Other Valuable Considerations

Carlton Littlefield Goodwin was born on August 15, 1910 in Shapleigh, Maine. He passed away on February 8, 1973 at the age of 62. Too young. Too soon.

He was born to Harry Raymond Goodwin (1885-1977) and Grace M. Littlefield (1886-1966). They had two additional children, Helen Louise, born 1914 and Roland, born 1923. Roland is still living as of this date.

Here is  copy of writing from The Frank Waldo Foss Family Story written by Frank in the 90's about his step-father.

Nellie married Carlton Goodwin on August 1, 1936 (a super break for Frank and I assume Bob feels the same way)

Frank and Robert enjoyed a comfortable and happy childhood after Carlton and Nellie married in '36. Carlton, although he held a chemical engineering degree from the University of Maine, could not find a job in his field and went to work for the W.P.A. building Sebago State Park in Naples, Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal and clearing the land for what is now Shawnee Peak on Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton. They moved to Naples where we attended Naples elementary schools until Carlton, with money borrowed from his father, bought the 100 acre Faunt Mann farm on route 302 in Casco, which was later called the Stage Coach Inn before it burned in a spectacular fire in the late 1950's.The property also included a half mile of shore line on the Crooked River. This afforded many. many opportunities for happy childhood memories since the Mann’s left a six man wall tent at the farm and Bob and I occupied it most of the summer at our swimming hole on a sandy point down by the river.

I began school at the one room Ross School about two miles down the road from the farm. My first teacher was Ethel Goodwin who was married to Carltons cousin. She provided transportation to school since she drove by the house each morning.

Roland, Carltons younger brother, was in the upper grades at Ross School when I started. He remembers me sitting "down front"- a fitting place for the little kids.

The one room Bridgton Road School in Casco, a one mile walk from home, offered eight grades of education sufficient for acceptance into the three room Casco High School. For teachers I remember the names Hester McKeen who married Donald Mann, Mrs. Shane, a nameless one who had the upper-class boys paddle us each morning and Miss Metcalf who took us on our eighth grade graduation picnic at the park.

The Goodwin-Pillsbury union also provided three sisters to enhance Frank and Roberts life. Beverly Alma born October 12, 1937 at the Jewett house on route 11 in Naples with doctor Bischofberger in attendance. Marjorie Ruth born June 16, 1939 in the front room at the farm with Doctor Bisch in attendance and Priscilla Eileen who was born December 20, 1943 at the State Street Hospital on State Street in Portland- again with Doctor Bisch attending.

On the farm we maintained a small herd (5 or 6) of milking cows, one horse, a couple of pigs and a small flock of laying hens. For a short while we delivered milk in the local area (at 10 cents a quart). The birth of a new calf was a thrilling experience for all of us. Milking the cows and cleaning the stable was a daily chore which although not pleasing at the time, I don't remember it as now as particularly distressing. However. delivering the milk over the muddy roads in April was not much fun.

Haying and tending a large garden was a necessary evil in our lives especially when Bob would crawl the length of the row and sneak away without doing what I thought was his share of the weeding. Mowing and raking was accomplished with an old white horse named Harry (Carltons father was named Harry but I never associated the two). We did not have a hay bailer so the fields were rakes into "windrows'', these raked into piles and each pile of hay hoisted onto the hay rack with a pitchfork and out into the hay mows by hand. A homemade-tractor, often operated by our mother. sped up the collection and unloading operation.

The river and the old tent allowed us, along with several other neighbor kids, to spend the summers out of the house when we chose and gave us a great feeling of being nearly grown up and independent of our folks.

In 1941 Carlton (my step-father) had gone to work as a laborer, for a company building a pumping station in Raymond for a crude oil pipeline company being built between Portland, Maine and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A University of Maine classmate named Lee Wescott persuaded him to go to work for the surveying company laying out the right-of-way for the proposed line. Through this association Carlton and Lee both secured jobs with the Portland Pipe Line Corporation, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey who were to operate the pipeline.

Carltons degree in Chemical engineering allowed him to become a very valuable part of the organization. He later built their oil testing laboratory and became a noted pioneer in the development of cathodic protection of buried pipelines.

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I have many memories of my grandfather at 136 Elm Street in South Portland and of his visits to our home in Vermont, both in Barton and in Sutton. He was always a calm and quiet presence in an often chaotic family setting with loud children and grandchildren. I knew he was especially fond of me, his first grandson, as he was of all his grandchildren.

He enjoyed working in the large garden with his straw hat or sometimes a handkerchief protecting his bald head from the sun. When I was old enough, he hired me to mow the lawn. When I was in high school he would always challenge me in Indian wrestling. He would laugh his special laugh as I struggled to budge his short, solid body. I always lost.

I used to love the smell of his cigar. He wore hats. On my graduation from high school he presented me with an ink pad and a rubber stamp with my name on it to label my possession before going off to college. I remember sneaking up behind him and stamping my name on his bald head as a joke. He muckled onto me, laughing, and used his considerable strength to make me regret it.

I was a rock collector and Carlton was always very supportive, bringing me rocks from various parts of the country. Once he gave me a large fossil and a styrofoam cup filled with red Georgia clay and Spanish moss. Another time he gave me a small bottle of quartz crystals. I think he was, in his quiet way, encouraging me to consider geology as a career path. He would bring my sisters packets of sugar, soaps and post cards; memorabilia from his business trips.

When I was a Junior in college at UMO and my Volkswagen bus died, he provided me with a old car he had purchased from an elderly woman to help her out. It was a green Ford Falcon with a blown rear main seal. I would buy oil in 5 gallon container and top it off every 20 or 30 miles. I remember the bill of sale he wrote out for me. "Sold for the price of $1.00 and other valuable considerations"

In January of my Senior year, Dad called to tell me that Carlton had terminal cancer and that I should visit him sooner rather than later. I remember sitting with him shortly before he died. I told him about my studies and my hope to work in the field of environmental protection after college. He told me about his experience as a Mason and how it had been helpful to him in his life. He had lost a lot of weight with his illness, but did not complain. I felt when I left that I would not see him again. And I did not.

He was a steady, quiet influence on my life and on my fathers, always there for birthdays, holidays and graduations. 

Today, on the 47th anniversary of his passing, I just want to honor his memory. He was an extraordinary man.