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“I
Can’t Help Knowing About Brooklin,” Says Unofficial Historian
There is little in Brooklin that
June Eaton, for 30 years the town clerk, has not had a hand in
over the years. Her newest commitment is the establishment of
the two-year-old Brooklin Keeping Society. |
When the Wooden
Boat School in Brooklin brings in new students each summer, June
Eaton gets the call to come impart the local lore.
Eaton is the
Brooklin’s part-time assistant librarian, its unofficial historian
and one of the founding members of the Brooklin Keeping Society. But
it’s not merely that combination of positions that helps others
learn about Brooklin’s finest moments. She is a natural for keeping
Brooklin lively, both today and in tales from the past.
“I can’t help
knowing about Brooklin,” Eaton said, “although sometimes my memory
needs to be propped up.”
It helps that she
is a native herself, and that she married Raymond Eaton, whose
Brooklin roots
extended back six generations. The two met and married in 1947. He
passed away seven years ago after five children and 48 years
together.
For 30 of those
years, starting in 1963, Eaton worked as the town clerk. That
provided a long-term perspective on what makes Brooklin the town it
is today.
Some of the reasons
that people live there get renewed every Fourth of July, when town
spirit spills over onto the town green. There is a parade with
floats, book and food sales, games, booths and a barbeque.
“The town can
really get behind something and work together beautifully,” she
said.
The town’s proudest
moment came in 1999, Eaton says. That was its sesquicentennial,
marking 150 years since its separation from Sedgwick (in 1849).
Eaton also
remembers the town’s centennial in 1949. But she was about to have a
baby (Sue, her oldest daughter). So rather than jump in, she “sat
back and watched the parade go by.”
“Each time you
have something like that (a sesquicentennial celebration or even a
Fourth of July), it cements the relationship with the people,” she
said. “It makes you realize that you value your town.”
She does not know
everyone in town anymore, now that she no longer registers the
voters. But people still know her face: She works six hours a week
at Friend Memorial Library, and has worked there for years.
She says she once
came across a catalog card she had written out in 1942, as a
teen-ager.
“If they come to
the library, I get to know them,” she said. “But there are a great
number of people living here that I don’t recognize.
“We have people
who arrive and are enchanted with Brooklin, but then they move on.
Then there are others who really put their roots down, and who spend
a lot of money for homes here.
“Those are the
people I am more likely not to know.”
Now, longtime
Brooklin residents are getting to know their roots, thanks to the
new Brooklin Keeping Society.
Because Brooklin
shared its early history with Sedgwick, the towns also shared in the
Sedgwick-Brooklin Historical Society. The Keeping Society was formed
as a stand-alone group in 2000 partially as one of the outcomes of
the sesquicentennial. It also came about after one of the families
in town decided it wanted to keep its donation of family materials
within Brooklin.
After a yard sale
for the Linnie Bowden house in July 2000, her sons (including Hugh
Bowden, the Ellsworth American’s executive editor) allowed some
local ladies to go through the attic and the barn at the sale’s end.
They were invited to take whatever they found of historical
significance to the town, toward the formation of a truly local
historical society.
From those
original seven members, the Society has grown to more than 140
members today.
“So many of
Brooklin’s artifacts were being lost, either going to the dump,”
Eaton said.
“Now people are
much more conservative with what they do when cleaning out their
attics.
“There is a
resurgence in this sort of interest in families’ histories. We get
so excited over this, you can’t believe it.”
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