Friends Of
 
Whitefield
Newsletter - Feb 2003.    


Welcome to our 7th issue of the "on-line'  "Friends of Whitefield" newsletter. This  is a free, un-official, and occasional  e-zine about matters of our wonderful town, Whitefield, Maine.
David Chase -editor
 * How-to-Subscribe * How-to Contribute * Contact-Webmaker*


In This Issue: (just click on the picture or underlined link)....................................................................................................................

 
Remembering
Horace Kennedy 
A quiet and unassuming man who, like most of us, left a small footprint. But, upon reflection contributed much to our town's collective character. Click his picture to read one persons reminiscences of Hoddy, "who lived beside the road and was a friend to man.



 



Thinking and rethinking about our Minimum Lot Size Ordinance......

in the last issue, some questions concerning our Shoreland Zones were explored. 

Continuing this process of evaluating the need for and values of an updated Comprehensive Plan, click on the image to the left to read some thoughts about Whitefield's minimum lot size rules, a  history of our population flux, revealing census data and a look at some options.

 


 

 

Henry Waters (1899-1986) was arguably Whitefield's most active historian. He knew our first historian, the teacher Lore Hemingway Ford. Henry would tell stories of coming from Boston each summer (he lived in Marblehead) as a boy, to Wiscasset by the Maine Central and on the WW&F to Whitefield station. His family ran a hardware store in Marblehead and imported produce from Whitefield via our Narrow Gauge railroad. His ancestors were some of the founders of our town.

"Hen" wrote 3 booklets on town history focusing on Kings Mills and the East River Road.

In this issue we will begin serializing his book
"KINGS MILLS WHITEFIELD, MAINE" Volume Two of a Continuing History of the Town of Whitefield, Maine ......click on Henry's portrait to read this excerpt

Copies of this books are available from the Whitefield Historical Society at Uncas Farm Store.

 

 

 


 

 

When I got an E-mail from friends in town to be sure to watch "West Wing" because there was going to be a segment on the "HEIFER PROJECT", I thought that these people probably had no idea that the Heifer Project was alive and well, doing what it has done so well for years, right here in Whitefield 50 years ago.

Click the heifer to read about how the 4H in Whitefield worked closely with this famous international project to make Whitefield and the World a better place.


 

 
Ok, ok , this is probably the ultimate stretch for a "Friends of Whitefield" piece, but here goes: Many of my friends in town have heard my relentless urgings to read  Richard Dawkins fascinating book, "
The Selfish Gene". (click for reviews)
Well, on January 28, Mr. Dawkins wrote an eye opening short essay on computer software as the best analogy for genes. This refreshing view can be read by clicking here.

 

 

 


 

 

 

Continuing, we excerpt another story from Paul MacDonald's book 
"Early Years the 20th Century".

 
In this issue Paul recalls his memories of cutting hay. 
Click on the farmer to read his account

 


 

Tim Chase's Whitefield weather site can now be seen on the WxWatch.com website. Here is a different way to see the current data Tim collects every few minutes from his Grand Army Hill site. Click on the image to see it.

 

 


 

 

The Whitefield Bulletin Board page is bare ! 
I know something MUST be going on in town. 
It is easy to post your event. Click on the image to give it a try - 
or post for someone who may not have access to the Internet.

 

 


 

  *......for BACK ISSUES of "Friends of Whitefield" newsletters (click here)
*......for Whitefield weather
(click here)
*......for news of upcoming events in Whitefield, click here to see the Bulletin Board.
*
***  ....and of course click here to visit  the unofficial Whitefield website !

  *......to contact the editor (click here)


words to ponder.......

WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity. The student of history who has not been taught to expect the unexpected may justly boast himself inaccessible to the light. "In time of peace prepare for war" has a deeper meaning than is commonly discerned; it means, not merely that all things earthly have an end -- that change is the one immutable and eternal law -- but that the soil of peace is thickly sown with the seeds of war and singularly suited to their germination and growth. It was when Kubla Khan had decreed his "stately pleasure dome" -- when, that is to say, there were peace and fat feasting in Xanadu -- that he heard from afar
Ancestral voices prophesying war.

One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of "hands across the sea," and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity provide the night.

by Ambrose Bierce  1906

from    "The Devil's Dictionary"