BATH

The challenge of creating a compelling history is often not about the facts, as much as it is about weaving those facts together to tell a story. That’s the task of Bath Historical Society Saturday at its annual Talk and Tour as trustee Cathy Matero tells the story of Lucinda Bailey, who disposed of a fortune to benefit the citizens of Bath.

One hundred years later, Lucinda Bailey’s bequest continues to fund Bailey Evening School, now run through Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, the host of this year’s Talk and Tour.

“It’s very easy to learn about men in history,” Matero said during a recent visit to BRCTC to consult with Pam Moody, director of Regional School Unit 1 Adult Education, who will lead a tour of the center in conjunction with Matero’s talk.

“I would have loved to know more about Lucinda, but it’s hard to know much about women in the 19th century,” she said.

Matero was tapped by Jane Morse, a fellow BHS trustee, to dig into the history of the school. “I love local history. I grew up here and I’ll dig into anything. It’s like a big puzzle and a lot of fun,” Matero said.

What she discovered through researching probate documents, Census data, old newspaper stories and through consulting books on local history like “Owen’s History of Bath,” is that Lucinda Bailey was the daughter of prominent Bath shipbuilder and banker Bernard Bailey, and upon her death in 1907, she disposed of most of his fortune in public bequests.

Lucinda had an older sister who married and had a son who died when he was 18. She also had a brother who died before her, leaving no heirs of his own. After her sister died without a will in 1896, Lucinda was left as the beneficiary of her father’s wealth.

“Lucinda wrote her will in 1897 giving money in the name of her father, Bernard C., and her brother, Samuel D. — both were mayors of Bath. She was tremendously civic minded,” Matero said.

One bequest provided the first contribution toward founding a hospital in Bath; others benefited the aged, the poor, several churches and the Patten Free Library.

Her will directed that the rest, amounting to nearly $75,000 (worth more than $1.75 million in 2013 dollars) should pass to a trust held by the City of Bath. The trust income was to found and maintain a school of manual arts to be called the Bailey School of Industries. In 1913, this was expanded to add the Bailey Evening School, to provide “free courses in the useful arts and trades to working people.”

Trend toward change

“Evening schools were sort of trendy at the turn of the last century,” Matero said.

That’s because in the post- Civil War working landscape that quickly evolved into the Industrial Revolution, the definition of a skilled worker was one who could take their farm skills and parlay them into factory hands.

According to the Maine Adult Education Association website, in 1889, Maine passed legislation allowing cities and towns to raise money for the support of evening schools under the direction of the local school board to teach the “elementary” branches.

Back then classes focused on industrial and mechanical drawing, literacy and citizenship. By the end of World War II, the General Equivalency Diploma became a hallmark of evening school programs.

These days Pam Moody just calls it Adult Ed. She’s been the director at BRCTC for the last five years of her 36 year career.

With five teachers on staff, BRCTC is the regional vocational center for Morse, Boothbay Region and Wiscasset high schools and Lincoln Academy in Newcastle. Under that umbrella, BRCTC — through Bailey Evening School — also offers both a GED and a high school diploma program, in addition to certification courses for Certified Nursing Assistants, phlebotomy and pharmacy tech. Then there’s T’ai chi, yoga, autocad and a host of computer literacy classes.

You could say there’s something for everyone.

But for Moody, it’s about watching people change.

“I love to hear somebody read for the first time, to pin a CNA pin on a new CNA who just got a job,” Moody said.

Families of change

“Right now I’m inundated with academic GED students. These are students — all of the students in both adult ed and the voc program — who don’t fit in the traditional academic model. And I get to watch them bloom,” Moody said.

In many ways the story of Lucinda Bailey’s bequest is one of sowing perennial seeds that 100 years later continue to root lifelong, hands-on learning.

“Project-based career pathways is what we’re doing and what we’ve always done. Every individual who walks through the door is a project for us,” Moody said.

One of things that is most exciting to Moody is the family literacy program run by the center. “It’s stolen my heart,” Moody said. “We have mum or dad doing their GED or one of the certification programs and their kids — some as infants — in the early learning program run by the BRCTC students. I watch whole families change.”

That’s a legacy even Lucinda Bailey likely could not imagine.

Bath Historical Society’s Talk and Tour begins at 10 a.m. at BRCTC, 800 High St. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments provided by BRCTC culinary students will be served.

For more information, call the Patten Free Library History Room at 443-5141, ext. 18.

rshelly@timesrecord.com