Category Archives: History

Sorting Letters at the Cemetery

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Don Taylor

While visiting Dunstan Cemetery, cemetery historian Ron Romano noticed unusual initials—“IMP’D O.R.M.” and “T.O.T.E.”—on Millard Whitten’s grave. They revealed Whitten’s membership in the Improved Order of Red Men, a once-popular fraternal organization. Romano explores these symbols and others found on Maine gravestones, uncovering how fraternal orders once shaped community and remembrance. Continue reading →

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Rum Running in Scarborough – 1925

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Don Taylor

A look back at Prohibition-era Scarborough, when local resident Ralph Woodward had his car seized for rum running. A 1925 Portland Press Herald article reveals how the national struggle over alcohol reached even Maine’s quiet coastal towns. Continue reading →

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Faces from the Past – Scarborough High Students at the White School, c. 1921

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Don Taylor

In 1905, Scarborough built the White School at Oak Hill, a two-story building that became the town’s first true high school. The upper floor housed high school classes while the lower floor served grammar grades. For more than twenty years, … Continue reading →

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How to Find 1700s Scarborough Birth Records: A Guide to the Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Don Taylor

Introduction Scarborough’s 18th-century birth records can be challenging to locate, but many have been preserved thanks to the work of early genealogists. This post explains where to find these transcribed Scarborough records in the Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, how … Continue reading →

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Scarborough Town Farm Cemetery

Posted on June 30, 2025 by Don Taylor

Ron Romano’s The Graves of Scarborough’s Paupers: The Town Farm Cemetery, 1867–1891 offers a moving, thoroughly researched account of Scarborough’s 19th-century approach to caring for its poorest citizens. When the town purchased the Brackett Farm in 1867, it became a … Continue reading →

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