This building at the corner of Main and Depot streets in South Windham was Hanson’s Store in 1847. The Town Common used to be directly in front of it where the road runs through these days. Haley Pal / For Lakes Region Weekly

While doing some research for a book that the Windham Historical Society is putting together about our town’s history, I came across an article by the Rev. George Bodge that was written in 1906 and appeared in the “Suburban News” in January 1995.

Titled “The Village in 1847,” it is a very interesting look into the life of the author and his memories of South Windham way back in the mid-19th century. The Little Falls section of town was much more rural at that time and Bodge’s recollections help one to imagine what life was like many years ago in this rustic little hamlet.

In 1847, George Bodge was 6 years old. His father was the village blacksmith whose shop was behind a tavern stable on the banks of the Presumpscot. He and his family lived in a small house above Black Brook on a mostly wooded 2-acre parcel of land. The house sat just behind four tall pines that framed it in an almost perfect square. The structure itself, Bodge described as “a rough shed with trees used as corner posts, with a one-slope roof making it a rather novel building.” According to the Bodge, there was a jolly old stage driver named Maxfield who enjoyed calling attention to the Bodge home as one of the curiosities of his route, “much to the disgust and indignation” of his mother. Mrs. Bodge’s strong feelings on the matter eventually led to its reconstruction as time went on.

Haley Pal, a Windham resident and active member of the Windham Historical Society, can be contacted at haleypal@aol.com.

Bodge first attended school in the Newhall area of town and he remembered his early educational days as “miserable and irksome” because he knew none of the small boys in his class. He recalled his recitation lessons vividly with “the old school master John Goodall sitting in front of the class in his basket-bottomed chair tilted back and his long legs crossed as he pointed out letters with his white-handled pen knife as we read our ABCs.”

Another clear memory that he recollected was when his family neighbor Peter Crague cleared some land and had “a great bonfire where waste wood was burned.” Bodge remembered “forms of men and boys coming from darkness into a circle of firelight with arms full of brush to throw into the blaze.” There was a large audience of men, women and children who stood across the road to watch and enjoy the “fireworks.”

Apparently, the village was hillier back then and very unpleasant for horses carrying stagecoaches filled with passengers. “The driver used to crack his whip when he came to a slope and run the horses across the bridge. The stage had passengers both inside and on top with baggage at the back. It would rock and pitch and creak over the top of the hill and down the other side,” he said. What a sight that must have been!

Where Main Street flows through the village today, there used to be a town square in front of Hanson’s Store, the large brick building at the corner of Main and Depot streets these days. “The road was heavily wooded on both sides of the square,” he wrote.

These memories really help to bring the South Windham of 200 years ago to life for those of us living in the area today. It helps that Bodge was not only an ordained minister, he was also a writer and historian. He was born on Feb. 14, 1841, and was the third of five children born to the Rev. John Anderson Bodge, who was a blacksmith before entering the ministry.

George Bodge also served as a volunteer in the 7th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a fife major during the Civil War. He attended Bowdoin College and graduated in 1868. He later became principal of Gould Academy in Bethel and then taught at the Gorham Seminary and Westbrook Seminary, which then became Westbrook College and is now a part of the University of New England.

In 1878, Bodge attended Harvard Divinity School and graduated that year. He was ordained a Unitarian pastor and served in parishes in Massachusetts for the remainder of his years. He died in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1914, and left behind his wife, Esther Ann, and two daughters.