Aroostook County
Historical & Art Museum
of Houlton
Influential People in Houlton History
Settlers came to the area over two hundred years ago. During that time there have been countless influential citizens in the area. There is no way we can cover all of those, but we created this space to put up photos of a few of them. We'll rotate them out every so often in order to highlight others, but we thought this would be a neat way to teach folks today about some of the folks that helped formed the town of Houlton into the great community it is today.
People important to the museum over the years
Ransford W. Shaw (1856-1945)
Mr. Shaw was an attorney and active in local and state governments. He served in the Maine State Senate (1893-1895) and was Attorney General of the State of Maine (1920-1924).
Shaw took an active interest in local history
and helped found the Aroostook County
Historical and Art Museum (1938).
Shaw is pictured above in his law office and on
the right he is with his father.
Without him there may not have been a
Museum in Houlton.
Stella King White
Wife of Simeon L. White.
Member of the Unitarian Church, an active member of the Lydia Putnam D.A.R. Chapter, and Southern Aroostook Red Cross.
Stella White was the author of the History of Caribou.
Her and her husband were also generous philanthropists, buying the John C. MacIntyre house and deeding it to the town of Houlton to use as a museum in 1938.
Francis Barnes
Author of
"The Story of Houlton, Maine 1889"
Cora M. Carpenter Putnam
Author of "The Story of Houlton"
and local Historian
All self respecting local historians have a copy of Cora's book on their bed stand.
Cora M. Carpenter Putnam was a lifelong resident of Houlton, Maine.
Was born in Houlton in 1872, the daughter of Frank and Elvira Green Carpenter.
She was educated in the local schools and the Madawaska Training School at Fort Kent, Maine.
For thirty years Mrs. Putnam was correspondent for Houlton, Bangor, Lewiston, Waterville, and Boston papers.
She is a past Most Worthy Grand Matron of Maine O.E.S., serving 1909-1910. She organized the Southern Aroostook Chapter, American Red Cross and was Executive Secretary during WWI.
She was a delegate to International American Legion Auxiliary Convention in Paris, France in 1927. Because of her civic and patriotic work, Mrs. Putnam has received citations from the American Red Cross, the Houlton Rotary Club, and the Lydia Putnam Chapter, D.A.R.
Her own deep love for her community and her varied activities on its behalf gave Mrs. Putnam the inside look necessary to the preparation of “The Story of Houlton”.
Kay Bell 1919-2016
Beloved curator of the Houlton museum.
Born in Patty Hollow and loved by all that knew her.
During WWII, growing up on a farm, she came to know first hand of the German POW's, as they were a labor supply for potato famers and woods crews of Aroostook County.
This association lasted a lifetime as some of the Houlton based POW's returned in their later years and made contact with her through Houlton Historical Society and Museum, where she was a curator for many years.
She eventually made a pilgrimage to the Baltic Sea with the aid of one of her German friends and paid her last respects to her brother, Louis, who was a tail gunner in a B-17 and was MIA over Rostock, Germany.