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 Friday,
July 29th, 2022
Volume 31 Issue 8
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In This Issue of The
Wood Prairie Seed Piece:
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This edition of the Seed
Piece may be found
in our Wood Prairie
Seed Piece Archives.
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Maine Tales. Million
Dollar Rain. Caribou, Maine. Circa 1981.
'Doss' Morse (1899-1992) and Etta Sharp Morse
(1900-1984).
Our close and kind neighbors spent a lifetime farming.
Characteristically for the day, Doss virtually never
wore the top button to his shirt unbuttoned, even on the
hottest Summer day. Etta was 16 before she ever
laid eyes on Houlton, 25 miles away. In a time and
place when doctors were few and far between, Etta was
midwife to the mothers of many children born on Bootfoot
Road.
Guy Morse bought another lot in 1909 so he could clear the
trees and make it into a farm to grow potatoes. This lot
was the very last one on the north side of Bootfoot Road,
located in the “Bridgewater Academy Grant,” also 3x6-miles.
That lot abutted Township D, Range 2 WELS (“West of the
Eastern Line of State”), the Unorganized Territory (‘UT’)
township where our Wood Prairie Family Farm is located.
In 1920, Guy sold his end-of-Bootfoot farm to Frank Sharp.
Frank, too had been born in Bridgewater. He had cleared some
isolated forest land and farmed downstream (that’s to the
east) and adjacent to the Whitney Brook, a half-mile
from Bootfoot as the crow flies. Etta was Frank
Sharp’s daughter, the youngest of five. She was born in
1900.
A Long Marriage
Well, as happens, Doss & Etta eloped into Canada in
1917. In time, that dust settled out and Doss & Etta
Morse came to own their farm after Frank Sharp passed in
1931. So, once again it was back in Morse hands. They
were married 67 years until 1984 when Etta passed.
Doss lived another 18 years and he died in 1992.
Doss & Etta successfully held onto their farm through
the highs and the lows, including during the hard Great
Depression. Their farm was typical for the day; highly
diversified and governed by careful Maine farmer frugality
it supplied most all of their needs. They grew hay,
oats and Irish Cobbler potatoes. A large garden featured
beet greens, squash, Jacob’s Cattle Dry Beans and green
tomatoes. Wood stoves kept their home warm and cooked their
food. Etta made biscuits from scratch every day. Their
everyday diet centered around Cobblers, Jakes and biscuits,
morning, noon and night, seven days a week. They also kept
cows, pigs and chickens. Etta would make butter to sell in
Town to pay their taxes.
The Best Neighbors Are
Farmers
They were good, kind neighbors and wonderful mentors. We
valued them and their knowledge of farming. Typical of the
generation which followed, their offspring developed
interests away from the hard work of farming. Common to the
era, Doss had gone to school through the 8th grade. Yet
he was notably wise and knew at the very least something
about virtually everything of importance to young aspiring
farmers. Etta was the sweetest woman and the best cook
in town. At her funeral in the Fall of 1984, the big Baptist
Church in Bridgewater was elbow-to-elbow standing room only.
We both kept big gardens and in 1981 Northern Maine was
having a very dry Summer. At the time we were also growing
on our farm Strawberries, Jacob’s Cattle Dry Beans and
Potatoes. That year, Maine had planted 106,000 acres to
potatoes, most all of that acreage up here in Aroostook
County. In those days, because of mostly reliable Summer
rains it was rare for any Aroostook farmer to irrigate
their potatoes. The dryness was holding back tuber sizing
and taking quite a bite out of yields.
Million Dollar Rain
Then on a Monday in mid-August thunderstorms rolled in and blessed
Bridgewater with two-and-a-half inches of very welcome
rain. That afternoon, Jim was over at Doss and Etta’s
house and the three of them watched the drought-crushing
rain fall, appreciating the transformed prospects for crops
that the rain meant. Doss summed it up when he exclaimed,
“Jim, that’s a Million Dollar rain!”
To a hardworking Maine farmer who had persevered through a
lifetime of struggle in order to hold onto the farm through
thick and thin, the concept of a ‘Million Dollars’
represented a sum so vast that it was at the far end of
comprehension. Doss was right several times over and
this Bridgewater rain rescued that year’s local Maine Potato
crop.
Now, while Bridgewater received a moderate rain, a
particularly ferocious storm cell thirty-five miles north of
us settled in on the Town of Caribou. The cell dumped 6” of
rain and that caused flash flooding including right in
downtown Caribou. One house was swept off its foundation
and floated away down the Aroostook River. A flash
flood on the Prestile Brook washed out a large culvert which
crossed under the ‘Old Highway’ in Caribou (Rte 164) just
south of McElwan House, now home to the Northern Maine
Development Commission. A huge mini-Grand-Canyon was created
and it took all Fall to rebuild the highway and stream
crossing which has now withstood the pounding of subsequent
storms over the past forty years.
Caleb, Jim & Megan
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Caleb & Jim & Megan Gerritsen
Wood Prairie Family Farm
49 Kinney Road
Bridgewater, Maine 04735
(207) 429 - 9765
Certified Organic, From Farm to Mailbox
www.woodprairie.com
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