ALEXANDER

MISSION STATEMENT - The Alexander-Crawford Historical Society exists 1) to collect information of historical and genealogical value of these two towns and the area, to organize this information, and to disseminate it to those interested through our newsletters, 2) to create an awareness of local history through outreach programs at the school. Grange Hall, and local libraries, and 3) to collect a record of current community activities for future historians.

A-CHS Activity Report for 2001

On September 15 the Alexander Time Capsule was sealed in the History Dome on Baltic Island in Barrows Lake. Our capsule was one of 28 that will be opened in 50 years. Also in the dome are 6 capsules to be opened in the year 3000! This project made us examine yesterday and today, and to think about tomorrow in our community and our world. The dome was built by members Roland and Grazina Paegle and will be available in future years for more capsules.

Project scholar Dave Chase and staff created two new IMAGE OUTREACH exhibits, one on barns and the other on photographs by Robert Hyde. Bob Hyde’s pictures are different than any other show we’ve had. They are all by one person, all taken in one year (1961), are in color, and taken from an artist’s point of view. We hung five shows; Robert Hyde Photographs at the Grange Hall for Hunters’ Lunches, Blackie Langlais at the Calais Library, Stowell-MacGregor Mill for the Fourth of July and the A-CHS genealogy fair, and Woods Operations after the War and School Days at Woodland Public Library. IMAGE OUTREACH is supported in part by the Maine Humanities Commission.

We published our quarterly newsletter, this year with a series of articles about nineteenth century poverty in our area. Our special issue is an autobiography of Walter Moraisey of Crawford, which gives an excellent description of growing up in rural Washington County between 1925 and 1953.

We started another project for future historians. There are several people who know the locations of numerous cellars and gravesites. This fall Cecil Keen and John Dudley got GPS readings for these sites in Cooper. These are being indexed by occupant.

A-CHS published quarterly newsletters featuring series on local businesses, neighborhoods, families, and entries from a 1925 diary. Our special issue was Daniel S. Seavey's Civil War Diary. We mounted "IMAGE OUTREACH" exhibits at the Grange Hall and at Calais Library. We purchased 9 books about Maine for the library at Alexander Elementary School and worked with some of the scholars on their Maine Heritage Day projects. We had one history hike with adults. This was the 175th year of incorporation for Alexander. The town's people erected a flagpole and a Veterans' Monument and ACHS had exhibits as part of that celebration.

TIME CAPSULE - A major project for this past year has been the preparation of materials to place in a time capsule. How thrilled we would be today if we were presented with a time capsule of 50 or 100 years in age. That apparently isn't going to happen now in Alexander, but we'll do our best to see that this happens in 2050.

We have a photograph album showing each seasonal and year-round home in Alexander, over 350 separate buildings. These have been identified by their 911 address and the list of current occupants. Member Grazina Paelge took numerous pictures of Alexander folks in various activities, from ice fishing, to blueberry raking, to our 175th celebration. That's a second album.

We have collected into a binder all the news clippings of the Alexander-Crawford area plus The Panther Press, the monthly newsletter of Alexander Elementary School. The students there also did interviews with "grandparents" about their growing-up days for the time capsule. A-CHS created a business directory as well.

Sometime in the summer of 2001, the time capsule will be placed in the Monolithic Millennium Island Dome. This 16 by 29 foot cement structure is in Alexander. It is designed to last 1000 years. In it will be stored various time Capsules, 50 year, 100 year and 1000 year capsules. Space is still available in the dome.