The 37 Star Flag     1867 - 1877 On this glorious morning of July 5, 1867 the sun is bright and the sky is blue - for some of us. Those that have been visiting the "tiffling houses" are not so well off.  As we gaze up at our new flag and ponder that the 37th star has just been added for Nebraska, the sudden squishing beneath our boots makes us wonder why people are still allowed to let their cows roam loose in Franklin. We wonder if they'll still be here the next time we change flags - ten years from now.  A lot will probably happen between now and then......

and in the State of Maine           or in Franklin    

In 1867 - 1877 in the United States and the world:

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

1873

1874

1875

1876

1877

•   Presidents were:
•   Andrew Johnson , 1865-1869
•   Ulysses S. Grant , 1869-1877
•   Rutherford B. Hayes , 1877-1881

•   1868

•   President Johnson impeached ! No sex involved!
•   Louisa May Alcott writes " Little Women ".
•   Disraeli becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain - resigns the same year.
•   Queen Isabella II of Spain is deposed in a revolution - flees to France.
•   The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of The United States - a story .
•   Renoir paints "The Skaters". Another optically challenged impressionist?
  
•   Wagner produces " Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg " in Munich.
•   Tchaikovsky writes " Symphony Number One ".
•   The Cincinnati Red Stockings are the first professional baseball team - and they have uniforms! But     it doesn't look like they could find anyone else to play against until next year. 
•   At Badminton Hall, the Duke of Beaufort's residence in Gloucestershire, a game is devised.
•   The skeleton of a Cro-Magnon man is found by Louis Lartet at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac .

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•   1869

• The Red River Rebellion in Canada is led by Louis Riel who foolishly goes up against Gary Cooper in 1885.
• The "Cutty Sark", the ship - not the scotch , is launched.
• Manet, wearing his eyeglasses, paints " The Execution of Emperor Maximillian of Mexico ".
• Manet, with only the naked eye, paints " The Execution of Emperor Maximillian of Mexico ".
  
• Princeton and Rutgers compete in the first college football game .
• J. S. Mill writes " On the Subjection of Women ".

•  1870

• More trouble in Europe. This time, it's the Franco-Prussian War .
• Robert E. Lee dies.
• Charles Dickens dies.
• John D. Rockefeller doesn't die. Instead, he founds the Standard Oil Company (remember ESSO?)
• Wagner gets married AND writes the ominous " Die Walkyre ". A connection?
• Jules Verne writes " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea " .

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•   1871

• The Franco - Prussian War ends and Alsace-Loraine becomes part of Germany.
• Mrs. O'Leary's cow allegedly starts the Great Chicago Fire .
• Albert Hall is opened in London.
• Simon Ingersoll invents the pneumatic rock drill.
• There are 39 million people in the U. S.
• S. S. Oceanic , first modern luxury liner is launched.
• " Dr. Livingston , I presume?"
• P. T. Barnum , in the center ring, opens "The Greatest Show on Earth".

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•   1872

• The Jesuits are expelled from Germany.
• His mother sits still long enough for Whistler to paint her.
• Billroth makes the first resection of the esophagus.
• Emily Roebling starts working on the Brooklyn Bridge.
• William Thompson (you know, Lord Kelvin) invents a tide predicting machine .
• U. S. Grant is reelected , despite scandals during his first administration.

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•   1873

• MacMahon is elected President of France. MacMahon ????
• Two cities in Hungary, Pest and Buda are united as the nation's capital Pestbuda .  
• A new game in Great Britain called " Sphairistrike " is introduced. Can you guess what it was renamed?
• QWERTYUIOP? The first typewriters are manufactured, but by whom ?
  
• Tolstoi starts work on "Anna Karenina". Read the book ! See the movie !
• Germany adopts the mark as it's unit of currency.

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•   1874

• First impressionist exhibition in Paris. The Blue Ribbon is given by the artists to this work .
• Disraeli becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain - again.
• The governorship of Arkansas is disputed - send in the Feds !
• Winston Churchill is born.
• Pressure cooking is introduced for canning foods. 
• Philadelphia gets the first American zoo .

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•  1875

• London's main sewage system is completed. Excellent link here , but not for the faint hearted.
• Around the same time, Thomas Crapper is inventing the flush toilet.
  
• Mark Twain writes " The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ". 
• Matthew Webb is the first to swim the English Channel.
• Lecoq discovers gallium . I know , I know - boring. But why did he name it "gallium"? Hmmmm?
• The ancestors of the idiots who designed the Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin in the 20th Century are trying desperately to get the population of the U. S. to like this little exercise in stupidity: 

 Click on the coin to learn more.

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•   1876

• Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden fight it out for U. S. Presidency. Yep. There was a controversy over vote counting in WHICH state???   Click here to find out?
• The National Baseball League is founded.
• On June 25, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.
• And elsewhere on that same fateful day,  
  
• More trouble in Europe - this time it's the Bulgarians, Serbs, and Turks .
• Johns Hopkins University opens.
• Anthrax bacillus discovered by Robert Koch .

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•   1877
  

• Rutherford B. Hayes is given the Presidency by the electoral commission.
• Russia gets involved in whatever war is in progress at the time.
• Edison invents the phonograph .
• The Red Planet comes under the investigating gaze of men on Earth.
• The first telephones became available to the public in the U. S..

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• Governors were:
• Joshua L. Chamberlain , 1867-1871
• Sidney Perham , 1871-1874
• Nelson Dingley, Jr. , 1874-1876
• Seldon Connor , 1876-1879

• 1868 - The Maine State College of  Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts opens its doors in this town. Click on the logo to learn more: 
• 1869
• Maine's ray of sunshine, Edward Arlington Robinson is born.  
• Oliver Otis Howard founds Howard University .
• 1872 - The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church is built in Lewiston .
• 1873
• The Maine Woman Suffrage Association is organized.
• Louis Francis Sockalexis is born.
• 1875
• Maine's first lobster pound is established in Vinalhaven.
• A law is passed that requires Maine children between the ages of nine and fifteen to attend school for at least 12 weeks per year and to do book reports on "The Scarlet Letter".
• 1876 - The Poland Spring House is built.
• 1877 - Marsden Hartley is born. Who? We're so proud. Click here .
  

               

And in the Town of Franklin:

•  Selectmen during this period were: Click Here .

• 1867 - J. P. Wyman, 165 ton schooner is launched.
• 1868 - B. Ober, 94 ton schooner is launched.
• 1869
•  The Liquor Agency in town is closed.
•  We have a new stone bridge on the Cherryfield Road.
•  C. H. Macomber, 120 ton schooner is launched.
  
• 1870 
• Franklin's population is 1,042. (in 2002 it's 1,370)
• The New Town Hall burns to the ground.
• Victor, 45 ton schooner is launched.
• 1871 - Howard Macomber, 109 ton schooner is launched.
• 1872 - H. P. Blaisdell, 302 ton schooner is launched.
• 1873 - Hattie Card, 124 ton schooner is launched.
• 1874
• The New New Town Hall is built.
• W. H. Card, 125 ton schooner is launched.
  
• Chromo, 128 ton schooner is launched.
• C. S. Dyer, 74 ton schooner is launched.
• 1875 - H. C. Bunker, 113 ton schooner is launched.
• 1877 - J. H. Butler, 43 ton schooner is launched.