The Wing Newsletter 2010

As I have stated to you before, I have been working on family histories for a lot of years. I have recorded dates and facts and census records. But my very favorite part of genealogy are the stories that have passed down through the years. I can remember sitting in my Grandparent’s house in Kingfield and listening to stories about log drives, farming, family get-togethers and more. They always told about my great-aunt Georgie Wing Jackson going to a Wing Reunion when she was a small child. She burst into tears and when asked what was wrong, she told her mother she didn’t know she had such “looking relatives”.

My favorite stories were about Dead River and Flagstaff. I really feel honored to be descended from people whose roots go back to the beginning of those doomed towns. It was 60 years ago this year Central Maine Power flooded the towns.

The Wing family was there in the beginning. The infamous Cyrus Wing is listed on the 1850 Census as living in T3 R3 WKR in Somerset County, Maine. That stands for Township 3, Range 3, West of the Kennebec River. On December 25, 1873 he signed the following:

To the honorable County Commissioners within and for the County of Somerset. We the undersigned and legal voters of Township Number Three in the Third Range of Townships West of the Kennebec River in said county in the Bingham Kennebec Purchase as unincorporated place. Respectfully represent that as a Plantation we have no legal Organization and we humbly pray that you will immediately forward to this place a legal warrant for Organizing said Township for Plantation purposes said warrant to William O . Wyman one of your petitioners enabling us to act on the following article, To wit: 1st. To choose and moderator to preside over said Meeting. 2nd. To choose a Clerk for said Township 3rd. To choose three Assessors. 4th. To choose all other necessary officers. 5th To see what name we shall call said Township, when organized as a Plantation. William O. Wyman Cyrus Wing Nicholas Durrell

Then on January 14, 1874 a meeting was held by the residents of the township and the name Dead River Plantation was chosen.

In 1985, Ben Safford put together a book “Some History of The Dead River Valley”. I was privileged to have spent a day at his house with Freda Kelley one summer. He had the Dead River town books there and we spent the day going through them. I could have stayed for 3 days and not moved. It was history galore. I did find out that my Great-great-great Grandfather Cyrus Wing left Dead River and his wife lost their land to taxes. And it was my Great-great Grandfather Anthony Donahue who wrote up the order to take the land.

Ten years ago a group of people headed up by Ruey Stevens Baldwin and Duluth Wing gathered stories from former residents of the area and put together the book “There Was a Land”. It is a great book. Ruey passed away this past year. She was quite the lady. The dedication in the front of the books says it all:

“This book is dedicated to the children and the children’s children of the Dead River Valley. Without some record preserved and some stories told, they would be deprived of a part of their inheritance. These stories give meaning to the ordinary lives that helped shape out, and their, views of life, beliefs and dreams. May these stories continue to influence the future.”

In July of 1949, the residents of Dead River and Flagstaff came together for the last Old Home Days. It was a somber occasion. The Rev. Arthur MacDougall Jr. called it Maine’s most solemn Independence Day . “At this seeming burial of your little village, you, the people of Flagstaff can broadcast for all to hear that you have lived in one of Maine’s small villages beside a river, surrounded by mountains—a place where there was room to live and to work and to own one’s acres—that you have the dignity of everyday freedom the like of which there is no wealth or treasure to compare.”

Program for Old Home Days
Sunday July 3, 1949
Sermon 2 PM Band Concert 3 PM
Monday July 4
Race for boys under 12 (1st place W. Wing 2nd Gilbert Burbank)
Race for boys 12 to 16 (1st place Ralph Taylor 2nd Vernon Bean)
Race for girls under 15 (1st place Ruth Donahue 2nd Beverly Cook)
Team race for girls (1st place Joyce Wahl 2nd Noreen Tibbetts)
Fat men’s race (1st place Lee Ricker 2nd L. Dennis Moody)
11 to 12:30
Basketball game for girls in gym
Softball game for boys at diamond
2:00 PM
Speech by Rev. Arthur R. Macdougal
3:00 PM
Softball game (Flagstaff vs. Dead River)
Street Dance 8:00 PM

The following is a brief timeline of the disbanding of 2 towns:
July 3-4, 1949 The last Old Home Days.
Aug 16, 1949—The school board and selectmen make a recommendation to discontinue the schools in Flagstaff because everyone would be moved out of town by Nov. 30. The Dead River school house is moved to Stratton to be used as a Post Office.
Oct 31,1949—The last postmark is issued in Flagstaff.

Nov. 1, 1949—The Post Office in the E J Leavitt store is discontinued.

Nov. 28, 1949—Flagstaff votes to dispose of all the plantation property.

Dec 4, 1949—Only 12 natives remain in Flagstaff.

Jan 18 1950—LeRoy Parsons, the last resident of Dead River deeds his house and land to CMP as the “last man out”.

Feb 14, 1950—Last meeting of the Order of the Eastern Star is held in Flagstaff.

Mar 15, 1950—Telephone service to Flagstaff is cancelled.

Mar 17, 1950—Mail is no longer dispatched directly to Flagstaff and will be picked up in No. New Portland by the stage from No. Anson. The stage traveled through Lexington and Highland Plts. into Dead River as far as the point where the road to the CMP Co. Dam branched off. There were 9 people in town.

Mar 21, 1950—The State Election Division votes officially that the Somerset County town of Flagstaff is no more.

Mar 23,1950—Dead River Plantation closes it’s town books.

Mar 23, 1950—Water nears the village of Flagstaff.

May 24, 1950—Flagstaff Village is under 11 feet of water.

This is a brief look at the history of the area. The Wing family played a prominent part in the towns. They had farms, hotels, sporting camps and more. In the census records for the area, you find the families of Cyrus, Warren, Al, Cliff, Leon and many more. The history of the towns should be passed down through the generations. You should be able to go to the town where your mother was born. But we can’t. My mother was born in a house in Flagstaff and lived in Dead River until 1942. In fact, when my younger brother Rick was born in Bar Harbor the nurse came running into my mother’s room after she gave her the information for his birth certificate. She said, “Mrs. Bradbury, the town you were born in isn’t there anymore. “ My mother told her she knew that. I am just starting to teach my grand-nieces and nephews about the history of our family. They go camping at Flagstaff every year. I want them to know what lies beneath the lake. It is their heritage.

See you all in Hallowell on the 18th.