Service planned at Bell Hill Meetinghouse

OTISFIELD — For the 99th year in a row, on July 29, the doors of the 1839 meetinghouse on Bell Hill Road in Otisfield will open on the last Sunday in July for a public service honoring God, country and tradition.

The service will begin at 2:30 p.m. and will be followed by an ice cream social outside on the same common where many years ago the town’s militia assembled to drill at least twice a year.

This year’s focus will be on the history and customs of the Finnish immigrants to Otisfield and the surrounding region who came to western Maine mostly in the years after 1910. During the decades preceding World War II, the hard-working Finns bought up many of the farms on Bell Hill which the earlier settlers had given up on.

In the process they introduced such novelties as saunas and skis. Speaker Barbara Nurmi Payne, daughter of two of these Finnish immigrants, will explain why the Finns came to America and what happened once they came.

The Community Choir, directed by Maria Clark and accompanied by Virginia Noble, will offer musical selections rooted in Finland. Also, a group of instrumentalists, titled A’Cording to Kantele, will perform on the Finnish kantele.

On July 29, the 1839 Bell Hill schoolhouse adjacent to the meetinghouse will be open following the service and will extend the Finnish theme. There visitors may examine dozens of items loaned by the Finnish-American Society of West Paris, including traditional clothing, toys, and household items.

The Bell Hill Meetinghouse Association, which now maintains the integrity and spirit of both the meetinghouse and schoolhouse, issues a warm invitation to visitors from near and far on this important occasion.