WILLOW CREEK — The national financial panic reached Willow Creek this week when the Bangor Savings Bank suspended specie payments, leaving several local families unable to withdraw their deposits.
Among those affected is Ezra Thorne II, who had deposited the proceeds from the sale of the last Thorne & Sons Shipworks equipment. “I put in four hundred dollars from the sale of the sawpit tools,” Thorne said. “Now I cannot touch it. The bank says the money is safe.”
The suspension has dealt a blow to the town’s already fragile confidence. With the shipyard closed and no replacement industry, Willow Creek’s economy has been sustained by timber sales and railroad maintenance wages. The Bangor & Aroostook line itself has cut its workforce by ten percent.
Harold Finch, writing in this week’s edition, offers the following editorial advice: “Keep your money in strong boxes and your faith in the Lord. The railroad brought prosperity to Willow Creek, and the railroad still runs. The banks may fail, the ships may stop sailing, and the Thorne yard may sit empty, but the iron horse will carry the timber to market. The town has survived worse.”
William Thorne, now seventy and in declining health, is reported to be living on credit extended by the General Store. “I built vessels for forty years,” he told this reporter. “I paid my men a fair wage. And now I am reduced to this. The railroad made this town, but it unmade this family.”