Video Project

   Logging has been a very big part of the history of Bethel, Maine. The mountain village was originally settled in 1769 as the small Canadian hamlet of Sudbury.  In the late 1700's Doctor Timothy Andrew and his wife moved from Boston to Maine and built what is now the Andrew's Farm, which still stands today. They were one of ten original families to survive the last Native American attacks in the 1780’s, and sense then have survived everything from scarlet fever that wiped out an entire generation of children, to snow storms that killed all their animals. In the last hundred years the family has expanded their business to include logging, both in the surrounding towns and their own vast holdings.

    Timothy Andrew spent the majority of his life on the Andrew’s farm. He studied agriculture at  the University of Maine Oreno and joined that army soon after graduation. He was stationed in Chicago in the years leading up to the Vietnam war were he met and married his wife Jo Ellen, a Texas native and true southern bell. After they married they moved back to Maine to start their family in the 1960s. Tim would go on to run the family farm just as his father before him, and his son after that. Tim’s father Richard Andrew would spend winters in the New England forest cutting wood to support his family, as Tim does now.

“Our family’s logging history goes back four generations. My great great great grandfather was a doctor, but his son was a farmer and a logger. He worked for the brown company in the woods and my father was a scalar for the brown company out of Berlin.”

 Richard worked cutting and hauling trees for what about two dollars a day, including room and board. During the fall season, they would go into the woods and wouldn't come back out until Christmas time. It was important to the families that the men made it out in time to buy Christmas presents for the children, sense this was the 1950’s and the women had little to no way of supporting themselves.

    “[One winter] there was a huge snow storm, and the men couldn't get out of the woods. And all the women were upset because there was no money to buy toys to put under the trees.”

So starts the family story that has been passed down for generations. A story of how a group of Andrew women took Christmas into their own hands.

            “They went to be and had a dream,” tells Andrew “of making animals, by carving blocks of wood, covering them with cotton, and pieces of cloth.”

    Though the family no longer makes handmade toys the story lives on. It is told every Christmas to younger generations, as a lesson to always appreciate what you have and above all to take pride in their rich family history.

      Logging has been a very big part of the history of Bethel, Maine. The mountain village was originally settled in 1769 as the small Canadian hamlet of Sudbury.  In the late 1700's Doctor Timothy Andrew and his wife moved from Boston to Maine and built what is now the Andrew's Farm, which still stands today. They were one of ten original families to survive the last Native American attacks in the 1780’s, and sense then have survived everything from scarlet fever that wiped out an entire generation of children, to snow storms that killed all their animals. In the last hundred years the family has expanded their business to include logging, both in the surrounding towns and their own vast holdings.

    Timothy Andrew spent the majority of his life on the Andrew’s farm. He studied agriculture at  the University of Maine Oreno and joined that army soon after graduation. He was stationed in Chicago in the years leading up to the Vietnam war were he met and married his wife Jo Ellen, a Texas native and true southern bell. After they married they moved back to Maine to start their family in the 1960s. Tim would go on to run the family farm just as his father before him, and his son after that. Tim’s father Richard Andrew would spend winters in the New England forest cutting wood to support his family, as Tim does now.

“Our family’s logging history goes back four generations. My great great great grandfather was a doctor, but his son was a farmer and a logger. He worked for the brown company in the woods and my father was a scalar for the brown company out of Berlin.”

 Richard worked cutting and hauling trees for what about two dollars a day, including room and board. During the fall season, they would go into the woods and wouldn't come back out until Christmas time. It was important to the families that the men made it out in time to buy Christmas presents for the children, sense this was the 1950’s and the women had little to no way of supporting themselves.

    “[One winter] there was a huge snow storm, and the men couldn't get out of the woods. And all the women were upset because there was no money to buy toys to put under the trees.”

So starts the family story that has been passed down for generations. A story of how a group of Andrew women took Christmas into their own hands.

            “They went to be and had a dream,” tells Andrew “of making animals, by carving blocks of wood, covering them with cotton, and pieces of cloth.”

    Though the family no longer makes handmade toys the story lives on. It is told every Christmas to younger generations, as a lesson to always appreciate what you have and above all to take pride in their rich family history.