Saturday, December 31, 2011

Weekend Ramblings: Must see 2011 science videos

"Looking for viral videos with some scientific substance to them? Check out 11 must-see clips from the past year."  Which science video(s) of 2011 is/are your favorites?  While watching the videos, read the text below the video screen.  The information about AI (artificial intelligence) vs AI is fascinating.  The videos can be viewed at:


  1. AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other (my second favorite).
  2. What does it feel like to fly over the planet earth?
  3. Dance your PHD
  4. A day made of glass
  5. Octopus walks on land (my favorite)
  6. Soft robot takes a walk
  7. Alpha dog proto
  8. Faster than light neutrinos
  9. Quantum levitation
  10. Pi is (still) wrong
  11. Weaver ants (my 3rd favorite)
Have you seen an interesting video(s) on the web?  Please send me a link to it either through blog comments or email.  Tell me something about the video.   I will compile them, then post them in an upcoming "Rambling" post.  

Now, what does 2012 have in store (Mayan calendar aside)?  Click on 12 must-see skywatching events in 2012 to see these events from MSNBC.  The first event is just days away.  On Jan. 4, the Quadrantid meteor shower peaks the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America.  Best viewing time is after the moon sets at 3 AM.

    Friday, December 30, 2011

    Friday Fotos - XMAS 2011

    Just a few photos from Ashley's first XMAS in Plymouth, MA


     
    Matt, Suzie, and Ashley (6 1/2 months old) Radack
    Margalit, Jamie, Matt, Suzie, Ashley, and Liz

    Papa and Ashley

    Ashley

    Suzie, Ashley, and Grandma
    Liz, Don, and Kris had fun creating a Norman Rockwell Christmas scene.  A Plymouth Digital Photography assignment for this month was: My photo represents THIS Artist - Winter Wonderland.
    .

    The Rockwell Family













    Monday, December 26, 2011

    Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins

    ALICE BERNICE (MILLIGAN) TOMPKINS  (1902 - 1981) (4th generation)
    With some notes on her mother EFFIE LOURAINE ROBBINS  (1880 - 1940)


    Greetings to Dewey Morning readers,

         Don asked if I would like to contribute an article about our maternal grandmother on his genealogy page. What follows is part recollection and part notes incorporated from previously cited sources on Dewey Morning. What struck me in doing web searches, is that there is almost nothing other than factual information available on the Internet on either Alice or her mother, Effie.  Thus, the importance of Don's project to leave a narrative record of the past from those who still have that information is clear. If upon reading the following, you have other anecdotal information that can be added regarding the lives of Alice or Effie, please send it along to the blog where it can be archived.  ... Dee Kricker

    Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins
          My grandmother,  Alice Tompkins, was a remarkable woman whose life influenced my own in many ways. There was never a time that I could not seek refuge in her house whenever I had problems that seemed insurmountable. She was always there to lend an ear, to give support, or to send me or my cousins over to the corner store for a Fudgesicle, a Hostess cupcake or a candybar! How many times did she say, "Wait there, Del, I'll be right down," as she ascended the stairs to her bedroom, rummaged through one of her myriad jewelry boxes returning with "a little something" to give me. She told stories, laughed a lot and welcomed company to her table where the coffee pot was always ready.  It was so comforting to know that I would always be welcomed in her home and that she would find time for me.

         Each morning upon arising, she took delight in decorating herself in an array of coordinated bracelets, barrettes, necklaces, pins, rings and more rings overlaying her modest house dress garb. The ritual of getting "all dolled up" each day was how she expressed her personality and her mood. If she was sad or somber, her colors would be blacks or blues, but when she was in high spirits, she sparkled with reds, golds and silvers. Mostly costume jewelry given to her as gifts or scooped up at church rummage sales, the glittery display was impressive to a small grandchild.  What fun it was to poke through the bureaus and chests full of jewelry when she opened up her trove from time to time. Thus adorned, she greeted each day anew, ready for unannounced company of family or friends, ready for being a hostess, and ready to deal with the challenges of raising her last child, Wayne Edward.

         Six months before my birth, Wayne was born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome that occurs more frequently in women with late in life pregnancies. Both intellectual and developmental disabilities are characteristic of those with Down syndrome and in 1948, few educational or therapeutic supports were available other than institutionalization at a state facility. Alice decided against placing her special needs child in an institution, preferring to raise him at home among his loving family.  It is likely that had Wayne received early childhood services, he would have acquired functional language and vocational skills that would have allowed him some independence as he grew older. In 1983, life expectancy for such a child was 25 years; today with intervention it is 60 years. Thus, Wayne, who died at age 33, lived eight years longer than the average of his day.

         Because of the many needs associated with the care of Wayne, including significant delays in motor, language and cognitive skills, coupled with the illness and death of his father Harold, in August, 1953, Alice's life was profoundly impacted. She was widowed at age fifty-one with a five year old Down syndrome child, three other young boys aged 11, 14, and 17, and meager financial resources. In fact,  for many years after Harold's death, Alice received a cash donation at Christmas from a collection taken by  Harold's former colleagues at Hood Milk Company in Charlestown.  Alice's large extended family of siblings and her own children provided most of her emotional and material support over the years. Living in the other half of the duplex, her daughter, Viola, provided significant aid for Wayne's care, especially, as Alice and Wayne aged. Wayne became quite obese and at times, his behavior could be obstructive and unruly, but Alice never waned in her love and support of him.

         Looking back, I can only wonder how she coped, but I never saw her depressed a day in her life.  As a sensitive person, she was easily brought to tears of both joy and sadness, however, I never saw depression, self-pity, or anger.  Alice had a sweet temperament and though life was hard, she overcame challenges with grace and dignity.  No doubt her early life with a loving mother and spiritual family provided the foundation that kept her going. As her father, the Rev. Milligan wrote, “My first wife, Effie Louise Robbins, the mother of my children, was great at making over one child’s clothes to fit the next and had a wonderful way with corned beef hash.  She was also the best pie and bread maker and gave our children a good, healthy start."  Effie was very fondly remembered by all who knew her and I recall my mother, Vera, tell how she loved her Grandmother Effie. A telling memory is the story that one day when they lived in a parsonage in Maine, Rev. Herbert looked out the window and remarked that a man walking past his house had an overcoat just like his own. Effie then told him that it had been his coat, but that poor man needed one, so, she gave it to him. Many needy folks knew of Effie's kindness, as she always made room at the table or found an extra bed.

    Effie Louraine (Robbins) Milligan
         By the time I was born in 1948, the eldest of what would become twenty-four grandchildren, Alice was 46 years old with eight children spanning the ages from twenty-six to six months.  Her last pregnancy overlapped that of her eldest daughter, my mother Vera, with a late-in-life birth not uncommon in those days. Within her own large family, Alice was the third born of six daughters and three brothers. Her mother, Effie, gave birth over a twenty-one year period and Alice's childbearing  days spanned twenty-six years.  Interestingly, both mother and daughter married at age eighteen and gave birth to their first child by age nineteen; both had experienced the loss of two children at birth or shortly thereafter; and both delivered their last child in their forties.  Effie and her daughter Alice were strong, productive women!

         Other similarities included the frequent moves that mother and daughter endured over their lifetimes.  While it is difficult to piece together exact times and locations, records indicate that both Effie and Alice lived in at least fifteen different places during their lifetimes. Having been called to the ministry, the Reverend Herbert Freeman Milligan brought his expanding family with him every three to six years when he was reassigned from parish to parish. From the time of her marriage to Herbert until the time she died at the age of 60 in 1940, Effie had lived in at least fifteen locations. However, it is likely she lived in several other places prior to her marriage, having been born in Syracuse, NY, and eventually living with her family in Somerville, MA and/or Everett, MA. Between the time of Alice's birth and her marriage, she had lived in seven towns, followed by at least eight other moves during her married life including multiple moves in Charlestown, MA and Medford, MA. One can only imagine what a relief it was for her to move into a home of her own when she and Harold bought a duplex house at 144-146 Village St., Reading, MA in the summer of 1942, pregnant with her next to last son, Richard, who would be born a few months later.
    Harold and Alice Tompkins Family (Richard and Wayne not born at time of picture)




    Front: (Alice) Lorraine, Harold, Tom, Alice, Don  Back: Vera, Milt, Viola

        The love of music was passed through the generations in the Milligan family and Alice exemplified this rich tradition her entire life. Her father was a talented musician who played many instruments and started his own orchestra as a young man. In addition to playing piano, Alice was gifted with a high soprano voice, much admired by all who heard her sing. She was the leading singer in her family, who along with three of her sisters formed a quartet of female classical musicians that was very popular in Clinton, Maine, where her father was pastor around 1911-1914. Rev. Milligan accompanied the quartet with Bertha, a mezzo-soprano, Leila, a contralto, and Chris a low alto. Alice could hit a high C without vibrato well into her later years.

         Some of my fondest memories of my grandmother involve music. She had an upright piano in her dining room that came alive when her hands flashed over the keys in grand flourishes of chords, as she sang to her own accompaniment. She had a pile of well-worn 78 rpm vinyl records that she played on her "Victrola" record cabinet. They included popular crooners of the time, as well as, holiday songs and old waltz tunes that she had collected. I remember at times she would dance around the room by herself, singing as she waltzed. From my earliest memories, I recall the many group sing-a-longs occasioned by a family party or the homecoming of one of her sons on leave from the service. A multi-generational choir of uncles, aunts and cousins converged around her kitchen table with children picking up the melodies and harmony from the adults. Most of the songs were popular Tin Pan Alley tunes, such as, Shine on Harvest Moon, When the Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along, I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover, Peg O' My Heart, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, among so many others. In season, Christmas carols were most favored with Silent Night at the top of the list. Alice's two sons, Milton and Tom, had beautiful solo voices, but all could sing up a storm in that small room.

         The old duplex house at 144-46 Village Street, Reading, MA still looks much like it did during Alice's lifetime. It anchors the neighborhood with its large blocky form and its speckled brown asphalt shingles typical of an earlier era. We were told that the house had been moved from Reading center near Main and Haven Streets where it once served as an office or municipal building. As kids, we cousins spent many summer evenings sitting on the high front steps watching the cars go by or
    playing tag and hide-and-go-seek around the house in the dark as the grownups sat visiting on the front porch.  Entering the house through the front porch you would push open the old heavy door, rarely locked. With the creeky wooden stairway on the right, a long hall and front sitting room to the left, one generally found the action in the kitchen where Gram might be cooking up a pot of spaghetti, or more likely entertaining some of the family clan gathered around the table. It could be aunts, uncles, cousins or on  very special occasions, more distant relatives visiting from Maine or New York.

         When  Alice received a letter with notice that her sisters and/or the Reverend Herbert, himself, were going to pay a visit, it would be the topic of conversation for weeks in advance and long afterwards. Everyone would pitch in to clean the house, prepare food and clear the calendar for the special visit. When these infrequent reunions of her siblings, and/or father occurred, my grandmother was the happiest I ever saw her, and how sad she was when the visit ended. I distinctly remember how the tall Reverend in his imposing dark suit would preside over the rarely used table in the dining room. Prior to  the dinner being served, all would be silenced as he stood to offer his long pastoral blessing in his preacher's practiced voice. The Milligan daughters whom I recall, Chris, Bertha (Bite), Alice, Leila and Emma were an impressive group of white and silver-haired, large, solid women. There was much laughing and storytelling, followed by singing, of course. There were never enough chairs for everyone, but we all managed to crowd into the dining room to partake of the spectacle. 

         Though healthy her whole life, Alice's sight became impaired by cataracts late in life and she also developed a persistent stiffness in her neck that impacted her ability to turn her head to the right. In the last few years, her breathing became progressively more strained which she attributed to long term exposure to the smelly emissions from the smokestack at the nearby Boston Stove Foundry that wafted into her bedroom window when it was opened. Finally, on November, 29, 1981, Alice passed away refusing to be resuscitated by tubes that the doctors tried to put down her throat.  She clenched her jaws together and with a smile, began another journey.  She died only a month after the death of her daughter, Lorraine (d.10/19/1981), and the death of her son, Wayne (d. 10/06/1981).

     Alice Bernice Milligan Tompkins   -  Chronology notes

    1898 Malden, MA         Herbert and Effie married February 19, 1898
    1899 Everett, MA         Christena born     
    1900 Somerville, MA    Herbertha (Bite) born
    1902 Saugus, MA        Alice born   
    1904 Saugus, MA         Herbert Freeman Jr.  born 
    1906  Saugus, MA        Leila born  (Cliftondale section of Saugus)
    1909  Saugus, MA        Emma  born
    1912  Clinton, ME         Esther  born
    1913 Clinton, ME          Ruth Born,  Died 1916 Waldoboro age 1.7 mos.

    1917  Waldoboro, ME   Dexter born

    1920  Easton, ME         Jonathan born

    1922 Easton, ME          Thomas born/died one day later..mentioned in letter from Herbert to                                       Jon Milligan

    *******************************************************************************
    1902 Saugus, MA          Alice born
    1921 Machias, ME          Alice married to Harold  July 7, 1921
    1922  Easton, ME           Vera Milligan born 8/29/1922
    1923  ?                            maybe a daughter born?
    1924  New York City       Harold Jr. born 9/16/1924 (birth certificate) died abt. 1924                
    1925 (Charlestown?)      Milton Bedford born 12/29/1925 born in Methuen, family lived in 
                                           Charlestown, MA?

    1929 Charlestown, MA   Viola Mae born 9/28/1929
    1933 Somerville, MA      Alice Lorraine born 7/4/1933
    1936 Medford, MA         Thomas Herbert born 3/3/1936
    1939 Woburn, MA          Donald Freeman born 12/13/1939
    1942 Reading, MA         Richard David born 11/2/1942 (Winchester Hosp)
    1948 Reading, MA         Wayne born 4/24/1948 (Winchester Hosp)
    1989 Reading, MA         Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins died 11/29/1981

    Saturday, December 24, 2011

    I've Gone to Pot

    Neti pot that is.  Okay, I'm behind the curve on this one (fad?).  In the last 3 months, I have heard about "neti pot" sinus cleansing from a neighbor, from Dr. Oz, and from my kids.  Everyone it seems is raving about it.  I also heard recently of dangers associated with using a neti pot.  Web research indicates that reasonable precautions should be able to prevent problems.  So, here it is winter with me sitting indoors.  The home heating system is drying out my nasal passages leaving them crusty and I have a drippy nose, remnant of a cold.  I can't stop thinking that I should give this a try.  I guess it is time for me to consider it.

    First, I have to dispel memories of inappropriate times that liquids have come gushing out of my nose.  I assume this has happened to everyone at one time or another.  Thankfully, this hasn't happened often, but I recall it was embarrassing and it did not feel very pleasant.  Wouldn't purposely forcing liquid into my sinuses and out through my nose also feel unpleasant?   Web research seems to indicate that it won't feel unpleasant.  It was more likely the type of liquid that came through my nose (I think it was Coca Cola and sometimes milk) than the experience that made it uncomfortable.  The neti pot uses a saline solution of boiled or distilled warm water, so it might not produce the same uncomfortable feeling.

    So, what about the benefits?  There are many stories on the web covering the topic, so I will provide a link to one from the CNN Health website "Why people swear by the neti pot".  This story does not go into the details of many others, but provides a good background from the user's perspective.

    Now as I post, I can say I have used the neti pot 3 times.  Although it seems weird, it is not to difficult to flush my sinuses.  The flushing with the saline solution is not uncomfortable.  Have I experienced any benefit?  Nothing that I can claim at this time.  I will continue using the neti pot for a while and give it a chance.  Maybe there will be a long term benefit.



    Monday, December 19, 2011

    Rev. Herbert F. Milligan

    REV. HERBERT FREEMAN MILLIGAN (3rd generation)
    (1878 – 1970)
    EFFIE LOURAINE ROBBINS
    (1880 - 1940)


    Forgive me in advance for what will be a long post about Rev. Herbert F. Milligan.  The Reverend published his own memoirs in A Few Mumblings in 1960 and updated it in 1966.  Altogether, it makes for a long posting.  However, I do not want his memoir to be lost to posterity, nor do I feel that I should edit his memoir.  Therefore, I publish this section of Mumblings (that of his own life) in its entirety.  "Mumblings" only had one family picture, Herbert and Foddie.  Thanks to several family members, I was able to scan some old family photos which I will add to this and future postings.  Any red text in brackets [text] was added by me.  I did some internet research and was able to verify and provide links to some of the occurrences and statements made by Herbert.  All of Herbert's children were born to his first wife Effie Robbins.  He remarried Florence Belle (Maddox) Weeks (referred to as "Foddie" herein) in 1941.  From A Few Mumblings (and its updates):



         “I was a normal lad, full of tricks and pranks, like many of you, which need no recording. At an early date, in a home on Bow Street, Everett [MA], just a stone's throw in the rear of Auntie Knox, Father was in a torchlight procession during the Benjamin Harrison presidential campaign [1888]. He had placed slats in the front room windows and scores of lighted candles on the slats. We had no electric lights at that time. Our oil lamps provided all of the illumination we needed. On our center table, with marble top, was placed a large lamp and shade. The parade passed on Bow Street and mother came to extinguish the candles and while she was busy I hid under the table. She raised the lamp and started to retire to the sitting room, when I jumped with a "Boo" behind her. She didn't drop the lamp but was frightened for a moment. I got my paddling.


    “We lived on Paris Street when I started my primary school activities on School Street [Everett, MA]. Graduated to Grammar School and from then until I left the eighth grade in February of my graduating year, was always among the first six scholars in classes of 40 to 60 pupils. I remember "Granny Hall" who always flogged me if she was hit by a spit ball, and a Miss Davis, another teacher, who in later life when I happened to be selected to deliver an anniversary sermon at the Everett Congregational Church, on Broadway, came to me at the close and weepingly stated, "I am so glad today, that I had the privilege of assisting in your education and training." The Principal, Andy Bennett, chewed tobacco and always spit into a side pocket of sawdust.


    “I hope that none of you will charge me with boasting in anything that I may record, for I excelled at many things, though I never considered any of my activities of any particular importance or of value. 


    “I had a chance to work as a Board Boy [stock market], in Boston, at $5.00 per week and accepted. Later I took Night High School instruction at the Grammar School building and in that business course, was instructed in shorthand by the famous Mr. Gregg who had but recently arrived in this country from Europe [arrived in Boston 1893 moved to Chicago in 1895]. His system was based on the Isaac Pitman system which I had already learned from a Dr. Hull, of our acquaintance. Sitting beside me on one occasion, and dictating, he said, "You are doing mighty fine. I am quoting at the rate of 200 words a minute."


    “I used to report for the Boston Transcript, and later, when residing at Saugus, Mass. publishing a weekly "Calendar" and at my father's home assisting on the "Orange Home News", furnished the Boston Globe through its correspondent, Mr. Morse, and the Boston Herald through Mr. Titcom both at Lynn [MA]. I was regular agent and reporter for the Lynn Daily Item and several years later, when I decided to remove to Maine, after a four-year siege of Malaria, the two Hasting Brothers, owners of the Lynn Item, said to me, "Mr. Milligan, at any time in the future that you would like to take up newspaper work once more, remember us. We will make a place for you at any time."

    (About 1912 Methodist Church Clinton, ME? Guessing at the identities)  Front: Alice, Ester, Leila, Emma;  Back: Effie, Herbertha, Herbert, Christena, Herbert



    “That was in the spring of 1909 when we moved, with six children to North Newcastle, Maine. I pitched for the [Lynn, MA] Item Baseball team, alternating with Johnnie Beckworth the cartoonist. He and I pitched and played center field. I also pitched for our volunteer fire department at Saugus [MA]. In one edition of the Item, Beckworth, who furnished a three-column sketch every evening, showed me, after I had beaten the baseball team of the Boston Police department, as "Our elongated artist, lobbing them over." He pictured me as a telephone pole with my arms extended.


    “Continuing my education (In good things) I was given a chance by the Rev. Daniel B. Phelen, District Superintendent of Rockland District, Methodist Church as a pianist and helper of Wall Street Evangelist, Corbett, in special services at Westport, Maine. He appointed me as temporary pastor-preacher at Wiscasset, Maine. I burned many gallons of midnight oil in preparing for the ministry. But I passed four years studies with an average of better than 90%. Later I spent three years in B.U. summer theological school on Mt. Vernon Street, Boston and had an average of over 90%.


    “I feel as though I ought to drop all reference to my exploits. But I have always been interested in athletics and sports. At 8 years of age and for several years, Father would visit the Walpole Baseball Park to watch the Boston Club in the National League and I went too. We always sat behind the screen, behind the catcher. I remember to this day many of the old players. I saw the last game caught by [Charlie] Bennett; he was in a train wreck that night [Jan. 10, 1894], on a trip to Chicago, and lost his leg.


    “I could fill a long chapter with baseball. I played my last regular games while I was pastor at Washington Avenue, Portland. I had a class of 54 boys, mostly from Deering High School. Many good athletes were in the class including two Maine H.S. Champions, Aaskov, ¼ miler [Clifton Earl Aaskov - was he related to Charles Edward Aaskov who married Herbert's daughter Emma?] and Williamson, High Hurdles. But we had no pitcher, although they could field and bat. The Methodist Churches of Portland and vicinity had a summer field day at Long Island, Casco Bay. The program committee provided for two ball games in the morning and the two winners to play for the prize in the afternoon. Washington Avenue, with me pitching beat South Portland in the morning. Chestnut Street beat Congress Street in the morning. That made an afternoon game for us against Chestnut Street after dinner. We beat them 16-1 which their church secretary never forgot. Nearly 30 years afterward, Foddie and I were on Exchange Street when we met Miss Pierce. After introductions, she said to me. "Mr. Milligan, I have never forgotten the time that you beat my boys in baseball."


    “Somewhere I have a book of scraps which show many scores.  While pastor at Oakland and Sidney, I urged Dexter to play ball.  He had an inferiority complex.  “I can’t play as well as the others.”  I believed that he could and got him started at center field.  He was a good batter and could run like a deer.  Hist first game against a rival school an opponent hit a high fly to center.  Dexter ran after it and got it into his hands but dropped it.  I never saw him drop another.


    “Dexter was a good checker player also.  We had Lee’s guide and studied on a special game thoroughly.  There was a Champion Checker player living in Titusville, Pa.  He visited Monmouth, Maine and played a group of about thirty from Augusta and neighboring towns.  Dexter and I attended.  One of the games chosen was the game we knew.  The very last opponent of the Champion was Dexter, and had the lookers-on left him alone, he would have won it.  He took the advice of one of the others.  I thought he should have done what he had planned.  He lost.  His own move would have won.


    “Dexter was also a good singer.  Both he and Jon sang in our Church choirs.  Dexter often purchased cheap song sheets and knew most of the popular songs.  He was also interested in boxing, wrestling, eating carrots, and raising himself from the floor.  I have stopped him in that exercise after counting 35.  I purchased a set of boxing gloves for the boys while occupying “Kennebec Manor” in Gardiner, during my Oakland ministry.  I have watched Dexter use many a Gardiner High School lad as a punching bag.


    “God seemed to bless me in my many pastoral charges.


    “At Athens, one cold, stormy night in winter (water used to freeze on kitchen stove at night), wife and I sat in the sitting room surrounded by six little folks. I said as I viewed Christena, Herbertha and Alice with their school books at study, the other playing with their toys, "Wife, I wouldn't swap this pleasure for a million dollars." It was in Athens that I organized my first Boy Scout Troop. I continued as Scoutmaster in every town, till I left Kennebunk.


    “At Clinton, I joined the Masonic Lodge [1911] and in 1961 will be entitled to my 50-year gold badge. I started basketball in the Town Hall at Clinton in 1909 or 1910. They have kept going every year since. When we moved to Waldoboro, where little precocious Ruth passed [1913 - 1916] away and Dexter was born [1917], I was invited to return to Clinton to deliver a "Home Coming" sermon and I was special guest on Saturday at a baseball game played by a group of boys that I had previously organized. They presented me with a gold ring when I left Clinton, which I still wear on the 3rd finger on my left hand.


    “Last year I was invited as a past minister to Waldoboro, for an anniversary event. I was the eldest clergyman present. Foddie and I enjoyed the day.


    “We moved to Easton during the first world war [1914 - 1918]. I became a leader of the Junior Volunteers and had three troops in Easton [Easton is right on the Canadian border, a short distance to Peel/Florenceville, home of Harold Tompkins.  Harold Tompkins and Alice Milligan married in Machias, ME on July 7, 1921.  Vera Tompkins, my mother, was born in Easton, ME on August 29, 1922.], Fort Fairfield and Limestone at the end of the year. In 1920 I had highest rank in the examinations for Enumerator of the 1920 census. It took three weeks in the coldest weather I ever experienced. Herb was night telephone operator there, and attended High School. Floyd Sands, Chris, Bertha and McFarland spent the winter with us. Every member of the family, but wife, had the flu. Floyd had mumps in addition. I joined the I.O.O.F. [International Order of Odd Fellows] and Encampment at Easton.


    “From Easton we were assigned to Machias where I entertained the last session of the Old East Maine Conference with Rev. Edwin Holt Hughes presiding. I become leader of a band of 34 fine musicians. We were engaged at several County Fairs and at a large Labor Union gathering at Woodland were one of five bands in the morning parade. Each band provided a noon concert while a committee visited each and made a selection for the best band to get an evening concert job at an extra $150.00. We were the winners. I assisted in training 200 persons for the Cantata of Esther to get funds for entertaining the Methodist Conference session [Lewiston Daily Sun, April 12, 1917 Rev. H.F. Milligan, Statistian]. We held the concert in the Opera House and after the bills were paid we had a balance of more than $394.00.


    “During our pastorate in Machias, Emma was visiting a neighbor for a little while after supper. While there it became dark. She started running down a concrete walk, not seeing a wire clothes line, which caught her under the chin and landed her on the walk with a skull concussion. She is our only child that did not continue in High School till graduation. It was at Waldoboro that Herb and Alice both graduated from High School . Herb had always tried to get out of school and start working. I told him "You go to school till 21, if necessary, but you go." After the exercises, the first person off the platform was Herb. He rushed to me more than half way down the hall, weeping, and cried. "Dad, this is the happiest day of my life. I am glad that you made me continue at school."


    “We came to Portland from Machias. A Rev. Freeman Dought was Statistician of the Maine Conference and I was Statistician of the East Maine Conference that united in the present Maine Conference the next year. A special committee preparing for the new officials of the United Maine Conference selected me as Statistician of Maine Conference and I was unanimously elected, serving several years before I resigned.


    “There are a few things that I ought to say about my retirement from the Methodist ministry at the age of 66 in May 1944, and later entering the employment of Boston and Maine R.R. on July 20, 1944.


    “I came to Maine in the spring of 1909. Settled at North Newcastle and attended the Methodist Church at Sheepscot. Received my local preacher's license and was assigned by District Superintendent Rev. D. B. Phelan, to assist Wall Street Evangelist in work at Westport Island and later to take charge of the Church at Wiscasset. My farewell sermon at Wiscasset was on a very stormy night. I preached on the theme, "Love not the world nor the things of the world." It seemed as though the whole town wanted to attend. The auditorium and vestries were crowded. More than 400 persons attended. I had a good time and that spring was appointed to Athens. I enjoyed my labors in every charge as follows: Athens to Clinton, Waldoboro, Easton, Machias, Portland (WCSH Radio), Randolph, Oakland, Woolwich, North and East Vassalboro and retirement, 1944. Most of my pastorate terms were three to six years. I baptized many and received new members in every charge.


    “When Effie, my wife passed away at Deaconess Hospital in September, Kennebunk till the following Spring when I was appointed to Woolwich. The new Carleton Bridge had just opened across the Kennebec River from Bath and the Bishop thought it might be a fine chance to get members from Bath. Instead folks on our side of the river went to the larger churches in Bath.


    “I had met Mrs. Florence B. M. Weeks at my West Kennebunk Church. She was a good helper there and had been a teacher for several years at city schools in Conn. She had attended the church at New Haven and was a student at Yale. We were married at Kennebunk, on her birthday, December 24, 1941 and she assisted me in my last years as pastor-preacher. She often addressed large gatherings of evening worshipers at Woolwich. We retired to a 6-acre farm in Kennebunk and thus have enjoyed nearly 19 years in our gardens in the summer. We have always had plenty of tomatoes, corn, cukes, and squash, along with melons, carrots, peas and beans. Enough to make one's mouth water.


    “After settlement at Cat Mousam Road [Kennebunk, ME - when you drive on the Maine turnpike, you pass under this road.  You can see the name on a bridge as you pass under it.] in 1944, the World War II was on. Railroads in New England were in need of thousands of employees. I knew that I could assist in many ways and finally, with no effort, secured employment as assistant agent, in the ticket office at Kennebunk. I served there a couple of years and when the road sent out word that the Stations at Bradbury, Wescott, Waterboro and Alfred were available for bids, I sent in my bid and got the job. There I learned the freight business the hard way. For eight years and 10 months I served the B&M R.R. in more than 22 stations as spare. My closing appointment was at Farmington, N.H. for over four years. In 1953 I was on my way to my job, when at North Berwick, Maine, at a detour around a new bridge being erected over the tracks, I got a smashing from a passing freight train of 150 cars with one of our large Diesel engines. To make a long story short, I was fed dope by my doctor, for three weeks, then was in Webber Hospital at Biddeford for five days. They sent me home on a Friday noon, saying "There is nothing we can do for him." My own physicians said the same thing. When Foddie assisted me out of the auto, I went to my couch and immediately into a coma. The doctor simply stated on Sunday and Monday, "He will have to pass away." Foddie said, "He is breathing. The trouble is with his head. I will try some brain specialist. If they can do nothing for him at Portland, I will take him to Boston or New York, while he still lives." With the help of Jon and our doctor, arrangements were made with Drs. Maltby and Bidwell, specialists at Portland. On Tuesday evening Sept. 15, 1953, in an ambulance and under police escort I was landed at Portland General Hospital (now Medical Center), and Dr. Bidwell operated from 8 o'clock till midnight with the help of two physicians, two nurses and finally arrived in the rooms below, where Dexter and Florence, Jon and Elizabeth, Bertha, Emma and maybe some others heard him say to Foddie, "He is conscious, and I expect he will live." That was seven years ago. You may thank Foddie (She got that nickname from a little child when she was young and it has never left her). I have often thanked the good Lord for his direction and care.


    “I have recorded the item concerning my deliverance from death at the burning of my parents’ greenhouse at Braggville.


    “The miracle of my delivery from death in the auto accident at the North Berwick detour, in which my truck was demolished and I got the large clot of blood in my brain, resulting in serious operation at Maine General Hospital seven years ago, is also recorded in this document.


    “There are two similar deliveries that should be told, to complete the miracles that have preserved an otherwise healthy manhood. Here they are.


    “In 1909 my fourth annual attack by malaria in Cliftondale [section of Saugus, MA] had so weakened my constitution, that our family physician claimed "Nothing can save him this Spring but a long sea voyage or a trip to the mountains for the summer." I went to bed to pass away. My wife and neighbors were reconciled. I lost weight for two months and the pain in every bone and muscle of my body was intense.


    “Suddenly one morning, after a visit by the doctor, with his assurance, "There is no hope for him," I was facing the wall on my right side, when a large circle of light as bright as the sun, shone in the diagonal corner of the room, my eyes were open. A voice as audible as any that I had ever heard, said, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."---Isaiah 41:10.


    “I had joined the church and I had believed in Almighty God, in fact I was a greater believer in his miracles than many Christians. I began to weep in the midst of my pains and aches. I said, "AMEN LORD, I believe it." Immediately, I threw my feet to the floor and stood up, without a pain. I dressed and went down stairs to behold my wife weeping and she started to laugh and became hysterical. At first she said, "I thought I was seeing your Ghost." From that day on I told the story abroad. A friend owning an empty home in North Newcastle, Maine offered me the chance, which I accepted to recuperate and get a return of strength in Maine. We arrived, I got a job of scaling lumber in the Maine woods and the privilege later of beginning my career as a Methodist preacher.


    “The next bad situation was several months after the death and burial of Effie, my wife. I realized that a successful pastor should be a married man. I had become acquainted with Mrs. Weeks, then a resident of West Kennebunk, a part of my charge. We occasionally went to dinner at Wells or Johnson's Restaurant and on such an occasion stopped at Wells Corner and proceeded to the drug store to get an article for Foddie. Returning (August 8, 1941, the traffic was unusually heavy.), I waited till I thought I had a good chance to cross to my parked car in front of Moulton's Store. As I started an auto from the Cliff House in Ogunquit, speeding by to meet a train at Wells railway station, hit me. I mean banged me good and hard, so that I went over the top and onto the concrete pavement. I was unconscious. Traffic was held up for some time in both directions. A physician near the scene administered dope. Foddie and a State patrolman escorted me to the hospital at Biddeford and I was bandaged up in many ways. In three weeks, I was able to go to Foddie's home for treatment and care. I employed Mr. Homer Waterhouse as attorney and sued the Cliff House for $5,000.00. The jury verdict was for a sum of over $3,300.00 which the Cliff House insurance agency refused, on the grounds that I had agreed with their agent that I was partly to blame. (My mistake.) An appeal to the Supreme Court granted me the privilege of a new trial but nothing more. My attorney said the story would be the same and it would be of no value. We dropped it. Aside from the accident events, I have no recollection of calling a physician for any ailment to me, with one exception, when I was in bed for two days at Machias with bronchitis. Thank the Lord for His deliveries and wonderful care. I once believed the promise, "No evil shall befall thee nor plague come near thy dwelling."


    “I have taken up a lot of space in saying very little, so, why continue rambling along? Some day we may say more in a real book. My radio experiences at WCSH for nearly three years while pastor at Washington Avenue, could fill a good sized book by itself. So I will just say "The Lord Bless You All" and proceed to enter the lists of little folks.”


    Mumblings (1966 Update)

    Introduction


    “In this year, 1966, it is the wish of my father, Reverend Herbert F. Milligan, that his book, printed in 1960—called Mumblings be brought up to date for purposes of giving to each member of the family a record of those who are living, where they are living and what they are doing.

    “Pop” is in his 89th year.  He is active, mentally and physically, despite his infirmities which are deafness and only partial sight.


    “Most of his life has been spent in Maine and in church work.  He retired from the ministry when he was 65, but still preaches a pretty good sermon from his rocker on the farm porch at Cat Mousam Road in Kennebunk, Maine.


    “His idea for starting this second edition developed in his garden this summer and he has been thinking about it and talking about it ever since.  He has typed many pages of information, some of which will follow this introduction.


    “He has requested that a portion of Shakespeare, relative to life being a stage and men and women but the players on it, be quoted, for this would be his present interpretation of life and yet he would combine his strong feeling of divine power and leadership as being an essential part of life.


    “Prayer has been a constant source of strength and help to Pop and I am sure that he has needed the strength gained from it many times over the years; raising his large family and coping with the church problems and making ends meet.


    “I wish it were possible to put down all the stories that I have heard other members of the family tell about those days in Machias and Easton and Waldoboro and those early charges when everything was horse power and manpower and when the gas engine was jacked up on the shed floor for warmer weather.


    “I have a number of short stories that you may find of interest and perhaps slightly humorous and it may give you a little insight into this man who, to some of you, is Gramp, Great Gramp or even Great, Great Gramp.


    “When he was a young man in Massachusetts, he had his own orchestra and was a talented musician, able to play most of the instruments; he worked at various phases of newspaper work and was, at one time, a chalker in the stock broker’s office where he lived.  He was quite an athlete and has told many stories about “toe and heeling”.  This was one of the most grueling of races when you consider that in those races a man would walk a mile in something like seven minutes without running.


    “He has always continued his interest in sports, even after many financial flops such as the time he started the twilight baseball league in Gardiner (ME) and he had his own team from Randolph, for which he furnished the bats, balls, mitts, etc.  The theory, of course, was that people would pay to see the games and Pop would get the money back.  But it was all theory.  Boys would find the balls and run all the way home.  Pop would start the game with a dozen and end up with two dirty ones, if he was lucky.  But he enjoyed it and he felt that this was how he could reach the boys of the church.  He was way ahead of his time.


    “Pop was watched over by a power greater than himself.  He prayed constantly and I am sure that there was a listener, for some of his driving was not safe, certainly.


    “One day on his way from Oakland to Sidney, with the roads packed high with snow and with Pop trying to make time over the icy roads, I recall he turned his Peerless over a complete revolution and ended up with the car on its wheels and heading back toward Oakland.  The only outward proof of the incident was the dent in Pop’s derby hat.


    “I also recall his telling, just a few years ago, “I have had thirteen accidents in the last two years and I wasn’t responsible for one of them.”  At the time he was trying to get his insurance renewed on his truck.  Then, of course, many of you remember that he ran across a railroad track one morning and he thought that the man who held up his hand to stop him was shielding his eyes from the sun.  The train hit the back of the truck, put it up over a banking and, although Pop later suffered from a blood clot on the brain which was successfully operated on, he actually walked away from the accident.


    “I could go on for pages, but will not.  I will end this introduction by simply saying that it is his wish that each of us bear proudly his heritage; work had for ourselves and families and pass on to each new generation the basic principles of good living.  This should be based on a firm religious foundation, with a strong individual feeling for right, realizing that life is short and that the most important things we do are those things which do for others.”
     
    Some Chips from the Old Block


    We, the Herbert F. Milligan family, came to Maine from Massachusetts.  We had little or no capital, but plenty of ambition to make good.  We had no job nor promise of anything from anybody.  We did have a couple of axes and there were trees to be cut in the woodlands of northern Maine.  I did have enough cash to purchase several barrels of potatoes and a few groceries.  I shortly took a job of scaling lumber for three dollars a per week.  The family attended Sunday services by walking to the Methodist Church in Sheepscot, two miles away.  We owned nothing in the way of transportation.  The older children accompanied me occasionally and we feared nothing.

    “After a few months of working in the woods, my weekly check was returned from the grocer’s bank marked, “No Good”.

    “I wanted to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I attended a meeting of the quarterly conference of the church with Supt. D.B. Phelan in what was then the Eastern Maine Conference.  I received a license to preach and helped Wall Street Evangelist Corbett at Westport Island by playing the piano and leading the singing.   We had some very interesting experiences for the next three weeks and I recall jumping to the wharf from the Boothbay Harbor steamer which was on its way from Wiscasset down the Sheepscot River and landing on the wharf beside my case which I had thrown ahead.  I soon became known as the Woodchopper Preacher.  Later, the superintendent appointed me as the preacher for the winter of 1909-1910 at Athens, Maine.  It was my chance and with the help of God I made good as a preacher.  I added a few nearby sections as preaching points.  Among them Cornville, West Athens and Brighton.  All were successfully attended on appointed dates and church attendance, if I may say so, was increased.  It was said that I was a “good visiting preacher and steadily faithful”.  One of my joys of these early years was in serving as first statistician of the new Maine conference, while serving as pastor of the Machias church.

    “I could fill this with at least 300 pages of interesting tales of by-gone days.  I could tell you of the time I was a member of the greeting party for the arrival of the great American, Charles Lindbergh, who had flown solo from this country to Paris and had returned to this country to tell his story.  Or, I could tell about my Bible Half Hour over WCSH and of helping Howard O. Hough [1926] conduct his First Radio Parish Church in Portland.

    “Of course I could relate the trials and tribulations of a country minister; of the pressures of raising a large family, of the happiness that my grandchildren have brought me.  I could tell about the food showers that helped us through those long winters in the towns where, during the harder times, people had more potatoes and cabbage than money.

    “My first wife, Effie Louise Robbins, the mother of my children, was great at making over one child’s clothes to fit the next and dad a wonderful way with corned beef hash.  She was also the best pie and bread maker and gave our children a good, healthy start.

    “My strength through life has come from prayer and the scriptures.  I have my favorite passages which I recite whenever I can find a listener and without a listener I recite them to myself, daily.  “The Lord is my strength and my salvation.”

    “My Mumblings are a means of communication to those of you who are living now and to those who will come later.  If they help in any way to strengthen one of you, they will have served a good purpose.

    “Through the past twenty-five years, my second wife, Florence Weeks Milligan, fondly called Foddie, by members of the family, has kept me alive with tender care and constant attention.  Her nursing and teaching experience of years gone by has helped greatly in this.

    “As I enjoy my porch and gaze down Cat Mousam Road and look at the fields and the children playing in the distance and watch our dog, Sally, wandering through the yard, I think of the next planting and the next harvest and pray that I may enjoy the new seasons which will unfold with 1967."

    [Reverend Herbert F. Milligan died July 18, 1970 at Biddeford, Maine.]

    Below are two family reunion pictures. 
     



    Saturday, December 17, 2011

    Weekend Ramblings - U.S. Civil War Re-union

    Here is a link to an old video that I received from my cousin Bob.  It show north and south civil war veterans getting together at Gettysburg in 1913 and 1938.  Although they fought each other, there seems to be a comrade amongst the soldiers, a shared experience that brought them together.  An interesting video for many reasons.

    Civil-war-veteran-soldier-footage-captured-between-1913-and-1938

    Sat in the living room this morning as I do every morning appreciating the view.  Thought I would share it with you by sketching my view in less than 1 hour.