BINGHAM GATEWAY TO THE MAINE FOREST

About the Book

Read about a small area that is half-way between the Equator (3,197 miles) and the North Pole (3,107 miles). It is the Gateway to the Maine Forest. The book includes residents names, house location for several streets. The section of Main Street goes for 7-8 miles-from Moscow to Solon, Maine. It starts with the first settlers that arrived in 1784 and ends with the residents in 2000. It includes the location of who originally owned the properties up through who owned the property in 2000. There are many pictures of these properties and or residents from 1822 up to 2000. It includes the section on Moscow, Maine where GE was contracted by the Air Force to build an Over-The Horizon Backscatter Radar System. The Sectors in Moscow would provide surveillance covering 180 degrees from Greenland to Cuba. Two other sites, one in Oregon and one in Idaho were set up at the same time. The cost of the full program was $1.2 Billion. In 1991 the Pentagon decided to “Mothball the project because after the collapse of Communism the threat no longer existed.”. The entire OTHBRS was demolished. The book includes chapters and pictures on Concord Township, Doctors/Undertakers (from 1812 up to 2000), Roads/Railroads, Churches, Organizations Mills, and Schools. The Bingham High School Basketball Team was the first in the State of Maine to win6 Gold Balls in arrow. That chapter includes a picture and names of all the players for each of the 6 years and for 3 of those years there were a set of twins on the teams. The chapter on Selectman lists every First, Second and Third Selectman from 1900 to 2005. It includes pictures and a short story of every resident the town dedicated the Town Report to for each year from 1965 (first year it started) to 2002. The book does not include Pleasant Ridge Plantation (except for making Maple Syrup back in early 1900) as there is already a book written by Robert Hunnewell – Pleasant Ridge Plantation -(my father) and already published by Authorhouse. It is a very interesting book for any person who has ever lived or has ancestors who lived in Maine. It has over 250 pictures and 99% of each picture lists the name and where the person is sitting. You could find your ancestor and know more about your ancestor. There are many wonderful poems written by locals in the old days that had they had known or had they have had money could have been published. Those poems are Excellent.

About the Author

The author, Robert Hunnewell, was my father. He passed away a few years ago. I wrote his first book “Pleasant Ridge Plantation – The Way Life Used to Be”, which has been published by Authorhouse. I finished this second book about 2 years before he passed away. He had sold well over 1,800 copies of the first book, by word of mouth only and sold over 1,300 of the Bingham book. Back then, all I did was take my disc to a printer, have 100 printed at a time and spiral bound the books. The Pleasant Ridge book has so much history and funny stories that I decided it had to be published and carry on Dad’s wishes for people to see original documents and notes he has that date back to 1818 and so people would know what Pleasant Ridge was like before CMP flooded a lot of the area in 1929 to build a hydro-electric Dam for power---and guess what-it is now 2015 and only a few sections of the Ridge has “electric power”. We all use gas appliances, gas lights and generators. The Bingham book is the history of Bingham and I started in Moscow, Maine (1/2 mile from Bingham) and have listed every location, house, store, etc of who used to be there and who is there now. The book follows East side of the road until you hit the Solon line and then starts over again on the other side of the road. This is about 7-8 miles on each side. This book goes back to 1822 up through 2000. Dad had a lot of stuff, but Dad and I spent hours and hours at the local library looking up stuff and the local citizens (once they found out we were writing the book) loaned us pictures and documents that I could scan and include in the book. Every item that was loaned has their name by that picture in the book. The book also includes chapters on churches, doctors (going back to the first doctor(we could find) who moved there in 1812. The book includes a picture of 90 percent of the doctors and a write up about every doctor. It also includes the old railroad, services, organizations, mills and schools. The Basketball team of Bingham were the first State Champions in the history of Maine to win 6 Gold Balls in a row from 1998 to 2003. This book includes a picture of each team with their name for each year they won. For 3 years in a row there was a set of twins on the team. These 6 pictures showing the Gold Ball was loaned to me by the coach to be included in the book. The book also includes the name and year(s) served as First Selectman, 2nd Selectman and 3rd Selectman of the town from 1900 up to 2005. Dad was First Selectman for 16 years (from 1982 up to 1997). When a resident came into the town office-“mad as a hornet” Dad would put his hands behind his head, sit back in his chair and let them rant and rave. When they were done he would say “ Do you feel better now? I will check this out and will call you tomorrow”. Thank God he had a secretary as he never touched a computer in his life. He used only an old Royal Typewriter that he could punch one letter at a time, but he could get the job done (with the help of the Secretary who re-typed it all into the computer. I am still in the process of finishing his 3rd book that he wanted which is the family history of every veteran from 5 towns surrounding Bingham, Maine. There are over 900 veterans just from World War 1 up to 1990. This is a major research project. However, my father walked every cemetery in those towns, even if the cemetery was located on a family farm and gave me the entire list of where each veteran is buried-the cemetery, the row number and the lot number or the location of the farm. He also was Commander of the American Legion and they place a flag every Memorial Day at all of these locations. He was born on Pleasant Ridge Plantation in 1920 and was in World War 2. My brother was born in 1941, I was born in 1943 and my sister was born in 1945. Dad came home to 3 small children and decided to build a house in Bingham which is 9 miles from Pleasant Ridge Plantation. When I finish the book “Veterans From Our Little Corner of the World” I will list Dad as Author and I will continue to stay as Co-Author. The front cover of the book will have a picture (probably small) of every Veteran who died while in service for their country. Because I am still working (age 71) it is taking me longer to do this research than I had hoped—but it will be finished. Just so you know, my parents were married 69 years before Dad passed away – just a month before their 70th anniversary. Not a lot of people can say they stayed together for 69 years.