Harpswell marks America’s 250th with reading and reenactments

“History has a bad reputation of being boring,” 17-year-old reenactor Addie Miller said. That wasn’t so during Harpswell’s Colonial Days celebration from July 16-18.

Harpswell residents in period costume read the Declaration of Independence aloud to a crowd in the town’s historic meetinghouse on July 18, exactly 250 years after it was first read in the same location. Nearby, Miller and fellow reenactors set up an encampment to demonstrate daily life in the Colonies.

“I spin, I knit, we’ve done 18th-century tie-dye before,” Miller said. “You get to learn to cook over an open fire. You get all of these wonderful experiences without just having to read about it in a book.”

Colonial Days celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, culminating with a day of activities in Harpswell Center on July 18. In addition to the encampment and the reading, children could make crafts with local Girl Scouts.

Many of the reenactors were with the Colonial Maine Living History Association. Across from the Elijah Kellogg Church, reenactors wore period-accurate clothing and hairstyles, cooked historical recipes over an open fire, and spoke with visitors about life in the 1700s.

Members of the Colonial Maine Living History Association demonstrate life in the 1700s in a field next to the 1783 Tarr-Eaton House during the Colonial Days festival in Harpswell Center on July 18. (Daniel Hoebeke photo)

Reenactor Addie Miller, 17, styles Rebecca Manthey’s hair in period-appropriate fashion during the Colonial Days festival in Harpswell Center on July 18. Miller and Manthey are living historians with the Colonial Maine Living History Association. (Hannah Miller photo)

Oliver Foster, 8, learns to write with a quill as reenactor Tamara Konczal guides him at Colonial Days on July 18. (Hannah Miller photo)

Nelson Barter shows off 18th-century firearms at Colonial Days on July 18. Barter demonstrated how to load and fire period weapons. (Hannah Miller photo)

A copy of the Declaration of Independence waits on the pulpit of the Harpswell Meetinghouse on July 18. Harpswell residents read the declaration 250 years to the day after it was first read aloud in the same building. (Hannah Miller photo)

Colonial Days attendees fill the first floor and balcony of the Harpswell Meetinghouse on July 18 as Dave Hackett, historian for the Harpswell Historical Society, addresses the audience. The crowd gathered for a reenactment of the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Harpswell 250 years ago. (Hannah Miller photo)

Harpswell author and reenactor Jim Nelson reads the Declaration of Independence at the Harpswell Meetinghouse on July 18. His intense performance stirred a loud reaction from audience members pretending to be Colonists. (Hannah Miller photo)

Living historian Addie Miller, 17, plays a Colonial-era game with a hoop and stick during Colonial Days in Harpswell Center on July 18. (Daniel Hoebeke photo)

Rebecca Manthey, president of the association, has been performing at living history events since 1999. She said the group exists to “teach people about their history and show what life was like in the 18th century.”

Across the street, visitors to the Harpswell Historical Society Museum saw exhibitions that reflected the lives of citizens during the Revolutionary War. Visitors were able to view artifacts such as dresses, historical documents and household items.

Just before 2 p.m., visitors and reenactors began to gather in the Harpswell Meetinghouse for the reading of the Declaration of Independence. The historic building is the oldest surviving meetinghouse in Maine.

On July 18, 1776, the declaration was read aloud for the first time to the people of Harpswell. A quarter of a millennium later, attendees at Harpswell Colonial Days experienced it for themselves.

Harpswell residents Sam Alexander, Dave Sparks, Dave Hackett, Jim Nelson, and Nelson Barter read the document dressed in period clothing. Attendees gathered on the first floor of the meetinghouse and on its second-floor balcony, filling the building. 

Hackett, the official historian of the Harpswell Historical Society, said he wonders what the first reading was like. “I assume it was a fairly formal affair,” he said.

“In those times, they probably wouldn’t be hooting and hollering. It would be quiet. There wouldn’t be any clapping or anything like that,” Hackett said before the reading.

But the men read with conviction, spurring both cheers and boos from the present-day crowd, which reacted as if hearing the words for the first time and readying for revolution.