La Petite Etoile

La Petite Etoile, also referred to as "The Little Star," was published from November 20th, 1834 to March 25th, 1835 in Stillwater and Orono, Penobscot County, Me. It was "published once a fortnight by the young ladies & misses of Miss Heywood's school." The articles were written by both school children and adults, on topics including education, motherhood, nature, history, travel to Italy, Spain, Egypt, and France, among others, slavery, death, childhood, religion, friendship, and womanhood. It also included poems, puzzles, and correspodence. One of the letters was written by a grandfather, signed P. Holland, to his granddaughter Lucy Eaton and describes the village of Stillwater and the Penobscot Village when he first arrived to the United States around 40 years before the paper's date. Holland writes that "Mr. Marsh had a log home about a mile up the island & no white man lived above this on either side of the river. There was a large Indian Town on Old Town Island. The houses were covered with spruce bark & some of them larger and rock built -- there was [sic] three streets across the lower end of the island & houses compact [illegible] on both sides of the streets. They had a burying ground - fenced in & in good order. At that time, they planted corn, beans & potatoes." The names mentioned in the newspaper include S.P., L. Webster, A.B., Margaret B. Hale (ca. 1820- ), Ellen Webster, Rebecca Crombie (1822-1913), Caroline Williams, Sarah Baxter, Eliza Eaton (ca. 1825- ), Lucy Eaton (ca. 1827- ), L. Ecole, E. L. B., Ann Eels, and E.J. Bennet.