WEST PARIS — Storyteller Jude Lamb will present a first-person interpretation, “Women Were Pioneers, Too!,” at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 1, at the West Paris Public Library. This program is free and open to the public.

Lamb’s portrayal of her great-great-great-great-grandmother, Eunice Lakeman, is created from a lifetime of hearing family story and years of research and study in genealogy, history and the society of the early 19th century.

The family of Luther and Eunice Lakeman Hoar was the first white family to settle on what is now called Rangeley Lake. The story is traditionally told from the male point of view, with Luther as the heroic pioneer.

Lamb’s investigation begs the question of how the story might differ if told from the eyes of a woman. Luther and Eunice were pioneers, settling in the Maine wilderness,  taking nine children, including a baby and toddlers, on the journey.

Eunice, given voice, will tell of the family’s 18-mile walk over late spring snow, from the Madrid/Avon area to what is now called Rangeley Lake. Not only did they travel over snow, but climbed as much as 1,000 feet in elevational rise.

Lamb grew up in West Paris, attending the West Paris Grammar School, one year of West Paris High School, and graduating from the Oxford Hills High School in 1969.

She has a degree in human ecology from College of the Atlantic. She was the first woman selectman in West Paris, worked briefly at the Bethel Citizen, and was employed for several years at Books-N-Things in Oxford. She was the manager of the Bethel Books-N-Things from 1994-96.

Lamb is an artist, writer and storyteller. Her life’s focus is “word and image.” As Lamb family historian and genealogist, her goal is to bring alive the family stories and inspire others to do so in creative forms. She lives in an old farmhouse in Lamoine with her husband, Rob Collins, an Australian Shepherd named Maddie, and Jack, a Maine Coon cat.

Copy the Story Link