Upcoming event:

Along the Andro: History and Habitat in Our Community
A free walking conversation led by the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society and Mahoosuc Land Trust
Saturday, May 2, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Davis Park, Bethel, ME 04217

Happy Saturday! We hope all of our readers in the Bethel area had a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful summer weather yesterday! While next week looks cooler, May is just around the corner and that means its almost time for one our favorite annual events. Jane’s Walk is a global festival of free, volunteer-led walking conversations inspired by community activist Jane Jacobs. Nearly 70 walks are happening just in the state of Maine!

This is our third year of participating in this great event, and this year we are excited to be partnering with our friends at the Mahoosuc Land Trust to lead “Along the Andro: History and Habitat in Our Community,” a walk along the Androscoggin River on the Bethel Pathway!

We will begin at noon at Davis Park and conclude at the Valentine Farm Conservation Center. Along the route we will be exploring the history and ecology of the Androscoggin River, including indigenous people, the importance of the river to agriculture and early industries, the pollution of the river and subsequent efforts to clean it up, river ferries, bridges, floods, and the flora and fauna of the riverside. Participation and discussion is encouraged and we especially welcome the sharing of memories from when the river was more contaminated than it is today.

Green Up Day

Our walk is timed to immediately follow Green Up Day, a volunteer roadside cleanup event. If you are interested in participating in Green Up, meet at Davis Park at 9:00 am and wear glove and a safety vest if you have one. Lunch will be provided for all Green Up volunteers at 11:30, and the walk will follow.

If you just want to come for the walk, that’s fine too! Just plan to arrive at Davis Park a few minutes before noon.

Tell someone how much you love them with an I Love You Box from Haven’s!

This gift contains a colorful assortment of chocolates including a mix of caramels and creams, specialty pieces like rich chocolate-covered fudge and chocolate-covered chewy vanilla nougat, all surrounding a milk chocolate “I Love You” card.

Click here to order online or call 207-824-2908.

This Sunday (September 7), from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, the Middle Intervale Meeting House Society will offer a free event for the community, featuring an open house and live music preformed by a local favorite, musician Seth Gallant.

Will Chapman, Historian of the Middle Intervale Meeting House Society and Executive Director of the Museums of the Bethel Bethel Historic Society, will present a brief overview of the meeting houses’s history. The Middle Intervale Meeting House was built in 1816 as a place for both religious and civic purposes. The building and its common were placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

The Meeting House is located at 745 Intervale Road, Bethel, across the street from the Carter family’s Middle Intervale Farm. Light refreshments will be served. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

August is here! The sun is still high in the sky, the days are long, and summer vacation is in its final stretch. It also means it’s time for one of our favorite traditions at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society: the Mill Brook Craft Series.

Held every Thursday afternoon at 1:00 PM in the Twitchell Education Center (the small building on the Mason House lawn), this series brings local artists, artisans, crafters, and experts of all kinds, to share their work, stories, and traditions with the western Maine community. From fabric to feathers, and from fishing line to our little fluttering friends, the pollinators, each week offers something different — and all are invited to attend!

We kick off this year’s series on Thursday, August 7, with a special program by our very own Donna Gillis, “resident quilter” at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society. Donna will share her work creating memory quilts — one-of-a-kind pieces made from the clothing of loved ones. These quilts transform worn shirts, favorite fabrics, and everyday materials into deeply personal scenes honoring the lives of those remembered. Join us as Donna walks us through her creative process and the meaning woven into every stitch. She will bring her current project, “Once Upon a Time I Was Little,” made from clothing once worn by a little girl who is now a young woman entering college.

Full Schedule

August 7 – Memory Quilts with Donna Gillis

August 14 – “Meet the Pollinators” with Julie Reiff

August 21 – Fly Fishing with Kevin Windsor

August 28 – Quilling with Sarah Hemeon

All programs are free and open to the public. Come for one or come for all — and bring a friend!

Our 2025 summer exhibit features over 70 paintings and other artworks of local scenes or by local artists from the MBHS collection, many displayed for the first time. The exhibit, in the Howe Exhibit Hall in the Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House at 14 Broad Street, is open Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, and other times by appointment.

Please join us this coming Friday, July 11, at 6:00 PM, at the Pleasant Valley Commons (721 West Bethel Road, West Bethel)—formerly the Pleasant Valley Grange Hall—for a presentation and performance by Katherine Rhoda on “Vintage Grange Songs.”

An egalitarian, nonpartisan fraternal organization founded in the wake of the Civil War to advance the interests of farming communities, the Grange (AKA the Order of Patrons of Husbandry) has had a profound influence on rural American life. It has a rich heritage of song, with a number of songbooks published starting in 1872.

Katherine Rhoda collects and studies this material and will share songs celebrating agriculture, rural life, and the pursuit of the common good.

Hello, friends! It’s shaping up to be a BEAUTIFUL weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July and community this weekend. We’re expecting sunshine and temperatures in the low 70s on Friday—perfect weather for our annual Community Picnic and Concert. Pack a lunch and join us at 11:30 am on the side lawn of the Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House (14 Broad Street) for music and fun.

Then, on Saturday, July 5th, the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society and several other organizations around town have put together a full day of events and activities.

Art 🎨

• 9:00 am - 3:00 pm: Bethel Area Arts & Music Summer Art Market - Philbrook Place, 162 Main Street, Bethel, ME

• 9:00 am - 4:00 pm: Shy, Novice & Closeted Art Show - 18 High Street, Bethel, ME

• 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: Neighborly Views: Selected Art from the MBHS Collection exhibit grand opening - Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, Mason House, 14 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

• 10:00 am - 4:00 pm: Plein Air Art Show - Isham Farm, 1006 Vernon Street, Albany, ME

History 🎩

• 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: WESTERN MAINE HISTORY FAIR - Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, 10 and 14 Broad Street, Bethel, ME - A collaboration between the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society and more than 15 other organizations including:

  • Dress up activities and games for children (Twitchell Education Center, Mason House lawn)

  • Hand-cranked ice cream

  • Weaving demonstration by Adele Harvey

  • Peavy and old fashioned logging tool demonstration with Tony Chapman and Scott Hynek

  • Tours of the 1813 Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House (14 Broad Street)

  • History exhibits at the O’Neil and Betsey Straw Robinson House (10 Broad Street), including The Golden Age of the Gehring Clinic, Bethel and Beyond, Oxford County Skiing History, and the official opening of our newest exhibit: West Bethel Village: Memory and Perspective

  • Book and gift shopping at the MBHS Museum Shop

  • Activities, games, and information tables sponsored by the: Canton Historical Society, Fryeburg Historical Society, Gilead Historical Society, Gorham (NH) Historical Society, Greenwood Historical Society, Hastings Homestead Museum, Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, Mexico Historical Society, Middle Intervale Meeting House, Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, Norlands Living History Center, Paris Cape Historical Society, Rumford Historical Society, Ski Museum of Maine, Upton Historical Society, Woodstock Historical Society

Music 🎶

• 9:00 am - 3:00 pm: Live music at BAAM Summer Art Market, Philbrook Place, 162 Main Street, Bethel, ME

  • 9:00: Fiskars Cutting

  • 10:00: Maya Best

  • 11:00: MJ Johanson

  • 12:00: TBD

  • 1:00: Lindsy & Bella

  • 2:00: Maya Salafia

• 10:00 am - 12:00 noon: Polyphon music box demonstration by the Hastings Homestead Museum - Robinson House porch, 10 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

• 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm: OPEN MUSIC JAM - Mason House lawn, 14 Broad Street, Bethel ME (Bring your instrument to join in, or just come to listen and watch!)

• 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Sandy River Ramblers - Bethel Resort and Suites patio, 21 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

Food 🌭 🍿 🍨 🦞

• 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: Hot dog and popcorn sale by Mexico and Rumford Historical Societies - “Mt. Zircon bottle,” Robinson House side lawn, 10 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

• 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: Hand-cranked ice cream - Mason House side lawn, 10 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

• 12:00 noon on: “Up-country Boil” lobster bake (lobster, mussels, corn, potatoes, and sausage) - Bethel Resort and Suites, 21 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

Fireworks 🎆

• 9:00 pm: Fireworks show - Bethel Resort and Suites, 21 Broad Street, Bethel, ME

We hope to see you there!!!

On Thursday, June 19 (Juneteenth), Mary T. Freeman, Assistant Professor of New England History at the University of Maine, will speak on the theme of “Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Maine.” The talk will begin at 6:00 p.m., and will take place in the Howe Exhibit Hall (red barn) at the Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House (14 Broad Street).

Mary T. Freeman is assistant professor of history at the University of Maine. Her field is the nineteenth-century United States, with a focus on the history of slavery and abolition. Her work also explores abolitionism, African American history, and women’s history in Maine and New England. She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2018. Her forthcoming book, Abolitionists and the Politics of Correspondence, will be published by University of Pennsylvania Press in February 2026.

This presentation will briefly explore the long history of slavery and emancipation in Maine before focusing on antislavery activism in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Professor Freeman will pay particular attention to the role of African Americans in advancing the cause of abolition in Maine and the complicated relationship between myth and historical fact in understanding Mainers’ involvement in the Underground Railroad.

Dr. Freeman has deep roots in the town of Bethel, where her paternal grandmother, and namesake, Mary Tibbetts Freeman was born in 1916. She is the great-granddaughter of Dr. Raymond R. and Pearl Ashby Tibbetts and the great-niece of Margaret Joy Tibbetts, who was a former president of the Bethel Historical Society. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Hastings Homestead Museum and the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society and is supported by the Howe Lecture Fund which honors the legacy of Dr. Stanley Russell Howe, Executive Director Emeritus of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society.

Dear friends:

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society would like to initiate a planning process to celebrate these events in the Bethel area. We invite individuals and organizations to join us to discuss the various ways we can commemorate this important event throughout the year 2026. We will meet:

Friday, June 20, 2025, at 3 pm
Reading Room, Robinson House
Museums of the Bethel Historical Society
10 Broad Street, Bethel

The purpose of this initial meeting is to determine interest in the project and to develop a process (including working groups) to pursue a variety of events and activities under the general theme of celebrating our nation’s 250th birthday.

All those interested are invited to attend as individuals or representatives of other local organizations. Please feel free to share this announcement with other persons or organizations who might be interested. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments please feel free to contact the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society.

Best regards,

William Andrews
President, Board of Trustees
Museums of the Bethel Historical Society

The new issue of Goose Eye, the annual history journal of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, has been sent to the printer, and copies should be delivered to our doorstep soon.

We invite you to attend a special party to celebrate the launch of Goose Eye No. 5 at the Pleasant Valley Commons, located at 721 West Bethel Road, West Bethel, Maine on Thursday, June 5, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. This is a free event, but registration is encouraged.

Register Now!

The Commons, formerly the Pleasant Valley Grange Hall, has been beautifully restored by its new owners, Celina Adams and Cameron Wake. It’s the perfect venue to unveil the new issue of Goose Eye, which focuses on the history of West Bethel village.

Doors open at 5:00 p.m., and we will be serving a traditional Grange-style public supper —think baked beans, ham, mac and cheese, homemade rolls, and more. You’ll also have a chance to pick up your copy of the new issue, chat with Goose Eye contributors, and see what the new owners have done with the place.

At 6:00 p.m. we’ll connect live with America’s Puzzlemaster, Will Shortz, who will share a few brief remarks. Then, Goose Eye contributor Larry Glatz will present a program on Edwin R. Briggs (1841-1923), a nineteenth century puzzle editor from West Bethel, Maine.

What’s in the New Issue?

Goose Eye No. 5, titled “West Bethel’s Enigmatic History” takes a slightly different approach from previous editions. For the first time, our focus is not a broad theme, but a single place: the village of West Bethel.

At the heart of the issue is Larry Glatz’s study of Edwin Briggs, also known as “Ruthven,” a prolific puzzle-maker whose work appeared in newspapers across the country. Will Shortz has praised Larry’s article, “a masterful history of Briggs and puzzledom as it existed in his day . . . wonderfully colorful, richly detailed and researched!”

But that’s not all! The issue also features:

• A transcription of a 2001 interview with Pauline Applin, longtime member of the Pleasant Valley Grange, conducted by sound artist Dianne Ballon

• A history of the Whitten & Dennison Post Card Company’s rise and sudden relocation by William F. Chapman

• The “Gander Corner Bugle,” a delightful handwritten newspaper produced in the village

• A selection of photographic postcard views from the Libbie Kneeland collection

• An essay on the importance of context in local history by David R. Jones.

Copies of Goose Eye No. 5 not picked up at the event will be mailed out beginning the following day. If you’re not already a member, purchase a membership through our museum shop—or become a paid subscriber to our Substack by clicking the button below—to make sure you receive yours!

Subscribe now

This coming Saturday (May 3), the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society will host a walking tour of West Bethel’s Main Street. We will meet at the West Bethel Post Office at 2:00, rain or shine. We’d love to have you join us!

This is the second year in which MBHS has participated in Jane's Walk, a global festival of free, volunteer-led walking conversations inspired by community activist Jane Jacobs, which takes place annually in over 200 communities around the world. Our walk this year is entitled, “A Walk Through West Bethel History, With a Bit of Poetic License,” and will feature the history of local buildings and former building sites, interspersed with reading of poems penned by West Bethel citizens of the past.

Here’s a little something you may not know: West Bethel’s village was once known as “Gander Corner,” because, the story goes, a pair of village blacksmith’s once stole a gander from a local farmer, roasted it over the forge fire, and feasted upon it in a blacksmith shop nearby. The following poem, originally published in the Gorham Mountaineer in 1884 was inspired by the story.

We have some exciting news to share with you today!

The Museums of the Bethel Historical Society has now finished uploading digital copies of the Oxford County Advertiser and Norway Advertiser spanning from 1882 to 1933, to the Internet Archive website.

The easiest way to search this newspaper, and all of our other digitized newspapers, is by using the Newspaper Search tool on our website. Just type your keywords into the text box on the left, choose a newspaper or region from the drop-down menu, and click search to be shown results on the Internet Archive website. When you click on a specific issue, it will bring up the full text of that issue with your search terms highlighted.

New discoveries await!

These newspapers are sure to be a boon to researchers and genealogists working on western Maine communities, and have already led to new discoveries. Christopher Dunham, creator of the Maine Genealogy website and Greenwood as It Was Facebook group, shared the following:

The Bethel Historical Society, under the leadership of Will Chapman, has begun uploading digitized issues of the Oxford County Advertiser and Norway Advertiser. They may be searched here:

https://bethelhistorical.org/catalog/newspaper-search

I could not be more pleased with this development, as it will allow me to find and share more stories about the lower part of Greenwood. Let's start with this vivid description of a baseball game from the Advertiser of October 11, 1907:

Great game of ball on Patch Mountain. When a few of the Greenwood City ball team had gathered a sufficient number of recruits, ages nine to thirty to make a quorum, they sallied forth to play ball with the Patch Mt. boys. Defeat was a foregone conclusion with the Greenwood team, but being anxious to play one more game and determined to do their level best they went into battle with courage unquenched and ardor undiminished by the odds shown by the enemy.

When they arrived on the mountain the team from that place was already in the field, umpire and all. They had been there all the forenoon and ate their dinners standing up after the umpire had called "time." They had practised on the help to that extent that not a spear of grass was to be seen. Well, the game commenced with the city team at bat and the mountain boys in the field. Nothing doing. When the mountain boys came to bat the crowd began to make a noise, and every time a score was made you could hear harness bells, cow bells, sleigh bells and blue bells, all ringing at once.

Then there were conch shells, tin pans and wash boilers, to say nothing of other music furnished gratis too numerous to mention. Anything in the shape of wind instruments was at a premium as the wind up there blows something terrible and most of the time. It blew most of the city boys' scores off the card and they lost track of them, but the mountain boys mittened onto all of theirs and held on for dear life. No wonder the score got one-sided for half of the men are one-sided anyway, the wind having blown them so hard and often that they "lean toward Sawyer's."

John Gould offered an explanation of that last Maineism here:

https://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0426/p22s03-hfjg.html

Thanks again to David Powers for sharing the wonderful photograph below of an early 1900s Greenwood baseball team.

Ready to dive in for yourself? Follow the link below!

Search Archives!

Note: The following history of the Naimey Block on Main Street was originally written for the 2022 Bethel Town Report.

One Hundredth Birthday of the Naimey Block

In 2022, one of Main Street’s landmarks, the “Naimey Block,” turned 100 years old. The year also marked the 80^th year that the building has been home to the Bethel office of the United States Postal Service. The name of the building, which is inscribed in the brickwork, comes from its original owner, Michael Abraham Naimey, who had it constructed in 1922.

Naimey’s name appears on most official documents as Michael, but is also sometimes given as Mitchell, and was probably originally Michail. To friends in Bethel, however, he was always Mike. He was born to Abraham and Susie Naimey in Beirut on May 3, 1892. The Middle Eastern city is the current capital of Lebanon, but at the time the region was part of Syria and under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The Naimeys were part of the first major wave of Syrian and Lebanese immigration to the United States, which spanned from the 1880s to the 1910s. Approximately 90,000 Syrians arrived in the US during this time. Like many immigrants, they were motivated by economic opportunities and the chance to pursue the American Dream, but also sought religious freedom. Christian Syrians, like the Naimeys, had been the targets of numerous conflicts and massacres in the region during the preceding decades.

The Naimeys apparently first went to Greece, where they lived for a time. Mike travelled from Patras, Greece, to New York on the S. S. Laura in 1910, and then went to Portland, Maine, following his older brother, William, who had immigrated six years earlier. Mike filed his intention to become a United States Citizen in 1913. At the time, he still lived in Portland and was working as a carpenter. Just a few years later, however, he and his brother purchased property in Oxford, Maine, where they opened a dry goods store under the name of “Naimey Brothers.”

In June of 1918, Naimey was drafted into the service of the United States. Although it does not appear he was ever deployed overseas, he served for the remainder of World War I as a company mechanic at Camp Devens. He was honorably discharged in late November following the Armistice, and returned to Oxford where he and his brother continued their business. On October 14, 1919, Naimey took the Oath of Allegiance at the Paris Courthouse and officially became a citizen of the United States.

He came to Bethel in 1921 and the following March purchased from Stanley Wentzell what an Oxford County Citizen article called “an unsightly old house and store” on Main Street and tore them down. He “rendered a real service” to the town by constructing in its place the “attractive brick building” seen today.

The Naimey Block originally had three separate store fronts on the first floor and two apartments on the second. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (“A&P”) was the first to open in December, 1922, followed by the U T K Tailor Shop, which began advertising in March of 1923. Naimey held the grand opening for his own M. A. Naimey dry goods store on April 14, an event which included a live orchestra. Early tenants in the apartments included Mr. and Mrs. Charles Perry and the Frank Hunt family.

In the late 1920s, Miss Marie Baker came to work at Naimey’s store. She was born in Gorham, New Hampshire, on November 16, 1903, but her parents later moved to Newry. Marie and Mike soon fell in love, and were married at St. Paul’s Rectory in Portland, Maine, on June 13, 1929. Their son John was born the following May 10, and another son, William, on May 26, 1931.

Mike and Marie were valued members of the Bethel community. Proud of his service to his chosen country during the first World War, Mike was a longtime member of the American Legion, and Marie was particularly active in the Legion Auxiliary.

In 1930, Naimey purchased the “Horatio Upton place” on the Northwest Bethel Road, and made a number of improvements, including building himself a workshop on the property. Unfortunately, the main home, the historic Eliphaz Chapman homestead, burned on September 28, 1937.

This was a setback for the family, but fortunately business was still going well. The next year, Mike thoroughly renovated the store, drawing on his experience as a carpenter to do much of the work himself. As the A&P had moved out to a new location, he took out one of the interior dividing walls, doubling the size of his own store.

At the end of 1940, Mike began advertising a “going out of business sale,” and in January of 1941 he experienced some health issues and was admitted to Togus for several months. The final closeout sale was in May. The Labnon Dry Goods Co. bought out the store and in the fall the Naimeys moved to Wells, Maine. They continued to reside in Wells for many years but later apparently began wintering in Florida, where Mike died at the Pratt General Hospital in Coral Gables on February 2, 1953.

Harold Chamberlin purchased the Naimey Block in October 1941, and the next year, the Bethel Post Office moved into it. The Post Office had previously been in the Wiley or Swift Block near the top of Main Street for over thirty years, but just one year prior had moved across the street to a former hardware store where Northeast Bank now stands.

Later owners of the Naimey Block have included Norman and June Greig, John Grover, Esther Crockett, Brian Strickland, and current owner Carl Glidden. It has been home to a number of businesses, from John Trinward’s dentist office to the Bethel Spa restaurant. The Post Office has remained at this location for over eighty years, and now occupies the entire first floor.

Although the name of Mike Naimey is seldom remembered in Bethel today, the Naimey Block stands today as the village’s most enduring monument to the many cultural and economic contributions that have been made by hardworking and patriotic first-generation immigrants.

William F. Chapman, Executive Director
Museums of the Bethel Historical Society

You won’t want to miss our second annual maple sugaring celebration—it’s a sweet way to welcome spring in Maine.

Hello, friends! You read that right: all of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society’s e-mail communications have moved to the Substack platform.

Below are the answers to some questions you might have about that change. (The upshot of everything that follows is that if you just want to keep receiving our e-News in your inbox as normal, you don’t have to do anything.)

What does this mean?

All MBHS Publications in One Place

First of all, it means you’ll now be able to find digital editions of all three of MBHS’s publications—e-News (now The Saddlebag), The Courier, and Goose Eye—in one convenient location. It’s at bethelhistorical.substack.com, and collectively we’re calling it all Bulletins from Broad Street.

Goose Eye Available Online

Secondly, it means the last (but not least!) of those, our annual history journal, Goose Eye, will be available digitally for the first time. MBHS members and paid Substack subscribers will have access to the full archives, while free subscribers will be able to see previews and selected articles. (The Saddlebag and the digital edition of The Courier are free to all.)

Manage Your MBHS Membership Through Substack

It also means there’s an easy and convenient new way to manage your membership in the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society. A paid subscription to Bulletins from Broad Street includes membership in MBHS (and vice versa), so as long as you keep your billing info up to date, you’ll receive full benefits (including print publications)!

(We are unable to offer a senior member discount or life membership through Substack; if you want to do either of those, please join or renew your membership through our online store or in the good old-fashioned way by writing or calling.)

What do I need to do?

Not much! Unless you want to change your subscription level. If you’re receiving this post as an e-mail it means we’ve already successfully migrated you over and you’re on the list. If we recognized you as an MBHS member from your e-mail address, we’ve also already “comp”ed you to the paid subscriber level.

How do you know what level you’re at now? See that subscription button below this paragraph? It should display your current status. It might say “Subscribe now,” it might say, “Subscribed,” or it might say, “Upgrade to paid.”

Subscribe now

If it says, “Upgrade to paid,” but you’re already an MBHS member or annual fund donor (i.e., if you’ve been getting the print edition of Goose Eye), it means we didn’t recognize your e-mail address. But fear not!—just let us know and after confirming your membership we’ll bump you up to the paid level. (You do not have to pay twice.)

Explain about all these publications again. Why are there three?

The three publications included within Bulletins from Broad Street reflect MBHS’ history, and each offers something a bit different. By default, when you sign up to the Substack you will receive e-mail updates for all three, but if only some of them interest you, you can also manage your subscription to turn off emails for specific publications.

The Courier

The Courier is the oldest MBHS publication—it started under Director Emeritus Stanley Russell Howe back in 1976, and was named for Bethel’s first newspaper the Bethel Courier, which was published from 1858-1861. (The Society’s Courier was also originally known as The Bethel Courier, but the “Bethel” was eventually dropped to reflect an expanded, regional focus.)

For many years this was the Society’s sole periodical and it served all functions: Society news, historical articles, member profiles, transcribed diaries, and more, all in one publication. Back in those days, The Courier was published quarterly, but now that it is supplemented by other publications it comes out twice a year. The spring edition tends to offer a preview of the busy summer season with a full calendar of events. It’s also when we thank all our donors from the previous calendar year. The fall edition features a summer wrap-up and a preview of upcoming holiday season events.

The Saddlebag

The Society got its first email address back in 1997. Since then we’ve tried (with varying degrees of success) to keep up with all the latest trends. We’ve been sending out “e-News” updates for many years, but not under a formal title. The “Saddlebag” name is new with the move to Substack, but it harkens back to a long history. MBHS owns the saddlebags which brought the first mail to Bethel, and they are on display in our Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House. When equine-based mail (the original e-mail) first got going, one of the main things carried was not letters but newspapers and periodicals. It was one of the few ways people had to learn about what was going on in the rest of the world.

Goose Eye

Goose Eye: A Journal of Western Maine and White Mountain History is our annual history journal. Goose Eye was created in 2021 to provide a space for more detailed, scholarly articles. The print issue of Goose Eye is also quite attractive, and if you leave it lying on your coffee table, people will know what a sophisticated and smart history enthusiast you are, and they will applaud your excellent taste.

To celebrate bringing Goose Eye online, we have made the entire first issue completely free to all, and will be opening up select articles from later issues. Goose Eye No. 1 is available now, while Goose Eye No. 2, 3, and 4 will be added over the next couple weeks.

Do I get anything else with a paid subscription?

Yes! Digital and print subscriptions to Goose Eye are definitely one of the main benefits of membership in the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society, but there are other reasons to join as well.

Members get a 10% discount in our Museum Shop, free use of the MBHS’s research library (plus discounts on photocopying and research request fees), a preferred rate for Mason House exhibit hall rental, voting rights in the Society, and reduced rates on workshops and classes.

We might also take advantage of the Substack paywall to offer some bonus/early access content to members only. For example, you might get a member-only preview of an upcoming exhibit or a special look behind the scenes. Our members are what make MBHS run and we love rewarding them!

Why Substack?

For us as publishers, Substack has a lot of nifty and helpful features, like the ability to create “sections” within your main publication, allowing us to differentiate our various publications; or the ability to set paywalls for specific content, which is what is enabling us now to be able to put Goose Eye articles online.

As a reader, you can actually ignore all the Substack features altogether. All you need is an e-mail to sign up and you’ll still get the publications in your inbox, the way you would any e-mail newsletter.

That said, while joining yet another social network might be a hard sell, creating a Substack account does give you some additional ways to interact. You can comment on posts, manage your subscription, “restack” things you find of interest, and follow our account and others to see short “Notes” (similar to posts on Facebook or Twitter/X).

I (Will) have been using Substack for a little while now, and recently launched my own publication Ammoscongon Chronicles (utterly shameless self-promotion). Because it’s oriented toward longer-form writing, Substack has proven to be a great platform with loads more thoughtful and interesting content than you typically get on social media. Moving MBHS’ publications over seemed like a natural next step.

Thank you again for your interest in the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society! We are glad to have you on board!