MAPLETON, Maine — Preserving five generations of Aroostook County farming heritage would take a museum, so that’s exactly what a local family built.
The Victor A. and Gloria J. Winslow and Family Memorial Museum first opened at the Winslow homestead in Mapleton last fall, and the family plans to add to it.
Farming roots run deep in the region, and multigenerational operations have weathered wars, the ups and downs of climate, market instability and disease and insects. Some lose youth to the lure of larger cities, and most lose their historical equipment to museums or an abandoned field. A family collection this size is rare.
“He’s never asked me to do anything in his whole life. He only was a giver,” Gene Winslow said of his father. “The night he suggested a museum, I took a month off work and told him I was going to build that museum for him.”
Winslow, one of Victor’s and Gloria’s eight sons, said the family plans to add several buildings, including a church and general store, to the complex in time for an October open house that will give visitors a lot to see.
Though the Winslows no longer grow potatoes, they operate a sandstone slate quarry business and have a working lumber operation run by Gene’s cousin, Jeff. Over the past 150 years, the family has preserved a sizable collection of tractors, tools and household items.
Frances Winslow started farming there in 1857, followed by William, Alvin and Victor. Victor’s and Gloria’s sons Todd, Frank, Lynwood, Bert, Alvin, Gene, Noah and James represent the fifth generation.
Although Gene and Victor had toyed with the idea of creating a museum before, they had never had time to bring the plan together until last year.
The goal was to house some treasured items in a neat, well thought-out space, using as much wood as possible from the farm. After gathering all the materials, family, friends and some members of the Amish community built the structure in about 15 days, Gene Winslow said.
He and his father have collected tractors through the years, so the museum features several, including some pre-World War II models with iron wheels. One of those is a 1926 McCormick-Deering, which the farm acquired in 1934.
There are a wide variety of implements from all aspects of farming and logging: single- and two-person chainsaws, yokes, hammers and wrenches, axes and even blacksmithing equipment. Victor was a member of the University of Maine’s final blacksmithing class; when he left school, they gave him the forge, Winslow said.
Left to right, The Winslow family museum holds a treasure trove of farming and household implements. The sixth generation of Winslows, Gene “Buddy” (left) and Kenzie, pose with a soapbox derby car their grandfather, Victor Winslow, built when he was a young racer. Credit: Paula Brewer / The Star-Herald
Displays also include household items, furniture and even a couple of Soap Box Derby cars that Victor built and raced when he was a boy. Adding to the authenticity, there is no electricity in the building, which drastically cuts fire danger.
“These things are priceless to our family,” Winslow said. “The reason people in Aroostook County love our farms is they’re a part of us.”
There’s also this funny story about an Elvis appearance at the museum. His mother wasn’t sure the museum idea was a good thing to do, Winslow said. So he appealed to her musical side. Knowing she loved Elvis, he ordered a cardboard cutout, and when opening day came, the singer’s likeness appeared among the axes and farm tools, where it remains.
Future plans are to set the complex up like things would have been about a century ago — similar to the working 19th century King’s Landing historical settlement in New Brunswick, Winslow said.
Left to right, A 1926 McCormick-Deering tractor with iron wheels, the same model as one that used to be on the Winslow farm, is displayed in the family’s museum in Mapleton. The small wheel on the side could be fitted with a belt to power other equipment. A handmade sign carved by family friend Wendell Hudson adorns the Winslow family’s museum, located on their farm in Mapleton. Credit: Paula Brewer / The Star-Herald
The facility is free for everyone, Winslow said. The family plans to welcome visitors to some of the new attractions at an open house in October.
“It means something to me that we have a place to display these things and people can come and see them,” dad Victor Winslow said as he contemplated the structure.
Gene Winslow gives his father all the credit for inspiring the whole thing, and both of his parents for the upbringing they gave him and his brothers.
“We grew up having what kids need. We’re blessed to live here in Aroostook County,”
he said. “If there was ever a gift to give a young man, it’s to have the greatest father in the world.”
