I first started researching Theodore Roosevelt in 2010. As a volunteer at Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, overseeing the Narcissus project (Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914), I felt the need to learn more about Roosevelt's visit to Maine. That initial research piqued my curious nature to want to learn more about Theodore Roosevelt and his various visits to Maine.
Twelve years later, that seed of curiosity has taken root and blossomed, into the development of what is the: Theodore Roosevelt Maine Heritage Trail: Connecting Maine Communities.Insight throughout the State of Maine is what this trail provides by tracing and describing Theodore Roosevelt's connections with each of these communities.
Each community is identified with a star with a number or
a moose with a letter. The key to the logo landmarks is below.
Each moose represents a community that has an indirect
connection with Roosevelt, meaning he may not have paid the
community a visit, but there is a meaningful connection to
Roosevelt in that community. The stars indicate a community
that Roosevelt visited and probably engaged with the people
and or the local geography. As research continues, other
Click Here - The Lewiston Evening Journal, Lewiston, Maine, August 27, 1902 publication of the President’s speech in Waterville on August 27. 1902 (Front page):
(auto-correct disconnected - text is as written)
I passed by your State House in Augusta this morning. Your legislature only meets every other year, and only stays in session about months. Quite right. We do not need too many laws, too much legislation. What we need is stability of laws, fearlessness in applying legislation to new evils, when the evils spring up, but above all commonsense and self-restraint in applying these remedies, and the fixed and unchangeable belief that fundamentally each man’s salvation rests in his own hands. All of us stumble at times. There is not a man here who does not at times need a helping hand stretched out towards him. Shame upon the man who, when the opportunity to help is given, fails to stretch out the hand. Hep the man that stumbles. Help a brother that slips. Set him up on his feet. Try to start him along the right road. But if he lies down, make up your mind you cannot carry him. If he won’t try to walk himself he is not worth carrying. That is so among your neighbors; that is so in your families. Every father of a large family - and being an old-fashioned man, I believe in large families - knows that if he is to do well by his children they must try to do well by themselves.
Now, haven’t you in your own experience known men - and I am sorry to say even often, women - who think that they are doing a favor to their children when they shield them from every effort? When they let the girls sit at ease and read while the mother does all the housework? Don’t you know cases like that? I do. Yes; when a boy will be brought up to be very ornamental and not particularly useful? Don’t you know that, too? Exactly. Now, those are not good fathers and mothers. They are foolish fathers and mothers. They are not being kind; they are simply being silly. That’s all. It is not any good that you do your son or daughter by teaching him or her how to shirk difficulties; you do him or her good, only if you teach him or her to face difficulties and by facing them to overcome them. Isn’t that true? Don’t you know it to be so in your own families? Well, it is just so on a larger scale in the state. The only way by which, in the long run, any man can be helped is by teaching him to help himself. Of course, there may come sudden cataclysms where you have got to extend help with a free hand, thinking only of the immediate need, not of the ultimate results. Of course, new conditions will arise here and there, especially in the complex industrial life of great cities, where you must shape the legislation of the country on a new basis to meet the new conditions. But fundamentally, it is true that only permanent betterment in the condition of any nation is to raise the standards of individual citizenship throughout that nation.
My fellow citizens, I wish to thank you, to thank all the people of Maine for the way in which I have been greeted. I feel in a certain sense a right to the greeting, for at least I am trying to put into practice the principles in which you believe. I feel that the art of successful government in our country is the art of applying practically the everyday principles of decency, morality, and common sense, which must be applied by the average citizen if he is to be a good husband, a good father, a good neighbor, and a good citizen.
There is not any wonderful brilliancy or genius in it. What we need is the application of the everyday principles that a man needs if he is in to make his business a success, if he is to do his duty in his own family and to his neighbor. Now, up here in Maine you are so fortunate as to have a State which, on the whole, represents as well as any other in the Union (better than all, save a very few others, in our Union) the conditions of life, the ways of looking at life, out of which such a republican, such a democratic government as ours springs. You believe practically that each man must work out his fate for himself. And yet that the state must be called on to try to give each man a fair show in life.
(Lewiston Evening Journal, Lewiston, Maine, August 27, 1902)
A portion of my collection of TR-related books :)
We are still in need of funds for creating the interpretation programs that will tell this fascinating 100+-year-old story of the Narcissus. For information on donation options, scroll down this post and find the one that best fits your position. Fund 816 to help with the restoration and Fund 817 (PLI Education-Interpretation programs ) should be noted when making a donation.
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Click Here for the post that has the short virtual 3-D video of the digital model of the Narcissus, with components added to the file from earlier this year (the gold leaf file had not been added yet).
Restoration work continues on the Narcissus. The Narcissus is more than 110 years old now and has so many incredible stories to share. The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one of those incredible stories.
The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.
Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding
the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for
the Middle Reader category for The Eric
Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to
award-winning Maine author,
Jean M. Flahive
Seashore Trolley Museum Promo Video
The paperback edition of Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride can be purchased online through the Seashore Trolley Museum's store website. Books purchased through the Museum's website directly benefit the Museum and the Narcissus project.
Click Here to go to the Museum Store web page to order online
Click Here to go to the Amazon page to order the ebook or audiobook online
Paperback books are available at these local bookstores in
Millie Thayer is a headstrong farmer's daughter who chases her dreams in a way you would expect a little girl nicknamed "Spitfire" would run full tilt and with her eyes on the stars. Dreaming of leaving the farm life, working in the city, and fighting for women's right to vote, Millie imagines flying away on a magic carpet. One day, that flying carpet shows up in the form of an electric trolley that cuts across her farm. A fortune-teller predicts that Millie's path will cross that of someone famous. Suddenly, she finds herself caught up in events that shake the nation, Maine, and her family. Despairing that her dreams may be shattered, Millie learns, in an unexpected way, that dreams can be shared.
A resource for teachers
Companion curriculum State-standard-based units,
vocabulary, and reading activities for use in grades 3-8
are available online as downloadable resources through
Maine Historical Society has created eight companion lesson units in Social Studies and ELA that were inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride - These State-standard-based lesson plans for use in grades 6, 7, and 8 are easily adapted for use in grades 3-5. Vocabulary and Reading activities for grades 3-8 along with the eight lesson plan units are available free and may be downloaded through Seashore Trolley Museum's website www.trolleymuseum.org/elegantride/
Go to the Teacher Resource Page in the pull-down for more details.
A 60-second intro to Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride by author, Jean Flahive
Please Consider a Donation to the Narcissus Project to help us tell the incredible story of the Narcissus through the interpretation portion of the Narcissus Project.
Here is an example of how donations to the Narcissus Project now will help with the interpretation portion of the project. The interpretation programming will include exhibits, displays, and education programming. In 2019, through generous donations to the Narcissus Project, we were able to conserve, replicate, and have high resolutions digital image files made of the original, 1910, 28.5-foot long, surveyor map of the elevation and grade of the 30-mile private right-of-way of the Portland, Gray, and Lewiston Railroad (Portland-Lewiston Interurban) Click Here
Thank You!
Theodore Roosevelt on the Narcissus when addressing
the crowd gathered in Gray, Maine on August 18, 1914.
The Narcissus as the Sabattus Lake Diner in Sabattus, Maine,
circa 1940. Photo by John Coughlin in the Kevin Farrell
Collection at Seashore Trolley Museum
L. Henri Vallee (right) and family members in the
Narcissus, when it was Vallee's summer camp in
Sabattus, Maine circa 1958. Photo courtesy Daniel Vallee
The Narcissus in the restoration shop in 2022 PWM
Inside the Donald G. Curry Town House Restoration Shop, the Narcissus is in the midst of major work as we strive to complete its restoration. We are now planning the interpretation portion of the Narcissus Project. Donations to the Narcissus Project may be used in the future to help tell the incredible 100-plus-year-old story of the Narcissus. Your donation to the Narcissus is helping to make the dream of the project's success, a reality.
See below for Donation options -
It starts with YOU
Your Donation Matters
Make a Donation TODAY
Please Help the Narcissus.
Donation Options to Help the Narcissus Project:
The New England Electric Railway Historical Society
The New England Electric Railway Historical Society registered with the IRS (EIN# 01-0244457) and was incorporated in Maine in 1941.
Check or Money Order ***** should be made payable to:
New England Electric Railway Historical Society
In the memo: for a donation to the Interpretation programming
please write: PLI Education Fund 817
For a donation to help with the restoration write: Narcissus Fund 816
Mail to: Seashore Trolley Museum
P. O. Box A
Kennebunkport, ME 04046
Credit Card ***** donations can be one-time donations or you
may choose to have a specific amount charged to your card
automatically every month. Please contact the Museum bookkeeper, via email at finance@trolleymuseum.org or by phone, at 207-967-2800 ext. 3.
Online Donations - may be made by using a Credit Card:
Click Here to make an online donation through the Museum's website - When at the Donation page: Fill in donor info, etc., when at "To which fund are you donating? Scroll down to "Other" and type in 816 Narcissus, then continue filling in the required information.
Click Here for PayPal - to make an online donation: you can use email: finance@trolleymuseum.org and in the message box write:
For "Narcissus Fund 816" - if supporting the restoration
For "PLI Education Fund 817" - if supporting Interpretation programs
Donation of Securities ***** We also accept donations of
securities. You can contact the Museum bookkeeper, via email at finance@trolleymuseum.org or by phone, at 207-967-2800 ext. 3,
for brokerage account information for accepting donated securities.
BONUS ***** If you work for a company/corporation that will
"match" an employee's donation to an approved 501c3 non-profit
educational organization, please be sure to complete the necessary paperwork with your employer so that your donation is matched :)
Phil Morse, narcissus@gmail.org or call 207-985-9723 - cell.
Thank You :)
Thank You for our Current Funding Partners
* 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation - 2020/2018 - Major Gift, 2017/2014 Matching Grants * Renaissance Charitable Foundation (LPCT) by Fiduciary Trust Charitable Giving Fund
Please Consider Making a Donation to the project of the National Register of Historic Places member, Narcissus. We are currently raising funds to advance the restoration and to tell the incredible story of this Maine gem.
Various News stories during the summer of 2015 about the
Narcissus and its connection to Theodore Roosevelt. TR
was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914.
Photo by Patricia Pierce Erikson
The Narcissus - July 31, 2015. Make a donation today.
Help Theodore Roosevelt's Maine Ride get back on track!
Once restored, you will be able to ride in luxury on this
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