167 Park Row
On January 4, 1862, as the nation entered its first winter of the Civil War, Helen Adams made the following notation in her diary:
An Indian woman + little boy came to sell baskets and sat in the dining room some time[.] I bought a little work basket.
167 Park Row
Helen Adams was the wife of Rev. George Adams, who was the minister at the First Parish Church in Brunswick. The couple probably lived at 167 Park Row.
We know a fair amount about Helen Adams because she left five volumes of diaries that are now stored in the Maine Historical Society in Portland. Her house still stands. We know next to nothing about the Wabanaki woman and child who sat in her dining room and sold her a basket. Did they live nearby? Perhaps.
Most Wabanaki tended to travel from more distant reservations in the summer after making baskets during the winter months. Travel in winter could be difficult when rivers froze, and the weather could be treacherous, so they likely did not come from far away.
Did they visit regularly? Probably not, since Adams did not mention any names. Did other Wabanaki visit regularly? Probably, since Adams described the event in a way that makes it seem unremarkable. As the woman and child sat in the dining room, did Adams offer them food? And if she did, did they accept it as charity or as something to which they were entitled since Wabanaki always provided visitors with food?
In a stately wood-framed house with many windows lie questions about what it meant for Wabanaki to be home.
This research was compiled as part of the Pejebscot Portage Walk, which took place in Brunswick on October 6, 2024. For more information about this walk, click here.
For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the posters below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
This walk was a collaboration between the Pejebscot Portage Mapping Project and Atlantic Black Box.
