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 POLAND SPRING HOUSE. 
 
 MAINE STATE BUILDING, 
 
 3M THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, 1893. 
 
 MANSION HOUSE. 
 
POLAND SPRING 
 
 CENTENNIAL 
 
 A SOUVENIR 
 
 S ins i [Ni-nRP. iRAI I 
 
 C0K>Y Z- 
 
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 EDWARD FAYSON RICKER. 
 
 ALVAN BOLSTER RICKER. 
 
 HIRAM RICKER. 
 
 HIRAM WESTON RICKER. 
 
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 JS95. 
 
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 THE PAST. 
 
 
 » *> %>- 
 
 HIRAM RICKER. 
 
 JANETTE WHEELER BOLSTER RICKER. 
 
THE FUTURE. 
 
 y ^ 
 
 HIRAM II. EDWARD PAYSON, Jr. GEORGE ALVAN. 
 
 ELDEST SONS OF HIRAM RICKER'S SONS. 
 

 J. 
 
 
 3K3 w. 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 'HERE ME FIRST HELPED HIM TO 
 
 WHICH HE COULD 
 
One hundred years ago, on the slope of the lovely elevation embraced 
 in the present expansive Poland Spring estate, then a hill-farm in the forest, 
 Jabez Ricker and his sons laid the foundation of the first Ricker inn, which, 
 from the swinging of its hospitable sign, to this time, has been maintained 
 by the Ricker family, and from which has developed the great New 
 England Spa of to-day. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Rickers are of ancient lineage, descending from the feudal and knightly 
 family of Riccar, in Saxon)-, in the fourteenth century, the well attested motto of 
 whose arms, now in the possession of the Poland Spring descendants, was "Sapientia 
 Domini Ay" — "Wisdom the gift of God." The family escutcheon is officially 
 ■described as "Arms azure, a naturel rose argent, accompanied by three stars, or. 
 BCrest: the rose between two horns, coup, alternate azure and argent;" the beautiful 
 Symbolism suggesting, in the golden stars set in the azure of the sky, lofty aspirations 
 wjg's the Trinity, and, in the rose, beauty and grace. The horns are proof of 
 knightrwed, since the kniehts alone wore them afield to sustain the chief tinctures of the 
 arms; and the rose naturel indicates, according to Burke's "Armory," " a period when arms 
 were not subject to rigid and conventional rules, and it dates in all instances prior to the 
 sixteenth century." The Saxon Riccars, drifting across the face of Europe, settled in later 
 times on the island of Jersey, and thence came the first Riccars in this country— two 
 brothers, George and Maturin Riccar, arriving about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 and settling at" Cocheco (Dover), New Hampshire. From these brothers have sprung all the 
 Rickers in the United States, a numerous, far-reaching family, the Rickers of Poland Spring 
 being in the direct line from Maturin, the younger. 
 
George, the elder, came over first, advised to come by Parson Reyner, who paid his 
 passage. He arrived about the year 1650. After repaying the parson, his next earnings 
 went to pay for bringing Maturin over, which was a few years later than his own arrival. 
 The brothers married here, and George had nine children, Maturin at least four. They 
 built garrison houses near by each other on Dover Point. Tradition tells us that they were 
 very much attached to each other, and frequently declared that neither wanted to hear of 
 the other's death, because the one left would be unhappy alone. The Indians, so the story 
 runs, heard of this feeling, and planned to kill them both one morning. Accordingly, the 
 savages lay in wait, an Indian at each garrison house. When one of the brothers appeared 
 at his door in the morning, one Indian drew up and shot him. The other brother, hearing 
 the report of the gun, came to his door, when another Indian sprang from his hiding-place 
 and shot him also, so that they died within five minutes of each other. The "Journal of 
 Rev. John Pike," the minister in Dover at that time, relates this incident somewhat differently, 
 under date of June 4th. 1706, recording: "George Riccar and Maturin Riccar, of Cocheco, 
 were slain by the Indians. George was killed while running up the lane near the garrison; 
 Maturin was killed in his field, and his little son [Noah] carried away." But the first 
 relation was as Hiram Ricker gave it, having had it from his grandfather, Jabez Ricker, 
 the grandson of Maturin. The child made captive was taken into Canada, where he was 
 educated to the priesthood. After the massacre of the brothers, their families left Dover 
 Point, and went to Garrison House Hill, in Somersworth, X. H., where were seven 
 garrison houses close together. 
 
 The family line down to the sons and daughters of Hiram Ricker starts with Joseph, 
 the second son of Maturin, and continues through Jabez, the fifth son and seventh child of 
 Joseph, Wentworth, the third son of Jabez, and Hiram, the second son of Wentworth. 
 Joseph Ricker, yeoman, lived in Somersworth, and afterward in Berwick, Maine, and was 
 
twice married, marrying first, in 1720, Elizabeth, daughter of Jabez and Dorcas Garland, 
 and second, at Berwick, in 1761, Mary May. He had nine children, seven sons and two 
 daughters: John, Sarah, Noah, Joseph (died young), Mehitable, Joshua, Jabez, Tristram and 
 Joseph. The exact date of his death is not known, but it must have been after he 
 had passed the Psalmist's limit of threescore years and ten. His will was dated January 
 1771. He was a holder of a goodly estate, some hundreds of acres of lands, embracing a 
 homestead farm, a mill, stock of cattle, and several negro slaves. His eldest son. John, 
 married a cousin, Eleanor Ricker, daughter of Ephraim, third son of George Ricker, the 
 first comer, and reared a family of eight children. His second son, Noah, married Margaret, 
 a daughter of Simon Emery, of Kittery, and also had eight children, three of whom upon 
 their marriage settled in Vermont. The third son, Joseph, died young; the fourth, Joshua, 
 married, in Berwick, Betsy Drew. 
 
 Jabez Ricker, the fifth son, second of the Poland Spring family line, was born on the 
 Somersworth farm, about the year 1742. He married May 14, 1761, when but nineteen 
 years old, Molly, daughter of Deacon Samuel and Joanna (Roberts) Wentworth (ancestors of 
 the late "Long John" Wentworth, of Chicago), born in Berwick, and then a girl of 
 eighteen. They settled first in Berwick, then lived in Sanford, that part which became 
 Alfred, and, in 1794, moved to the Poland hill-farm, from which time the family have been 
 identified with Poland, and with the sightly hill of the Poland Spring estate, which 
 early came to be known by their name as Ricker Hill. Jabez and Molly Ricker had ten 
 children: Timothy, Joanna, Samuel. Wentworth, Joseph, Molly, Anna, Sarah, Elizabeth, and 
 Phoebe, all of whom lived to mature age, married and had numerous offspring, who in 
 turn multiplied abundantly, and went forth into many fields of usefulness. Timothy, the 
 eldest, bom in 1761, had ten children, five sons and five daughters, the last twins. Joanna, 
 the eldest daughter, born in 1764, married, in 1781, to Paul Stanton, of Berwick, had seven 
 
and many descendants; Samuel, the second son, also had seven; Wentworth had five; 
 Joseph had twelve; and the younger daughters each a number. Samuel, born in 1766, 
 married, in 1700, Susanna, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Dearborn) Jewett, born in 
 Londonderry, N. H., and all but one of his children, the eldest, were born in Poland. In 
 [814 he moved t<> Ohio, and, making his home at Pleasant Hill, sixteen miles from 
 Cincinnati, became prominent and prosperous there. His eldest son, Kufus. then married to 
 Lydia Chapman, of Poland, followed him to Ohio three years later, but the next year 
 moved to an Illinois town, where he became a justice of the peace and postmaster; and 
 subsequently, in 1S36, removing to Iowa, was a judge of probate for ten years, and clerk 
 
 of circuit court twelve years. Samuel's second son, Jabez, was 
 
 drowned in the Arkansas River when a young man of 
 
 twenty-seven. His third son, Benjamin, married, 
 in Kentucky, Mary Weed Wilson, in 1.S16 
 their son, Elbridge G. Picker, served in 
 the Civil War as Major of the Fifth 
 Ohio Cavalry, and a son of the latter 
 became a leading lawyer in Topeka, 
 Kansas. Samuel's fourth son, Samuel, 
 jr., born in 1S00, went to New Orleans 
 soon after he had attained his majority, 
 and there married, first, in 1S31, Eliza, 
 daughter of Thomas and Celeste (de 
 Grandpre) Beale, and granddaughter of Don 
 Carlos de Grandpre, governor of Baton Rouge under 
 Spanish rule; and second, in 1840, Marie Sophia, daughter 
 
 MANSION HOUSE, 1797. 
 
jf Captain Martin Probst. He attained distinction 
 in public affairs, serving in the Louisiana 
 State Senate, and subsequently as United 
 States Consul at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
 He lived long abroad, and there, at 
 Marseilles, France, three of his six 
 !' ' children were born. Ebenezer, fifth sun 
 
 --'.^Jl of Samuel, married, in Maine, Harriet, 
 daughter of John and Mary Pompilly, a 
 native of the State, became a sur- 
 veyor, and remained at Pleasant Hill 
 Farm, succeeding his father. He had 
 two daughters. Darius, the youngest 
 son, married, in Cincinnati, Priscilla A. Avers, 
 and died there in 1855. Samuel's only daughter, 
 Susannah, born in 1S02, married John Fitzpatrick, and had three children. Joseph, the 
 fourth son of Jabez, born about 1771, married Betsey Marshall, and of their twelve children, 
 seven sons and five daughters, all married save two, and into Maine families. Of the 
 younger daughters of Jabez, Molly, bom in 1778, married William Trickey, of Poland, 
 and had several children; Anna, born in 1776, married William Pottle, and had eight 
 children, her eldest daughter, Anna, marrying Jonathan Pulsifer. of Poland; Sarah, born in 
 17S0, married Moses Pottle, and lived in Minot, Maine; Elizabeth, born in 1781, married 
 Henry Byram, and lived in North Yarmouth, Maine; and Phoebe, born in 1790, married 
 Robert Patten, and lived in China, Maine. Jabez died at Poland, in February, 1827, and 
 Molly, his wife, in July, 183S, he eighty-six years old, and she at the venerable age of 
 
 13 
 
 THE SPRING, 1/ 
 
ninety-six, but four ye; of a century. They 
 
 lie side by side in the family burying-ground on 
 Ricker Hill, in the peaceful field south of the 
 .Mansion House, just off of the old count}' road, the 
 modest headstones at their graves, with impressive 
 simplicity, recording only their names and dates. 
 
 Wkntworth Ricker, third son of Jabez, and 
 third in the line of the Poland Spring family, born 
 in August, 1768, married, about 1796, Mary Pottle, 
 of Minot, Maine. Of their five children — Mary, Went- 
 worth, Jr., Sophronia, Hiram and Albert G. — the eldest, 
 Mary, remained single, and died in 1864. aged sixty- 
 
 
 
 six. . Wentworth 
 
 ■ 
 
 MANSION HOUSE, 1859. 
 
 t si n, born in 1 80 1 , 
 died at the age 
 
 of twenty -five. the spring, i860. 
 
 Sophronia, the second daughter, born in 1804, married, 
 
 in [822, Dr. Eleazer Burbank, at that time in 
 
 practice in Poland, and in 1838, removing to North 
 
 j Yarmouth, prominent in affairs in both places. While 
 
 " living in Poland he was largely instrumental in 
 
 the establishment of the old Congregational 
 
 Church at Poland Corner, in 1S25, upon the 
 
 formation of which the venerated Rev. Dr. 
 
 Edward Payson preached the sermon and was 
 
 his guest. Sophronia had two children: Augustus 
 
 ■jijfct 
 
H., who followed in the footsteps of his fathei 
 also becoming a physician in Yarmouth (having 
 graduated A.B. at Bowdoin and M.D. atj 
 Harvard), where he is in active practice 
 now, and Esther, who became the second" 
 wife of the late Hon. S. P. Benson, of Bruns- 
 wick, Maine. Albert G., the youngest son,' 
 born in 1812, married Charlotte Schillinger, 
 of Poland, and had six children: Horace H., 
 born in 1S36; Wentworth P., born in 1839; 
 Mary E., born in 1842; George K., born i 
 1845; George H., born in 1850, and Helen II., 1 
 born 1859. He died December 26, 1885, aged^ 1 
 seventy-three. Wentworth Ricker died in Novem- 
 ber, 1837, aged sixty-nine, and Mary, his wi 
 
 the same month, six years latei 
 
 - 
 
 MANSION HOUSE, 1875. 
 
 in November, 1843 — aged seventy-nine years. Their 
 graves in the family burying-ground are 
 next in line to those of Jabez and Molly 
 Ricker. 
 
 Hiram Ricker, second son of 
 Wentworth, fourth from Maturin, in 
 the Poland Spring family line, was 
 born November 17, 1809, and married, 
 May 28, 1S46, Janette Wheeler, eldest 
 
 THE OLD RICKER HILL SCHOOLHOUSE. 
 
daughter of General Alvan Bolster, of Rumford, Maine, a leading man in the place, 
 also at one time an innkeeper and farmer, and for many years engaged in trade. He 
 held numerous public offices, was postmaster at East Rumford for over thirty years, 
 served in both branches of the Maine Legislature, and was much interested in military 
 affairs, holding various military positions. He was also an early temperance man and leading 
 member of the "Sons of Temperance." His grandfather, Isaac Bolster, said to have come 
 from England, was settled in Uxbridge, Mass., in 1732. His father, Isaac 2d, born in 
 
 Uxbridge, was an officer in the 
 , «j*B&t m War of the Revolution, 
 
 holding a lieutenant's 
 
 commission, and 
 
 afterward that of 
 
 captain, and 
 
 was one 
 
 VIEW OF MANSION HOUSE FROM POLAND SPRING HOUSE 1876. 
 16 
 
of the minute men who marched to Concord, April 19, 1775. Upon his retirement from 
 the army he became an early settler of Shepardsfield, which afterward became Hebron. 
 Maine, and in 1784 moved to Paris, Maine, where he died. Janette (Bolster) Ricker's 
 mother was Cynthia, daughter of Colonel William Wheeler, born in Concord, 
 N. H., but came to Rumford when a child, with her parents. She was married 
 before she had reached her twentieth year, and had previously taught school 
 for some time. She was the excellent mother , 
 of eight children, all but two of whom 
 married and reared families. She died in 
 
 SCENE AT SHAKER MEETING 18 
 
Poland, September 26, 1879. Janette 
 (Bolster) Ricker was born in Rum ford, 
 June 3, 1821. She received a good 
 general education at Kent's Hill and 
 in Bethel, at the same time teaching 
 school, as her mother had done 
 before her, winters and vacations, 
 and subsequently studied art in 
 Boston, in which she was deeply 
 interested. She painted a number 
 of meritorious canvases, several of 
 which are in the possession of her 
 children. She married Hiram Ricker 
 at the age of twenty-five, and early 
 displayed uncommon business as well 
 as executive ability. She was of 
 shaker meeting, 1880. untiring perseverance and great 
 
 strength of character, and possessed of all those qualities which go to make the 
 true woman. She was very popular with the guests of the Ricker inns, and idolized 
 by her children. She died September 23, 1S83, at the age of sixty-two, having lived 
 to see the full fruition of the work of Poland Spring, in which she had unbounded 
 faith from the beginning. Hiram and Janette Ricker had six children, three sons and 
 three daughters — Edward P., Alvan B., Cynthia E., Hiram W., Sarah L., and Janette M. — 
 all of whom are still living, the sons of the Hiram Ricker & Sons corporation of to-day. 
 Hiram died January 4, 1893, full of years, having attained the ripe age of eighty-four. 
 
His grave, beside that of his wife, also in the foremost line in the family buiying-ground, 
 simply marked like the others, lies at the end of the line next beyond those of his sister 
 Mary and his mother and father, his grandmother and grandfather, and his eldest brother, 
 Wentworth, Jr. Back in line with the Rieker monument, are the graves of his younger 
 brother, Albert G., and Charlotte, wife of Albert G., who died in 1893, and of their children, 
 George K., who died at six years of age, Wentworth P., died in 1880, aged forty-one (he 
 served in the Civil War), and Mary E., died March 4, 1895, at the age of fifty-two. 
 
 Such is the ancestry of the Rickers of Poland Spring, now world famed, who 
 have upbuilt its great business interests from Lilliputian beginnings, and have crowned their 
 noble ancestral hill, the forest farm of a century ago, with the magnificent structure 
 which indeed becomes it, as another has so aptly said, 
 "as a crown becometh a king's head." Sturdy, rugged 
 New England stock, inbred in the soil, hard working, 
 persistent, energetic, alert, enterprising. Of Hiram 
 Ricker's sons, constituting the present corpora- 
 tion, Edward Payson Rieker, the eldest, chief 
 architect of the fortunes of the Poland Spring 
 of to-day, who assumed the leadership twenty-five 
 years ago, and through whose genius, integrity and 
 business skill its remarkable development is largely 
 due, was born May 28, 1847. He married, March 
 25, 1890, Amelia Alesious Glancy, of Boston, born 
 December 23, i860, and has two children: Edward 
 Payson, Jr., born October 31, 1S93, and James 
 Wesley, born February 1, 1895. Alvan Bolster 
 
 VIEW OF SPRING, FROM POLAND SPRING HOUSE, 1876. 
 
Ricker, second son, whose part of the present great business is that of the charge of the 
 farming, the stewarding of the houses, and the successful maintenance of the reputation for 
 excellence of table which the Ricker inns have had from the earliest days, was born 
 October 25, 1850. He married, December 16, 1S84, Cora B. Sanders, of Waldoboro, Maine, 
 born January 8, i860, and has three children: Janette Bolster, born October 15, 1887, 
 George Alvan, born April 30, 1890, and Marian Louise, born April 4, 1894. Hiram Weston 
 Ricker, third son, the natural mechanic of the family, who handles the bottling, shipping 
 
 and supplies in connection with 
 the Spring, and has charge of 
 the livery and staging of the 
 houses, was born September 
 5, 1857. He married, March 
 21, 1883, Vesta Pierce Folsom, 
 of Lewiston, born July 29, 1856, 
 and has three children: Mar- 
 guerite Sophia, born February 
 12, 1886; Hiram Ricker, 2d, 
 born March 24, 1889, and 
 Charles Wentworth, born De- 
 cember 11, 1891. Of the three 
 daughters, Cynthia Ella, the 
 eldest, was born October 17, 
 1852 ; married, June 11, 1873, 
 Oliver Marsh, of Springfield, 
 Mass., where she now resides. 
 
 :■■ * 
 
 1KB 
 
 VIEW OF SPRING. 1890. 
 

 and has five children: Jane Catherine, Mary 
 
 Janette, Allyn Ricker, Robert Penniman and 
 
 Arthur Eastman. Sarah Little, the second 
 
 daughter, was born February 20, i860, and 
 
 Jenette Maria, the youngest, July 3°, 1865: both 
 
 are unmarried, and make their home in the old 
 
 homestead — the Mansion House. 
 
 II. 
 When Jabez Ricker, the first of the Rickers of 
 Poland Spring, came here in 1794 with his family to 
 spring house, 1877. live, there was only one little frame house on the hill, 
 
 with one chimney and no hearth, no roads crossing the place, and no very near neighbors. 
 The hill had been an outlying Shaker farm, and 
 he acquired it through an exchange of farms, 
 giving his, then in Alfred, Maine, for this, having 
 the year before visited the place and having 
 been attracted by its situation. He was then 
 what is called in New England a well-to-do 
 farmer and miller. When he married thirty- 
 three years before, his father gave him about 
 fifty acres of land lying some two miles from 
 Great Falls, and there he built his first home- 
 stead. After his father died he received by the 
 latter's will another piece of land adjoining, 
 
 SPRING HOUSE, 1885. 
 
making about one hundred and fifty-seven 
 acres in all. He remained on the farm and 
 worked it until a purchaser appeared, who 
 gave him three thousand dollars for it. 
 Meanwhile, he and a partner built the first 
 saw and grist mill ever built at Great Falls. 
 After selling out there he went to Alfred, 
 about the year 1775, and bought quite a 
 tract of land, including water power, where 
 he built another saw and grist mill, which 
 property was included in the farm ex- 
 changed for Richer Hill, and is still owned 
 by the Alfred Shakers. 
 the spring. Jabez's large family reached their new 
 
 home in the little frame house on the hillside after dark one night, and, when they 
 settled down in the lonely spot, the six girls became homesick, and "sat about the 
 fire and cried." The next morning two men appeared at the door and asked for 
 breakfast. There was nothing cooked in the house, but they could eat anything, they said, 
 and they could get no food elsewhere, for the Shakers, then the only occupants of the 
 sparsely settled neighborhood, would not feed the "world's people," nor would they even 
 have speech with these hungry men. So the wayfarers were given as good a breakfast 
 as could be prepared under the circumstances, and, the humble repast finished, went on 
 their way rejoicing, back through the woods, to Paris, Maine, their destination. After 
 this, everybody going either way stopped at the Richer house, and none was turned away 
 unrefreshed; "and that," Hiram Richer relates in his Reminiscences, taken down in his old 
 
VIEW OF SPRING, FROM POLAND SPRING HOUSE. 
 
age, ''is how my father [Jabez's son Wentworth] went to keeping public bouse. There was 
 no other plaee for people to stop." Wentworth took the lead, and immediately began pushing 
 improvements. He first took steps for building the county road 
 from Portland to Paris, through Poland, passing by the house. He 
 hauled the first load on wheels ever hauled over this road. He took 
 a load of eleven hundred pounds, with two horses, from Poland to 
 Norway, "which," says Hiram's Reminiscences, "was considered a 
 great and wonderful load to haul in those days." 
 
 In 1794-95 the new house was begun, the first Mansion House, 
 a considerable portion of which, with the original clapboards, is pre- 
 served in the Mansion House of to-day on its site, just north of the 
 little frame house. All the nails used were made and forged by 
 hand by Wentworth's younger brother, Joseph. The house was some 
 time building, but was finally finished in 1797, and formally opened 
 as a tavern by the hanging of a sign from the sign-post erected in 
 front of it, bearing the single 
 name of Wentworth Richer. 
 So was established the first 
 Rieker inn, which has been 
 steadfastly maintained these 
 hundred years with varying 
 fortunes, passing from father 
 to son, and from son to his 
 son, its fame increasing with 
 the deepening years. This 
 
 
 
 
 SPRING AND BOTTLING HOUSE. 
 
first Mansion House was finished into four large square rooms on the ground floor, and 
 four above. It had two large stacks of chimneys, four feet at the top, two large fireplaces 
 in each chimney on the lower floor, taking "four-foot" wood, and four smaller but good 
 sized ones on the second floor. The bricks for these huge centre chimneys, at least twelve 
 thousand in number, were made a mile off on the shore of the pond, near the present ice-house 
 of the estate, and were laid up in clay mortar. A stable was built near by, thirty by 
 thirty-two feet in dimensions, one side having five stalls, and the other side wide enough to 
 drive a team in and tie up fourteen oxen. 
 
 III. 
 
 When the new house was finished, and Jabez Rieker had placed the management of 
 the property in Wentworth's hands, he settled his son Joseph on a farm south of and 
 adjoining the homestead farm,.' and his son Samuel on another on the southwest side. 
 The other members of the 
 family remained in the inn, 
 which has since been the 
 main homestead. Here were 
 born all of Wentworth's 
 children, Mary in 1798, 
 Wentworth, Jr., in 1S01, 
 Sophronia in 1804, Hiram 
 in 1809, and Albert in 181 2 ; 
 all of Hiram's, with the 
 exception of Alvan B. , who 
 was born in Rumford ; 
 
 DANVILLE JUNCTION, THE POLAND SPRING STATION. 
 
ON THE ROAD FROM STATION. 
 
 inn; and Janette in the southwest corner room, or parlor 
 chamber, so-called. The original house remained with 
 slight changes for more than sixty years, or until about 1863, 
 through Wentworth Ricker's day, and the most part of 
 Hiram's, as landlord. Until the advent of the railroad 
 it was the popular stopping place for fanners on the way 
 to market ai Portland, many coming from distant parts, 
 some from as far back as Canada, and for travelers by 
 the regular stages on the county road, which Wentworth 
 Ricker had been so potent in pushing through. It was a 
 tavern of the good old-fashioned sort where landlord was 
 
 26 
 
 several of Albert's; and in the house enlarged, all 
 of the children of Hiram's sons, Edward P., 
 Alvan B., and Hiram W., eight in number. 
 Hiram senior was born in the northwest corner 
 room on the second floor; his first born, Edward 
 P., his eldest 
 daughter, Cyn- 
 thia E., also 
 Hiram \V. and 
 Sarah L., in the 
 room below on 
 the first floor, 
 now a part of 
 the office of the 
 
host. Hospitality was met at the threshold; Comfort and Good Cheer awaited the guest 
 within. In its public room the first religious meetings in the neighborhood, outside of 
 those of the Shakers, were held, Elder Jonathan Scott, first minister of Poland, preaching. 
 Those were the 
 
 sermons, and on 
 elder's discourse 
 congregation 
 o'clock in the 
 in the afternoon, 
 without a break! 
 opening, through 
 liquors were dis- 
 temperance times, 
 in the " partition 
 ent office, with 
 slide was perma- 
 Wentwort h 
 the first of Maine 
 the sale of all 
 day not a cent is 
 or indirectly, for 
 Ricker inns, 
 of the Poland 
 
 • 
 
 &g 
 
 
 
 am 
 
 STAGES PASSING THE GATE ENTRANCE TO POLAND SPRING PARK, 
 ONE MILE FROM POLAND SPRING HOUSE. 
 
 days of stalwart 
 one occasion the 
 held his r u r a 1 
 from eleven 
 forenoon to four 
 five mortal hours 
 The old tap-room 
 which hard 
 pensed in ante- 
 is still retained 
 back of the pres- 
 closed slide. The 
 nently closed by 
 Ricker. He was 
 landlords to stop 
 liquors, and to- 
 received, directly 
 liquors in the 
 Upon this feature 
 Spring resorts the 
 
 late General Benjamin F. Butler felicitously remarked, in his speech at the notable compli 
 mentary banquet to Edward P. Ricker by Boston business men in 1888. Referring to the 
 
 27 
 
THE SPRING HOUSE OF THE FUTURE (in course of construction). 
 
common declaration that "it is impossible to keep a hotel successfully without selling liquor," 
 he observed sententiously, "Our friend keeps two successfully without selling liquor. And 
 he has demonstrated that hotels can be kept successfully up to the highest standard on 
 the purest and best of cold water." 
 
 The first buildings added to the property were a wood- 
 shed and a cider house back of the inn. In 1813 the "big 
 barn," still standing, an interesting landmark, in later years 
 used as a cattle stable, was built, Samuel Ricker framing it. 
 This was erected from profits in part made by Wentworth 
 during the war of 18 12 in teaming. "He was a pretty 
 prominent man " in that business, we are told in Hiram 
 
 K i c ke r ' s Reminiscences. 
 " lie rigged up five four- 
 horse teams, and took 
 charge of them. He drove 
 for some time between 
 Portland and Boston. One 
 day he was ordered 
 to be in a certain 
 place at a certain 
 time. ' I cannot 
 do it,' he said, 
 ' unless you give 
 me a pass to 
 travel Sundays. ' 
 
 VIEW OF GROUNDS AND HOTEL FROM SPRING. 
 
In those days people were not allowed to travel Sundays. 
 He got the pass. He went to Boston, and there loaded 
 with goods fur Albany. There he loaded again with goods, 
 the principal part of his load for the twenty horses being 
 composed of Hints for the army. The quarter master 
 beiu-- drunk, father was put in charge of everything. He 
 went to Piattsburg, N. Y." With the close of the war 
 in 1814 Wentworth gave up teaming, and returned home- 
 ward, driving across the country. In 1S25 he added to 
 the inn buildings a large stable, which when finished was 
 pronounced the best hotel stable in the State. This stood 
 until 1S94 (much enlarged in 1887), when it was burned 
 down with its contents, includin 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD POLAND SPRING HOUSE 
 FROM SPRING. 
 
 twenty-seven horses, all the harnesses, robes, and coach 
 equipments, on the twenty-first of August, in the height 
 of the season. Early the very next morning (the 
 lire occurring between nine 
 and ten o'clock Tuesday even- 
 ing), Hiram 
 Ricker's sons 
 had their 
 stage 1 i n e 
 running, and 
 that da y 
 handled over 
 seventy people; 
 
 
 WELCOME THE COMING, SPEED THE PARTING GUEST." 
 
k 
 
 M|lfffn'iiM?Brri'< s sun'^ i t 
 
 
 rfflljllfl 
 
 POLAND SPRING HOUSE. 
 

 
 ENTRANCE TO POLAND SPRING HOUSE AND PARK, FROM MANSION HOUSE. 
 
 and by Saturday night everything was running 
 and new ftage equipments. The work of 
 rebuilding was immediately begun, and during 
 the winter following (1894-95) over the ruins 
 arose the present handsome structure — a double 
 stable, in two wings, of steel roof and fire 
 walls, with a frontage of two hundred and 
 fifty-two feet, and carriage house with sleep- 
 ing-rooms above — erected at a total expense 
 of from ten thousand to twelve thousand 
 dollars, and as much finer than the old stable 
 as that was liner than the ancient barn. 
 
 in regular order, with new horses, new harnesses, 
 
 ON THE ROAD FROM DANVILLE. 
 
NEW LIVERY AND STAGE STABLE, AND EMPLOYtS' BOARDING-HOUSE. 
 

 
 ■ i i i 
 a i i i e i 1 1 
 
 Wentworth Ricker retired from the jtive manage- 
 ment of affairs, placing Hiram in charge, in 1834. 
 Hiram was then twenty-five years of age. He had 
 spent his boyhood and youth with his father on the 
 farm and in the hotel, receiving at the village school 
 such an education as the common country school of 
 those days afforded; and had had a little experience 
 at trade in Boston, going up to the city in 1833, 
 and "hiring out" in a clothing shop of one John 
 Frankson, on Clinton Street. He was thus engaged 
 when his father, being somewhat broken in health, 
 wrote, asking him to return and take the business. 
 His homeward trip was made in February, "all the 
 way by stage from Boston, being two and a half days 
 poland spring house, 1876. on the road." Wentworth died three years later, 
 
 and Hiram continued to work the farm and conduct the hotel on the old lines. After 
 
 the Grand Trunk Railway was built through the town in the early forties, the hotel 
 
 business largely dropped off, as travel by the country road 
 
 greatly diminished, and the house was distant from the railroad, 
 
 and Hiram then branched out into the business of buying and 
 
 selling sheep and dealing in wool and lumber. When the 
 
 changes with the tariff of 1846 came, having a large lot of ^ [ 
 
 wool on hand for which there was no market, and the price .._»__ 
 
 falling from fifty cents to twenty cents, he, in order to make 
 
 himself whole, engaged a woolen mill, known as the Mayall's 
 
 POLAND SPRING HOUSE OFFICE, FROM 1876 TO 1887. 
 
POLAND SPRING HOUSE, 1884. 
 
 humor in the stomach, and, after treatment by 
 the State without relief, his case had been pro- 
 nounced incurable. One July day, in the year 
 just mentioned, he was haying with some of the 
 farm hands near the spring, and drank freely of 
 the water. It was then the custom to take to the 
 field a bottle of molasses arjd ginger, and make a 
 drink of sweetened water (the sweetening destroying 
 
 35 
 
 Mills, in the town of Gray, for its 
 manufacture. Six weeks were consumed 
 in this work, the mill running at full 
 capacity. Some eight or nine thousand 
 yards of the manufactured goods were 
 from wool of his own raising. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the summer of 1844, 
 the discovery was made, purely by acci- 
 dent, that the crystal spring, flowing 
 from a fissure of the tree-embowered 
 ledge on the crest of the hill, which 
 had been utilized for watering the cattle 
 on the farm, had medicinal properties. 
 At that time Hiram Ricker was a great 
 sufferer from dyspepsia, aggravated by 
 some of the most skillful physicians of 
 
 JAMES G. BLAINE AT THE POLAND SPRING HOUSE, CAMPAIGN, 1334. 
 
the medicinal properties of the spring water); but 
 that day the molasses and ginger were not taken 
 along. So the men drank as freely as he direct 
 from the spring, and all were alike affected, the 
 water acting powerfully as a cathartic. They com- 
 mented considerably on the matter, but could not 
 account for it. The same experience was had for 
 four or five days, the molasses and ginger being left 
 behind, and only the clear spring water being drunk. 
 Their food was examined carefully, but nothing was 
 discovered that would enlighten them. While thus 
 speculating, it suddenly occurred to Mr. Ricker that 
 it was the water only which so affected them, and, 
 
 already finding his health improving, he continued to drink freely of it, with the result that 
 
 within fourteen days the burning humor from which he had keenly suffered was driven from 
 
 within to the surface, his food no longer distressed him, and soon he was a well man again. 
 After this, Mr. Kicker "talked" Poland Spring water 
 
 to all his neighbors and friends who had any trouble what- ij 
 
 ever of the dyspeptic form; but he did not then realize 
 
 its marvelous efficacy in other diseases which circumstances 
 
 later developed. Quite as remarkable a cure of gravel had 
 
 been effected seventeen years before in the case of his 
 father, Wentworth Ricker, who had suffered serious and 
 painful attacks of that disease. Mr. Ricker was cured by the 
 free drinking of the water taken directly from the spring, 
 
 36 
 
 OLD STABLE, BURNT AUGUST 21, 1894. 
 
MUSIC HALL, BUILT 1884. 
 
STEAM LAUNCH 
 
 if there was a spring 
 up on the hill, 
 was told to get a 
 jugful, and let the 
 patient have all he 
 wanted, the doctor 
 remarking " that 
 he might as well 
 have it as not, for 
 he would be dead 
 before morning. " 
 So the sick man 
 was allowed to 
 drink freely of 
 the pure water 
 
 simply for refreshment, while at work with his men 
 
 i clearing the land around it; but that fact was not at 
 
 ! this time recalled : and Mr. Ricker never knew what 
 
 cured him. He lived for ten years longer, the trouble 
 
 never once returning to him. The case of Wentworth's 
 
 brother Joseph, who, as far back as the year 1800, 
 
 was miraculously cured of a fever, is also recalled. 
 
 Joseph was lying mortally ill, as his physician had 
 
 declared, and, pleading for a drink of cold water 
 
 poland. before he died, his nurse was asked by the doctor 
 
 in the neighborhood running north, aad, replying that there was one 
 
 PORTE-COCHERE AND WEST f'lAZZA. 
 
POLAND SPRING BREAK STARTING FOR THE FAIR. 
 
 Poland Water to his afflicted friends, 
 neighborhood, it soon acquired 
 a local reputation. Then in the 
 course of time calls began to 
 come from more distant 
 places, from those who 
 had heard, through others 
 whom it had benefited, ""Jf 
 
 of its wonderful virtues, 
 and shortly thereafter 
 it had become well 
 known in steadily widen- 
 ing circles. Thus its intro- 
 duction to the outside world 
 was begun, on its merits, through 
 its own benign work, and not from 
 
 through the night, and the next morning, instead 
 of dead, was on the way to rapid recovery. He 
 lived fifty-two years longer. That the spring was 
 known also to the aborigines, and, doubtless, its 
 curative properties, is clear from the evidence 
 of their presence about it, disclosed by the 
 uncovering by the plow and spade of long buried 
 Indian implements. 
 
 As a result of Hiram Ricker's "talking' 
 and of other surprising cures it had effected in the 
 
 -i iM M^i i ^j* ^ 
 
 aesfpSragg 
 
 POLAND TOWN FAIR. 
 
gjjjjjl 
 
 INTERIOR COURT, POLAND SPRING HOUSE AND STUDIO. 
 
a commercial motive. The first sales were made in the autumn of 1859, and the first 
 "shipment" was in a three-gallon demijohn, brought by Hiram Ricker from the spring to 
 the stage to be taken to Portland, and for which he received fifteen cents. That year the 
 water had been brought into greater prominence than before by a succession of cures more 
 remarkable, in some respects, than 
 any that had preceded, 
 arresting the attention of 
 physicians and others 
 who had been skeptical 
 as to its efficaciousness. 
 One of these cures was 
 that of a young woman 
 suffering from consti- 
 pation, and in such a 
 delicate condition, 
 threatening a rapid 
 decline, that the best 
 physicians in Portland 
 at the time had pro- 
 nounced her case 
 incurable. She was 
 brought to the 
 Mansion House by 
 her father, one day 
 in June, in a 
 
 SITE OF MAINE STATE .BUILDING. 
 
critical condition, and began at once upon her arrival to take the water, 
 Edward P. Ricker, then a boy of about twelve, getting from the spring a 
 three-quart pailful. The next day she was able herself to walk to the spring 
 and drink directly from it. The following day she was so much 
 improved that her father took her back to Portland. Dr. Eliphalet 
 Clark, who had last treated her, advised a continuation of the water, 
 and, this course being followed, her recovery was complete, and she is 
 living still to-day. Another case was that of the late Hon. Nathan 
 J. Miller, of Portland, cured in the following autumn of bloody 
 hemorrhage of the kidneys, when his condition was considered 
 
 Hfeta 
 
 VIEW OF MANSION HOUSE, FROM POLAND SPRINQ HOUSE. 
 
hopeless. He was also a patient of Dr. Clark, having previously been given up 
 by other physicians. A few gallons of the water had just been sent by Mr. 
 Ricker to Dr. Clark for examination and testing, and he advised his patient to 
 
 DR. ELIPHALET CLARK, OF PORTLAND, 
 
 IMI FIRST PHYSICIAN TO PRESCRIBE POLAND WATER. 
 
 Dr. Clark was a foremost physician in Portland in his day, and a prominent 
 man of affairs. He was born in the town of Strong, Maine, in 1801, and was of 
 Puritan descent. He received his degree of M.D. from the Medical School of 
 Bowdoin College in 1824. He married Miss Nancy Caldwell, a sister of Rev. Z. 
 Caldwell, and of Prof M. Caldwell, of Columbia College. He established himself in 
 Portland in 1830, and speedily built up a large and lucrative practice, both as a 
 physician and surgeon. It is said of him that his profession was to him a divine 
 vocation. He was one of the first to embrace the Homceopathic system of medicine, 
 and was a member of the committee who drafted the plan of the American Institute 
 of Homoeopathy. In 1863 he was offered the chair of Materia Medica in the New 
 York Homceopathic College, also the deanship, but owing to ill health he declined 
 these offices. He was active in the cause of temperance, religion and politics. He 
 was projector of the Portland horse railway, and the first president of the company. He was also for a long 
 time director, and subsequently president, of the Boston and Portland Steam Packet Co. He was urged to accept 
 nominations for Governor of the State and Mayor of the city, each of which he declined. He was an 
 ardent Methodist, and a constant friend to Kent's Hill Seminary ; also President of the Maine Wesleyan Board 
 of Education for a period of thirty-two years, and was one of the trustees of the General Biblical Institute of the 
 M. E. Church. He died on the 8th of June, 1883, aged 82 years. 
 
 43 
 
try it, with the careful professional remark that 
 it certainly could do no harm, and might do some 
 good. The effect of its use was speedily apparent. 
 Within a few days after beginning it Mr. Miller 
 was on the high road to recovery, and shortly 
 was pronounced cured. Subsequently, Dr. Clark, 
 who from that time used Poland Water constantly in 
 
 his practice — the first physician to prescribe it as a remedy for disease — was himself cured 
 
 of kidney disease by drinking it; and Dr. Moms 
 
 Dodge, another prominent physician in Portland, 
 
 also a sufferer from that disease, was similarly 
 
 cured. At the same time, at Poland, a neighbor, 
 
 William Schellinger, working near the spring and 
 
 drinking freely of the water, in the medicinal properties 
 
 of which he had no faith, was cured of a serious form 
 
 of kidney trouble, with which he had been afflicted for 
 
 years; and during the season his sick ox, "so emaciated 
 
 ,. , , and weak that he would frequently fall while 
 
 walking, " and put out to pasture in the field by 
 
 IK the spring to die, where he had only its water 
 
 to drink, was made well, so that he "gained 
 
 six inches in girth, and was pronounced good 
 
 beef, and sold as such" in the autumn. 
 
 "Examination of the internal organs," as his 
 
 owner has recorded in this twice-told tale, 
 
 44 
 
 CHILDREN'S PARADISE. 
 
now widely familiar, "showed that the liver had been terribly afflicted, and that from this 
 cause he would soon have died but for this timely removal to the pasture and spring." These and 
 other cures, among them cases of gravel and one of dropsy, within that single year, occasioned 
 much talk in the country round about, increased the demand for the water from many 
 directions far and near, and it began steadily to make its way into general use as a medicine. 
 The sale by barrel was begun that autumn, the delivery by jug being continued to 
 places within wagon distance of the spring. In the following year, i860, more 
 remarkable cures by the wonderful water were effected, and the 
 business of marketing it rapidly developed. Sever 
 notable cures of this period were of aggravated 
 Hiram Ricker having demonstrated early that year 
 Water would dissolve calculus in the bladder, 
 thus being the discoverer of the first known 
 remedy of this class. He had experimented 
 with some good sized pieces of gravel from 
 a large quantity, seven years previously crushed 
 and removed with instruments, by the eminent 
 Dr. Warren, of Boston, from Mr. Ezekiel 
 Jackson, of Norway, Maine, without perma- 
 nent relief; and again, with like result, with 
 pieces which had been removed from 
 a resident of Poland. These vials 
 he then took to Dr. Clark, of Port- 
 land, who J" laced them in his study, 
 each labeled with full data, stating 
 
 POLAND SPRING HOUSE, FROM GROVE. 
 
end of four weeks 
 He is yet living, 
 and hearty, 
 
 OFFICE, FROM MAIN ENTRANCE at SeventV- 
 
 five years of age. This year, 
 also, resident agents fur the 
 sale of the water were appointed in a few new 
 places, anmng them Boston; orders were received 
 from more distant parts, including the West, the 
 South, and even California; many were drawn 
 to the spring itself to drink of its pure water 
 and be made well; and the first house was erected 
 over the spring, which before had been protected 
 by the ordinary country stone wall and rail fence. 
 
 46 
 
 his 
 hale 
 
 particularly the time required 
 by the water to operate on 
 the pieces; and so its fame 
 as a curative for such cases 
 spread abroad. At the same 
 time, Mr. Jackson, still a 
 great sufferer, and determined 
 not to undergo another pain- 
 ful operation by instruments, 
 began the use of the water 
 upon himself, and at the 
 health was completely restored. 
 
4- *&j&m 
 
 ■m 
 
 OFFICE. 
 
 from Poland Spring than from all th 
 throughout the United States and 
 Canada; to South America, Cuba, Eng- 
 land, the continent of Europe, India, 
 Egypt ; thus fulfilling the second part 
 of Hiram Ricker's prophecy made in 
 the early days of the miraculous spring, 
 his faith in it then as firm as the rock 
 from which it gushes, that sooner or 
 later there would be shipped from it all 
 that runs, and that Poland Water would 
 be known throughout the world. The 
 first part of this prophecy will never be 
 fulfilled, for the spring is inexhaustible. 
 
 At the close of the first two years the sales of the 
 water had increased from the single three gallon demi- 
 john, shipped by the Portland stage at the beginning, 
 to a thousand barrels. After that, however, owing to 
 inexperience in preparing for market, the business 
 gradually declined until about 1868. Then, more 
 wonderful cures having been made, and the barreling 
 having being improved, it took a fresh start, and 
 from 1870 to 1880 increased from three hundred to 
 five thousand barrels. Thereafter the increase was 
 in great strides, until, in 1890, more water was shipping 
 Saratoga Springs combined. To-day it is sent 
 
 OFFICE, FROM LADIES' PARLOR AND READING ROOM. 
 
Like Tennyson's brook, it goes on 
 
 forever. Now, agencies are established 
 
 in the leading cities of the country, the 
 
 principal depot being the New York 
 
 office, first opened in May, 1883. Then, 
 
 the yearly gross sales there were about 
 
 three thousand dollars; now, this branch 
 
 alone is doing a business of one 
 
 hundred thousand dollars a year. In 
 
 the place of the one horse and wagon 
 
 sufficient for the work of teaming at 
 
 the spring from 1859-60 up to 1875, 
 
 to-day twelve horses are worked on the 
 
 regular teams hauling to the railroad at 
 
 Lewiston Junction, with many extras. 
 
 In the bottling and barreling house, the oldest part erected in 1876, before which time the 
 
 work was done in temporary quarters and by a few 
 hands, a force of about thirty men is now employed, and 
 for the greater part of the year work is carried on day 
 and night. 
 
 In the first days of the business, the water was dipped 
 from the opening or basin in the crevice of the ledge, 
 originally made by the settlers who discovered the spring 
 in 1785, with a two-quart dipper. It then held about ten 
 gallons, having been enlarged from its original size, of 
 
 THE LARGE WINDOW OF DINING ROOM. 
 
MAIN DINING HALL. 
 
a capacity of five or six quarts only, first 
 
 by Wentworth and Hiram Ricker when 
 
 clearing the neighboring land in 1827. As 
 
 the business increased, it was further en- 
 larged to hold about thirty gallons, and 
 
 the pail was substituted for the two-quart 
 
 dipper. This was the method pursued in 
 
 filling all barrels and packages until the 
 
 autumn of 1876, when the first bottling 
 
 house, a structure thirty by sixty feet, was 
 
 built below the spring, and a stone bowl 
 
 set, through which the water was run direct 
 
 into the barrels. By 1885 bottling had largely 
 
 taken the place of barreling, although the parlor. 
 
 latter was still continued, and the business had so expanded that it was found necessary 
 
 to put in a large stone tank, four feet deep, four feet wide and fourteen feet long, and 
 
 the front one solid piece of highly polished granite, holding 
 upwards of two thousand gallons. Meanwhile the bottling 
 house had been enlarged into a main building of one hundred 
 feet, with a large centre wing for the packing department, 
 and improved machinery introduced for facilitating and per- 
 fecting the bottling work. At about this time machinery 
 i was also added for aerating the water, to which improvements 
 J have from time to time since been made. Every known 
 ' device for preserving the purity and sweetness of the water 
 
has also been supplied as the business has 
 developed, and the greatest care exercised in 
 the bottling process to prevent the absorption of 
 impure matters. Every material now entering 
 into the work is most carefully selected. The 
 corkwood especially is obtained only from the 
 purest stock, and the corks are cut in Spain. 
 The best of cleansing methods have been adopted, 
 and all the bottles used are scalded and sterilized. 
 Each bottle after being sterilized is kept bottom 
 upward until the moment it is placed under the 
 
 filler. Bottled with 
 such pains and 
 
 - such perfection, 
 
 Poland Water to-day leaves the spring in the best possible 
 
 condition, and, if any sediment or any impurities are 
 
 discovered in any package in the consumer's hands, these 
 
 must be charged to some impurity in the cork, or 
 
 in the receptacle in which the water is 
 
 placed and which it has absorbed; for its 
 
 absorbent quality, unknown in other mineral 
 
 waters, is as distinguishing a feature of this 
 
 water as its purity. If, for example, a bowl 
 
 of it is placed beside a bowl of milk in a 
 
 refrigerator with meats and vegetables, the 
 
 51 
 

 water will absorb every odor of its surroundings, and 
 leave the milk absolutely untainted. 
 
 While this great business has been develop- 
 ing through the wonders that the water 
 performs, the secret of its extraordinary influ- 
 ence has been unrevealed by science. As has 
 must truly been said, " It eludes chemistry, 
 and returns from the laboratory as it enters — 
 a mystery." Analysis has shown its mineral 
 constituents and its unique purity, but no 
 laboratorist has yet been able to account for 
 its marvelous curative properties. It rises 
 fv."m a great depth, as is shown by its uniform tempera- 
 ture at all seasons of the year, and gushes, as the 
 geologist tells us, from a bed of gneiss, the oldest of the 
 sedimentary rocks, through a fissure filled with an intrusion of porphyritic rock of the old red 
 sandstone era, from which it derives its freedom from organic matter. So its rare purity is 
 accounted for, but whence come its manifold virtues constituting it a perpetual fountain 
 of health baffles all investigators. It stands alone among mineral waters. It has been 
 demonstrated that there is but one Poland Spring; that its excellence is peculiarly its own. 
 In the thousands of analyses of water made by Professor F. L. Bartlett, when State 
 Assayer of Maine, he could "always tell Poland Water." He had "many times selected 
 it from amongst other samples by simply evaporating some of it to dryness," for it always 
 
 i- 
 
gives a pure residue of pearl-white scales, which is unlike any he ever saw. " I have 
 found samples," he adds, "which gave almost the identical analysis of the Poland, but the 
 residue left on evaporation was never like it." From the relatively large amount of silica 
 contained in it, Professor Bartlett had called it an alkaline silicated water. Testimony in 
 the same direction is given by Dr. William P. Wesselhoeft, the well known Boston physi- 
 cian, who writes, under date of January, 1893, that Poland Water seems entirely free 
 from vegetable matter, and he has not been able to get the slightest sediment after leaving 
 it exposed to the sun in a vial for three weeks, while most of the other waters which 
 he tested in this manner showed signs of putrefaction during this period. At the 
 World's Fair of 1893, at Chicago, where it was the only spring water from New 
 England which received an award, it was, of all those exhibited, coming from 
 various parts of the world, the only water which received an award for purity 
 and medicinal properties. That it flows unchangingly, retaining stead- 
 
 f a s t 1 y its 
 physical char- 
 acteristics, is 
 shown by the 
 results of 
 analyses taken 
 at different 
 periods be- 
 tween the 
 time of the 
 discovery of 
 its medicinal 
 

 
 EXHIBIT OF POLAND WATER 
 AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION. 
 
 This exhibit occupied a conspicu- 
 ous position in the Gallery (Section 
 one, second floor, Division F>. six) 
 of the Agricultural Building. Tin 
 uniquely designed and artistically 
 decorated structure in which the 
 exhibit was displayed was so 
 planned that the visitor \\as enabled 
 comfortably to examine it in detail, 
 and it was one of the chief attrac- 
 tions of the group in which it 
 
The Only Water Awarded a Medal and Diploma at World's Columbian Exposition for 
 Great Purity and as a Natural Medicinal Water. 
 
 n®u 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 Executive Committee on Awards 
 
 190 
 
 Washlnjton. D. C, Qa^i^ 1894. 
 
 Dear SlrS: 
 
 I herewith inclose you an official copy of your 
 Award which. In due time, will tie Inscribed fn the 
 Diploma and forwarded to your present address, unless 
 
 ExMUcr- ,HirBm_Bicker_£J5ons_ _ _ Address South Poland.Me. 
 
 Group. .10. Class ...64 
 
 tfxfcietf-JJatuxal..Mineral_Spring.Water (Poland Water) 
 
 AWARD 
 
 The Poland Water is a natural mineral water of great 
 purity. It is safe and salutary drinking water and from 
 its small proportion of mineral matter and the chemical 
 nature of the same may be made a valuable medicinal agent 
 in the class of complaints for which it ie prescribed. 
 It is not liable to change and is well suited for bot- 
 tling and conmercial distribution.. 
 
 indicated by you- 
 
 Chalrjnan Executive. Cojsmt 
 
 (Signed) JL... Aj-.Breneman, .. 
 
 f/-S„ ^r Approved A.-.A._Breneman. , 
 
 
MAINE STATE BUILDING AT WORLD'S FAIR, 1893. 
 
properties and now. Professor C. F. Chandler, of Columbia College, New York, for example, 
 reports, in 1893, the same constituents that he found eighteen years previously, adding: 
 "It is evident, therefore, that this water still preserves the chemical character which has 
 commended it so greatly both to physicians and to consumers." And Professor A. A. Brene- 
 man, late Professor of Industrial Chemistry in Cornell University, reports the results of 
 analysis made in 1894 "closely in accord with the analysis made by Professor C. F. Chandler 
 in 1875," these results indicating "not only the great purity of Poland Water, but its 
 consistency of composition uuring long periods." 
 
 But stronger than professional opinion of the lasting virtues of this incomparable spring, 
 valuable as such opinion is, is the testimony of the water itself in what it is accomplishing, 
 from year to year and from day to day, in the repeated and wonderful cures effected by 
 its use, those of recent years as miraculous as those of its earlier days. Evidence of this 
 nature which has come 
 to the proprietors is 
 voluminous, and its mere 
 cataloguing would fill a 
 thick volume. It comes 
 from practitioners as well 
 
 as from patients, and ^K^ £9". 
 
 includes great numbers of 
 
 cases pronounced by phy- . . . ^ V~ 
 
 sicians of high repute as " '' ' '" - '-. . tt __ fl 'IT^p**^ IK, 
 
 unreachable by drugs or ' ' '*< 
 
 ordinary medicines. Notable 
 among many of the latter class 
 
 
 SPECIAL TRAIN OF 16 CARS, CONTAINING MAINE STATE BUILDING, LEAVING WORLD'S FAIR GROUNDS. 
 
which may be mentioned is that of T. S. Quinn, of New York City, cured of pyelitis in 
 1888, after leading specialists here and abroad had declared his case to be incurable, and 
 to-day in the enjoyment of good health, with no touch of his old disease. While abroad 
 in search of relief he was ten days in London under the care of the celebrated Sir Henry 
 Thompson, who gave him no encouragement of hope of recovery; and when he came to 
 Poland Spring, after treatment by an American specialist who confirmed the diagnosis of 
 Sir Henry, he was, as he writes, "but a shadow of my > former self, weak and 
 tottering, scarcely able to put one foot before the other." Taking the advice of 
 Hiram Ricker, then still living, "to throw physic to the dogs, and drink lone J 
 
 . 
 
 irQN JUttCTION 
 
 
 ARRIVAL OF SPECIAL TRAIN, MAINE STATE BUILDING, AT LEWISTON JUNCTION. 
 
 
MAINE STATE BUILDING ERECTED AT POLAND SPRING. 
 
r 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 *v 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 1«W ■ fu»? • ?UK ■ 
 
 fW >-). 7]f 
 
 and deep of Poland Water," lie allowed the drugs, medicines, and prescriptions, of which 
 he had brought an abundant supply, to be put aside, and, thereafter quaffing the water 
 as his only remedy, he soon began to improve, and 
 in three months returned to his home in better health 
 than he had enjoyed for years. 
 
 That the cures by the water are permanent 
 cures is shown by the indisputable testimony of 
 absolute freedom from the disease to which it is 
 applied, through years of life following. The case 
 of the Hon. John C. Haines, ex-Mayor of Chicago, 
 
 60 
 
 THE LARGE STEPS OF MAINE STATE BUILDING 
 ARRIVING AT POLAND SPRING. 
 
 
 ^r^rvV- 
 
 er 
 
 
■ 
 
 MAIN ENTRANCE, MAINE STATE BUILDING. 
 
 the spring about five years in barrels. 
 Rev. Dr. A. J. Patterson, of Roxbury, Boston, is another most 
 significant one. In 1872 he was attacked with inflammation 
 of the kidneys, and, after some months of suffering, he con- 
 sulted Dr. Bowditch, at that time at the head of the medical 
 profession in Boston, who told him plainly that he would 
 never be able to resume the duties of his profession. Then 
 he came to Poland Spring, making the journey with great 
 difficulty. A few hours after drinking the first pitcherful 
 of the water he experienced relief, and, continuing to drink 
 
 61 
 
 in the enjoyment of good health thirty-two years after 
 
 being cured of a serious disease of the kidneys, is much 
 
 to this point. He was prostrated in 1863, and, his physician 
 
 having failed to afford him relief, he came to Poland 
 
 Spring as a last resort. After drinking the water for 
 
 about four weeks he was as well as ever again. This 
 
 was his voluntary testimony in a letter written fifteen 
 
 years afterward, and in 1895 his son, Professor W. S. 
 
 i Haines, of the Rush Medical College, reported his 
 
 health still excellent. Another case is that of a lady 
 
 cured thirty years ago of kidney complaint and dropsy, 
 
 after physicians had declared her case hopeless, and 
 
 still in good health, having neither seen nor felt any 
 
 symptoms of the disease since the cure. This lady 
 
 took the water in California after it had been out of 
 
 The case of the 
 
 LARGE MANTEL AND FIREPLACE IN ROTUNDA 
 OF MAINE STATE BUILDING. 
 
very heartless man 
 cure, by the water 
 
 T" 
 
 h, gaining strength and comfort day by day, was in a few weeks able to preach. Within 
 two months he was back again in his own pulpit in Boston, fully recovered. In 1883, in a 
 letter giving a history of his case, he wrote that "from that time till now I have not lost 
 a day from derangement of the kidneys." And in January, 1895, twenty-two years after his 
 recovery, he wrote the Messrs. Ricker: "You are at liberty to use my testimonial in any 
 way you please. One having enjoyed twenty years of comfortable life after passing through 
 what I endured in 1873, and would hesitate to tell the world of his restoration, must be a 
 A case which excited much attention at the time, as a wonderful 
 f what was pronounced by several Boston physicians to be Bright's 
 disease and incurable, was that of ex-Mayor 
 Jonathan Dearborn, of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
 shire, in 1872. He came to the spring, after 
 he had been told by physicians 
 that he had not long to live. 
 At the end of two weeks he 
 considered himself, as he ex- 
 presses it, " fifty per cent, 
 better." Five years after his 
 cure he wrote that since his visit 
 to the spring he had "not lost 
 a day's work, a night's sleep, 
 or a meal of victuals." He 
 lived until 1883, when his 
 death occurred, as his phy- 
 sician wrote, not of Bright's 
 
 HIRAM W. RICKER'S COTTAGE. 
 
disease, but of apoplexy of the heart. So the constantly 
 increasing record runs of cures complete and lasting by the 
 sparkling water of this miraculous spring, where drugs fail 
 and medical skill is powerless to save. In the words of Dr. 
 Wm. Argyle Watson, a leading New York physician, i 
 "seems, in its long journey through guttered rocks and con- 
 gregated sands and pebbles, to become craftily endowed with 
 occult, detergent, solvent and absorbent powers, which, when 
 freely drunk, enables it to take up, in its searching course 
 through the brain, liver, stomach, kidneys and other organs, 
 all offending stale secretions, waste matter, and the wreckage 
 of devitalized breaking down tissue, and, through its positive 
 diuretic action, to flush the whole system, thus ridding it 
 of all soluble impurities, paving the way to a renewal of 
 functional activity, and to the repair of damaged organs." 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the year 1869, Hiram Ricker turned the property and 
 the direction of affairs into the hands of Edward P., his eldest son, as his father, Wentworth 
 Ricker, had turned the management over to him thirty-five years before. Edward P. was then 
 twenty-two years of age, three years younger than his father when the latter took the management. 
 Like his father, too, he had first gone up to Boston to engage in general business. But here the 
 parallel ends, for he did not make an engagement there nor tarry any length of time. On the trip 
 up and while in the city looking about for an opening, his thoughts dwelt upon home affairs, and 
 he was not slow in reaching the conclusion that the real place for him, the place where he 
 
 63 
 
could accomplish the most for the family and its interests, was back on Ricker Hill and at 
 Poland Spring. So he straightway returned, and as a member of the firm of Hiram Ricker & Son 
 energetically applied himself to the development of the properties, with his father at his right 
 
 hand. That year and the year following the first addition 
 was made to the Mansion House by building on another 
 
 story, giving nine small 
 
 rooms, and 
 its capacity 
 
 increasing 
 to about 
 fifteen rooms. A year 
 or two later another 
 addition was made by 
 removing the old wood- 
 shed and cider house, 
 and building back where 
 they had stood, thus 
 gaining seven rooms. 
 Meanwhile, as we have 
 seen, new impulse was 
 given to the business of 
 the spring, and the sales 
 of Poland Water began 
 to show steady increase. 
 These were busy years, 
 full of hard work, with 
 some hardships, some 
 
 ALBERT RICKER HOMESTEAD, NOW PART OF POLAND SPRING PROPERTY. 
 
 
COTTAGE.S 1 AND 2. SOUTH OF MANSION HOUSE. 
 
>A 
 
 
 anxious days, litigation having arisen involving the 
 
 property's interests — ultimately decided in favor of 
 
 the family through the justice of their cause — but 
 
 years marked by progress, steady and sure. In 
 
 1875, Alvan B., the second son, was admitted to 
 
 the partnership, the firm name then becoming 
 
 Hiram Ricker & Sons, and in 1880 Hiram W., the 
 
 third son, was admitted. 
 
 In 1876, the centennial year, the first Poland 
 old jackson inn, built about 1800. Spring House rose on the summit of the hill, which 
 
 was then in appearance like an old New England farm, and opened with the summer, 
 the firm taking a partner in this enterprise— Albert Young, of Auburn. With its 
 frontage of two hundred feet and its one hundred rooms, the new house was considered 
 an affair of considerable magnitude, and some of the wiseacres predicted "breakers ahead" 
 for the venturesome proprietors; but it was only the beginning of the development soon to follow. 
 The opening was auspicious, while the old house lost none of its patronage or popularity. 
 Five years later, during which period the new house remained in its original shape, the 
 Rickers bought out Mr. Young's interest (which was confined to this house), and at once 
 began making improvements, in both the exterior and the interior, laying out some twenty 
 thousand dollars without adding a single room. Within three years they doubled the receipts 
 of the business over the largest year under the Ricker & Young administration. In these three 
 years, also, much improvement was made in the grounds, the work at the spring was advanced, 
 the sales of Poland Water increasing at the rate of a thousand barrels each year, and the 
 bottling industry steadily developed. In 1883-84, the capacity of the new house was increased 
 by building the addition which now contains the Music Hall, a wing forty by one hundred 
 
 66 
 
and twenty-five feet, adding- sixty-four rooms to the original one hundred. At the same 
 time, the old Mansion House, which had long- been overcrowded, was enlarged to its present 
 size, embracing in all about sixty-six rooms, and increasing its capacity to accommodations 
 for one hundred guests. In 1887, the Annex to the new house, where the billiard hall now 
 is, was built, adding about twenty-four rooms; also, an addition to the helps' department; 
 and buildings elsewhere on the grounds were enlarged or improved. In 1889 the great 
 house was extensively remodeled, its architectural features much enhanced, and the attractive 
 interior rendered more attractive. In these processes fifty thousand dollars' worth of the 
 older parts was cut out and cast aside. Also, in 1889, an addition, fifty by one hundred 
 and sixteen feet, was built on, giving about fifty rooms. The same season, the grounds 
 were further beautified. In these improvements and additions, fully seventy thousand dollars 
 were expended. In 1893, the southwest wing was extended forty-five by one hundred feet, 
 and twenty bathroom suites thus added. In 1894, further improvements were made on the 
 grounds and in various parts of the expanding house, among them the construction of the 
 studio building, with fully equipped rooms for 
 amateur photographers who are guests of the 
 Ricker inns, and the club house, both in the 
 southeast wing. '1*4 «r*K 
 
 The same year was marked by the enterprise 
 and forethought of the Rickers in the purchase 
 of the Maine State Building of the World's Colum- 
 bian Exhibition, and its removal from Chicago to 
 Poland Spring for preservation as a memorial ; ' 
 
 of the national fair and Maine's representation in l i *! .fljtr'f^ F f oTlli ' ^lp ""« 
 
 it. The beautiful and costly structure, of Maine . ; ^ {inm ^ \'fgfc-Jf!-* 
 
 67 
 
 WM. ALLEN HOMESTEAD, NOW PART OF POLAND SPRING 
 PROPERTY, SITE OF OLD JACKLON INN. 
 
grown and manufactured materials, originally erected at a cost to the State of thirty thousand 
 dollars, was carefully taken apart under the personal supervision of Hiram W. Ricker, loaded 
 on a special train of sixteen ears, and transported to Maine, at a cost of loading and trans- 
 portation of over three thousand dollars, and its substantial rebuilding begun in front of 
 the stately oak grove beside the superb hotel— the only State or other official World's Fair 
 building taken down, removed, and re-erected in permanent form. During the winter and 
 spring following, this structure was completed as library and art gallery, artistically and 
 uniquely furnished and decorated, to become the crowning feature of the opening of the 
 season of 1895, and the second century of the Ricker inns. Further improvements were 
 made in and about both houses, in various other buildings on the grounds, and in the grounds 
 themselves; additional buildings were erected and notable additions made to the steadily 
 expanding estate. 
 
 So, in the short space of less than twenty years, the picturesque hill farm, eight hundred 
 feet above the level of the sea, with the ancient inn on its slope, and its wondrous spring, 
 has been transformed into the great inland watering place of to-day, with its two hotels, the 
 smaller the embodiment of comfort, the larger, of magnificent proportions, most beautiful in 
 1 and perfect in appointments among modern summer houses, its historic stone library 
 and art gallery, its expansive grounds, with great, sloping lawns dotted with llower beds and 
 ains, its groves of oak and maple and pine, its chain of lovely lakes— a veritable 
 paradise, the Mecca of the fashion, the wealth and culture of the country. Where, in 
 1880-81, when the first enlargement of the new hotel on the hill top was made, were a few 
 fair buildings, mostly clustered about the ancient hostelry and by the spring-side, is to-day 
 a colony of shapely structures, well distributed over the grounds so as not to obstruct the 
 view in any direction — cottages; stables, the one connected with the great house fitted as a 
 boarding stable for teams of guests, with accommodations for fifty horses, and over the 
 
 6S 
 
carriage house rooms for private coachmen; large boarding- houses for the army of help 
 employed on the place; a great refrigerator and cold storage building; a pumping station 
 for pumping water from the lakes for general purposes in the hotels and for freshening the 
 lawns; a cooperage and blacksmith shop, and numerous other outbuildings. From a total of 
 one hundred and sixty rooms in both hotels in 1S80-S1 the capacity of the houses has been 
 increased by the repeated enlargements to four hundred and fifty rooms to-day, of which 
 about fifty are bathroom suites, each with a pleasant look-out, accommodating about five 
 hundred guests. Each enlargement has licen demanded by the increasing patronage of the spa, 
 and each has been followed by a larger influx of guests, coming from all parts of our own country, 
 from Canada and abroad. Within these twenty years, too, the original estate of three hundred 
 acres has expanded by the acquisition of adjoining and other lands to a princely domain of a 
 thousand acres; and it has been so improved, with rare skill and taste, every natural beauty piously 
 preserved and fostered, that it has become one of the most enchanting spots in all picturesque 
 New England. We have thus traced the evolution of Poland Spring and the Ricker inns from 
 the uprising of the first tavern, and the discovery of the 
 marvels of the blessed fountain in the rock, to the present 
 famous establishment. Let us view the perfect work of 
 to-day, as the tourist views it upon his first approach. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Arriving at Danville Junction, twenty-five miles north 
 of Portland, by the Maine Central or Grand Trunk 
 Railroad, here parallel, and passing on either side 
 of the picturesque station, we leave the cars, and take 
 a Poland Spring coach for the five-mile cross country 
 
 6 9 
 
drive to Ricker Hill. The coaches, we find, are not of the ordinary sort, but handsome 
 English-like drags or breaks, with spirited teams of four and six horses. They are of 
 American make, however, designed and built in New England shops especially for the 
 Rickers for their staging business. Sweeping along the steep hillside from the station, 
 through the thrifty little village, we shortly turn sharply to the right, and strike the narrow, 
 winding road which leads on and up to the Ricker domain. Thence it is an exhilarating 
 ride over a picturesquely undulating country, past broad fields and rocky pastures, through 
 pleasant woods, and open spaces with fair views of distant hills and mountain tops. As we 
 near the end of the drive we catch the first glimpse of the towers of the great hotel over a 
 forest on distant heights at the left, rising like castle turrets above the trees. Further 
 along the view broadens, revealing more of the outlines, but suggesting rather than disclosing 
 its grandeur. The main road ends at the entrance gate to the Poland .Spring grounds, 
 on the edge of a little forest. This we enter, the keeper at the lodge swinging open the 
 gate as we approach, and begin the ascent of the woody avenue. We have yet a mile t<> 
 traverse before we reach the great house on the heights above. The curving way lies 
 through the deep woods close up to the famous spring, and skirts the grove in which the 
 spring buildings are set. Reaching the Spring House, we halt for a moment, while an attendant 
 brings out glasses of the sparkling water for our refreshment, and off again, we emerge at once into 
 the open. Now the mammoth hotel, heretofore hidden from view, suddenly appears imposingly 
 before us, at the left, far across the expansive lawn sweeping up to and over the plateau; and vast 
 stretches of rich landscape, extending unbroken to the horizon, delight the eye at every 
 turn. In the distant northwest the White Hills rear their majestic heads, the Franconia peaks 
 and the Presidential range disclosed in exquisite outline. To the westward rise Black 
 Cat, Rattlesnake Mountains, and lesser local heights; southward, the more distant Ossipee 
 Hills of New Hampshire, with the bolder outlines of Mt. Pleasant and Mt. Kearsarge 
 

 
 beyond. In the clear atmosphere objects upon the horizon 
 fifty miles away are plainly visible. Lovely pastoral country 
 fills the foreground of the encircling view; and below 
 us, at the foot of the hill, the long silvery chain of the 
 Range lakes glistens through the winding 
 valley. 
 
 As we bowl over the broad driveway 
 toward the great house, its splendid pro- 
 portions, the beauty of its design, and the . , . ■ 
 magnificence of its location unfold, a 
 spectacle of steadily increasing charm. 4J ^ 
 With its finely fashioned central tower, 
 its great, spreading wings of upward of 
 six hundred feet, their surface broken by 
 numerous bays, verandas of varying sizes, 
 
 shapes and finish, its tasteful exterior ornamentations, its turrets at intervals along the sky 
 line, its multitude of broad windows, its deep double piazzas, over thirteen hundred feet in 
 length, upon which hundreds of guests "can stroll and promenade and not be crowded," its 
 forest background and unsurpassed outlook, it stands a noble structure, nobly placed. The 
 coach swings under the porte-cockkre, and, alighting, we are met on the hospitable piazza 
 by one of the Ricker brothers, and by manner, if not in words, made welcome, with something 
 of the flavor, if not the exuberance, of the old time reception by landlord of guest. Entering 
 the house, we are struck at once by the vastness and richness of the interior, and the 
 absence of the chilliness of the conventional great hotel. Here is a great office hall, with 
 long, broad corridors, apparently unending, and deep passages, but all so modeled and arranged, 
 
so comfortably furnished and finished, with open parlors, sitting, reading and lounging rooms, 
 and cozy corners, that it has a homelike air with all its largeness. In the huge domed fireplace of 
 the entrance hall, six feet in the clear, of oaken frame and terra cotta finish, a big log fire flames 
 with ruddy glow, if the weather without is chilly, as is not infrequently the case in this high 
 altitude, even in midsummer, when the day is young or after nightfall. Through the broad 
 corridor, at the left from the hall, is the way to the great dining-room, of splendid proportions and 
 glorious outlook, whose praises have been sounded by countless guests. "I have eaten food with 
 pagan and Christian, savage and civilized, poverty and wealth, and in many of the hotels in the 
 land where tourists congregate, " writes the gifted W. H. H. Murray, "but never have I seen 
 so fine a room for bright, cultivated people to take their meals in as the great dining hall 
 at Poland Spring. Nearly two hundred feet in length and amply wide, it is a marvel of space and 
 roominess. How the old Norse kings would have loved it when they met for feast 
 and wassail, because of its size, its noble height, its gleaming floors, and the magnificent 
 views of nature they might behold from its multitude of 
 windows! For as you eat you look out upon shining lakes 
 and blue skies, green lawns acres in extent, and forest- 
 covered hills, still valleys far below 
 
 and more silent peaks, which 
 penetrate the stillness of re- 
 moter skies." And another 
 has written: "What a sense 
 of expanse the room has! 
 Even the windows seem to 
 open to the earth. One of 
 them, filling the entire end 
 
 BOARDING STABLE 
 
 
PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF PROPOSED CHAPEL. 
 
of the central panel of the hall, makes a picture of forest and field so beautiful that one 
 cannot help but gaze upon it." Furnishings and service are in full keeping with the superb 
 setting. Tasteful ware garnish the daintily spread tables, the air is filled with the fragrance of 
 sweet flowers, and the food served the guests is so selected and prepared that, to quote 
 again from Murray, "it honors them as people of refinement and civilized tastes, and exalts 
 the noble art of entertainment." 
 
 At the further end of the main corridor, at the right of the entrance hall, is the great 
 Music Room, as large as a theatre, and artistically decorated, where the house symphony orchestra 
 — a celebrated band, made up of members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership 
 of Daniel Kuntz — gives regular concerts, and which is frequently transformed into a brilliant ball- 
 room ; and adjoining is the smaller and cozier entertainment room, with broad connecting doors, so 
 fashioned that the two halls may on occasion be thrown into one. In the Annex beyond are the 
 large billiard room and bowling alleys, fully equipped with the most modern furniture, the club 
 house, and the studios for professional and for amateur photographing. Elsewhere are snug card 
 rooms by the score. On the stories above the entrance floor, which are reached by elevator or 
 broad staircases, the same spaciousness of corridor and passage as below is observable. Light and 
 aii- are everywhere abundant. The hundreds of rooms are spacious, tasteful in finish, inviting and 
 comfortable in furniture and appointments. Many are en suite, arranged for families, with ample 
 closets, private baths and other conveniences. From every suite are beautiful views through 
 the broad windows. A number have cozy, private verandas where restful hours may be spent, 
 the eye enchanted by the spreading landscape. Open fireplaces abound. Such is the plan of the 
 house, with its extensive frontage, southwest and northwest, and open court between the 
 wings, that there are no poor rooms, none without something of a view. In the topmost 
 part of the main tower is a glass-inclosed outlook. At night, the great house is lighted 
 by a thousand incandescent lamps, and two great electric globes shine from the tower, the light 
 
from which is visible for miles around. All the 
 accessories of the great modern hotel of to-day are 
 here: electric annunciators, the telegraph, automatic^ 
 fire alarms, together with perfect plumbing and perfect 
 drainage. 
 
 The Maine State Building of the World's Fair 
 of 1893, this season first opened to the guests of Poland 
 Spring as a permanent feature of the resort, next 
 engages attention. The beautiful octagonal structure 
 of Maine granite and woods, with its balconies, round 
 bay windows projecting over the stone, and panel finish, 
 its deep slanting roof, central tower and corner turrets, 
 is here reproduced exactly as it stood in Jackson Park, 
 a lasting monument of Maine's exhibit at the memo- 
 rable Exposition, and of the Exposition itself. And 
 here as there it occupies a " commanding and desirable 
 position," overlooking as fair and as grand a picture 
 as that spread out about it in the "White City," and 
 
 with harmonious surroundings. We have a choice of fishing for bass on upper lake. 
 
 four entrances, but it would be well for the first visit to take the granite arched main one, and so 
 get the full effect of the interior. Here are set on either side of the entrance black tablets in 
 slate, each three feet long, with golden letters, suitably inscribed: that at the right announcing 
 that this is the " Original State Building, erected and occupied by the State of Maine at the 
 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893; removed here and rebuilt by Hiram Rickcr & Sons, 
 1895 ;" and that on the left, stating that the building is here preserved as a " valuable State relic 
 
 75 
 
and dedicated for a Library and Art Building, and as a Centennial Memorial of the original 
 settlement of Poland Spring farm by the Ricker family." Passing through the three 
 arcades, between the polished columns of red and black granite, we enter the octagonal 
 rotunda, opening up to the roof line and the heavy ornamented skylight. Here we find the 
 same general outlines and finish which characterized the building at Chicago, but greater 
 beauty in adornment and artistic decoration. On the wall spaces of the rotunda, under 
 the first gallery rail, marking the upper line of the entrance story, is now a panorama of the 
 World's Fair buildings, exterior and interior, presented in a series of large photographs, 
 finely executed and tastefully framed. And in rooms opening from the rotunda here, this 
 interesting panorama is extended by smaller views occupying the friezes, in one place pic- 
 tures of all the State buildings massed; the whole telling in full pictorial detail the story 
 of the Exposition, which will increase in interest as time goes on and the great Fair becomes 
 more remote. In the rotunda also, on this story, Scott Leighton's famous painting of 
 "A Morning Ride at Poland Spring" hangs in the same position it adorned during the 
 Fair, by the side of the beautiful carved oak mantel above the fireplace. The rooms on the 
 first floor, opening from the rotunda, which were, at Chicago", the ladies' parlor, gentlemen's 
 reception and smoking rooms, the library and offices of the State commissioners and other 
 officers, are here arranged as reading and writing rooms, one for ladies and another for 
 gentlemen, and as library, the latter supplied with a collection of books, including numerous 
 publications on the World's Fair. In place of the decorations in these rooms during the 
 Fair at Chicago (which consisted of portraits of distinguished Maine women in the ladies' parlor, 
 portraits of Maine authors and bust of Hannibal Hamlin in the library, and the Moose in 
 the gentlemen's reception room), there are, besides the frieze of World's Fair pictures, other 
 pictures and various adornments; while the furnishings and fittings are eminently appropriate 
 and in ijood taste. 
 
p&t 
 
 
 M^ip 
 
 LOADING POLAND WATER AT LEWISTON JUNCTION, WINTER OF 1895. 
 
The rooms of the second story, opening from the gallery, which is reached bv the 
 Colonial staircase from the entrance hall, are virtually as at Chicago, but transformed from 
 reception and retiring rooms into suites for guests. These open on to the pleasant balconies 
 which, at Chicago, were frequent resorts for visitors because of the views they afforded, as 
 they must be here for Poland Spring guests, for each has its particular charm. The entire 
 third story, which at Chicago was unfinished, is now finished as the art gallery, admirably 
 lighted and designed, to be hung with representative work of representative American 
 painters. It is proposed to give regular summer exhibitions here, each season, of new work by our 
 artists in different sections of the country and abroad, and to make this gallery an institution of 
 high standard and merit. A number of well known New York and Boston artists contribute to the 
 initial exhibition notable work from their studios. From this story the cupola of the central tower, 
 eighty-six feet above the entrance floor, commanding lovely views on either side, is reached by a 
 stairway winding above the great skylight, with its thousand feet of glass. While the views here 
 unfolded are not so imposing, perhaps, as the wider sweeps from the vantage afforded by the 
 loftier tower of the mammoth hotel, there is a quiet beauty in them, notably those of the fore- 
 ground, which has a peculiar fascination to the beholder. 
 
 In the reconstruction of this historic building the work has been most thoroughly done. The 
 interior has been made fireproof, and in completing the unfinished parts, the best of material, 
 harmonizing perfectly with the general design, has been used. So it stands a permanent and 
 enduring structure, justifying the conclusion of the committee of the commissioners having its 
 disposal in charge after the fair, that its "relocation at this celebrated summer resort " was best 
 for the interests of the State. 
 
 Our steps now turn naturally toward the veteran Mansion House, lying picturesquely at the 
 base of the hill, its white walls and artistically irregular lines in marked and pleasing contrast with 
 the great yellow pile of striking architecture on the summit above. It is a pleasant stroll down the 
 
 78 
 
. 
 
 long stretch of broad plank walk which connects the two inns. 
 The house across the lawn at the left, east of the Mansion 
 House, with effective background of thick grove, is the private 
 residence of Hiram W. Ricker. Between this and the Maine 
 State Building, the Chapel, the next Poland Spring building 
 to be erected, will be placed, and near by extensive hothouses 
 are to be constructed. 
 
 We find the Mansion House still an ideal country inn. 
 The changes and enlargements which have from time to time 
 been made have not destroyed its quaintness. While with 
 increasing years it has broadened and become more comfort- 
 able, it has lost none of its mellow charm. The spreading low 
 studded office, the pleasant sitting-rooms, the cozy dining- 
 room, with its cheerful outlook, the homelike rooms above 
 stairs, the piazzas shaded by stately elms of Hiram Ricker's 
 planting, and, withal, the conveniences which modern hotel methods afford, combine to make it a 
 veritable house of contentment. It is quite as popular with long staying guests in the winter 
 and spring months, when the great house on the hill top is closed, as in the gay summer season; 
 and as a winter resort, in connection with the ever flowing Spring, its reputation is widespread. 
 Through all the seasons of the year it is maintained at even standard. The same comforts, 
 the same excellences of table, the same hospitable atmosphere, characterize this rare old tavern out 
 of "the season" as well as at its height, while all the features of the great spa, save only the 
 summer gayeties, which come with the throngs of fashionable, pleasure seeking, summer guests, are 
 fully sustained. It is not infrequently the case that the old inn is as crowded with guests, drawn 
 by the wonderful virtues of Poland Spring and thecharmsof theplace, in midwinter as in midsummer. 
 
 79 
 
Let us now stroll along the old county road, here passing through the Ricker domain, north- 
 ward toward the lakes. On our left, back from the road, we observe the big barn, built in 
 1S15, in Wentworth Rieker's day, its plain weather-stained frame serving well as a foil to the 
 finely proportioned and embellished great modern stable on the knoll just beyond. At our 
 right, the beautiful wide-spreading lawn sweeps up to the great house, crowning the distant 
 crest, and the surrounding groves. It is difficult to realize that once this smooth expanse of 
 vivid green was a rooky field, fringed with tangled bushes. But such is the fact, and in its 
 clearing a vast amount of hard labor and much money were expended. Soon we reach the pleasant 
 Albert Ricker homestead, on the right, with the Lane and other cottages adjoining, all now a part 
 of the Poland Spring estate; and farther on the old Jackson Inn and farm, also now within the 
 domain, being one of the recent purchases for its enlargement. This inn was the second public 
 house in the neighborhood, built about the year 1S00. Daniel Jackson, its builder, was originally 
 of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and came to Poland in or about 1777. Previous to the building of 
 the inn he lived in a log house, which he set up when he first settled in the place. His daughter 
 Polly married a son of Captain John Waterhouse, who became another early settler of Poland, 
 coming about the year 1792. The Jacksons kept tavern here till the early thirties, when the place 
 was closed as a public house. The venerable house now standing with end to the road, 
 under the shadow of great trees, and string of outbuildings, is a good example of early 
 nineteenth century New England buildings, and it is to be retained, though freshened with new 
 fittings and remodeled interior, as an unique feature of this many-featured resort. The Brown 
 place, so called, with its old farm buildings, lying along the shore of the lake and west of the 
 Mansion House, is another addition to the estate, at present occupied by employes of the 
 hotels or at the spring buildings, as are the other cottages along the way. 
 
 Extending our walk to the lakeside by the winding rural road, and at a fork some distance 
 beyond bearing to the right, we come upon an ancient graveyard, in the heart of a delight- 
 
Mineral Water. 
 
 Cures Dyspepsia. Cures Liver 
 Complaint of long standing. Cures 
 
 Kidney Complaint. Cures Gravel. Drives out all Hu- 
 mors and Purities the blood. For proof of the above, 
 parties may visit the Spring and use the water, or they 
 may buy of Dr. HALEY, the only authorized agent for 
 Brunswick and vicinity. 
 
 P. S. Board at the Spring can be obtained from $2,- 
 5© to $3,50 per week. Address 
 
 HIRAM BICKER, Poland. 
 
 FACSIMILE OF FIRST CIRCULAR ISSUED ON POLAND WATER. -ORIGINAL SIZE, 9 X 12 INCHES. 
 
some grove by the roadside. Here, in a little clearing, the first meeting house 
 in Poland was p'.aeed a hundred years ago. The exact date of its erection is not 
 known, but it was probably not long after Jabez Richer came with his family to 
 the hill farm. It was a country raising, and it is a family tradition that 
 Wentworth Ricker's wife entertained the raisers, doing all the cooking herself, 
 using up seven bags of flour, with other things in like proportion. The 
 little meeting house was used as a union church, and stood for many years, 
 known as the church on the plains. The oldest gravestone here, or that 
 showing the oldest date, is a tall slate-stone slab, embellished with Masonic 
 emblems, and bearing this inscription: 
 
 IN THIS GRAVE LIE THE REMAINS 
 
 Of DR. NATHANIEL MORRILL, 
 
 WHO DIED 
 
 May 8, 1807, 
 Aet. 27. 
 
 By his sudden and melancholy death, 
 
 Occasioned by an unruly ox. 
 
 His friends and acquaintances 
 
 Have been deprived of a worthy associate, 
 
 And the town of an useful 
 
 And respectable citizen. 
 
 The young physician was stopping at the Jackson Inn, and was out for a morning walk, 
 when the animal came along the road, driven by Alvan Bolster, the father of Janette Bolster 
 Ricker, then a youth. In attempting to head off the infuriated creature, he was pinned by its 
 horns and thrown, and his back broken by the fall. He was carried back to the inn, where he died. 
 
 82 
 
THE FIRST CHURCH AND OLDEST CEMETERY. 
 
This grove, with the old graveyard and first church site, is also part of the Ricker estate. 
 Through the vista of the trees the great house on the hill appears in the distance, presenting 
 from this point a most charming picture. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Life at Poland Spring is found to be never dull. The guest finds much and in great 
 variety, besides the beautiful location, the rich scenery of which the eye never tires, 
 agreeable accommodations and congenial surroundings, provided for his entertainment and 
 delectation. There is sailing on the lakes by steam launch or sail boat, row boat or 
 canoe. If he enjoys walking, there are lovely walks through miles of well cleared wood 
 paths in the thick groves and woods of the great domain, or over to and about the lakes, 
 or along the county road in cither direction. If he would ride, there are drives over a 
 country as picturesque as any in New England, along roads hedged with vines and wild 
 flowers, by great groves, through pleasant glades, over steep hills with widespread views, 
 and down cool dales, by prosperous farms, through serene villages. If he would see 
 others ride, he may, on any bright morning in the season, enjoy from the great hotel piazza a 
 brilliant spectacle on the roadways in front of the house — of gay equipages, victorias 
 four-in-hands, landeaus, buckboards, drags, with prancing horses, some with liveried coach 
 men and footmen — private teams of guests, of which many are brought each season 
 If he would fish, there are bass fishing in the lakes, and trout brooks in the neighborhood 
 as well as salmon trout and bass fishing waters within a radius of twenty miles. If he 
 or she, would play at out-door games, there are the tennis courts on the wide lawn, the 
 croquet grounds, and the baseball field. Within doors of the great house there is a 
 concert by the regular orchestra every forenoon and every evening. After supper the 
 place becomes gayest. The hundreds of guests in evening toilet gather in the hotel 
 
 84 
 
parlors and the entrance hall in groups and circles, making a scene of great brilliancy. 
 There is dancing in the music room, unless an entertainment or concert is going on, which 
 occurs two or three times a week; and a full-dress hop every Saturday night. The whist 
 parties are full. Every Friday evening a euchre party is given in the Music Room, with 
 valuable prizes for the winner. And there are other special gayeties at other times. There 
 is none of the rush and fever of the resorts where fashion is uppermost. " Society is 
 here." as Jenny June once wrote, "taking a vacation." Pleasure is found here hand in 
 hand with rest and health. No one hurries. After breakfast everyone takes a "constitu- 
 tional," making a morning call to the spring, and many linger long about the spring-house 
 or in the cool grove, sipping the health-giving and restoring water. There are blissful 
 hours spent on the great piazza with the matchless views. After dinner, which is the Old 
 New England hotel hour of half-past one, the piazza is again sought, and is the favorite 
 place for the refreshing siesta. Others find comfort in the hammocks swung in the pine 
 grove or under the lawn awnings. On rainy days the cozy corners indoors, with their full 
 outlook, are most inviting ; the billiard room and the bowling alleys become popular, and an 
 
added charm is now to be found in the beautiful library and art galleries of the Maine State 
 Building. Then there are the studios, artistic and photographic (Notman, of Boston, occupy- 
 ing the latter), with the interesting exhibition of mounted plants, illustrating the flora of 
 Poland Spring and the neighboring region, open to all guests fur study and entertainment. 
 Nearly seven hundred plants, found within a circuit of three miles of the Poland Spring 
 House, have already been catalogued by the well-known botanist, Miss Kate Furbish, of 
 Brunswick, Me., who is engaged on this work for the Messrs. Richer. The list of rare plants 
 which have been collected in this region includes : (i) Primus nigra, not in the Manual of 
 the Northern United States ; (2) Picris echioides, also not in the Manual ; (3) Solidago 
 Canadensis, L., var. glabrata, not yet described in the Manual ; (4) Potamogeton hetero- 
 phyllus, Schub., var. myriophyllus, Robbins, very rare ; (5) Habenaria Hookeri, Torn, var. 
 oblongifolia, Paine ; (6) Pogonia verticillata, rather rare Eastward ; (7) Salix myricoides, a 
 new species ; (8) Salix nigra, not common in Maine ; (9) Salix longifolia, Muhl., the first 
 typical plant of this species which was ever reported at Harvard University Herbarium from 
 Maine; (10) Eleocharis palustris, R. Br., var. vigens, L. H. B., not given for the New England 
 States. Every opportunity is thus afforded for the pursuit of the fascinating study of botany. 
 
 To many the restfulness of Poland Spring is its chiefest charm. "The motto over the 
 door of this house ought to be Restfulness," one of the regular summer visitors, a busy 
 New Vorker, has said, and this sentiment has been echoed by countless others. "I predict 
 for Poland Spring," General Butler, who was another frequent guest, once said, "great 
 good to the world, as the resort of men and women who need rest, comfort and renewed 
 gth." But the rest found here is not the rest of inactivity. It is that which comes with 
 "change of mental life, of perfect opportunity to respect our own moods," and to indulge them. 
 
 The creation of this great establishment, the transformation of the modest resort by the 
 miraculous spring of a quarter of a century ago to the renowned spa of to-day, has, as 
 
 86 
 
we have seen, been the work of less than twenty years. In this fifth part of the century of the 
 Rickers on Ricker Hill, the undertaking has grown from a business which in 1S74-75 employed 
 only the members of the family, with a few helpers, to an industry of great magnitude, with a 
 little army of employes. Then, about one thousand dollars covered the annual expenses ; to-day, 
 for labor alone in connection with the spring business, the sum of about sixty thousand dollars is 
 annually expended. In 1893 there was paid out in Maine alone, in wages, and for materials and 
 provisions, fully one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. In place of the family and a few 
 helpers, sufficient to handle the business twenty years ago, there are now employed during the busy 
 season from three hundred to four hundred persons. Then, the total amount of taxes paid 
 was about one hundred dollars per year. To-day, Hiram Ricker's sons pay one-quarter of 
 the tax of the town of Poland. From an annual output of a few hundred barrels— when 
 
 87 
 
Hiram Ricker issued his first Poland Mineral Spring circular, in the early sixties, with its 
 postscript announcement of rates of board at the Spring, "from $2.50 to $3.50 per week" — 
 the sales have increased to thousands of barrels and millions of bottles, so that now more 
 is annually sold from Poland Spring than from any other spring in America. These are 
 eloquent figures, and they tell more graphically than words the remarkable story of this 
 great development. It is a testimonial, more effective than the written word, to the enduring 
 virtues of the incomparable water of Poland Spring ; for upon these virtues it has directly 
 been wrought. This marvelous growth, unparalleled in the history of mineral springs, these 
 imposing buildings, this beautiful hotel of magnificent proportions on the hill crest, this 
 expanding estate — these substantial results, testify to the priceless worth and the unchanging 
 influence of this water, with even greater emphasis than the emphatic testimonials from 
 the multitude who have found in it health, strength, and cure for ills beyond the power 
 of drugs and ordinary medicines to cure, can testify. They constitute a testimonial undeni- 
 able and convincing, which impresses the mind and eye with the greatest force. But further 
 development is to follow. Complete as the work of to-day appears to be, it is yet far short 
 of the full point of perfection at which its upbuilders aim. Further enlargements and 
 additional buildings are already planned, further embellishment of the great domain. In 
 the immediate future, for example, a beautiful edifice will rise by the spring, architecturally 
 fine, scientifically constructed, and with equipment superior to any similar structure in the 
 land. And a third inn is contemplated as a winter hotel, in the nature of a sanitarium, 
 to be placed on the hill slope, south of the Maine State Building, a near neighbor of the 
 ancient Mansion House, and, like that, to be open throughout the year. So the expansion 
 of Poland Spring will go steadily on, while the water continues its beneficial work ; and 
 when, in the fullness of time, the control falls into the hands of the sons of Hiram Ricker's sons, 
 it will have become indeed a noble inheritance, a monument of sturdy enterprise and sagacity. 
 
KEUOGQ, 
 , NEW YORK, N. Y. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 996 776 8 
 
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