READFIELD — With focus on migrants and immigration so prevalent in the news today, Marianne Heinrich-Perry is sharing the story of her family’s immigration to Bean’s Corner in the spring of 1951.

The Livermore Falls Advertiser spoke with Heinrich-Perry on Monday afternoon, Feb. 10. She had been reading her father’s autobiography, which includes their move to the Wilton/Bean’s Corner area. “I am thinking there might be some interest in it because it is local,” she said. “It tells some of the experiences we had, a couple of funny stories, names of people who helped us.”

Dr. Gerd Heinrich was a biologist, well known for his work with insects [particularly parasitic wasps]. According to her obituary in the Sun Journal [an interesting read itself], his wife, Hildegarde met her future husband when he needed a tutor for his daughter, Ulla.

Heinrich-Perry said she was almost 10 and her brother Bernd going on 11 [a renowned biologist who now lives in Perkins Plantation] when the family moved to the area in 1951. “We came from an area near Hamburg, Germany, we lived in the woods before we came here,” she noted. “We have the manifest from the boat that we came on. It was a Polish luxury liner, HM Batory.”

Gerd started writing his autobiography in a loose-leaf binder when in his early 80s, Heinrich-Perry stated. “There are pages and pages of details, his expeditions in Burma, Africa, other places,” she said. “There is a chapter on immigrating and our coming to Wilton or Bean’s Corner. The manifest said the destination was Dryden.”

At one point after their arrival in Bean’s Corner, Dr. Eric Cunliffe [one of their sponsors] moved them to Florida but the Heinrichs decided to return to Maine after a short stay.

Below are excerpts from Gerd’s writings.

March 21, 1951, we crossed the Atlantic, arrived on March 31 in New York. Were impressed by the endless line of moving cars on the shore, and, most of all, by the gigantic statue of the “Goddess of Liberty”. Our reception was very kind.

Dr. Ernst Mayr, a well-known German-American biologist who lived in New Jersey invited us to stay in his house until we could proceed to Maine. In his garden I saw the first American birds – a flock of blue jays. I was very impressed and excited by their vivid blue coloring.

Two days later, Mr. Eric Cunliffe arrived from Florida to take us to Maine. It was a long drive. We arrived at his “farm”, located on a dirt road. There was nothing that resembled a farm as we knew it. No livestock, no machinery.

It was the beginning of spring in Maine; there still were patches of snow on the ground, and nights were very cold. We heated the house with firewood. With great excitement we observed the birds around us, which were totally new to us. One species, with a very sweet song was the common song sparrow.

Dr. Cunliffe asked the Adams to look out for us while he resided in Florida. He introduced us to Leona and Floyd when Floyd came to check the water pump. We were astonished and impressed to see a worker wearing gloves to protect his hands…never in Europe had we seen such a thing. Leona and Floyd Adams became our friends for life.

When we returned to Dryden we moved in with the Adams family. We all got along very well together, helping wherever we could. We were learning the customs of the community and the new language.

Bernd and Marianne learned the English language very quickly by frequently communicating with the Adams family. Hilda did not speak English at all, but picked it up very easily. Sometimes we had some comical misunderstandings, for example:

Once Floyd said he heated his house with coal. I understood him to say “kohl” [German for “cabbage”], thought he must grow a lot of it in his garden to keep the fire going. After a fair amount of discussion we figured out the situation. We both laughed about this story for many years.

Another time, there was a death so Leona and Floyd went to help with arrangements before the funeral. Leona told Hilda, “Wash the cow, the windows.” Hilda thought, “Why wash the cow and the barn windows?” Hilda had understood “cow” when Leona meant “car”.

Floyd and Leona were most helpful by driving us around the countryside, looking at houses and land to buy. We found the old “Denison place”. To the farm also belonged about 120 acres of woodland and fields. It had no electricity, no running water, only a three-seated primitive outhouse. This farm became our home for the rest of our lives – a home we learned to love.

We picked apples in East Wilton. Mostly we went with Floyd, who could only work in the orchard late afternoon and on weekends, as he was employed in Wilton at the Woolen mill. It became apparent that we needed a car to get there for an entire day. We really enjoyed the work.

After apple-picking, we worked in a canning factory in Dryden, a seasonal job of short duration. Then the long winter arrived. We had our first snow on Oct. 28, Hilda’s 38th birthday. Heavy snow was new in our experience, as were the snowshoes. [To us, they looked like some kind of tennis rackets.]

We decided to use the winter for cutting wood in our own forest, and sell it. We dug the snow away from each tree – leaving enough space for two people to use the long saw. When the tree fell, it was buried in the snow. For each cut, 48 inches long, we had to dig a ditch so that we could stand and saw. After the tree was cut and sawn into the proper lengths, we piled it into cords so that it could later be brought out to our house by a neighbor’s horse.

When at last our lumbering operation was completed and the lumber was sold, the profit was quite minimal. After this experience, we never again lumbered in our woods, or anywhere else.

Epilogue

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Russell Black of Wilton said the farm where the Heinrichs lived with his uncle Floyd is the one he now lives in. Eric Cunliffe lived next door, he note.

Black also noted the farm purchased by the Heinrichs is on the right side of Route 133 heading towards Farmington a short distance from the intersection with Route 156.