SEARSMONT — First Selectman Bruce Brierley presented the Searsmont Boston Post Cane to its most recent recipient, Fred Wardwell, at the January 10, 2019, meeting of the Searsmont Historical Society.

According to The Boston Post Cane Information Center, the tradition of awarding the Boston Post Cane to a town’s oldest male citizen began in 1909. 

Mr. Edwin A Grozier, Publisher of the Boston Post newspaper, had gold-headed ebony canes made and sent to 700 towns in New England, with a request that they be presented to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be used by him as long as he lived, and then be passed down to the next oldest citizen. 

Women were included in the tradition in 1930.

Over the intervening years, many of these canes have been lost.  Searsmont still has its original cane, which is on display in the Searsmont Historical Society.  Many years ago, First Selectmen Brierley and another resident, Wayne Thomas, created a replica cane to be presented to and used by the recipients.

Wardwel, who turned 96 in November, has been a beekeeper, keeping Searsmont fundraisers flush with honey. He was a Marine and flew B-25s, twin-engine bombers in World War Two. He is married to Ann Wardwell, who is the daughter of Ben Ames Williams, who wrote Come Spring, the definitive novel of how much of this area was settled, and Fraternity Village, a compilation of short stories about people at the turn of the 20th Century in Maine.

Fred Wardwell is also an avid ice boater.