Church was where the parking area be

A battery-operated crank GNP telephone from the driving operation at the head of Millinocket Lake was donated to the museum a while ago. A written note with the donation explains its earlier use. “Circa 1900 Rush had a sawmill in The Pines at the confluence of Millinocket Stream and Smith Brook. Pine and spruce logs were driven down Sandy Stream and Mud Brook to holding dams. There were holding dams at the head of Millinocket Lake by the Priest Farm. A wood-fired steamboat t

During its tenure, the GNP Millinocket mill had quite a few different paper machines. Sometimes, after years of use and the changing needs of the paper industry, a paper machine would be replaced. This began mid 1920’s (McCann reference) when the Canadian paper industry was producing more paper than the United States. Great Northern reduced its per ton paper price and decided to start replacing its almost 30-year-old paper machines. The May 1926 issue of The Nor

In Millinocket’s early days, businesses, doctors & lawyers offices and other establishments located in the downtown area did not have a street address, but were referred to by “block” location. There was the Decker Block, the Moore Block, the Hayden Block, the Rush Block, the Whalen Block and more. All advertisements in the local and Bangor newspapers used a block name. As time passed and new businesses took over a location, some names changed (Decker Block became known as De

Signs! Signs! Signs! Since the museum was organized in 1979, it has accepted donations of local signs…businesses, organizations, medical and more. A new exhibit at the Historical Society shows off a few from the collection. One of the oldest is a wooden Katahdin Avenue sign recovered in the 1980’s during a porch renovation. Another, with an interesting story, has one word MUSEUM, on it. This sign was created by Merrill Segee, one of the founders of MHS. He found the piece o

The onset of World War 2 brought about changes in the way Great Northern Paper Company produced paper. John E. McLeod describes some of the changes in his history The Northern, The Way I Remember . McLeod states that even before Pearl Harbor, war controls were in effect in the US & Canada. Most of these government agencies went by letters…example – OPM for Office of Production Management. By 1942, these agencies made it difficult for GNP to get needed materials for repairs,