LITTLETON, Maine — The Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum recently completed a 30-foot by 100-foot addition to the Carl and Helen Hagan Barn. This addition provides an area to display wagons, tractors and early farming equipment.
The addition was built in memory of Charles Upton, with funding from the U.S. Department of Rural Development, donations from private individuals and museum fundraisers. Upton, one of a dozen visionaries, helped organize the agricultural museum located in Littleton, in 2001. He volunteered in many capacities for several years, until his untimely death in 2009 at the age of 64.
Upton was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of person, not wanting to be the center of attention. He held the position of economic director in Houlton several years ago and helped spearhead the revitalization of the downtown, securing a grant for more than a million dollars. He had worked on the project for years, first starting with the concept, writing the grant and following through with the construction. At the celebration he refused to be recognized, but passed the accolades on to then Town Manager, Lew Bone. Upton was also instrumental in hosting an educational symposium which resulted in Houlton’s Higher Education Center being built and filling the void of losing Ricker College.
At the museum, Upton never sat up to the meeting table, but preferred to sit along the edge of the room with his signature Styrofoam coffee cup. He was a listener, a thinker and then, after a time, a doer. He had his hand in many aspects of the museum from being a tour guide, a plower of snow, a seller of raffle tickets, a participant in many capacities in County parades, a dishwasher at museum suppers, but most of all he was a sower of seeds that continue to live on at the local museum.
Museum President Francis Fitzpatrick welcomed Upton’s wife, Bonnie to a recent museum supper and with Barry Campbell, museum treasurer, unveiled the sign that bears her late husband’s name.
The agricultural museum is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1p.m. until 4. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. The museum offers a wide variety of items to view, from household furnishings, farming equipment, tools, a one-room school, general store and a filling station. FMI call 538-9300 or 538-0050.
