Commander Robert Edwin Peary was one of the most well-known public figures in the US and around the world in 1909. An American explorer and naval officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Peary was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909.
What is less well-known is that during his triumphant return from the North Pole, Peary took his first steps on US soil in Vanceboro, on September 21, 1909.
Here is how the story of Peary’s visit to Vanceboro was first reported:
After the celebration in Vanceboro, Peary was met by big crowds in Lincoln and other towns along the route from Vanceboro on Bangor. In Bangor he was, once again, greeted by a large and enthusiastic throng of well-wishers:
From Bangor the Peary party made its way to Portland, for yet another celebration:
Peary’s accomplishment was also met with some significant controversy. Upon returning to civilization in 1909, Peary learned that Dr. Frederick A. Cook, a surgeon and ethnographer on the Peary expedition to Greenland in 1891-1892 claimed to have reached the North pole in April 1908. As the years went by, Peary’s claim was almost universally accepted until the 1980s when scholars, examining newly available documents, cast doubt on whether he had actually reached the pole or missed it by some miles.
For the thousands of Mainers from Vanceboro to Portland who greeted the great explorer more than a century ago, however, Peary would always be the man who “wrested from the heart of nature the greatest secret she has ever held” (see Wayne Reilly, “Bangor lionized Robert Peary on way home from North Pole,” Bangor Daily News, September 20, 2009, https://www.bangordailynews.com/2009/09/20/living/bangor-lionized-robert-peary-on-way-home-from-north-pole/ )
When the European & North American Railway Line connecting Maine to New Brunswick was completed in 1871 and the Shaw Brothers Tannery began operations, Vanceboro’s population grew quickly. Scores of enterprising young men and women migrated east to establish new lives and livelihoods on the banks of the St. Croix. This is the story of two of these newcomers who shared a common and arduous history: both were members of the famed 16th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment that served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Henry Mansfield was a Private in Company B. He joined the 16h Maine on September 8, 1863, at age 29. He was a farmer in Greenbush when he enlisted as a “volunteer substitute” for Melvin Grant, Esq. of Eddington. During the spring and summer of 1864, the 16th Maine fought with Grant’s Army of the Potomac in the bloody and brutal “Overland Campaign” in Virginia. Henry was captured in the battle of Weldon Railroad on August 19, 1864, and sent to three of the most infamous Confederate prisons: Libby, Belle Isle, and, finally, Salsbury. He was released in a prisoner exchange on June 21 and honorably discharged on July 21, 1865.
Horace Kellog was a Private in Company C. He joined the 16th Maine on September 3, 1864, at age 18. He was working on his father’s farm in Patten when he enlisted as a volunteer, having finally received his parents’ permission to do so (his older brother, Marcellus, a Private in the 1st Maine Calvary, had died earlier that summer). During the fall of 1864 and spring of 1865, the 16th Maine fought in the final battles of the war in southern Virginia; the regiment (including Horace) was present at Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. He was honorably discharged on June 5, 1865.
In spite of the regimental affiliation they shared, Henry and Horace never served in the 16th Maine at the same time. Henry was taken prisoner before Horace joined the regiment, and Horace was discharged before Henry was released. Yet just nine years later they would be neighbors on the west side of High Street in Vanceboro.
After the war, Henry returned to Greenbush, where he discovered that his first wife, assuming he had died in the war, had remarried. They were divorced in 1871. Because of injuries and illness during his imprisonment, he was unable to do manual labor. He became a night watchman for the Eastern & North American Railroad, perhaps first in Mattawamkeag, where he met Julia Kimball.
Henry bought their house on High Street in Vanceboro in December 1872 from George Sprague (opposite Second Street); he married Julia in May 1873. They moved to Vanceboro, and their four children, Harry, Carrie, Edith, and George were all born in the house. Henry worked for the railroad until his death on May 19, 1905, at the age of 72; he is buried in the Vanceboro cemetery.
After the war, Horace returned to Patten. He lost interest in farming, and, instead, decided to go into business with his cousin, Ezra Jameson, of Lincoln. They moved to Vanceboro, purchased land, and opened a store in 1872.
Horace married his first wife, Addie Tupper from Topsfield, in 1872. Addie bought their house on High Street in October 1874 from Wallis Works. Addie died in 1882; in 1884 Horace married Alice Cobb (the daughter of his neighbors, Charles and Sarah Cobb). Horace’s four children, Carl, Horace Jr., Harold, and Thelma, were all born in the house. Horace bought out his cousin, his store thrived, and he became one of Vanceboro’s most prominent citizens. He died on March 8, 1917, at the age of 72; he is buried in the Vanceboro cemetery.
We know very little about Henry and Horace’s relationship during the 31 years they were neighbors in Vanceboro. Were they friends? Did they talk about their experiences in the war? We know that Henry attended at least one regimental reunion (in Augusta in 1883); perhaps Horace joined him? Perhaps they attended GAR Post meetings in Calais or Eastport together? Or, perhaps they weren’t interested in reliving the horrors of the war, or their social circles were different enough that their paths rarely crossed, even in a small town. No matter what, they both served the union with distinction and valor and Vanceboro is proud to call them her own.
The Exchange Hotel is well-known in Vanceboro history because of its association with Werner Horn’s failed attempt to blow up the railroad bridge spanning the St. Croix in February 1915.
What is less well-known, however, is that the hotel, operated by James Tague’s son Aubrey, and neighboring buildings, owned by prominent businessman Horace Kellogg, tragically burned just a year later, on April 22, 1916.
According to the Bangor Daily News, “On Wednesday morning about 2 am a fire broke out at the rear of the Exchange Hotel. Before it was discovered the hotel was on fire, from there the fire spread to the store of and barn owned by Horace Kellogg. Many other houses were threatened, especially Mr. Kellogg’s storehouse and the residence of L. Field. These buildings were saved only by the heroic work of the soldiers of the 62nd Contingent from St. Croix, and much praise and thanks are due to them.”
There was only one immediate casualty of the fire. Henry Lowe of Danforth was staying overnight in the hotel with his cousin James McTague, intending to travel to Bangor in the morning.
But the fire and subsequent losses took its toll on Horace Kellogg, too. He died in March 1917, and his obituary includes the following: “a little over a year ago the store in which he started business in Vanceboro was burned at the time of the burning of the Exchange Hotel. The old building held associations for Mr. Kellogg which inevitably came of long associations with such things and his friends had noticed a great change in him since that time.”
After the fire the hotel was never rebuilt. In the fall of 1916 the hotel lot was divided between James Tague’s heirs: Bertha Tague Keef and her husband Ralph built a house on the west side of the hotel lot that was purchased by Faye and Georgia Crandelmire in 1934 and still stands today. Aubrey Tague’s store occupied the east side of the hotel lot for many years.
The Vanceboro Exchange Hotel located on First Street where Reg Crandlemire’s house was builtAub Tague’s store….
We’ve taken a deeper dive into the life of one of Vanceboro’s most adventurous and accomplished “daughters”– Ruth Carolyn Holbrook (1896-1993).
Ruth’s remarkable story is linked, of course, to that of her mother, Louisa Catherine Sprague Holbrook (1863-1937), and Louisa’s father (Ruth’s grandfather), George MB Sprague (1828-1913), one of Vanceboro’s “founding fathers.” Sprague was a farmer living in Princeton, Maine, married to Rhoda Colwell Sprague (1834-1870) when Louisa—their first child–was born. A year after Rhoda’s death in 1870, followed shortly by two of Louisa’s younger siblings, George married Margaret Bishop and accepted a position as Deputy Collector of Customs in Vanceboro. The family relocated to Vanceboro when Louisa was eight. The family lived in a big house on the corner of Second and Shaw Streets, where they raised five children.
In 1887, when Louisa was 24, she married local businessman E. A. Holbrook (1863-1934). They immediately moved into the large Holbrook house on Salmon Brook Road, where E.A. and his brother Harry had been raised by E.T. and Mary Holbrook. E.A. and Louisa raised three daughters in that house: Mary (1888-1941), Margaret (1891-1973), and Ruth. The doting parents had three small white stones, one for each daughter, embedded in the living room stone fireplace.
Louisa’s adult life was comfortable, and she enjoyed the benefits and privileges afforded to her as the spouse of a successful businessman and landowner in Vanceboro during the first decades of the 20th century. For example, on the 1900 census, E.A., Louisa, and their three daughters, along with the widowed E.T., are listed as living in the house along with an 18-year-old servant, Essa Stythan. Louisa’s obituary says that she was “long prominent in fraternal and social life in Vanceboro….[s]he was a charter member of Washington Temple Pythian Sisters…a member of the nonpareil chapter, Order of the Eastern Star…and chairman of the Vanceboro branch of the Calais chapter of the Red Cross.” In addition, “of a social disposition, Mrs. Holbrook was known and esteemed by the entire community personally and in social gatherings.”
We don’t know much about Ruth’s early life. She went to Vanceboro schools, and she likely travelled with her family during holidays. She graduated from Vanceboro High School and entered Colby College in the fall of 1915, at the age of 19 (following in the footsteps of her sister, Margaret, who graduated from Colby in 1912). While there, she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, the Chi Gamma Theta sophomore society for women, the Ladies Glee Club, and the Guitar Club.
Ruth is third from left in the top row
We can only guess why Ruth decided to leave Colby after only two years. She was certainly a gifted artist, and perhaps Colby did not provide her with enough training or academic support in that realm. Maybe Colby’s small campus in Waterville did not feel like a good fit. Perhaps she had bigger dreams. In any case, she spent the 1917-1918 academic year “attending an art school” in Boston, according to the Bangor Daily News; in January 1920, she was reportedly “attending school” in New York City.
We do know that in May 1922, at the age of 25, Ruth applied for a US passport to travel to Belgium, France, and Switzerland, sailing on the Melita out of Montreal. Her passport application lists her address as 266 West 94th St. in Manhattan and her occupation as a “costume designer.” She continued to live and work in New York through the 1920s and 1930s. She is listed on the 1930 Federal Census as living on West 92nd St. in Manhattan as a “roomer.” Her occupation is listed as “buyer for specialty shop.” We don’t know more about her professional life during this period—possibly she was employed in the arts, design, and fashion industry during the difficult years of the Depression.
Ruth’s 1922 Passport Picture
Ruth was certainly a talented artist. By the mid 1930s she turned her attention to illustrating children’s books, and subsequently, wrote and illustrated her own. Her first illustrated book was Blanche Elliott’s Timothy Titus (Doubleday, Doran, & Co., 1937), followed by a “junior” book she wrote and illustrated herself. Cap’n Benny’s Birdhouses (Doubleday, Doran, & Co.,1938), follows an unlikely friendship between a boy and a lonely retired Northeast Harbor sea captain. She then illustrated Hildreth Tyler Wriston’s Camping Down at Highgate (Doubleday, Doran, & Co., 1939). In 1940, she published her most well-known book, Katy’s Quilt (Doubleday, Doran, & Co., 1940).
Katy’s Quilt tells the story of a young girl and her family living in Washington County, Maine, just after the Civil War. The book is fascinating because, while Ruth clearly took some literary license in telling Katy’s story, it reflects quite accurately real events in Ruth’s family and in the growing towns of Calais, Princeton, and Vanceboro in the 1860s and 1870s.
Katy (clearly modeled after Ruth’s mother Louisa Catherine) is excited when her father (modeled after Ruth’s grandfather, GMB Sprague) takes a new job in Vanceboro. The family packs up their belongings, takes a horse and wagon to Calais, then a train up the Canadian side of the St. Croix River, and walks across the unfinished bridge to Vanceboro and their newly built home “on the top of the hill.” Once the bridge is completed, the whole town celebrates President Ulysses S. Grant’s visit to Vanceboro to commemorate the completion of the European & North American Railway. And Katy even gets to meet the President, who compliments her on her shiny new tassled shoes.
Katy’s Quilt was the Literary Guild’s selection for August 1940. It also received a glowing review from Oscar Shephard in the Bangor Daily News. While this “delightful” book about a family of “Maine pioneers of an earlier and more rugged day” is “intended primarily for little ones,” writes Shephard, “it will appeal also to those adults fortunate enough to have retained a touch of childhood’s idealism in their hearts.” The book is “simply and honestly told,” and “Miss Holbrook has a deft literary touch. Her style is smooth as velvet—or, if you prefer another simile, a flowing crystal stream that carries the reader along with it. She writes with effortless art.”
In spite of the success of Katy’s Quilt and Ruth’s obvious talent as an artist and writer, she published nothing after 1940, either as author or illustrator. Instead, she continued to work in the New York City retail industry. She is listed in the 1940 census as living in Scarsdale, NY with her sister Margaret Titcomb and Margaret’s son Lee Raymond Titcomb (age 11). Margaret is registered as the “owner” of “ladies retail apparel” and Ruth is listed as “saleswoman” of “ladies retail apparel” (it would seem they worked together in the store Margaret owned). Ruth does not appear in the 1950 census; Margaret and Lee, do, however, living together (without Ruth) in Eastchester, NY (a 10-minute drive from their 1940 Scarsdale address).
In 1952, at the age of 56, Ruth upended her life and changed her professional direction completely. She and her nephew, Lee (then age 23) founded Woodbury Pewter in Woodbury CT. According to Lee’s son, Brooks Whitcomb, current CEO of the company (now in its 73rd year of operation), Lee was an electrical inventor and engineer and Ruth was working for major department stores designing window displays. With Ruth’s marketing and design background and Lee’s mechanical skills, they decided to go into business together. What distinguished Woodbury Pewter was craftsmanship — each piece was made by hand, using the tools and methods utilized by pewter smiths in the 1700s and 1800s. When they started the business, according to Brooks, “Dad would make the pewter and my great aunt Ruth would load up her Studebaker station wagon; and like the old-fashioned Yankee peddlers, would zoom around to little stores all over New England, selling the wares they were making.”
Ruth and her nephew Lee Titcomb, Jr.
Later in life, Ruth moved to Mexico to live, once again, with her sister Margaret. There she studied art, shifting from watercolor to acrylic, and producing colorful portraits of local people and sweeping landscapes in Mexico. In 1973, at the age of 82, Margaret died and was buried in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
The final chapter in Ruth’s remarkable life was spent in Florida, living with family and continuing to paint. Ruth died in Palm Beach on February 20, 1993 at the age of 97.
Vanceboro Historical Society 