PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Only a week after Kirk Lilley told The Star-Herald about a mysterious photo album that he had come across, the Presque Isle resident was able to give the album back to a member of the family that once owned it.
This past summer, a friend of Lilley’s moved out of a home on Delmont Street in Presque Isle unsure of what to do with a photo album that featured many unlabeled photos and had no connection to their own family.
The people who now live in that home found the album in the adjacent barn and presented it to Lilley, hoping he might find someone who knew the original owner.
The exterior of the album is black and features many photos taken during an August 1932 stay in Denver, Colorado. Other photographs show locations near Mount Rainier — an active volcano in Washington State — Houlton and Mexico during the 1930s and ‘40s.
Though Lowell Glidden of Mapleton did not recognize any specific location in the photographs that The Star-Herald printed in their Nov. 27 issue, he recognized the name Mrs. Phillips, whose first name is unknown, and Flora Merritt Pulficur, whose last name was incorrectly identified as “Puleyeur” in the newspaper.
Seeing Pulficur reminded Glidden of another family relative: Fern Merritt.
“Fern Merritt took the photographs. She was a sister to my grandmother, Flora Pulficur,” Glidden said.
Lowell Glidden (right) of Mapleton talks with Kirk Lilley about the long-lost family photo album that Glidden now owns thanks to Lilley’s publicized efforts. (Melissa Lizotte | Star-Herald)
On Friday, Nov. 29, Glidden visited Lilley at his home to personally receive the photo album that he did not realize was lost in the first place. Glidden’s aunt and uncle, Morris and Ester Glidden, passed away only 90 days apart in 1986. Glidden was the executor of their estate and gathered their belongings on their home on Delmont Street. In the midst of packing up boxes, Glidden did not see the photo album and spent the next 33 years unaware of its existence.
Glidden told Lilley that Fern Merritt lived in Washington, D.C., never married or had children and was known to frequently embark on cross-country trips. Although he does not recall hearing stories about her adventures or the specific locations captured in her photographs, he said she likely would have visited her other sister, Lily Reisingar, in Washington State.
All three sisters were originally from Houlton. Glidden has lived in Mapleton for 51 years and said that he has numerous color photographic slides of other scenes that his great-aunt Flora captured during trips.
Now that he has the photo album, Glidden said that he felt “nostalgic” toward his cherished family memories and was anxious to flip through the album’s pages.
“I’m grateful that Kirk made the effort to find the identity of the people in these photographs,” Glidden said. “This is a family heirloom. It’s a story that started in Houlton and spread out all over the country.”
Lilley said that when he received a phone call from Glidden on Friday about the album, he was happy that the album got to its rightful home so quickly.
“To know that I’ve made somebody’s day has made my efforts well worth it,” Lilley said.
