York Town Report History of Expenditures

The Soldiers’ Monument committee first met on September 14, 1905. At that meeting they invited the President of the York Historical Society and the York Village Improvement Association Mr. Bryan Lathrop to serve in an advisory capacity to find a location for the new monument. By the March 31, 1906 committee meeting he had made arrangements with the Hon E.O. Emerson to “…convey the lot to the town to be used as the Soldiers’ Monument lot and that the Soldiers’ Monument be erected on the lot.” The monument was dedicated on that property May 26, 1906 and the deed was recorded at the York County Registry of Deeds in Alfred, Maine on August 11, 1906 in book 553, page 532. Emerson’s father Charles had law offices on this same property in a small house known locally as “The Powder House.” That renovated building survives in a different village location.  

The Hon. Edward O. Emerson was obviously a very civic minded person. Old post cards show that the monument sits on roughly the same spot previously occupied by York’s 6.4” bore, Parrot Rifle naval cannon. That cannon (#206) was moved to Gaol Hill in 1906 to make way for the Soldiers’ Monument.    

In 1918, a committee decided that the monument did not “present an appearance in keeping with the purpose for which it was erected.” At Town Meeting, funds were appropriated to raise it fifteen inches. Fill was brought in and graded. In the mid 1920’s granite curbing and an iron fence were added to the grassy island’s perimeter.   

1926 was the last year funds were expended on the land where the monument sits.

Rick Mace letter

From The Soldiers' Monument by Michael Dow, 2018

Expenditure Summary  

September 14, 1905 The Soldiers’ Monument committee voted to raise by subscription a sum of money not exceeding two thousand dollars.   

January 19, 1906 Contract to furnish and deliver securely - $1,620.00   

 Lettering of monument (extra) -  $12.60   

Setting monument on foundation (extra) - $50.00   

Total cost & total paid to monument maker Fredrick Barnicoat - $1,682.60  

Total paid out at the end of 1906. Included are shipping chargers, foundation labor and materials, the veil for the dedication and $1.00 for the purchased of the land on which it sits from the  Hon. Edward O. Emerson:                                           

                                                                                                                               $1879.67                                                                                            

Money appropriated in 1906 Town Meeting                                                           $650.00  

March 6, 1908 - Balance in committee treasury paid to the treasurer of the York Veterans and Sons of Veterans Association:                                                                                                                                                         $3.66   

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1918 Town Report, page 11. “The committee found it necessary in order that the monument should present an appearance in keeping with the purpose for which it was erected, to raise it fifteen inches, the cost of this work with the additional grading required was approximately $70.00. A contract for granite curbing has been awarded and it will be set when weather conditions permit.”  

Total appropriated in Town meetings from 1918 to 1926 for raising the monument, foundation, grading and installing iron fencing:                                                                                                                                                   $986.48  

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Total expended on the monument and land from 1906 to 1926                              $2,866.15   

Total appropriated in Town Meetings                                                                      $1,636.48  

Total collected from private donations                                                                     $1,279.10  

Total money collected and spent from all public and private sources                     $2,915.58   

Unexpended balance                                                                                              $49.43   

Records of any money either appropriated or donated for the care and maintenance of The Soldiers’ Monument after 1926 have not been found.   


York Town Report History of Expenditures  

1906 Annual Town Report, page 92. “Article Thirty-Eighth – To see if the town will vote the sum of six hundred and fifty dollars to be used toward the payment of the soldiers’ monument to be erected on the triangular shaped lot of land at York Village, on petition of D.A. Stevens and eight others.”   

1918 Town Report, page 11. “The committee found it necessary in order that the monument should present an appearance in keeping with the purpose for which it was erected, to raise it fifteen inches, the cost of this work with the additional grading required was approximately $70.00. A contract for granite curbing has been awarded and it will be set when weather conditions permit.”  

Paid Frank H. Ellis for raising monument                                                    $35.00   

        Frank H. Ingalls for 14 days labor with team                                         77.00  

        Harold Kimball for 5 days labor                                                             12.50  

        Juliette Moody for 55 yards stones                                                       11.00   

        E. C. Moody for 16 1-2 days labor                                                        37.12  

        For 4 granite blocks                                                                              1.00   

        S. A. Preble for 4 bags cement                                                             2.75   

        William Ray, for 5 hrs. labor                                                                  1.50   

        Albert Trafton for 3 days labor                                                              7.50  

                                                                                                                    $185.37  

       Appropriation                                                                                        $600.00  

       Unexpended                                                                                         $414.63  

1919 Annual Town Report. February 19, Recapitulation, page 29. ”Soldiers Monument: Available appropriation $414.63, expended - $490.35, balance, $75.72 (deficiency).”    

1924 Annual Town Report. Incidental expenditures, page 33. “Foster, William. Labor, loam, & etc. For grading around Soldier’s Monument. $49.30” 

1925 Annual Town Report. Warrant, page x59. “Article Thirty Third. To see if the town will vote an appropriation $250 for iron pipe fence around Soldiers’ Monument in York Village, on petition of George N. Baker and twenty-nine others.”  

1926 Annual Town Report. Incidental expenditures, page 10. “Fence around Soldiers’ Monument. Paid F.E. Johnson & Son for pipe fittings and labor $261.46. Appropriated: $250.00. Deficiency: $11.46.”    

1926 Annual Town Report. Incidental expenditures, page 29. “Johnson, F.E. & Son, repairing fence around Soldiers’ Monument and labor and fittings for Fire Station and Town Hall. $35.26”