Booklet tells the history of Kennebec in year-by-year format

Craig Bakay | Jun 28, 2017

In 1932, Hwy 7 was completed. That was also the same year opened their bakery in Arden.

These are just two of the many fascinating facts in a new booklet A Kennebec Timeline, compiled by Arden artisan Sarah Hale.

Hale put together a Kennebec timeline for last year’s Heritage Festival and then got the idea of printing that up, complete with pictures/illustration.

The 12-page booklet is something of a fundraiser for the Kennebec and District Historical Society and was available for the first time last Saturday as the KDHS held its open house.

“It’s history by the year, or as I like to call it ‘Kennebec history for the Twitter generation,” said Hale. “It’s $5 but that also gets you a membership and you get on my email list, so you can hear about meetings and get little text bits of history.”

Where else could you find out that there was a “brief and ultimate disappointing ‘gold rush’” in Kennebec in 1936 or that fire destroyed the Methodist Church in 1954 (there’s a United Church there now).

The Society even has some old newspaper clippings about the gold rush.

The Society is “gradually developing a file of family histories,” Hale said. “We also have quite a few scrapbooks we’ve put together and an archive of phots and stories.”

They’re also open to donations of just about any sort, like photos and uniforms of the old Arden Centennial Ball Club.

“The people who bought Vera Steele’s house brought those in,” she said. “They were in a bag in the attic.

“Amos Hughes was the coach.”

And they have several other projects in the works like Malcolm Sampson’s book about the names on the Arden Cenotaph.

And then there’s Reg Peterson, Arden’s own ‘tool man.’

“We’re always looking for donations, we don’t turn anything down,” Peterson said while proudly displaying the collection of old nails and a corn planter. “If we can get something with a story behind it, that’s what we’re really after.”

And Peterson knows his stories too. For example, he’s one of the few people around who knows how Bordenwood got its name.

“Frank Peterson was injured in an accident and lost a leg,” he said. “He wanted to start a post office in the area but was told it had to be in a village or settlement.

“Robert Borden was the Prime Minister at the time so they named the place after him and got the post office.

“It ran for 44 years and then it closed.”