Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1920-12-21
Oxford County Notes.

There 10 IN artist residing In Phillips,
b. L. Pratt, whose paintings have In
late years been In considerable demand.
he ID of interest 70 Oxford County be.
cause be comes into that territory after
subjects, 90 be may be called An Oxford
County painter. Mr.. Pratt has been
called an artist of birches and beeches
% there are but few OF bis pictures In
which these trees do not appear, against
backgrounds OF lake, mountain, or wood.
land trail, With cold touch OF winter,
the soft hues of spring or the mauve
haze of autumn. Mr.. Pratt uses both
water colors and oils 90 mediums. Dur
ing the summer Mr.. Pratt travels over
our hills and valleys, camps under our
mountains or beside our lakes to catch
those bits of landscape so much admired,
but when the Christmas season ap-
prosches he journeys to the cities, not
only those OF Maine, but the Hub of
New England and the metropolis Of the
New World, whore his offerings large or
small are eagerly sought for.
An Item taken from Minneapolis pa
pers recently recall names once familiar
In Oxford County, and especially In the
town of Paris. The item referred to
was an obituary notice OF Mrs. Caroline
S. Holmes. Mrs. holmes was Q mem.
ber of the famous Wssbburn family of
Livermore, which has furnished four
members of Congress, three governors
of states, two foreign ministers, one
secretary of state, one major general and
one captain In the navy. Her aunt Was
the wife of DR.. Cyrus Hamlip, first clerk
of courts in Oxford County, and mother
of Hannibal Hamlin. Going back of
the immediate family, her father was In
direct descent from John Washburn,
first secretary of the Plymouth Colony,
and her grandfather, Colonel Livermore,
took part 10 the siege Of Louisburg, and
for him the town of Livermore was
named. She married DR.. Freelsnd 8.
holmes, Paris man, who was an army
surgeon and died June %, 1853, Of viru-
lent fever. Mrs. Holmes was born In
the first Jackson administration, so has
seen the country change from old stage
coach and spinning wheel days to the
present development. She died Nov. 10,
at the advanced age OF ninety years.
She leaves one son, Frank E. Holmes, of
Minneapolis.
A pair OF moose horns, which have
adorned guide post at the junction Of
the highways leading to Greenville and
Blanchard In the town Of Monson, have
been stolen, and the authorities of Pis-
cataquis County are trying to locate the
thief or thieves. The horns are the
property of the Piscataquis Histt rical
Society. This fact does not concern
Oxford County but there is Q feature of
it which does. The original sign was
erected by Joseph Bearce of Hebron,
one of the original settlers Of Monson
away back 10 1877. William r. Weeks,
another early settler, killed gigantic
moose near Ripogenus In 1922, and the
horns surmounted the post for nearly
one hundred years, or until they crum-
bled into dust. The new horns were
given the historical society by Albert q.
Shaw of Bath In 1914, and replaced the
old ones In that year. This guide post
was brought into general prominence In
1s45, 1s46 and 1s47. when that great
American traveller and philosopher,
Henry David Thoreau, made trips
through the region and published what
he saw In q book called "The Maine
Woods" In II he says: "At q fork In
the road between Abbott and Monson,
about twenty miles from Moosebead
Lake, saw guide post surmounted by
a pair of moose horns, spreading four or
five feet, with the word Monson painted
0n one side and the name of some other
town on the other"