THE PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, September 7,1898

                                                  MAINE MATTERS

                                                        SOMERSET

          Captain F. H. Wing of Skowhegan has received a letter from a comrade of his son,
     Fred on board U. S. flagship Lancaster, W. D. Ely, who writes that he may be surprised to
     to get a letter from a complete strange, but that he know a father like to hear of the good
     deeds of his son, so he related the following; "Your son and I went ashore together in
     Key West a few days ago and went into a dry goods (store) to buy some stuff, when a
     Spaniard came in and asked for a handkerchief; one was shown him with  U. S. flag in
     the corner: he cursed the flag and said he had not use of it. Fred landed the floor by a
     a hard blow on the jaw and stood over him and made him retract what he had said; it was
     a noble act and a brave one, and I honor the boy for doing it; it shows the patriotic
     manhood of the one doing it."
          Charles M. Green, of Boston,  for the past 10 years manager of the Revere House
     of that city, has purchased the furnishing and leased Hotel Heselton in Skowhegan
     for a term of years and took possession Thursday.
              A pleasant feature of the celebration of the Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs.
     F. H. Dunbar, which occurred at their home in Embden, August 27th, was the their
    son, Mahlon T. Dunbar of Auburn and Miss Luthia A. Smith of Farmington. The
    ceremony was performed by  Rev. W. F. Small, of Richmond.
          Mrs. Jennie Fogg, who was severely injured on the highway in Fairfield, has
     accepted a settlement with the town.
          The annual reunion of the Brackett family was held at the home of Mr. and  Mrs.
     C.G. Brackett in New Portland, August 21st, at which 120 were present. A dinner of
     baked beans and pastry was enjoyed at noon after which a program of singing and
     speaking and addresses was carried out. The oldest member of the family who was
    present was Ivory Brackett, who is 87 years of age. Lieutenant Colonel William S.
    Bracket, of Peoria, Illinois, of the 13th Illinois Volunteers, was present. He is of
    another branch of Brackett family, but has made a study of the genealogy of the
     family and gave many valuable points of it past history, tracking it back to the 12th and
     13th centuries, and from a ancient  "sampler" worked by his great-grandmother,
     Mrs. Mary W. Bracket, of Lancaster, N. H., about the year 1770, he has had painted
     a facsimile of the sample which is similar to the original Coat of Arms, brought in last
     year. The ancient emblem is in the form of a gilt shield on  which is a black "cross
     moline," surmounted by a knight's head in a helmet of silver, capped by a stag at rest.
     The painting is to be presented to the Maine Historical Society, as at the old Falmouth
     is where the original Anthony and Thomas Brackett first settled about 1689, and from
     which "Uncle Ivory," and many of those in the eastern part of New England are the
     direct descendants, he moving with the rest of his father's family from North Berwick,
     to his present 65 years old. The next reunion will be held at Camp Benson, Newport,
     in August 1899, the week following the meeting of Camp Benson Association of
     due notice will be given. We  are indebted to the C. H. L., Pittsfield, for the above item.