RUMFORD — Over much of her 90 years, Hazel Hodgkins of Roxbury has held a keen interest in her French Acadian heritage, her family and her community.

Along the way, she has shared her research from more than 30 years of clippings from the Sun Journal and Rumford Falls Times, from microfiche at the Rumford Public Library and material copies from the Rumford Historical Society.

“I’ve never had grandparents who lived near,” Hodgkins said. “They were all in Canada. My parents were from New Brunswick and they never really told us anything. My curiosity got stronger as I grew.”

“It wasn’t until I was 14 that I met my grandparents, my grandmothers because my grandfathers had passed away,” she said.

Hodgkins was the fifth of 15 children born in Rumford after her parents moved from Connecticut. Her father was a woodcutter.

“During the Depression, he had to move around a lot to find work,” she said. He ended up in Rumford through the Works Progress Administration and helped build the wall standing on River Street by the Morse Bridge.

“I always loved this area because it was like a fairytale to me,” Hodgkins said. “We had a free run of the community. Rumford was our playground. I’d love to go back to my childhood.”

Growing up, she was also conscious of the stigma of her French Acadian history.

“Living in a town like Rumford, we were kind of looked down upon,” Hodgkins said. “It really didn’t bother us that much. There were a lot of good people, but there was a certain group that didn’t want anything to do with us.”

She described her parents as good, hardworking people who went to church and sent their children to school.

“We were poor but we were happy,” she said. “As many children as we had, my father never accepted welfare.”

Her pride in her French Acadian heritage led her in 2008 to ask selectmen to approve installing a plaque near the Rumford Public Library memorializing Le Grand Derangement, the period between 1755-1764 when the British ethnically cleansed French-speaking residents of the Maritime provinces from their land for refusing to sign an oath of allegiance to the British.

Hodgkins and other members of the Acadian Heritage Society, Dot Bernard, Lorraine Legere and Bob Daigle, installed the plaque Oct. 31, 2009.

“I wanted people to know that the Acadians were the people who helped build this town,” she said.

Her daughter, Tina Howard, administrative support supervisor with the University of Maine Augusta Rumford Center since 2003, established a small collection of her mother’s materials in 2017 on a wall at the university in the Tech Center at 60 Lowell St.

Howard matted and framed the pictures and added a bio to each. The theme is a history of the Rumford Island.

“I can’t speak for my siblings, but I am very appreciative of knowing the history, not only the town, but also of the family history as well,” Hodgkins said.

“History should never be forgotten,” she said. “I’ve tried to interest my siblings and whoever how important this history is. Most of them don’t care. When I pass, who’s going to pick it up?” she asked.