Memories of Days Past

            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. Heebner, Druggist were also on the millsite. Heebner was located near where the Administration Building was built (1911-12) and an early Post Office was nearby (C.E. Eastman, Postmaster). Earlier, the PO was in the old Powers farmhouse.

            The Smith’s had access to an account written (date unknown) by a Mrs. Walker describing her arrival in Millinocket. “It was 80 slow miles from Bangor by train to our destination and we were a tired band when around 8 o’clock we arrived at the station in Millinocket. It was too far to walk to our house, so we were crowded into a dilapidated old hack driven by a Mr. McEwen (horse-drawn). The driver picked his way carefully around stumps of huge trees bumping, careening and unexpected swipes of tree branches…we arrived at our future home. It looked comforting to us as we stood out in the black cold night.” The article continues, “In the morning, I woke with a feeling of curiosity, what would this town look like? It was breathtaking…up to the deep blue sky stood Mt. Katahdin. When I could drag myself away from the window, I looked in another direction and saw streets laid out and houses in the process of being built by GNP. Further away there were shack after shack in which people were living while their houses were being furnished. Even further away were great tall chimneys and a big paper mill.”

            Mrs. Walker’s story continues, “It was a planned town with a man-made lake. It was a town of young men and only a few girls who were sought after and popular.”

            “Another feature of the town was that people were drawn here to work in the mill from the four corners of the United States.  It was also an international affair because there were French, Canadians, Polish, Italians. Different people with different ways of life, so people coming here had to adjust to each other.”

            “Millinocket, being a long way from any place of much size, had to make its own good times. There were lots of parties at the boarding house up back of the mill on Shack Hill which was run by a Mr. and Mrs. Moore. They used to gather the young people in real often for a big party with games and dancing.”