West Side Road
Rick Garon sent us this information about his Great Great Grandmother who lived on the West Side Road in the 1850's. His description below:
"Don't know if this means anything, but these are picture of my great great grandmother, Mary Abigail Cook Drown, born in Porter, Maine in 1830 to William Cook and Abigail Bickford. She was the wife of Samuel William Drown. She died in 1923. One picture was taken of the house on West Side Road. Don't know who the child is. possibly my grandmother who was born in 1902. But there were other children of that age in the family at that time. Notice her house on the maps that you posted."
A bit fuzzy but readable if you put on your specs.
Mary Abigail and husband, Sam, are buried in the Hilltown Cemetery on West Side Road. Sam's headstone is readable while Mary's is probably one that has faded away.
The Hilltown area on the West Side Road remains only in memories. There are still one or two cellar holes to be seen and a couple of houses probably of a later vintage. The Hilltown Cemetery is a spot you drive by frequently but difficult to find. It is on the West Side Road, on the right about two miles from the Bartlett end. Look for sharp corner just before the road goes down hill to the river. There's a driveway with a bamboo patch and faint remains of an old house foundation. (Very dangerous driveway to exit...visibility very poor. May be advisable to park somewhere else nearby and walk back to the driveway)
We have a few pictures taken at the Hilltown Cemetery a few years ago that can be seen at this link.
And more information on the Hilltown area at the next page about the West Side Road.
Olive Drown 1909
We bet you have never heard of the 1936 Hilltown Landslide on West Side Road. Resident Eugene Hill was killed.
