DEAR SUN SPOTS: In your Aug. 27 column, a reader inquired about the monument on Gile Mountain in East Auburn. I have enclosed a copy of a Sun Spots’ column from January 1988. I saved the column at the time because it was a sad and interesting story. I enjoy your column very much. — David, Poland Spring
ANSWER: Thank you, David! Sun Spots never would have found that old column without your help (pre-Internet). Since other readers probably will find it interesting, too, Sun Spots re-typed it. It read as follows:
“This is a true and tragic story of the young girl for whom the marker was erected. On top of the crest at Mount Gile is the marker, which is inscribed with the girl’s name: ‘M. Louise Greene, age 22, daughter of Jonah and L.M. Greene of Peru. Student for five years of Kents Hill, 1868 graduate, perished within two weeks of graduation, a victim of the prejudices and caprices of man.’
“On the north side of the marker is inscribed: ‘I could have lived for one friendly hand grasp and thought it happiest to die.’ On the south side is the inscription: ‘Heartbreaking, dearly beloved, adieu.’
“This monument was placed by the parents of M. Louise Greene, whose father could not overcome his grief and bitterness at the death of his daughter, who was a kleptomaniac. She had been accused of stealing and other misdemeanors (which her father refused to believe) by the administrators of the school at Kents Hill. She had been expelled and rather than go home, Greene boarded the train to Auburn, where she bought poison in a pharmacy, wandered out to Mount Gile at East Auburn and drank the poison (said to be iodine) and died on the spot where the monument was erected in her memory. She was found by a hunter after an extensive search.
“There are three sizeable pamphlets written about this tragedy. One is by her father, entitled ‘Crown Won but Not Worn,’ another by the trustees of the Maine Wesleyan Seminar and Female College at Kents Hill, entitled ‘Libel Refuted: A Reply to Greene’ and the third, ‘A Lugubrious, Doleful Tale and Death of Louise Green,’ by Judge George C. Wing.
“For many years the Bowdoin College graduating class was brought on a field trip to Mount Gile to visit the marker, just prior to graduation exercises. The pamphlets are in the Maine Collection at the Auburn Public Library under Kents Hill Tragedy and are for in-library reading only.”
The current Sun Spots checked with Suzanne, the librarian for the local section in Auburn Public Library, to see if the pamphlets are still available to patrons. Suzanne said she “verified that we do have all three pamphlets, they are in poor shape but readable. They are bound together and catalogued as ‘The crown won but not worn: or, M. Louise Greene, a student of five years at Kent’s Hill, Me., by Jonas Greene.’ The call number is Local History CT 275 .G77 G6. It is in our local history collection and is for in-library use only, as your correspondent states.”

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am writing in response to Chickie Gorey (Aug. 30) who was looking for a snag-it. At Craft-Mania we sell the Snag Nab-It for $2.19. It is used for repairing snags in knits and wovens. — Lee, [email protected]
ANSWER: Thanks for explaining the snag-it’s use to those of us who are craft-impaired!

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