Display Canoe From The Maine State Museum

[Benson Gray]

Zachary Smith and I have been researching this canoe and the museum has kindly supplied additional information about some paddles that may go with it. The link at https://paddlemaking.blogspot.com/2022/07/oscar-farrington-canoe-paddles-circa.html has more details. They are marked "O. Farrington 1864."

The bad news is that there doesn't appear to be much information available about any "O. Farrington" who was known for being a painter or canoe maker at https://wcha.org/catalogs/maine-list.htm or anywhere else. A quick search through https://www.findagrave.com/ identifies 21 people named O. Farrington with gravestones in Maine. The most promising one is Otis E. Farrington (1844-1880) in Stow but all of the census records list his occupation as a farmer. None of the others were any more promising. Expanding the search to New Hampshire and Massachusetts did not locate any better matches.

It is also possible that the name and date are for an owner of the paddle (and canoe). This would make Oliver Cummings Farrington (1864-1933) a likely candidate. His interest in geology probably took him to the area around Mount Kineo. The page at the link below has more about him.

Oliver C. Farrington - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This seems like the most likely explanation for the name and the 1864 date (which is well before the earliest known builders of wood and canvas canoes). Another mystery,

Benson

 

[Worth Gretter]

But according to the dates given, Oscar E. Farrington (1864-1880) only lived 16 years!
And Oliver Cummings Farrington (1864-1933) was born in 1864. Would he have inscribed his birth date on his paddles?

 

[Benson Gray]

Good catch, I had his name and dates wrong. This has been corrected to Otis E. Farrington (1844-1880) in Stow. My guess is that Oliver may have gotten this as a birthday present but that isn't a great explanation either.

The 18-page memorial for Oliver Cummings Farrington at https://rock.geosociety.org/net/documents/gsa/memorials/proceedings_1933/Farrington-OC.pdf includes a full list of his publications indicating that he travelled widely. However, none of these titles show an obvious connection to Maine or the Moosehead lake area. He had no children. The page at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/121771680/oliver-cummings-farrington lists his parents, wife, and siblings.

Moosehead lake spans both Somerset and Piscataquis counties. Their deed offices at https://www.searchiqs.com/MESOM/SearchAdvancedMP.aspx and https://www.searchiqs.com/mepis/SearchAdvancedMP.aspx don’t appear to have records of any property that was owned by Oliver or his immediate family. His wife, Clara Adeline Bradley (1868–1952) is buried in Brewer and died around the time when the known history of this canoe and the paddles begins. We still don’t have anything more to connect this canoe to Oliver. Let me know if anyone has a better idea.

Benson