Bonsoir and bienvenue a tous le monde. C'est une grande pleasure to welcome you to the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Sunday night, Ellen and I attended a farewell mass for father Claude Gendreau. We sang the beautiful hymn, "We come to share our story." That is what I wish to do this evening. I am not a historian, and I am not an academic researcher. I am an educator and an administrator. As an administrator and leader I have learned that nothing happens until someone stands up and moves the agenda. As I have come to know and to love this institution, and especially as we celebrated our 125 anniversary in 2003-04 - I found myself wondering, who first championed this institution, who pushed and fought until it actually came into being? That question led me into an exploration of the life of William Dickey, a successful businessman, devoted public servant and long-term Maine legislator. And I think you will see, a classic "Mainer".

The focus of this evening is the Webster-Ashburton Treaty; that wonderful agreement ratified in 1842 that tackled the disputed territory, slavery, and the international return of persons charged with certain serious crimes.

The direct linkage to William Dickey occurred in 1842 when he was serving his first term in the Maine Legislature as a Representative from the town of Strong. At that point, he was 32 years old, and had served in a number of capacities in that town.

As a freshman legislator, he was chosen to serve on a committee to consider the Webster-Ashburton proposal. Secretary of State Daniel Webster knew that a compromise would be essential to reaching agreement. Historically, Maine officials had steadfastly opposed a compromise border insisting that the boundary as described in the Treaty of Paris was quite clear. Webster also knew that without agreement from the state of Maine, no treaty would be ratified by the United States. "In May 1842, the Maine Legislature agreed to Webster's proposal to appoint commissioners to act on behalf of the state in negotiations on a compromise line." - McDonald

Lord Ashburton actually arrived in the United States in early April, but the negotiation process did not begin until June for the reason that the Maine Legislature had to be called into special session to work out the terms on which the state commissioners would take part in the bargaining - which as they knew, would entail a surrender of their claim to the line of 1783. - Classen. When the special session convened 18 May, 1842, Governor Fairfield made his recommendation and a joint committee unanimously approved. - Jones

Ulitmately, the four Maine Commissioners included William Pitt Preble, Edward Kavanaugh, ex-Governor Edward Kent (for whom the blockhouse and the town are named), and John Otis, two Democrats and two Whigs. William Dickey was the second youngest member of the committee that acted on the Governor's recommendation. The Committee was chaired by Edward Kavanaugh of New Castle, later Governor of the state.

In spite of the approval we know that young, thirty-two year old William Dickey was opposed to the Treaty as proposed, and apparently remained so all his life.

In 1887, age 77, Representative Dickey delivered the following address. "Now gentlemen, I was in the legislature [sic] before the great Ashburton Treaty. I was a member of the legislature [sic] at that time. I am the only member that was on the committee on the boundary. They cheated us, and there is no other word that will express it. They cheated us, the most outrageous and damnable cheating that has ever come to pass in any nation. In making an examination of the map, we found that the treaty under which we claimed gave us the easterly branch of the St Croix. They claimed that is was the most westerly, and then made Daniel Webster believe it, and we submitted like fools. The most easterly St. Croix was more than 100 miles beyond the St. John, and if we had obtained that boundary there would have been another state as big as Maine or Massachusetts, with an unsurpassed soil." Newspaper Account March 19, 1887

In December 1898, he entertained a representative of the Bangor Commercial in his home in what was to be one of his final interviews. During the discussion he said, "Treaties remind me of '42 when Webster signed that infamous Ashburton Treaty robbing us of a great section of country naturally ours. I was always opposed to the signing of that treaty;" and he exclaimed in a stern voice, "I was one of the gallant seventeen oppositionists, who fought against it in our legislature that year. Ashburton was a diplomat, and Webster wanted to be president. If you call some other time, I'll show you that famous Ashburton Treaty. I have got it somewhere upstairs, and sometimes I take it out and read it. - Burque

Like many he felt that the treaty ceded too much land to Great Britain. Most people recognized that this was a debatable issue, but felt that the guarantee of tax free use of the St. John River for transporting timber all the way to St. John was a suitable trade-off. Daniel Webster employed one of the first media campaigns in America to convince Mainers that some compromise would be necessary and that compromise in this case was a considerable improvement over the notion of another war with Great Britain.

Who then is Major William Dickey, the young legislator from central Maine who later in life would become a prominent leader and champion of the people who lived along the border created by this treaty?

You have an outline of his life in front of you. I will try to step quickly through that life and add a few observations as our time permits this evening.

William Dickey was the youngest son of four boys and one girl born to Captain John Dicky and his wife Margaret Jones Dickey on January 26, 1810 in Damariscotta. His father was lost at sea with all hands in 1819 when William was nine. This is tragic enough, but note that when we dig further his father, also John Dickey who was born in Scotland in 1744 and lived in Lincoln County, Maine, was himself lost at sea in 1773. William Dickey's father and grandfather were both seafarers who were lost at sea.

Having no wish to lose any more members of her family to the sea, Margaret Dickey sold their possessions and moved to Strong purchasing 160 acres of forest. Together with her sons, they cleared land, built a log house and a barn and eventually a log schoolhouse as well.

At age fourteen, he walked sixteen miles to Farmington, where his mother had been born, in order to advance his education. He arrived in the evening tired and lonely and was discovered standing alone and forlorn by Thomas Hunter. As an aside, note the presence of "the lone walk" in the biographies of so many great figures in history. It seems to appear frequently as a rite of passage as the central figure takes command of their destiny. Mr. Hunter, who happened to be President of the Board of Trustees of the Farmington Academy took him in, and arranged for him to have jobs to pay for his schooling. He also taught school at Wilton.

Five years later, he returned to Strong and went into the store of Colonel Eastman. He began at $7 per month his first year, advanced to $20 per month the second year and the third year went into business himself.

In 1832, at 22 he was elected Captain of the Strong Light Infantry Militia. He received a Commission two years later from Governor Dunlap as Brigade Major of the Second Brigade and was Major Dickey from that time on. [son of Captain Dickey]. He became Postmaster of Strong at age 25, Deputy Sheriff and Coroner at 28 and was elected State Representative in 1841. He served the legislature in 1842 and that takes us to where we came in.

He only served for one year, in part because that was commonplace, but also because that same year he marries Miss Lydia Francis Bodfish of Gardiner in October and moves from Strong to Gardiner.

In his words in a subsequent newspaper article, "About that time I married Miss Lydia Bodfish and then moved to Gardiner. I was in the lumber business there for four years but my health was getting very poor, a sort of sore throat and lung trouble. Finally, I read in a government report made by one Dr. Greene who was with General Winder (later to become the commander at the infamous Andersonville Prison Camp) in what they called the Madawaska War that Fort Kent, at the North tip-end of Maine was the healthiest place in the world for people with lung troubles. I made up my mind to break off everything and go there. I met a man one day who had bought a sawmill at Fort Kent and was sick of his bargain. I bought his sawmill, and got a stock of goods from Boston and struck out from Bangor for Fort Kent 200 miles to the North, through the woods, that was 1848 when I was 38 years old." - Newspaper Account dated March 15, 1891.

I need to add a PS here. In Wiggen's History of Aroostook, there is a citation that "In 1847 (the year before Major Dickey's trip to Fort Kent) Mr. C. K. Bodfish of Gardiner (Major Dickey's father-in-law) and Col. David Page of Waterville bought of Wells and Niles that part of the mill lot lying on the west side of Fish River together with one half of the dam and privilege. Upon this they built a saw mill containing an up and down saw, clapboard machine a shingle machine, and commenced manufacturing lumber on an extensive scale. In 1848 Major William Dickey came from Gardiner and bought the Page and Bodfish mill and continued in the business of manufacturing and shipping lumber until 1845, when he sold the property to Mr. Levi Sears. Major Dickey had in the meantime built a grist mill which also became the property of Mr. Sears.Mr. Sears continued to run the saw mill until it was burned in 1878." He rebuilt the mill and carried on the business until his death in 1886.

In Dickeys own words late in life, "I think the climate agreed with me, for I am fast approaching four score and ten now, and I have enjoyed splendid health since the day I came to what was then a wilderness."

As an aside, the first mills on the Fish River were built around 1829 by Mr. Daniel Savage. He built the mills about a mile above its mouth, the site of present Fort Kent Mills. Following the signing of the Treaty we celebrate this evening, Mr. Fred W. Hathaway of Fredericton had a grant of this mill lot from the British Government. This title was confirmed by the Treaty commissioners and so Mr. Savage moved some eight miles up the St. John River. Around 1843, the firm of Wells & Niles bought the mill privilege and the land on the Fish River from Mr. Hathaway. They removed the old mill built by Daniel Savage, rebuilt the dam and built a large mill on the East side of the River. They then sold the western bank lot, and half of the dam and privilege to Mssrs. Bodfish and Page.

In any event, the Major's health flourished and after five years, in the fall of 1854, at age 44 he sold the property in Fort Kent except for the farm, and moved to Haverhill, Massachusetts. There, he created a large operation to manufacture doors, sashes and blinds as well as two hat factories all of which employed over 100 people. Two years later, a boiler exploded and the entire plant was lost, although thankfully no people. At age 47 he returns to his farm in Fort Kent. Note that as with so many successful people, we see a pattern of creating followed by tragedy, the important hallmark being that the great ones pick up the pieces and go right back to work starting again and creating another success.

That same year he is made collector of customs at Fort Kent, replacing incidentally, his father-in-law in that position. He became Justice of the Peace in 1868.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he asks Governor Washburn for Command of a Regiment and is turned down. Later, Governor Coburn gives him an assignment to travel South to look after the sanitary condition of the Maine boys. Both of his older sons were active in the Civil War and while surviving, found new lives in the South and West.

In 1868, Major Dickey, then 58, was elected a State Representative and again in 1869. He lost the subsequent election to his arch Rival Republican Peter Keegan of Van Buren. He will return to the legislature for good in 1878.

We see an indication of the depth of the animosity between Dickey and Keegan in actions taken regarding the incorporation of Valley towns. Here in the Fort Kent Library hangs a document entitled An Act to Incorporate the Town of Fort Kent. One of Dickey's issues had been the formal incorporation of towns along the St. John River. This document indicates that "William Dickey is hereby authorized to call the first meeting for the organization of said town by posting two warrents in said town seven days previous to the meeting in the month of March or April following the approval of this act. Passed in the House of Representatives February 22, 1869, the Senate February 23, 1869 and signed and approved by Governor Joshua Chamberlain, February 23, 1869.

That same date, according to the Frenchville town website, the Chautauqua [Chataucoin? - in another source we read "we come to a great bend in the River known as Chataucoin"] area, now Frenchville, incorporated as Dickeyville. Madawaska incorporated the next day and Grand Isle on March 2nd. After Keegan won the election in 1869, Dickeyville reincorporated on January 26, 1871 taking the name of Frenchville.

The name Dickeyville does exist today in a small section of Western Baltimore in Maryland. Interestingly, that township is named to honor William J. Dickey who purchased and restored the town in 1871. He was from Ballymena in Northern Ireland - the hometown of our William Dickey's grandmother. Incidentally, what was the Town of Fort Kent called before the Fort? At 68, Major Dickey was restored to the Legislature and remained there for the rest of his life, in many years garnering every single vote cast in the district. During his first year back, the Madawaska Training School was established by the Legislature. Major Dickey fought hard to establish the school and continued to fight to support it all his life.

"Gentlemen" did he exclaim, "I have lived in Fort Kent a great many years; I have always vividly interested myself to the education of the French people of Madawaska, either of Acadian or Canadian origin; during a long time I had the charge and superintendence of all their schools. Well, I have to tell you that the want of teachers constantly paralyzed our best efforts. We felt the necessity of having a number of students specially prepared to be teachers in the common schools. Then we founded the Madawaska Training School for this purpose, the effects of which have been most salutary and most admirable." - Burque

An aside; recall that the institution was established and directed to operate in two towns, one semester in Fort Kent, and then the next semester in Van Buren. Hard not to ask whether the ongoing rivalry between the Major and Attorney Keegan had anything to do with that somewhat unusual arrangement.

Other issues he successfully championed included:

• Preservation of the blockhouse by the state.
• Bridges across the St. John River - Fort Kent, Van Buren, Madawaska, Frenchville, and St. Francis (partial success).
• Property Rights of the inland settlers - granting them the same property rights guaranteed to farmers on the River by the Treaty.
• Protecting Settlers who did not immediately pay the required indemnity.
• Restitution to property owners of Stumpage Fees kept by Maine and Massachusetts.
• Protection of French Language in the Schools.
• Exemption from School Assessment for this territory.

His actions during the great flood of 1888 are notable. He was 78 at that time, and when a spring freshet threatened the mills, he assumed the leadership of efforts to build dikes, move earth and rocks and do whatever was needed to save the operation, providing physical labor and directing the energy required.

From the Wiggen History, "In those old days no gayer place could be found in all the state than Fort Kent, and none where money was more plentiful, or was spent with a freerer hand for everything that pertained to social enjoyment".Fine turnouts were the order of the day and some of the best horses in the State were then owned at Fort Kent.Those days of exceptional business prosperity and of easy money making have long since passed away and with them many who were then active business men in the town, but the warm social atmosphere still remains and in no town in the State will a visitor worthy of attention be received with more generous hospitality than in the Fort Kent of Today.

Major William Dickey "died peacefully at 5 o'clock on the morning of the 19th day of November 1899. What was said about him at the time of his death and during his life?

From the Burque sketch of his life, "What was the secret of so great a popularity? After the gentleness of his character and the usefulness of his company, the secret was his political dis-interestedness. He was reputed to be a Democrat. But Democratism and Republicanism left him rather indifferent. He had the confidence and love of both Democrats and Republicans. Why? Because his best politics, his only dear politics, the politics which entirely engrossed his heart and his life, was the public welfare and specially the welfare of the people of Madawaska; and on the patriotic platform, he could not but meet with unanimous approbation, esteem and support of his fellow countrymen."

From the same source, As a representative he shows forth a loyalty beyond flinching to his constituents and a devotedness beyond relaxing to the interests of Madawaska. Endowed both with a vast memory and a fine skill of narration, he finds in his long experience of men and affairs, an inexhaustible supply of incidents and stories of all kinds. Hearers always listen with a supreme enjoyment to his public orations and his private conversations. The history of his life will form one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of the state of Maine.

From a newspaper article of the time, "he was tall, erect, with a flowing beard of white, he made a striking picture of the legislature of the former days."

He was known as the Duke of Fort Kent, the Gladstone the "grand old man" of the State of Maine, the friend, the counselor, the protector, the father of the people of Madawaska.

From the Wiggen History, Major William Dickey, one of the oldest settlers at Fort Kent now living, is well known throughout the state of Maine. The Major is now upwards of eighty, but is still hale and vigorous and will represent his District in the Legislature the coming winter with his usual ability and success. He was first elected to the Legislature from the town of Strong in 1841 and has been a member of twenty legislatures. He has a pleasant home with everything needed for comfort and is quietly passing his declining years surrounded by his affectionate children and grandchildren.

A benefactor of the people, a protector of the French race thereof, and where the void produced by his disappearance will, perhaps never be filled up.

In his own words, "In my early life, I have lived a long time near Portland, but the easterly winds compelled me to go into the woods of Aroostook, where I have labored in the interest and for the welfare of the outcasts of the English government, the Acadian people of Madawaska."

Major Dickey rests near the entrance to and overlooking the University he created and loved. As you walk along Pleasant Street, you see a large monument with the name Dickey. In front of that stone are four horizontal stones from left to right, Leana B. Dickey (his son Cyrus' wife), Cyrus H. Dickey - the youngest son who lived with his parents in the barracks and cared for his father at his passing, L. Francis Dickey 1820-1872, the Major's wife who died of Typhoid after caring for a neighbor's child with that disease, and on the far right a simple stone inscribed Maj Wm Dickey 1810-1899.

Parenthetically, in a document forgoing his right to the family home - the barracks, the older son specifies "Provided that said C. H. Dickey shall well and sufficiently support and maintain our father Major William Dickey the remainder of his natural life." -which he did.

His two daughters are in the cemetery as well. Cora, the youngest married William H. Cunliffe the second. She is in the Cunliffe plot where again there is a large central monument inscribed Cunliffe and a series of small stones in front, the first of which says, Cora Dickey, his wife, October 7, 1859-June 4, 1926. William Cunliffe II drove Allagash timber down to the sawmills of the St. John Lumber Company in Van Buren. At the time, this was the largest mill operation East of the Mississippi.

Closer to the Dickey plot is the Fenalson family plot where we find three horizontal stones, A.G. Fenalson [he was a prominent lawyer, businessman, and judge in Fort Kent], then Margaret Dickey Fenalson 1852-1944, and then Dottie. Inscribed on the back of the latter are the dates Feb 4, 1880 - December 31, 1880. The couple had two daughters, Dottie obviously dying in infancy and a second recorded as Mrs. Richard Allen. In the MTS Yearbook for 1942 we read "Like her father, Major Dickey, Mrs. Fenalson may be seen sitting in the window of her living room watching and smiling at the children of the Model and Training School as they pass by. Major Dickey was called the grand old man of the Maine House of Representatives, and Mrs. Fenalson might well be called the grand old lady of Fort Kent."

His oldest son William was a Colonel in the Civil War and settled in Louisiana at the end of the war. He was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for Louisiana by President Hayes, Counsel to Cuba (Baracoa) by President Harrison, and to Peru (Callao) by President McKinley. He died at the Soldiers' home near Los Angeles, California.

Calvin was distinguished in the War, married, and had a child named Cora in Washburn, Wisconsin.

The Barracks built to house the soldiers stationed at Fish River became his home. I find some confusion in identifying the building. Apparently a barracks building and two houses for the officers were built for the troops. At least one post card exists identifying a house as the Dickey residence that was clearly not the barracks building but likely one of the officers' homes. It is possible that Major Dickey's son may have lived there at some time. There are many references indicating that the Major lived in the actual barracks building.

Let me close with two quotes; first, the quote we used to introduce the Major in the 125th Anniversary Book of this institution. It is from Reverend Father Burque's sketch of his life; "If all the bridges that Maj. Dickey caused to be constructed could be set upright, one above the other, they would form a monument perhaps higher than the highest mountains of the earth. If all the roads that he caused to be opened, from the Allagash road to the Caribou road, both of so great a public usefulness, could be extended one after the other, they would form a pretty long ribbon towards encircling our terrestrial globe. If all the schoolhouses that he caused to be built were clustered around their queen and mistress, the Madawaska Training School, they would form quite a considerable village. Finally if all the amounts of money which he caused to be expended by the state for the benefit of the county of Aroostook could be gathered together on the floor, they would form quite a huge pile."

And from the Kennebec Journal, "This year again, as a great many times in the past, the seat No.67 is occupied by the venerable patriarch of Fort Kent, the doughty veteran of thirty two legislatures.His works have been crowned with success and now the town of Fort Kent and the County of Aroostook owe him an eternal debt of gratitude."

We are now a university, we enroll over one thousand students a year, and we continue to serve the people of this region. All of this is part of this man's legacy. We are indebted to Major William Dickey for his vision and tenacity. He first learned of the Valley, and its people, through youthful experience on a committee considering the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Today we know that he ultimately became a leader and statesman dedicating his life and his work to this region and to this institution. We certainly do owe him a debt of gratitude.