BLAINE, Maine — The town of Blaine has presented the Boston Post Cane award to the community’s oldest resident, 94-year-old Viola Hallowell.
Town Manager Janet Bradbury and Jean Smith of Blaine’s Board of Selectmen presented Hallowell with a plaque during a ceremony at her daughter Sue’s house on Thursday, Dec. 3. Though the cane will continue to be kept at the town office, Bradbury brought it to the event.
Blaine still holds one of the original Boston Post Canes — gold-tipped canes made of ebony from the Belgian Congo and sent by the Boston Post newspaper to towns across New England in 1909. Only a few hundred were made, with the intent being that town officials would give them to the oldest living man (later oldest living person) in each town.
When Hallowell was born in Blaine in 1926, the municipality named after former U.S. House Speaker James G. Blaine had a population of more than 1,000, many of whom were farmers. Though she has spent time in Florida, she has remained in the central Aroostook town most of her life.
“It’s kind of an unusual feeling that I’m the oldest one here in Blaine,” Hallowell said. “I can’t believe that.”
Hallowell said that her upbringing was a rugged one: she used to walk four miles to get to school, even during freezing temperatures. Seeing her walk into the building, the principal once told her on a particularly cold day that she needed to go to the furnace room to “thaw out.”
“I walked to school, and I walked home,” Hallowell said. “If I wanted an education, I had to get it the best way I could.”
During World War II, she was excused from school at 16 to do work for a farmer who couldn’t find help — all of the town’s men were at the war front. She worked on his farm for two years, helping him grow crops and raise sheep. She often drove a completely steel tractor — rubber was in short supply.
Viola Hallowell spent time employed in a grocery store and worked as a secretary during her time living in Florida. She retired with her husband, Donald, who died in 2005.
Viola is not the only person in her family to live into her 90s: her mother died at age 95 in 1994.
The events that led to Thursday’s ceremony began some time ago: Shallie Estabrook happened to be in the town office with her 11-year-old son Dawson Goff, when Goff got curious about the office’s Boston Post Cane.
“I was asking too many questions about the cane,” Goff said with a smile.
Noticing his interest, Bradbury assigned Goff to find out who should be the new beneficiary of the award. The last recipient had died shortly before.
Goff worked with his mother to uncover who the oldest person in Blaine was. Asking around in the small community, they eventually found Hallowell, whom they met before the ceremony to talk about her life.
Still vivacious and able to rattle off stories of the 1930s at an instant, Hallowell was excited to receive the award. She seemed like she had a whole lot more living to do in her hometown.
“I was born in Blaine, and I’m going to die in Blaine, I think,” Hallowell said with a laugh.
