In the seventeen hundreds they came. At first it was but a trickle, but still they came. They came from the North, the East and the South. They were of many different tongues, Indian, French, English, Irish, Scots, German and Italian. They came with all that they owned tied in rolls across their backs or “jist” the very clothes they wore.
They came by boats across the great waters and followed the rivers, the streams and the brooks until they couldn’t follow them anymore. They came by horse, mule or oxen, but mostly they came, by placing one tired foot in front of the other, until they reached a destination that met their needs. They followed the narrow trails that the moccasins of the Micmac, the Maliseet, the Penobscot and the Algonquin had made in the forests of Aroostook County.
They braved the hoards of black flies, moose flies, no-see-ems, midges and mosquitoes to follow their dreams to a better place. Some followed the rag-tag army of Benedict Arnold as he made his way up from Houlton through Island Falls, Sherman Station, Patten, Ox Bow, Masardis, Ashland, Portage, Buffalo, Soldier Pond, Winterville, Eagle Lake, Wallagrass to Fort Kent and the very edge of the Saint John River Valley.
These men and woman were a proud and hardy lot. Some were truly dreaming of a better place while others came because they were unwanted in their former lands.
These are my people and my heritage and I am immensely proud of them.
Now that I am grown and have wandered around the world a little,
I find that no matter how far one roams, your heart, sooner or later, always brings you home....
Martha Stevens-David
