BETHEL – The Bethel Historical Society’s 30th annual Sudbury Canada Days will get under way on Friday, Aug. 7, with the 18th annual Hall Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the society’s Dr. Moses Mason House meeting room. The lecture will be delivered by H. Draper Hunt, PhD, Emeritus Professor, University of Southern Maine, on “Abraham Lincoln, Hannibal Hamlin and the Civil War Vice Presidency.”
It is free and open to all interested persons. It will also honor the 200th anniversary of Hamlin’s birth at Paris Hill on Aug. 27, 1809.
Saturday, Aug. 8, will begin with re-enactors and craft demonstrators. At 10 a.m., the annual horseshoe tournament will start and the Robinson House exhibits and museum shop will open for the day. Silhouette artist Ruth Monsell will create portraits at the Robinson House from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A cannon volley is expected at 1 p.m. to signal the start of the children’s games, which will end with the ice cream eating contest at 4 p.m. Also from 1 to 4 p.m. there will be craft demonstrations, flower show, historical videos, farming/logging exhibit and guided tours of the Dr. Moses Mason Museum.
Beginning at 1:30 p.m., a porch play and “walking tour” on Main and Broad streets (a series of five acts on five porches) titled “When the Parade Came by Our House Every Year about This Time We Would Gather on the Porch,”will be presented by the Bethel Community Players.
A drawing for the door prize, an “Age of Barns” poster, will be held followed by the log driver’s bean supper at 5 p.m. At 7 p.m. there will be a presentation by the re-enactors.
Sunday afternoon, Aug. 9, will feature the flower show, historical videos, farming/logging exhibit, and guided tours of the Dr. Mason House. The Robinson House exhibits and museum shop will also be open. The Lower Sunday River Schoolhouse (1895), will be open from 1 to 4 p.m.
At 2 p.m. there will be a presentation by Steve Pinkham, author of “The Mountains of Maine: Intriguing Stories Behind Their Names,” and he will autograph books. At 7 p.m. the day will end with the old-time hymn sing at the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse.
For more information about the society and its activities, call 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910, e-mail info@bethelhistorical.org or visit www.bethelhistorical.org.
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