KITTERY, Maine — The Kittery Historical Society is seeking to find the town’s oldest resident to become the recipient of the Boston Post Cane award. The town recognizes the oldest citizen by presenting a proclamation and the antique gold-headed ebony cane that was originally sent to the town in 1909 by the Boston Post newspaper to recognize its oldest citizen.
The cane is then returned to Town Hall, where it is kept in a glass case just inside the main entrance along with a copy of the proclamation and a picture of the recipient. The person who is awarded the cane will hold the title of the Boston Post Cane recipient for the remainder of his or her life.
To submit a name and date of birth of someone who may be eligible to receive this honor, call Barbara at (207) 439-1332 or Kim at (207) 439-0909 by April 10.
What is the tradition of the Boston Post Cane.?
On August 2, 1909, Mr. Edwin A. Grozier, Publisher of the Boston Post, a newspaper, forwarded to the Board of Selectmen in 700 towns* (no cities included) in New England a gold-headed ebony cane with the request that it be presented with the compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be used by him as long as he lives (or moves from the town), and at his death handed down to the next oldest citizen of the town. The cane would belong to the town and not the man who received it.
The canes were all made by J.F. Fradley and Co., a New York manufacturer, from ebony shipped in seven-foot lengths from the Congo in Africa. They were cut to cane lengths, seasoned for six months, turned on lathes to the right thickness, coated and polished. They had a 14-carat gold head two inches long, decorated by hand, and a ferruled tip. The head was engraved with the inscription, — Presented by the Boston Post to the oldest citizen of (name of town) — “To Be Transmitted”. The Board of Selectmen were to be the trustees of the cane and keep it always in the the hands of the oldest citizen. Apparently no Connecticut or Vermont towns were included (at one point it was thought that two towns in Vermont had canes, but this turned out to be a bit of a myth).
In 1924, Mr. Grozier died, and the Boston Post was taken over by his son, Richard, who failed to continue his father’s success and eventually died in a mental hospital. At one time the Boston Post was considered the nation’s leading standard-sized newspaper in circulation. Competition from other newspapers, radio and television contributed to the Post’s decline and it went out of business in 1957.
The custom of the Boston Post Cane took hold in those towns lucky enough to have canes. As years went by some of the canes were lost, stolen, taken out of town and not returned to the Selectmen or destroyed by accident.
In 1930, after considerable controversy, eligibility for the cane was opened to women as well.
* Some current day cities were towns in 1909.
Errata: For a number of years we reported the number of canes as 431. This was the number from Ralph’s 1985 article that the original web page was based on. Barbara Staples has done extensive research on the cane and has determined that the number of canes dispersed was 700. Where 431 came from is a bit of a mystery and we’re a bit embarassed to have perpetuated this error. Barbara’s surveys positively identified 641 towns that received the cane so the 431 number is still not even close.