WINDHAM – With the recent death of Winifred “Dolly” Ingalls, Windham’s holder of the Boston Post cane, the town clerk is having a difficult time finding a new cane holder.

According to the rules of the cane, which was given to 431 New England towns in 1909 by the now-defunct newspaper known as The Boston Post, the mahogany cane with silver handgrip is entrusted to the town clerk, who is then supposed to issue the cane to the oldest resident in town. That is proving an unusually difficult task this time around, said Linda Morrell, the town clerk.

“In the 18 years I’ve been here, we’ve always had somebody interested – at least one person, if not two or three,” Morrell said.

Windham’s cane is special since it is still the original. Most towns in New England that issued the cane to their eldest residents, Morrell said, never saw it again. While Windham still retains the original, it issues an identical replica to holders, just to ensure the historic link isn’t lost.

“We’re still one of the few municipalities that still hold one of the original Boston Post canes,” Morrell said. “We’ve got the original in town hall in a nice cabinet and we had a replica made in 1999 which we present to the resident. Some towns just lost track of them over the years, and we didn’t want that to happen, so we had a replica made. And people are still happy to get a replica.”

The cane holder is also listed on a plaque inside town hall, which lists all cane holders’ names and the year they received the cane.

Ingalls, a longtime resident of Route 202 just east of the rotary, held the cane from June 16, 2008, to her death in June. She received the cane at age 98.

After advertising the need for a new cane holder following Ingalls’ death, Morrell said she hasn’t got a “single nibble,” so she’ll do the next best thing: start scouring the town’s voter registration rolls in hopes of finding an older person who wouldn’t mind being the next cane holder.

“At least it’ll give us a starting point, and we might make some phone calls ourselves to a few of the town’s oldest residents and see if they’re interested in becoming a candidate for the Boston Post cane,” Morrell said.