In 1910, Maine was at the peak of an immigration wave that was providing crucial labor for its biggest industries. The US Census of that year found that 16% of Maine’s population, or one in eight residents, were immigrants. That’s a far greater share than today, when less than 3% of the state’s population was […]
In the early twentieth century, thousands of children worked in Maine’s manufacturing industries – in textile mills, shoe shops, granite quarries, and sardine canneries. These children faced dangerous working conditions, worked long hours, and missed out on the opportunity for an education. Although the state did pass a series of laws to regulate child labor, these […]
Maine Governor Paul LePage once again made national headlines for his defense of President Trump – and by extension, of confederate monuments – when he claimed that 7,600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy. That unsubstantiated claim appears to be off by a magnitude of several hundred, since the known number of Maine Copperheads is around […]
The history of Maine’s brief, but intense, association with the Ku Klux Klan is becoming increasingly well-known. Along with a large portion of the country in the early 1920’s, Maine was home to a Klan chapter with a significant membership, which held significant sway over local politics. While the Klan had its beginnings with former […]
Eight years ago, a barren tongue of land of half a dozen acres or so…today peopled with from 1,200 to 2,000 people, according to how you estimate, with almost 200 tenement houses… And yet they talk of Western booms. The growth of Lewiston’s “Little Canada” district was as rapid and astounding to those who witnessed […]
In 1897, the Franco-American national society of Lewiston, Maine, held a parade to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding. The Institut Jacques-Cartier had helped the community celebrate the feast of Saint John the Baptist – La Saint-Jean – every year on June 24th, but the 1897 parade was a special occasion. In addition to celebrating the […]
In 1886, the school board of the city of Augusta noted that as more French Canadians were coming to the city, they were increasingly bringing their families with them, or starting families in their new homeland. As a result, the committee recommended that these young “French scholars” be educated in the city’s public school system. […]
Pride. Character. Betterment. A few of the reasons Aimée McDuff of Brunswick gave his friend Philias Morin for his enlistment in the US Army in the fall of 1917. McDuff, a Franco-American, enlisted in the Engineer Corps, but transferred to the Medical Corps where his ability to speak French was highly valued. McDuff’s letter was written from […]
In several histories of the Catholic church in Bucksport, Maine, the tradition is maintained that the earliest members of that faith to settle in the town came from Quebec around 1835 – a distance of 200 miles – on foot. Remarkable as this is, the backstories of some of these families may be even more […]
Our element, like all others, maybe even more than all others – bound by tradition and character – must get involved, and cooperate. Such was the firm pronouncement of La Justice of Biddeford, Maine, on its front page for April 12, 1917, just a few days after the US Congress had declared war on Germany. The prominent column, entitled […]
