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| From the Portland Press Herald, 4 Aug 1999: HE'S STILL SPRY AFTER 108 YEARS RETIRED FARMER AND COWBOY LINWOOD DUNHAM IS UNOFFICIALLY THE SECOND- OLDEST MAINER. Linwood Dunham doesn't have any special recipe for those who desire to live to a ripe old age, but one might do well to follow his example. Dunham, a retired cowboy and farmer, celebrated his 108th birthday Tuesday with a little bit of cake and a few friends and relatives. He looked alert and spry in his wheelchair, wearing red suspenders and a blue polka-dotted shirt. Unofficially, he is the second-oldest person in Maine. No records are kept on who is the oldest, but it is generally assumed that Fred Hale, at 108 and eight months, inherited the title last November after Frona M. Thornton of Penobscot died two weeks shy of her 109th birthday. The common thread in Dunham's and Hale's lives is that both worked hard every day. Hale, a South Portland beekeeper and postal employee, was known to walk a mile a day and shoveled the snow off his porch roof as recently as age 103. He continues his daily exercise regimen at the Westbrook nursing home where he resides. Dunham -- who met Hale once, in their doctor's waiting room -- lived a remarkably similar life just one town over. Since 1989 he has held the Boston Post Gold Cane as Cape Elizabeth's oldest citizen. Hard work at farming and tending livestock has always been his life. He lived at home until he was 106, with his daughter, Marjorie Dunham, in their 1755 farmhouse on Spurwink Avenue. "I broke my ankle a few years ago," said his daughter, who is 65. "My 102-year-old father took care of me. " Dunham worked 40 years for Phineas W. Sprague, the late industrialist, at Ram Island Farm. Seven days a week, he tended the Sprague family's orchards, horses and cows, and fed the farm's well- known deer herd every morning and evening. "The deer used to recognize him and would walk right up to him," said Phineas Sprague Jr., great-grandson of Phineas W. Sprague. "He's the one that planted most of the orchards on the farm." Dunham started every day bright and early, with a double helping of oatmeal with milk and extra sugar. He has continued the ritual during his two years at the South Portland Nursing Home. He was never a drinker, but he used to smoke a pipe. Dunham's life story has some remarkable highlights. He was 6 when his father died of appendicitis. At age 14, he went to Montana to become a cowboy at his uncle's ranch. In 1907 or 1909 -- he can't quite remember -- he and his brother became homesteaders, staking a claim to 320 acres about 50 miles from the Canadian border. He built a sod house, dug a water hole, and every spring went out with fellow cowboys on wild horse roundups. "You had to catch them in the spring," he said Tuesday, because that is when wild horses were the weakest, after a long winter of pawing beneath the snow for meager nourishment. During World War I, Dunham prospered as a wheat farmer. After the war, he worked in the copper mines, driving a supply wagon on the three or four-day trip between the mines and the nearest city. He also taught reading and writing to Russian immigrants who worked the mines. Dunham gave up the ranch in the 1920s, after Montana had gone through several years of drought, and returned to Maine to care for his ailing mother. He met his wife, Marjorie E. Thurlow Dunham, when they both worked at Highmoor Farm in Monmouth, an agricultural experiment station run by the University of Maine. She died in 1992 at age 93. On Tuesday, Dunham looked poised to try for age 109, despite having lived with prostate cancer since age 98. The doctor recommended against operating, because it was slow-growing, his daughter said. "'It won't bother you until you're 105, ho ho ho,' " she recalls the doctor saying. "Here he is 108, and no one expected him to live that long." From the Portland Press Herald, 12 Jan 2000: Linwood Dunham; ex-cowboy, worked at Ram Island Farm Linwood B. Dunham, a retired cowboy and farmer who was unofficially considered Maine's second oldest resident, died Sunday at a South Portland nursing home. He was 108. Born in North Penobscot in 1891, a son of Ezra and Amelia Marks Dunham, he attended North Penobscot schools and Montana Wesleyan. At 14, on being invited to live at his uncle's cattle ranch in Montana, Mr. Dunham jumped at the chance. Said his daughter, Marjorie L. Dunham, "Hey, you offer a kid the chance to be a cowboy . . ." Mr. Dunham loved Montana, and worked first as a cook on a cattle ranch and then, during World War I, he prospered as a wheat farmer. After the war, he worked in the copper mines, driving a supply wagon on the three- or four-day trip between the mines and the nearest city. He also taught reading and writing to Russian immigrants who worked the mines. Mr. Dunham and his brother later homesteaded 330 acres south of the Canadian border, where he built a sod house, dug a water hole, and every spring went out with fellow cowboys on wild horse roundups. "You had to catch them in the spring," Mr. Dunham recalled in an interview for his 108th birthday last August, adding that after a long winter of pawing beneath the snow for meager nourishment, the horses were at their weakest. Although he loved Montana, Mr. Dunham decided to return east when his mother had a stroke. He became foreman at the Highmoor Farm, where he met his wife. He was hired in 1929 by Phineas W. Sprague, the late industrialist, to work at Ram Island as an orchardist and horseman. Seven days a week, he tended the orchards, horses and cows, and fed the farm's well-known deer herd until he was forced to retire -- at 80. "Father just sneaked another 15 years in on them," said his daughter. Mr. Dunham was known for his devotion to children and animals. His daughter recalled how he fed baby black sheep from baby bottles and took care of the family's 20-year-old cat. And then there was the time he found a den of coyote pups in Montana and, although every cowboy in the area considered them a menace, he made one a pet. Mr. Dunham was the last living trustee of Sprague Hall, appointed by Phineas W. Sprague in 1936, and held the Boston Post gold-headed cane as the town's oldest resident. Mr. Dunham mowed his lawn until a few years ago, and lived at home with his daughter until he was 106. The secret to longevity, he liked to joke with his daughter, was oatmeal. He started every day early with a double helping of oatmeal with milk and extra sugar, a ritual he continued during his two years at a South Portland nursing home. Mr. Dunham enjoyed traveling with his daughter all over Maine. He liked to cook and fix things at his farm, and reading and reciting poetry from his childhood, his family said. His wife of 63 years, Marjorie E. Thurlow Dunham, died in 1992; a stepson, Lawrence I . Wing, died in 1962, and a stepdaughter, Dorothy Ray, died in 1994. Surviving is a daughter, Marjorie L. Dunham of Cape Elizabeth; stepgrandchildren, stepgreat-grandchildren and stepgreat-great- grandchildren. Visiting hours will be 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland. A funeral service will follow at 7 p.m. Burial will be at Riverside Cemetery in the spring. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Last Modified 11 Jul 2002 | Created 10 Sep 2005 by Reunion for Macintosh |