NEW SHARON – This town is pulling out all stops to celebrate its heritage in the first annual Prince Baker Day to be held on Saturday, Aug. 20.
The jammed packed day of fun events starts at 9:30 a.m. with the grand opening of the New Sharon Historical Museum at the Town Office on Cape Cod Hill Road. New signs for the museum will be unveiled and a special collection from the Smith family will be on display.
The day-long celebration is named for the person believed to be the first settler of New Sharon, Prince Baker, said Darlene Power, chairwoman of the Historical Society Committee. It’s been three or four years since the town had a festival and many here thought it was time to restart the tradition.
“Every town around has a festival and people were disappointed when ours stopped,” Power said. So she, along with Mercy Hanson, Daniel Meng and 20 members of the historical committee, started organizing a new festival a year ago.
The festival is free and open to everyone. It will feature a bike and carriage parade at 9:45 a.m., and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., kids games, a bounce house, a giant water slide, face painting, a whoopee pie eating contest, a corn chowder challenge, a horseshoe tournament, a cross cut sawing competition, a life-size game like Operation called Under the Knife, with music and karaoke throughout the day. Free popcorn, cotton candy and hotdogs will be available and door prizes ranging from $25 to $300 in value will be awarded though the day. One of the prizes is a Windsor rocking chair handcrafted by Forrest Bonney of New Sharon.
More door prizes will be awarded from: Imelda’s, White Water Farm, Jerry Provencher, York Hill Goat Farm, Pucker Brush Farm, Sandy’s Flowers, Julie’s Gardens, Pine Tree Poultry, Winslow’s Repair, Witt’s Auto Repair and Tracy’s Kountry Kitchen.
There will be a dunk tank featuring Sheriff Scott Nichols of New Sharon as the target to be dunked. The event is to help raise funding for Connie Gilman’s medical costs. A sling shot shooting gallery will be set up, Smokey the Bear will visit and more.
To cap off the day’s celebration, a soap box derby will be held on Main Street at 4 p.m. Meng is heading up the event with a start at 118 Main Street. The street will be blocked off for the races with a children’s and adult divisions, with prizes awarded. There’s a small donation for entries to cover ramp construction, trophy and prize costs. To view registration forms and specifications for the cars, click here.
One car has been built with many more residents expressing interest in participating in the old time event, Power said.
The corn chowder challenge is an ode to the corn canning shops that were once commonplace in area towns. The canning factory in New Sharon was built in 1908, by Twitchell Champlin Company, later it became the Bird Brothers Medomak Canning Company.
At first all corn husking was done by hand, as time went on it became modernized. On Nov 12, 1960 at about 4:30 a.m. a fire started in the factory. It’s said you could hear cans popping from as far away as Farmington Falls, Power said.
The chowder entries will be judged on taste, appearance, and texture. Gift certificate prizes from the Mixed Up kitchen supply store are 1st $50, 2nd $30, 3rd $20.
The town has pitched in $1,800 to help fund the festival’s free activities, food and extra insurance required of the bounce house and giant water slide which will be provided by the Tooney Looney company. Businesses and private donations are funding the balance.
“I went knocking on doors,” Power said of donations. About $740 worth of gift certificates has been collected for prize awards and another $700 has come in as cash donations for the festival, she said. She hopes to have a big turnout and everyone is invited to attend.
“This is open to the public and is totally free,” Power said and added, “Come one, come all.”
The subject of all this is Prince Baker, who moved to New Sharon in 1783, Power said. By 1791, he was the town’s largest land owner with 5,900 acres. Richard and Cathy Davis of Silver Shade Farm still live on the Prince Baker Farm. Cathy Davis is a direct descendant of Prince Baker.
Below is a line-up of activities for Prince Baker Day on Aug. 20:
Wonderful! I hope this will be a tradition for many years to come. Town days are so needed to unite all the residents busy lives and relax, mingle, enjoy!
We sure hope everyone will come and enjoy all the wonderful, fun, and delicious day!
With the tremendous generous support of local businesses, I saved $800.00 of the $1800.00, to stay in the Historical Fund.
I have so many fond memories of the Freedom Festivals from the 70’s… It will be so great to revive such a wonderful time!!! Great job to all who made this possible!
Looks like it will be a great day. Can’t wait to get to the dunk tank.
We are truly blessed!
Does anyone know what year the soap box and bicycle pictures were taken?
Bless you Mercy Hanson and Darlene Power for putting together such an awesome event for the town and it’s folks. If I can find a way I just might surprise you and stop by.
I really wish I had known about this before I made plans to go camping. So many of us locals will be away next weekend. :(
It was in the town report in March, and on the town website for awhile, but next year’s will be August 19, 2017, so save that date please.
Amanda, I believe that the picture of the soap box derby is from 1976, the first year of the “Freedom Festival.” The driver of car # 48 is Joel Chandler, the middle car is driven by Bobby Adams, with Scott Burgess standing behind him. In the car on the right, is Mike Sawyer. I cannot identify the two boys behind Joel.
Thank you!!
Two standing are long time New Sharonites, Robert “Bobby” McCully, and the late William”Butch” Mccormick.