Marcella M. H. Hines collection, 1839–1874

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

This collection contains one handwritten poetry manuscript that includes notes about publication dates and periodicals in which the poems were published.

Biographical/Historical Note

Marcella Melville Hall was born in Hartford, Maine, on December 3, 1828. She married Joseph W. Hines, August 29, 1847, and spent the first years of her wedded life in Boston before settling in Aroostook county. She had three children, also writers. Her father, Winslow Hall, was among the founders of the Liberty Party. He moved to Caribou in 1843. Nearly all of Hines’ first published poems were in the Liberty Standard, edited by Austin Willey. Hines also wrote for many other papers and magazines, often under various noms de plume. Her favorite signature was “Flora Wildwood.” She contributed numerous poems to the first newspaper in Aroostook County, published in Presque Isle in 1857, and her book Songs of the Wildwood was published by C.W. Calkins & Co. in 1903.