The Lincolnville Bicentennia, held in June 2002, was a tremendous celebration, enjoyed by all who attended. The original call for community support is below and the website for the celebration is archived here. Come in and take a look around!
HISTORY ALL AROUND US
Our community is planning and holding events
leading up to the big day – June 23, 2002. A large and enthusiastic
committee meets monthly in the town office to plan for the big year.
A Bicentennial is the time for a town to explore its past while making
sure we’re on the right course for the future. Our Bicentennial
committee is trying to do both. Several historical projects are in
the planning stages for the big celebration. Among these are walks
along old roads and to interesting sites, a bus tour to Lincolnville’s
one-room schoolhouses, and erecting signs at cemeteries, old school
sites and other historical sites.
Lincolnville, Maine is a rural place. Most properties share at least
one boundary line with the woods or fields giving everyone easy access
to the uninhabited parts of town. Old roads lead to the settlements,
farms and neighborhoods of an earlier time. Buried under the leaves
and woodland debris can be found cellar holes, foundation rocks, wells,
stone walls, abandoned vehicles and tools.
1770 is traditionally cited as the year of first permanent settlement
by a family of European origin. Though there are no official records
we know people had been living as squatters along the coast for many
years before that. And much evidence of Native American occupation
of our shores exists as well. The roads we travel every day are built
on the wagon tracks and footpaths of these earlier people; the beaches
we enjoy have been visited by canoes and coastal schooners, our frozen
lakes the site of industrious ice cutting and wood hauling.
Most towns today have such transient populations that people barely
know each other. Here, though, we find a large number of people descended
from the earliest settlers; sometimes it seems as if everyone’s
related. Such close family ties preserve many of the stories of the
past. This collective memory is lost in most communities today; in
Lincolnville it is one of our most unique features.
Each of us, no matter how long we’ve lived in Lincolnville, can
know something of this history just by talking with our neighbors.
We can walk the woods as a detective would, looking for clues to what
occurred there. If we’re one of the descendents of Nathan Knight
(the first permanent settler), Noah Miller, Joshua Lamb, William Moody,
Chesley Heal or others of the thirty-three Heads of Household listed
in the 1790 census, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to
Lincolnville’s story. We can search through family papers, photographs
and memorabilia, adding them to what’s already known about our
town.
GETTING EVERYONE INVOLVED
One of the goals of the Bicentennial committee
is to have as many people involved in planning and carrying out the
activities of the year 2002 as possible. One way is for YOU to volunteer
for a project. If you live "away" and are only here part
of the year, you are urged to get involved. Send a note to the Bicentennial
committee c/o Skip Day, our secretary, at the town office, Hope Road,
Lincolnville, Maine 04849 and let us know of your interest. To send
a donation address it to Bicentennial Year, c/o Rosemary Winslow,
Treasurer, RR 1 Box 4265, Lincolnville, Maine 04849, or email us at
the Lincolnville Historical Society.
The Bicentennial committee meets the second Sunday of each month at 7 p.m. in the town office. The meetings are open to any and all participants. Summer residents are urged to join us when they arrive.