FARMINGTON -- You don't have to be a history nut to be intrigued with a town vote back in 1795 that asked residents to approve money to equip soldiers who could not afford to equip themselves.

And imagine the discussion over an article at another early Farmington town meeting that asked voters if selectmen should maintain the water troughs downtown.

History does not have to be dry and dull. Ask Nancy Porter from the Farmington Historical Society. Porter was given the job this spring to sort through and clean out a warren of storage rooms in the basement of the Sturdia Building on Lower Broadway that were part of the estate of Benjamin and Natalie Butler. Butler died in 1980 and his wife in 2003.

Shelves, drawers, cabinets and boxes were filled to overflowing with thousands of documents and old photos. Among the items she dusted off were, to her great surprise, original warrants for town meetings from 1794 to 1816 that the Butlers had bound and kept preserved. Those books have been given back to the town, Porter said.

"These things are important because they tell us why Farmington is the way it is today," Porter said. "It is like connecting the dots."

The community is invited to view some of the items at the next meeting of the Farmington Historical Society tonight at the Henderson Memorial Baptist Church on Academy Street. A pot luck supper starts at 6 p.m. and the program at 7 p.m.

The Butler collection also includes a treasure trove of "ephemera" -- fragments of everyday life in Farmington and Franklin County such as programs of events, school booklets, town voting lists, posters, photos, publications, and neatly handwritten ledger books and member lists from local churches and social clubs. There are also student lists and other memorabilia from the Farmington Normal School, the predecessor of the University of Maine at Farmington.

Porter said the history of Farmington's Charles Wheeler's Coronet Band of the late 19th Century is one example of the stories these documents can reveal.

The band, the precursor of today's Old Crow Indian Band, was one of many musical groups formed in those days across the country on the heels of the great popularity of marching band tunes written by composers such as John Philip Sousa.

Porter found articles that described how Farmington's movers and shakers pushed to have a town band that would be able to compete against those in neighboring towns such as Phillips and New Vineyard.

The problem, however, was a lack of musicians and lack of instruments, she said.

"Farmington did not want to be outdone. They went to Boston and bought the instruments and then hired an instructor from Brunswick to come up and teach," Porter said. "It is so neat to read about all this, it just blows your mind."

Historical Society member Taffy Davis has been researching Wheeler, who is also believed to have invented the split-cane bamboo fly rod. She has spent hours looking for any reference to Wheeler in bound volumes of Franklin Journals and Franklin Chronicles that dated to the turn of the century.

There were over 150 of the bound volumes donated to the society by the Butler estate.

And she struck gold.

She found many stories about Wheeler's rods and read about his trip to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where he had them on display.

And on the front page of the April 17, 1913 edition, she found a photo of Wheeler standing proudly beside a 16-pound trout he caught with his flexible, lightweight fly rod on Clearwater Lake in Industry.

"This is like a candy land," said Davis as she walked through the stacks of books and papers stored temporarily in the society's Titcomb House on Academy Street.

"The information here is overwhelming. This will be a huge research resource and it will be accessible," she said. "And we love to share."

The Historical Society is in the midst of restoring the Old North Church on High Street with plans to convert it into a Farmington History Center.

Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis said the documents cache from the Butler estate is impressive.

"Original town records are priceless. The historical significance cannot be overstated," he said.

Davis said the value of historical collections such as the one donated to the Historical Society is that they provide a glimpse into the early years of a growing community.

"It is fascinating because you can see how the town progresses through history. You can see economic trends, too, such as the flurry of activity in the 1920s and '30s to build sidewalks downtown," he said.

"And being able to hold in your hand tangible pieces of history that are 200 years old and read them in the handwriting of the time -- it gives you goose bumps," he said.

Both Ben Butler and his father, Frank, practiced law in Farmington in the Sturdia Building on Lower Broadway. Ben Butler was also a state senator, a municipal court judge and the county's district attorney, and some of the folders Porter uncovered were files of old murder cases, complete with photos, she said.

According to Richard Mallett's book, "The Last 100 Years -- A Glimpse of the Farmington We Have Known," Ben and his wife, Natalie, together wrote more than a dozen books and pamphlets on various aspects of Farmington history and the surrounding areas.

They also wrote histories of the Old South Congregational Church, the Farmington Public Library, the town's musical heritage, the local Republican Party, the Old North Church and a series for the Farmington Historical Society that featured historical homes and their occupants.

The executor of the Butler estate, Farmington attorney Richard Morton, said Porter was hired to sift through the stored items and separate out those that had valuable personal or antique value, which remain in the estate or will be sold, and those of historical importance.

"The Historical Society was the most logical place to have those items," he said.

Betty Jespersen - - 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com