The Midcoast Inquirer Newsletter of Midcoast Senior College December 2017, Volume 13, No 1 Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead Founders Award The year 2018 marks Midcoast Senior College’s eigh- The Wheeler-Thompson award, presented annually teenth year of providing non-credit academic courses - tions to the organization over the years, went in 2017 to continue their lifelong learning. MSC founders Jack formerto a member MSC president of MSC who Mark has C. made Smith. significant contribu Thompsonand other educational and Nancy Wheelerevents for were people true over visionaries. fifty to Mark Smith has been a longstanding member and The holiday season is an appropriate occasion to contributor to MSC, where he served as president (2009-13) and, in the words of one recommender, “man- to look ahead – to anticipate the challenges and oppor- aged the evolution of the College from a ‘mom & pop’ tunitiesreflect upon of a newour pastyear. successes. Our mission Even remains: more, it’sto sustaina time organization to one with academic rigor.” He played an educational institution that helps people continue lifelong learning. Bath to Brunswick. Mark also chaired the committee on The results of the past year support my belief that thea key transition role in the to moveindependent of offices stature and classrooms and created from the Midcoast Senior College is well prepared to meet fu- Wheeler-Thompson Award. He graduated from Wil- ture challenges. More courses were offered, and more liams College in 1963 students took courses, during the spring and fall semes- and received advanced ters than ever before. MSC Bylaws were reviewed and degrees from Harvard updated by the Policy Committee and approved by the and Columbia universi- board. Three new members joined the Board of Direc- ties. After forty years in tors. secondary-school teach- We will continue to keep three guiding principles in ing and administration mind. First, we will be a “personal” senior college – one (school superintendent that treasures outstanding classroom teaching, recog- in New Jersey and Mas- nizes the value of our volunteers, and welcomes change sachusetts), Mark and while creating a sense of community for all its members. Judy retired to Brunswick, Second, we will continue to provide affordable, high- Maine, in 2003. He is ac- quality classes and lectures. There has not been a tuition tive in the Unitarian-Uni- increase in recent memory even though costs to meet versalist Church of Bruns- our mission have increased. It is time to look realisti- wick. Congratulations, cally at our revenue and expenses, and compare them to Mark! And, thank you! our current and future offerings. Mission Statement of the Midcoast Inquirer: And third, we will respond to the needs of our stu- The Midcoast Inquirer articulates the academic spirit dents. Just because “it’s always been done that way” is and educational mission of Midcoast Senior College to no reason to continue a practice. Is it time to offer on- offer lifelong learning for older adults. To this end, we line learning opportunities to people who cannot travel provide a bulletin board that announces course offer- to MSC classrooms? ings, lectures and special events, and a literary forum These principles, and our resolve to support them (or virtual classroom) of essays, reviews, interviews and with goodwill and enthusiasm, will enable us to con- commentaries written by faculty and students. Continued on Page 2: Looking Back --Robert C. Williams, Editor The Midcoast Inquirer December 2017 Continued from Page 1: Looking Back The Midcoast Inquirer is the newsletter of tinue to be a strong learning center, one fully responsive Midcoast Senior College to the changing needs of our community. 10 Tibbetts Drive, Suite 210 By seizing the opportunities before us, we can be Brunswick, Maine 04011 architects of change, not victims. And with the support midcoastseniorcollege.org of the many friends of MSC, we will face the New Year (207) 725-4900 - mistic about our future. proud of our tradition, confidentJames of our Wilkes, ability, Presidentand opti Board of Directors. [email protected] Mapping Brunswick Officers: President: James Wilkes Jym St. Pierre Immediate Past President: Tony Belmont Vice President: Doug Bates As part of the Winter Wisdom lecture series last Janu- ary, I presented a whirlwind look at Brunswick through Secretary: Lynn Lockwood Treasurer: Ervin Snyder that Midcoast Maine has hosted native people, explor- Other Board Members and Committees: ers,the lenssettlers, of five farmers, hundred scholars, years of industrialists, maps. History immigrant shows Mort Achter At-large Doug Bates Development mill workers, military heroes, and religious and political Tony Belmont Nominating Bianca Chambers Public Relations The area we now call Brunswick has been located on Clare Durst Technology mapsleaders on for two five continents, centuries. at least one Native American Ron Golz Development territory, two empires, two nations, four provinces, at Cynthia Little Development Lynn Lockwood Administration two states, one commonwealth district, two counties, Victor Papacosma Curriculum oneleast township, five land grants,and one one town. Crown Brunswick colony, oneas a Dominion,town (1739) has existed longer than the United States and Linton Studdiford Curriculum Ervin Snyder Finance most other countries. James Wilkes Policy By the time of contact between the Old and New BobKelly Williams Watt AdministrationSpecial Events Worlds in the sixteenth century, the Wabanaki still had Sub-Committees effortencampments at settlement. along Relationsthe coast anddeteriorated rivers here. from Early cau - Summer Wisdom: Richard Neiman tiouscharts curiosity reflect European to hostility exploration, when Old Worldbut there captains was little Volunteers:Winter Wisdom: DorothyReg Elwell Bell kidnapped or killed native people. Newsletter: Bob Williams; Burr Taylor Website: Jack Henderson In the early seventeenth century, speculators sent waves of explorers in search of a city of gold and silver believed to be in Maine’s Midcoast region. Charts, based Current Events Forum: Richard Neiman Special Events: Kelly Watt often label our region the mythical Norumbega. on expeditions sent from France, Spain, and England,- OfficeMidcoast Administration: Senior College is oneDonna of seventeen Marshall Senior Colleges in the State of Maine. We serve the area from The first European settler here was Thomas Pur Freeport to Waldoboro and inland up to Augusta. Most of Pejepscotchase, a fisher, (the currentfarmer, trapper,Brunswick, and Topsham trader, who and arrived Harp- our classes are held at 10 Tibbets Drive, Brunswick, Maine. swell),from England which wasaround then 1628. the frontier. He secured Purchase a patent traded to This past Fall we offered 33 courses and enrolled 590 with the locals, but he also helped start a war. The students into 750 spots. Class schedules and The Midcoast natives feared he was taking over their territory and Inquirer are available on our web site for each semester. cheating them in fur trades. In 1675, they burned his Students may also register on line at midcoastseniorcol- lege.org. Continued on Page 3: Mapping house forcing him to flee to Massachusetts. In 1699, the Page 2 The Midcoast Inquirer December 2017 Continued from Page 2: Mapping when their house on Maquoit Bay was burned in the Treaty of Mere Point was signed. Intended to end the 1722 attack. He landed in New Hampshire where he war between the indigenous peoples and the occupying became a signer of the Declaration of Independence. To- day, he is celebrated as a nearly native son of Brunswick. Thornton Oaks retirement community is named for him. Europeans, the treaty brought only a brief calm. One map commissioned by the Pejepscot Proprietors to secureEuropean their settlement land titles. along In 1714, the Midcoast after the restartedTreaty of Utrechtearly in theended eighteenth decades centuryof war between as the English France attempted and Town of Brunswick. On February 4, 1739, according to Britain, the Pejepscot Proprietors, a land company thecould new be styleconsidered of reckoning part of the the calendar, birth certificate Brunswick of the be - comprised of eight merchants, began acquiring the hold- came the eleventh incorporated town in Massachusetts’ - District of Maine. cant was the area sold by Richard Wharton, a Boston A major event in Brunswick’s history at the end of the merchant,ings of earlier who owners had acquired and settlers. Thomas Particularly Purchase’s signifi claim. eighteenth century was the creation of Bowdoin College In 1717, Brunswick got the name that has lasted three in 1794. By the time Moses Greenleaf revised his 1815 hundred years when it was chartered as a township. Map of the District of Maine and republished it as a Map of the State of Maine in 1820, Bowdoin College was connecting Maquoit Bay to the falls on the Androscog- well enough established to be the only feature shown in gin.Eighteenth-century Known to us now asmaps Maine show Street, the Twelve-Rodthe road was Road laid Brunswick on the map. out in 1717 to be twelve rods wide so travelers would - always be about one hundred feet from trees to reduce rived in downtown Brunswick. Logging receded, agricul- the chance of ambush. (A rod was 16.5 feet.) A few years tureEverything continued, changed industrial in 1849 and educational when the railroad development ar later, the Pejepscot Proprietors set aside one thousand picked up, and wooden shipbuilding was big. Hundreds acres for a town common. The mapping of a main road of Brunswick residents fought in a not very Civil War. and a town commons represent some of the earliest urban planning in Maine. Maps show that by the early twentieth century After another Indian raid in 1722 depopulated BrunswickThen tourism was began a hub to for flourish. public transportation, includ- Brunswick Township, new families moved in, many of ing trains, trolleys, and steamships. Resorts such as Mer- them Protestant Ulster-Scots imported from Northern rymeeting Park were important attractions for visitors from away.