The Windham Historical Society introduced a new feature on its Facebook page at the beginning of the year called Memoir Mondays, which shares weekly entries from the memoir of Rebecca Mary Manchester, who was born in Windham on March 3, 1909. The memoir was written for her children and provides a wealth of information about what life was like in the earlier years of the last century.
Reba Mae and her husband Arthur Cressey in her later years. Rebecca Mary Manchester, who was born in Windham on March 3, 1909, wrote a detailed memoir for her children.
The first thing revealed in her memoir is that Rebecca Mary did not like her given name. She changed it to Reba May when just a little girl and changed it again later to Reba Mae, which is how people came to know her.
When she was born, her family was residing in the old Manchester homestead that was located on Route 302 at the time. They later moved to another house in Windham, referred to as the Lane house, when Reba’s father signed the old homestead over to his brother Warren, who wanted to maintain the farm. Her dad kept some land on Little Sebago Lake that was later left to her sister Alma.
Reba recalled the house had no bathroom, running water, or electricity. “Our toilets were a small room with two or three holes that were cold in the winter,” she wrote. “We got water from a well outside the house or a drilled well and a hand pump that was in the kitchen.”
Getting milk was not a quick run to the grocery store. The children would take a can with a cover to their neighbor Will Cram’s house every night to get their fresh milk for 5 cents a quart for breakfast the next morning.
The house was lit with kerosene lamps that had to be kept filled; in addition, the lamp chimneys had to be cleaned. When Reba was about 11 or 12 years old, the family got a new gas light that provided much brighter illumination, but they only had one of these, Reba remembered.
Other notable stories that have been shared are about people she called “gypsies” that used to come to Windham in the warm summer months. One day, while waiting for her aunt to come out of a local store, Reba was almost stolen away in a gypsy wagon after she accepted a ride. Her aunt came out of the store just in time to pull her down and “I got quite a talking to,” she said.
Further into her memoir, Reba discussed her early school days and her time at Westbrook High School, where she graduated with a 90.3 average. The reason she went to Westbrook High was that her father was asked to supervise and be a guard at the Men’s Reformatory in South Windham. The job meant that the children could go to any school in Maine tuition-free. Reba made Westbrook her choice and she moved in with Harold and Edith Bennett during her high school years. She cared for their two small children after school to cover the cost of her room and board.
She also recalled going to Portland when the circus came to town and about being a Campfire Girl. Her family would go to the Gorham and Cornish fairs in the summer and take an annual trip to the White Mountains.
She remembered all the canned goods her mother would prepare after the harvest. “The cellar stairs were lined on one side all the way down with 5-gallon earthen crocks and jars filled with pickles, doughnuts, and cookies. There were many, many quart jars on shelves in the cellar with things like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, carrots, beans, and beets. It was a pretty sight!”
Reba later talked about how she met her husband, Arthur Cressey, and his quest to become a pharmacist. Currently, we are at the point in her story where she is recollecting their wedding. There are still many chapters to come as we continue on the journey of Reba Mae’s life. If you’d like to learn more about this interesting woman and the life that she led, simply follow the Windham Maine Historical Society’s Facebook page on Mondays from now until the end of the year. Have some fun with history while you enjoy Reba’s story as it continues to unfold.
Haley Pal can be reached at lindahaleypal@gmail.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
