CAPE ELIZABETH – Cape Elizabeth is on the hunt for its oldest resident, in hopes of presenting that person with the town’s Boston Post cane, which has sat in storage inside the town vault for the past seven years.

As part of a publicity stunt, the Boston Post newspaper in 1909 distributed 700 canes, each topped with an ornate 14-carat gold head, to towns across New England. The canes were given to town selectmen with instructions that they be presented to the oldest living man in their respective communities, to hold until he passed away or moved to another community.

The canes were made by J.F. Fradley and Co. of New York from ebony shipped from the Congo in Africa. Because the canes actually belonged to the town, not the man who received it, it was to be returned upon his death and given to the next oldest man in town. The 2-inch-long cane head conveyed as much in its inscription, which reads, “Presented by the Boston Post to the oldest citizen of [town name]. To Be Transmitted.”

“This was done as an advertising gimmick for the Boston Post, and I think it was successful being that we are still mentioning the Post 100 years later and they folded in 1956,” said Cape Elizabeth Town Clerk Debra Lane.

According to Lane, 20 Cape residents have been officially presented with the town’s Boston Post cane since 1909, including six women, who became eligible holders in 1930 after much-reported controversy across the region.

The most recent recipient was Leola Elspie Jordan (ne?e Adams). She held the cane for two years until she passed away on March 9, 2006, at the age of 103.

After that, the cane did not get passed on. After all, “It’s not anything that we are required to do,” said Lane. However, the recent decision to resume the tradition has prompted the need to identify the town’s actual oldest resident. Anyone who thinks they know the oldest resident is asked to nominate that person to Lane, before Feb. 14.

The Town Council has previously established some guidelines for eligibility. Among them, the cane holder must have resided in town for at least the last 15 years. Conversely, he or she may currently live with relatives in a nursing home in the Greater Portland area, so long as the “principal portion” of that person’s life was spent in Cape Elizabeth.

Cape Elizabeth is one of the few Maine towns that still actually awards its Boston Post cane. Because so many of the historic, and valuable, canes were lost over the years, many towns, like Scarborough, keep it on public display at town hall, presenting the designee with a plaque or certificate following an initial ceremonial photo op.

According to the Maynard Historical Society in Maynard, Mass., 411 of the original 700 Boston Post canes are known to still exist, with 185 of them in Maine.

Because it incorporated as a city in 1898, South Portland never got a Boston Post cane.

A CLOSER LOOK

Residents with information about a possible recipient for Cape’s Boston Post Gold cane should call 799-7665, or use the online nomination form, accessible at http://www.capeelizabeth.com/government/rules_regs/forms/human_services/boston_post_cane_form.html.