| Creator/Compiler | Joseph Godfrey Deering II |
| Repository | Dyer Library Archives & Special Collections |
| Inclusive Dates | 1844-2003 |
| Bulk Dates | 1900-1910 |
| Collection Size | 3 linear feet |
| Bio/Hist. Notes | Joseph Godfrey Deering I (1816-1892). Joseph
Deering, one of six farmer’s sons worked at farms and sawmills
before moving to Saco, built a grocery business, a lumber business and
the Deering Homestead in Saco which now houses the Dyer Library. Saco
was in the earliest stages of its industrial growth when Joseph G. Deering I first came down from Waterboro. The mouth of the Saco River, past the falls that were being harnessed to run mills, was almost always dotted with schooners and other ships. Deering and some of his brothers entered the boat building trade for a short time producing the “Sarah Deering” and “Six Brothers.” The first was probably named for their sister who died in 1915 at the age of 4. Joseph reportedly booked onto the crew of “Six Brothers” as a carpenter when the boat was preparing to sale around Cape Horn to San Francisco during the Gold Rush of the 1850s. But he didn’t like the trip and got off before the ship passed the coast of South Carolina. Soon he was back in Saco and set up in the grocery business by his father William, who built him a store at Pepperell Square. His father, William was an enterprising farmer. He built a second store for Joseph’s brother James and bought tracts of land around waterboro to cut timber. He came from a family that included a future mayor of Portland a state agricultural commissioner. Joseph Deering did well in the grocery business and in 1866 loaned out money to build a sawmill at Bradbury Dam, near where Deering Lumber stands today on Spring’s Island in Biddeford. His early lumber business involved shipping thin pieces of Maine pine, called shooks, to be made into packing boxes for the West Indies sugar trade. As the business and the community grew, more of Deering’s pine stayed in New England for use in construction. Timber was cut upstream in the Fryeburg and Conway, New Hampshire areas and floated down the Saco River to be milled at Deering’s and other mills. Lumber camps sprouted up in the woods to house the workers, who often spent the whole winter deep in the forests, not emerging until spring drive. Joseph G. Deering I became solidly planted in the business he had entered by change, and soon had purchased Spring’s Tavern, the historical house where General Lafayette had stayed in 1825. The house would become a lumber company office and the land around it a yard for the growing piles of boards. His wife, Mary Cutter Deering had died, possibly in childbirth, just eight years after their marriage. In May of 1863, Deering married Abigail Pray Neally of Biddeford. She bore him a son, Frank Cutter Deering ion 1866. He was followed by Joseph Godfrey Deering, Jr., who died at age 8, and by Helen Josephine Deering, born in 1880. Joseph Godfrey Deering I built his family homestead on Main Street that seemed to match its standing as on of the wealthiest families in Saco. He died in 1892. Frank Cutter Deering (1866-1936). Frank was born in Saco in his father’s house on Middle Street on January 28, 1866. Frank Deering had all the advantages of child could have in Saco, including an education, but he wasn’t too fond of School. The story goes that Frank and a friend one day hoisted a dog through an opening in the Saco High School roof, where it made a racket during class. They were asked to go home and never to return. His father, Joseph, set him up with his own grocery store on Jefferson Street in Biddeford. However, Frank was not very interested in the grocery trade and soon was off working at sawmills in the area. In a few years, his father brought him into the business. Deering Lumber became J.G. Deering & Son. They bother operated between one and three saw mills at a time. They continued to make pine shooks and added shingles, clapboards, laths and other building lumber. Logs that had been driven down the Saco were guided into the mills, which were just above water level, and sawed. By1889, Deering was producing 6.5 million board feet a year. Joseph and his son, Frank, became active in other areas of community life. Joseph was president of York National Bank, a position that would later betaken over by Frank and then Frank’s son, Joseph Godfrey Deering II. He married September 18, 1890 to Annie Gray Wiggin, daughter of James J. Wiggin and Hannah Scammon Rumery. She lived long enough to have two children, Annie Katharine was born in 1892, just above a month before the death of her grandfather Joseph. Joseph Godfrey Deering II was born in 1894. Annie died of typhoid fever less than a year later. Frank moved into the Main Street house his father had built and about four years after Annie’s death married Frances Murray Chase from Augusta. Their house (now the Dyer Library) consumed as much of Frank’s time as the lumber mill or the bank. He used to work in the mornings and hole up in his library at home in the afternoons. He collected volumes of Americana and painstakingly added illustrations to books he especially like. He accumulated more than 900 volumes of “extra-illustrated” books, most of which have since been donated to libraries. With the books, frank got the education he’d forfeited year earlier. Frank Cutted Deering died in Saco, August 13, 1939. Joseph Godfrey Deering II (1894-1987). Born in Saco, September 13, 1894, son of Frank Cutter and Annie Grey Wiggin Deering and graduate in 1913 from Thornton Academy and in 1917 from Yale University. He was businessman, civic leader and philanthropist. During World War I, Deering was an instructor at the Naval Cadet School at Harvard University. He returned to Saco in 1920 as general manager of J.G. Deering and Son Lumber Company, which was founded by his grandfather, Frank Cutter Deering (1866-1939). Deering became president of the company after the 1939 death of his father. The business was sold in 1958. Also succeeding his father in other organization, Deering was president of York National Bank until it merged with Canal Bank and was president of Dyer Library Association and Sweetser Home for Boys. He was treasurer for many years of Laurel Hill Cemetery Association and served many years on the Maine Parks and Recreation Commission. Because of his interest in the state park system, Deering gave a large tract of land at Bayview to the state in 1966 which was owned by him and his sister. It was tentatively named Joseph G. Deering Park but he insisted his name not be connected to the park and it was renamed Ferry Beach State Park. He gave his family home to the city of Saco and it is now the Dyer Library. Deering donated a 475-acre peat bog in rural Saco Known as the Heath to the Nature Conservatory of Maine in 1986. He was active in many other sate and local business and civic organizations. Deering began development of Saco valley Shopping Center in 1964 on land once used as a lumber drying yard for his company. Joseph G. Deering II went on to get married to Elise Perrin Dabney Deering and moved out of the family homestead not that long after. His wife, Elise Perrin Dabney Deering died in 1970. J.G. Deering II had two daughters, Anne Deering Emmons of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and Mrs. James (Susan) Ford of South Woodstock, Vermont. He was survived by seven grandchildren an five great children. Josephf Godfrey Deering died at the age of 93 at in 1987. |
| Scope/Content Notes | This collection is comprised of ledgers, blueprints, newspaper clippings and a large amount of correspondences. The collection includes pieces not only from his life time, but spans both to his father and grandfather. The collection is comprised of correspondence for all three men of the Deering family, along with a complete series of Katherine Deering (sister of J.G. Deering). Katherine’s series contains many pieces relating to her work with the College Club of Saco. Within the collection there are also many pieces that deal directly with the Deering Home (including blueprints and photographs). Another large part of the collection is business records, pertaining to the family lumber industry. |
| Provenance | At present, there are no accession of deed of gift records for this collection. We do know that this collection was indexed in 1995 by Kitty Chadbourne, Sallie Huot and Roy Fairfield. We must assume that because Mr. Deering was involved in the Dyer Library Association, that these papers were given freely by his personal secretary, after his death, who kept communication lines open between Mr. Deering and the board of trustees. He was also close to Steve Podgajny when Mr. Podgajny was Executive Director in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They may have been given to him during that time period. Until documentation can be found, we will accept this explanation for provenance. |
| Restrictions | Unrestricted |
| Series Descriptions | Series 1. Personal Papers.
This series in broken down into three (3) subseries. The first are
personal letters from Frank Cutter Deering to various people. The
second subseries are letters written by Joseph Deering II while
traveling in Europe with is wife during 1953, 1956 and 1960. The last
are miscellaneous letters and personal journals. Series 2. Legal Document/Official Papers. We have a number of legal documents, such as deeds to lands, indenture contracts and eviction notices with properties owned by the Deering family. A record book is included in this series as it pertains to tenants and rental property. Series 3. Photographs. A small number of personal photographs of Frank Cutter Deering and the Deering Homestead in Saco and their Bayview home. Series 4. Blueprints. A number of blue prints showing the original plans to the Deering Homestead building in 1870, plans for alterations made by Frank Cutter Deeering. There are also two plans for alterations for the York National Bank. The blue prints are numbered consecutively but no index has been found as of yet. Series 5. J.G. Deering & Son Company Financial Records. This series consists of ledgers, cash books, invoices and lot statements of the Joseph G. Deering & Son Company. Joseph G. Deering Sr. passed on in 1892. Frank Cutter Deering now oversees the company. Date reange for these papers are 1900 through 1911. Series 6. Newspaper Clippings & Scrapbooks. This series consists of various newspaper clippings and a scrapbook. These clippings were either gathered by the senior Joseph G. Deering or Frank Cutter Deering, depending on the articles. A financial journals was used by Joseph G. Deering I as a scrapbook. Loos clippings were removed and housed in envelopes with page number to indicate where in the journal the clippings came. Series 7. Miscellaneous Supporting Document. This series contains biographical information about Deerings and the Deering Homestead on Maine Street. Background history on Oliver Dyer and the Dyer Library, 1the 1974 dedication speek that Joseph Deering gave in 1974 when an addition was added to the library and other misecellanous materials. Series 8. Book/Publication. |
| Organizaton of Series | Series 1. Personal Correspondence [1932-1960]
Series 3. Photographs [n.d.] Series 4. Blueprints [1870-1930]
Series 7. Books (1970) Series 8. Miscellaneous Supporting Documents (n.d. – 2003) |
for Joseph G. Deering Family Finding Aid