Downeast Maine is fairly rural today. Imagine trying to eke out a living 240 years ago in an area where there were no roads, no towns, no stores, no hospitals, no amenities whatsoever. This is the world into which my family settled into during the post-Revolutionary War era. Maine was simply a province of Massachusetts until 1820, and even then, the area of Hancock County, east of the Penobscot River, was lightly settled.
By the time my grandfather Ellis Hollis Saunders was born in 1895, civilization had made its way to Downeast Maine. He was the recipient of three generations' hard work to establish a farm and lumbering business; however, much work would be laid at his feet in his youth, followed by being drafted to go to France in World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, and finally old age. He passed away when I was only five years old in 1968, a man worn down by a life of hard work in an attempt to give his family more than he had achieved during his lifetime. He left me a gift when he passed away, the only new vehicle he ever purchased: a 1968 C10 Chevy pickup.
His gift would provide me transportation when I was growing up but ultimately a way out of depression after the passing of my parents. Restoration of his truck in 2021 helped restore my spirit in my own life as I moved forward with my own family.
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