Grace Hatton: Tribute to the History of Charlotte

Grace Hatton recalls many things that she loved about serving as Treasurer in the Town of Charlotte – her hometown – for 60 years and four months.

There also was one part of the job that she downright detested: Dealing with the porcupines – or the dead porcupines’ feet, to be precise.

Retracing Hatton’s municipal career is akin to uncovering Charlotte’s rich history. She started as Treasurer in 1948, working out of a drawer in the kitchen of her family home and making $75 a year.

“As kids, we all knew we couldn’t touch that drawer,” said Hatton’s daughter, Sandra Sawyer, who lives in Charlotte and teaches in Calais.

Her mother laughs at the memory.

“Then my husband (the late Merton Hatton) built a porch on the house. That’s where my office was for years,” Hatton said, gesturing to the front of her home, where the former Treasurer’s wooden desk, lamp and adding machine remain to this day.

GROWING UP IN CHARLOTTE

One of 10 children, Grace Damon grew up on the Damon family farm, about two miles from where she lives now. Her father sold vegetables in Eastport and Calais. The children worked hard on the farm and thought little of it.

“It was just a matter of life,” said Hatton. “The whole community was like that.”

The Damon farm was home to many animals, including two horses – “a light horse and a working horse,” she said. “We weren’t allowed to ride the horses. They had certain duties.”

After graduating from Dennysville High school – which Hatton noted, “is long since gone” – she married Merton Hatton in 1942, and the couple moved to Saco. Merton was a welder, soon to be promoted to foreman and welding inspector at New England Shipbuilding’s Liberty shipyard in South Portland.

When World War II ended, so did the welding work. The young couple decided to return to Charlotte, where both of their families had long histories. Grace’s great great-grandfather, Abiah Damon, was one of the area’s earliest settlers. In fact, the first meeting of what was then known as “Plantation No. 3” was in Abiah Damon’s home in 1821, according to the Charlotte town website. Charlotte was officially incorporated in 1825.

Merton Hatton was handy with a hammer as well as a welding torch, so the couple started building their homestead right away. Back in those days, every block of wood and piece of lumber available was precious; just about everything available was used.

“We didn’t waste a thing,” Grace Hatton said. “Every block went up. We built it as we could.

“We moved in on Friday the 13th,” she said. “Somebody said, ‘You don’t want to move in on Friday the 13th.’ I didn’t even know that was bad – and it turned out pretty well.”

The Hattons raised three daughters; all three are college graduates. Sandra Sawyer lives in Charlotte. Another daughter, Nancy Marshall, lives in Princeton, Maine. The other, Linda Sue Schreier, lives in Pennsylvania.

LEGACY OF SERVICE

Grace Hatton received a call from Charlotte town officials about the Treasurer’s position in 1948, when the incumbent treasurer passed away. It was no surprise that the town leaders thought of Hatton – her mother previously had served as Treasurer for 13 years.

She accepted the offer and took a course at Calais High School, just to learn about financial terminology. She already knew she was good with numbers and details.

The treasurer’s job was a fairly easy lift back in the late 1940s and ‘50s – about two hours a week, plus attending Town Meeting and some selectmen’s meetings.

Hatton took to the position right away, viewing it as a serious and important role and a way to keep abreast of the issues and challenges her hometown faced. Her family was encouraging and proud that she held the position. It was common for someone in the family to give Hatton a new typewriter or adding machine as a birthday present.

Over the years, the requirements and expectations grew for a municipal treasurer, even in a small town like Charlotte (pop. 302). During a good year, the selectmen and town meeting voters recognized this, “and I’d get a little raise,” Hatton recalled. Over her 60-year career, Hatton’s annual salary grew from $75 to $3,500 in 2008.

Most of the time things went smoothly, but every once in a while, an issue would pop up. Back in 1963, Hatton recalled, a uniformed police officer appeared at her doorstep and served a legal “paper” that the Town of Charlotte could face a lawsuit.

A town employee sold town gasoline and had not paid for it, Hatton said, so the selectmen attached his wages for a period of time. The employee tried to oppose that legally but the town prevailed.

Another time, in 1973, Hatton deposited a $100 bill that a bank teller thought might be counterfeit. The bank took the $100 bill but offered no receipt in return. After a few weeks of uncertainty over that deposit, Hatton and the town learned the $100 bill was fine after all and the money was deposited.

A PRICKLY PAIN

But those issues were small potatoes compared to the porcupine duties that pestered Hatton for years.

For roughly her first two decades as Treasurer, the State of Maine had a bounty on porcupines. If you could collect four porcupine feet, no matter how you managed to do so, the town Treasurer was obliged to pay 50 cents.

About once or twice a week, someone from Charlotte would appear at the Hattons’ back porch with porcupine feet in hand, probably looking for a few dollars to buy cigarettes or an adult beverage for the weekend. Hatton disliked counting the feet with the men who brought them but it was part of being a municipal Treasurer, so she did it.

She also had a rule: If someone was one foot short – say, he had 15 feet but needed 16 in order to get $2 – she would round up the number and pay the $2. But if the man was two or three feet short, “then he was going to be the loser, not the town,” she said. The number would be rounded down and $1.50 would be paid.

Merton Hatton didn’t like those visits either because he got roped into part of the work. “I would wrap the feet up in newspapers and my husband would burn them in the wood stove in the garage,” Grace Hatton said.

HARD BUT REWARDING

Over the years, the Treasurer’s workload steadily increased. While the pay wasn’t great – Hatton estimates she was paid less than minimum wage, if she calculated the work by the hour – the Hattons got by pretty nicely.

Merton was a heavy equipment operator who repaired cars on weekends and at night. Grace, who went to hair-dressing school as a young woman, cut and styled hair part-time, in addition to performing her municipal duties. Grace also was treasurer for the Charlotte Baptist Church, a post that she held for 62 years.

Today, many municipal officials feel that they are under great scrutiny. Much has been written and said that public distrust is at an all-time high. Hatton isn’t so sure. She thinks municipal finances are followed less closely by residents today than they were 40 and 50 years ago.

She recalls testy Town Meetings, especially during lean financial years, when citizens would challenge road spending or how many men the town had on plowing crews.

“Plows weren’t so big back then,” Hatton explained. “Hard-working men would walk alongside the snow plows with shovels.

“Everyone worked hard back in those years,” Hatton said. “Money didn’t come in so easily.”

By the time she stepped down as municipal Treasurer in 2008, Charlotte had not one but 20 different financial accounts to monitor and balance.

The best part of being Treasurer, Hatton said, was that she kept in tune with town events. That knowledge especially came in handy during Town Meeting each year.

“I was very interested in what they were voting for,” Hatton said. “It would affect our taxes. I was very interested in who wanted things a certain way and why. It was a job. It was time-consuming. But I just loved it.”