NEWS AND PAST EVENTS
We had two fundraisers this Fall: Funky Bow Raffles and Community Yard Sale with the Masons' Lodge. You can find details of both these events on the Lyman Historical Society Facebook page.
GHOSTS AND GRAVEYARDS: This was a presentation by the Lyman Historical Society about some ghostly and mysterious happenings in our community. We open in the middle of a story by Roger Camire. When he was a teenager, he and some other guys were haying on a farm on Day Road when they came across some bones woodchucks had unearthed. They appeared to be human but they didn't find a skull. The farmer told them to rebury them and so they did!
"Man Digs Hole on His Land and Discovers Buried History"
Joe Wagner is a member of the Lyman Historical Society and a Lyman Select Board member. For our program, he recorded a story from the Portland Press Herald January 27, 2007. The story told about some human remains that were found on the land of Lyman resident Roland Nadeau. It was learned that the remains were of a soldier from the War of 1812!
The original article will be posted here.
Man digs hole on his and, discovers buried history
Old unmarked graves, including that of a soldier in the War of 1812, are found in Lyman.
From the Portland Press Herald, January 28, 2007
Noel K. Gallagher, Staff Writer
LYMAN- Roland was digging out a gravel bank on his land last summer when he made a grisly discovery: Near the edge of an old cellar foundation, his backhoe had triggered a sudden explosion of mice and what looked like human remains.
“Somehow or another I wound up with a body. It was quite a shock,” Nadeau said. He didn’t know it, but he had stumbled across an old, unmarked family cemetery containing seven bodies, including the grave of Gibbens Kimball, a soldier from the War of 1812.
“We didn’t even know it was there and we’ve owned this property ten years,” said Nadeau’s wife, Pauline. “It has sparked a lot of interest.”
There had been rumors of a soldier’s grave in the area, but no one knew exactly where, let alone what war. Even so, a town official would put up a flag every Memorial Day In the center of a nearby field, right up until she moved away two years ago.
Since the bones were near an old foundation, Lyman Code Enforcement Officer Polakewich thinks the house there probably burned in the 1947 wildfires that swept through the area, taking the house but were likely wooden grave markers. At the time, many families who lost everything in the fires just abandoned their properties and moved into town to work at mills, which would explain how the graveyard and its history had mostly faded from memory, he said.
“I’ve been doing this 26 years and this is the first time I’ve ever run into something like this”, Polakewich said. “It was quite interesting.”
Pauline Nadeau remembers that day very well: “All of a sudden (Roland) came in here and he was very, very pale. He said he thought he found a human leg bone… and sure enough it turned out to be one.”
They called the police, who in turn called Maine State Police and the Medical Examiner’s Office. They evacuated the rest of the body and found an oval medallion in mint condition, about three inches by six inches, inscribed with the name Charles Kimball and his birth date.
After checking the area immediately surrounding the site, officials told Nadeau he could resume digging. But a few days later, he turned up another body, along with a casket and some red lining. The Medical Examiner’s Office came back, removed he remains, covered the area with a tarp and some soil and told Nadeau to stop digging.
A state police detective researched “Charles Kimball” and previous property owners at Lyman Town Hall, then turned to the Lyman Historical Society. It was there that society member Pricilla Miles found a reference to an old grave site that was vaguely described as being “a quarter mile westerly from the home of Margaret Rummery.”
“Luckily there were still a few of us around who knew Margie and knew where her house was, said Miles. Rummery died in the 1960’s.
Armed with that information, Miles at the historical society passed along the following information from “Maine Cemetery Inscriptions”, which included an oral history from Miles.
(Buried in the Kimball plot) is Lyman Kimball…Also buried here (according to Miss Margaret Kimball) was Gibbens Kimball, a soldier in the War of 1812 and his wife (nee Weymouth); Orin Kimball and his wife (nee Hodgins); Charlie, Orin’s son, who was accidently killed on a railroad; and Orin’s infant daughter, Ruth, Miles read.
As a pre-1880 graveyard, the site is considered an “ancient cemetery” and because it contains the remains of a soldier, the town must be responsible for its upkeep. Lyman selectmen and the Nadeaus have agreed to re-bury in the same location this spring, once the snow melts.
A librarian at the State Historical Society said there is no record of Gibbens Kimball in the pension records or the list of military dead from the War of 1812 Because the war predated Maine statehood, soldiers from the region were considered Massachusetts soldiers.
Pauline Nadeau said her own research said her own research turned up the fact that there were two Kimball properties, theirs and a neighboring piece of property owned by two brothers, she thinks.
“Ours were probably the poor relations”, she joked, noting that the other property has a clearly marked Kimball family cemetery with granite headstones.”
Headstones or not, it is just one of many graves of a soldier from a long-ago war, according to Rod Stewart, the commander of the local American Legion post. “We have people who died in Andersonville (a Civil War battle {prison}) and a soldier buried out on Route 111, John Burbank, who sailed with John Paul Jones, he said.
Stewart is now working with the Veterans Administration to get a marker for Gibbens.
ACTON FAIR 2024
We wrapped up another successful four days at the Acton Fair, the third year we were invited by the curator of the fair’s MUSEUM, Else Cook. The topic this year was “The York County Soldiers Who fought in the Civil War’s Battle of Petersburg: The Crater”
The Union Army of the Potomac was commanded by Major General George Meade. The plan was to dig a tunnel under Confederate lines, later called Burnside’s Mine, and explode thousands of pounds of gunpowder followed by movement forward and eventual victory at Petersburg. This would have created a huge gap in the Confederate defenses and therefore been a huge Union victory. The plan might have worked but instead, right after the explosion, confusion set in due, perhaps to poor leadership. Instead of continuing forward movement, Union soldiers went INTO the gaping crater instead of continuing around it and forward. It was easy for the Confederate soldiers to surround them and attack and to take advantage of the Union’s confusion by regrouping to fight. For nine hours, the battle continued with 4,000 Union and 1,600 Confederate soldiers killed. It was a total military failure. The opening scent of the movie Cold Mountain graphically illustrates the explosion and resulting confusion.
More will follow about the York County soldiers’ experiences.
Here are some pictures from the fair.
The Lyman Society was organized to promote the history of Lyman and to build excitement in the community to learn as much as we can. We also appreciate and respect each other’s hard work. Recently, we honored our president, Millett Day, for what he has done as president of our organization for the past five years. Millet is our archivist and one of our researchers. Recently, he has been interested in the WWI veterans on our near the Community Library. You can find these write-ups under the VETERANS section of the website. Thank you, Millett!
The Civil War's 3rd Maine Reenactment Regiment Program
Thank you to all who attended the 3rd Maine Reenactment Regiment sponsored by the Lyman Historical Society. Those attending heard the amazing story about the Peach Orchard battle at Gettysburg, saw original artifacts from the family of one of the presenters, and witnessed a demonstration of drilling. The dedication of this regiment is evident by Sergeant Major Bob Pierce’s talk, the precision of the drills, and the enthusiasm when talking with attendees. you can see them at Arundel Heritage Day this summer in their encampment, another very interesting experience.
Pictured left to right: Sergeant Major Bob Pierce, 2nd Sergeant Dalton Hulsey, Quartermaster Sergeant Jay Carter, Corporal Tracey Levasseur, and Private Raul Pinto.
Spirit of America Award
The Lyman Historical Society wishes to congratulate the Lyman Cemetery Committee for being chosen as a Spirit of America recipient for York County. They were nominated by the Lyman Select Board for their tireless dedication to maintain the old cemeteries of our town. As a result, these beautiful resting places honor our ancestors. Pricilla Miles, a member of the committee, is also a member of the Lyman Historical Society.
COUSENS SCHOOL
What a wonderful time we had at our 2023 Members’ and Family BBQ! This year, we gathered at the home of Pat and Art Littlefield and gobbled down lots of chips/dips/salsa, many different salads, crunchy veggies, and many other starters. The Littlefield’s son, Jason, was our grill master cooking up great hot dogs and burgers. Thanks, Jason!! Homemade apple and blueberry pies by President Millett Day were out of this world and made a tasty plate of desserts with carrot cake bars, our celebration cake, and cookies. I’m guessing NO ONE went home hungry!!!
Please consider joining the Lyman Historical Society this year and then, we’ll look forward to seeing YOU at next years’ picnic!
Proceeds from this yard sale will help fund our archival work of historical documents. Throughout the year, we have events and presentations about Lyman’s history. Our most ambitious goal is to get land and a building to house our many artifacts and results of our research.
****Many thanks to all who came by our table at the Community Yard Sale held in front of the Masons’ Lodge. Your donations and purchases were greatly appreciated and we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events at Funky Bow and a talk about the Murphy Family.*****
LYMAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING
Our Society will be having our annual meeting on September 19 at the Arion Lodge at 6:00. We will be electing officers for the coming year. Please consider coming and joining us!
Here are the results of the election.
President: Millett Day
Vice President: Irene Single
Secretary: Patricia Littlefield
Treasurer: JoAnne Johnston
Trustees: Robert Cyr
Robert Perry
Evelyn Lord
FUNKY BOW FUNDRAISER