Photo 40-LSO-16

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Todd's Corner, Ripley, Maine
It used to be the house half way from Skowhegan to Bangor.
Thus it was a overnight stop for travelers.
It was the post office as well.
My grandmother said she used to visit her grandparents and go get their mail

My grandparents, Doug and Flora Britten, lived there. Their daughters are Mary Jane Britten MacLauchlan and Carol Britten Rohn. I have many fond memories of years spent at Todds Corner. My father, Donn MacLauchlan, lived across the street. You see - may parents literally married the boy/girl across the street.

Went by there many times when I drove their son-in-law's milk truck in the early 70's. Donn and Mary Jane MacLauchlan and their 4 children became a second family to me, a bond that lasts to this day. I knew I was almost home when I got to Doug and Flora's house!

Wow. The site has changed quite a bit.

My relatives owned this place in 1850---Simon Strout Isaac Strout Abner Strout

I think this is the house my parents currently own. We are hoping to bring it back to its's former glory. Can someone tell me if this is 1 Stream Rd Ripley?

Wendy Player - It is a yellow house on the intersection of 152 and 23. There's a green house and a TDS transfer station across the road. I think it is 1 mainstream road, but haven't looked at the mailbox to see.

I do believe that the house on opposite corner was the actual inn.susan.

This is our house! Anything we can learn about.....we would love to know. We put a red metal roof on it. Wasn't our original choice but we kept having cars end up in the yard. Haven't had it happen since. I have a goal picture now!

I will stop in meet you some time soon, as we live in Winslow but have a camp on the pond that we use all year. My I laws lived down the road and were good friends with the Bretons for over 50 year. My great grandparents owned the farm on the other corner years ago, check the old town map.

Susan, their was no house on the other corner where that house is now. However there was a farm on the corner where the garage is now. It was the stage house.

My name is Mary Jane Britten MacLauchlan. I was born in that house in 1938.My mother was attended by Dr Strout from Dexter, my Grandmother Emma Merrill Laughton and my aunt Veniene West Laughton.I grew up on Todds Conner,also married the boy nest door,I grew up picking strawberries and was paid 5 cents a box,it was a goal to pick 20 boxes to earn a dollar, a dollar meant something during those times.Yes i sure do remember the roadhouse,spent many hour taking money making french fries, cooking hot dogs and burgers, My mom was noted for her raspberry pies!!My Dad was a worker!! always had a job,gardens in the summer guiding and trapping fur in the winter, also plowed snow in the winter,He did also tap trees and boiled down the sap at the road house down by the West Ripley Cemetery. MY husband and I also would like to visit you Wendy, The curb appeal was always my Dad`s pride and joy,Looking forward to more comments, Mary Jane MacLauchlan

I picked strawberries for 5 cents a box and raspberries for 10 cents a box with Mary Jane, Ken & Erlene Gardiner, & my sister Florence. We also got free lunch at the Roadhouse. The Roadhouse was moved early one morning down the road across from the West Ripley Cemetery. During the move the tow chain came unhooked and blocked the road so the people going to work from Harmony had to wait. Doug remolded the Roadhouse as a hunting camp for out of state hunters he guided.
I also remembered helping Doug plow snow in the 70's with his jeep. Doug plowed many driveways in Ripley & Dexter.

I remember picking strawberries there at least one summer to earn money.

I am Carol Britten Rohn. My parents were Doug and Flora Britten. I also grew up in that house. The MacLauchlans had a farm directly across the road. On the side heading to St. Albans. I remember spending many many hours there. Wendy, I think we have connected on the Ripley site. I believe it still has the yellow siding my dad had put on many years ago. So many memories!!

My name is Phil Rohn I am Carol Britten Rohns brother in law. I learned how to play cribbage from Doug Britten & Donn MacLauchlan there in the 1970s. As a kid, I grew up in The suburbs of NYC in New Jersey and I remember thinking how cool it was that Doug made a living off the land.

In locating Todd Corner I arrived at this site. In 1825 a massive fire burned 832,000 acres - yes 1,300 square miles - nearly all the Piscataquis watershed from Shirley to the Penobscot. It also went south and devastated Cambridge & Ripley. At the time a Warren Ramsdell lived to the west of Todd's Corner on the north side of 152. In 1860 a H.W. Ramsdell lived of 23 about opposite the jct with 152. Warren saved his home by using water from a nearby spring. After the fire typhoid broke out and many lives were lost - but none any place were lost to the fire. Source and more info at: "Entering Ripley" by Sandra Wintle Blaney, 2002 available at Bangor Public Library

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