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A 1919 Deer Shipping License

A small piece of paper that opens a window into hunting, conservation & everyday life in the Maine woods

Sometimes a century of local history survives on a piece of paper small enough to fit in a pocket.

This worn 1919 State of Maine deer shipping license, issued at The Forks, Maine, is one of those documents.

The license was issued by the State of Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game on November 24, 1919. It authorized a local resident to ship a single deer within Maine without personally accompanying the shipment.

At the bottom is another important piece of local history:

“Sold by F. J. Durgin — Agt. at The Forks.”

The F. J. Durgin named on the license was Frank Durgin, connecting the Durgin family directly to the administration of Maine’s early fish and game regulations in The Forks more than a century ago.

WHAT THE LICENSE SAYS

Several details remain remarkably clear.

1919 Deer Shipping License

  • State: Maine
  • Department: Inland Fisheries and Game
  • License Number: 1546
  • Fee: $2.00
  • Date: November 24, 1919
  • Issued at: The Forks, Maine
  • Resident: Mrs. M. J. Donahue
  • Residence: The Forks, Maine
  • Destination: The Forks, Maine
  • Authorized shipment: One deer
  • Issuing agent: F. J. Durgin — Frank Durgin, The Forks

Across the top, the document clearly announces its purpose:

“LICENSE FOR A RESIDENT TO SHIP ONE DEER — IN MAINE ONLY.”

The smaller printed language explains that the deer could be shipped to the owner’s home or to a hospital in Maine.

That detail may seem unusual today, but it provides a glimpse into the role wild game still played in everyday Maine life.

HUNTING WAS PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE

For generations in northern and western Maine, deer hunting was much more than recreation.

Venison could represent a significant amount of food for a household heading into winter. Hunting existed alongside fishing, gardening, farming, logging, guiding, trapping, and other activities that helped families make use of the resources around them.

In places such as The Forks and West Forks, that relationship with the woods was especially strong.

The surrounding region was defined by:

  • vast timberlands
  • the Dead and Kennebec Rivers
  • logging operations
  • hunting camps
  • sporting camps
  • guides and woodsmen
  • seasonal workers
  • families accustomed to living close to the land

A deer harvested in November could therefore have practical importance extending well beyond the hunt itself.

WHY DID SOMEONE NEED A LICENSE TO SHIP A DEER?

The answer is written directly on the document.

This permit allowed a resident to send a deer without accompanying the shipment personally.

In an era before modern highways, pickup trucks, household freezers, and today’s transportation system, moving a harvested deer could be considerably more complicated.

Maine was also developing an increasingly organized system for regulating hunting and the transportation of game.

By the early twentieth century, hunting was governed by seasons, bag limits, licensing requirements, transportation restrictions, and enforcement by game wardens.

This small permit is physical evidence of that system reaching all the way into The Forks.

FRANK DURGIN — GAME AGENT AT THE FORKS

For Durgin Hill, perhaps the most significant line on the entire document appears near the bottom:

“Sold by F. J. Durgin — Agt. at The Forks.”

F. J. Durgin was Frank Durgin.

That identification transforms what might otherwise be an interesting state hunting document into a direct piece of Durgin family and local history.

Frank Durgin was serving as an authorized local agent at The Forks, issuing a State of Maine permit connected with the transportation of harvested game.

In rural communities, state regulations depended on local people who could actually administer them. Residents needed somewhere nearby to obtain licenses, permits, and other official documents without traveling great distances.

Frank Durgin was one of the people filling that role in The Forks.

On November 24, 1919:

  • A local resident had a deer to ship.
  • The State of Maine required authorization.
  • The paperwork was completed in The Forks.
  • Frank Durgin issued the license.

And more than a century later, his handwritten name remains on the document.

THE FORKS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The Forks occupied an important position in Maine’s interior long before the modern outdoor recreation industry.

Located where the Dead River joins the Kennebec River, the community developed within a landscape shaped by waterways, forests, travel, and timber.

  • Logging – The Dead and Kennebec river systems were central to generations of timber operations and river driving.
  • Hunting & Fishing – The surrounding woods and waterways supported local families while also attracting sportsmen from outside the region.
  • Guides & Sporting Camps – Hunting and fishing helped build Maine’s reputation as a destination for people seeking the North Woods experience.
  • Transportation – People, supplies, mail, timber, and harvested game all had to move through a rural transportation network very different from the one we know today.

A license authorizing the shipment of a deer fits naturally into that world.

LOOK CLOSELY AT THE DOCUMENT

The physical condition of the license tells another part of its story.

It has been:

  • folded repeatedly
  • heavily creased
  • stained and worn
  • punctured for an attachment string
  • handwritten in several places
  • handled enough that portions of the printing have faded

The original string still remains through the reinforced hole along the left side.

This was not a decorative certificate intended to hang on a wall.

  • It was a working document.
  • Someone carried it.
  • Someone folded it.
  • Someone attached it to something connected with the shipment.
  • Someone eventually decided it was worth saving.

And somehow, it survived.

A $2 PIECE OF MAINE HISTORY

The license originally cost $2.00.

Its historical value today is something entirely different.

It records a specific day:

November 24, 1919

It records a specific place:

The Forks, Maine

And it preserves the name of a local man carrying out an official function:

Frank Durgin

Documents like this move local history beyond general descriptions of what life was once like.

They give us tangible evidence.

  • A resident of The Forks had a deer to ship.
  • The State of Maine required a license.
  • Frank Durgin was the local agent who issued it.

The paper survived.

PRESERVING THE EVERYDAY HISTORY OF THE MAINE WOODS

Major events usually make it into history books.

Everyday life is much easier to lose.

Old licenses, receipts, letters, photographs, maps, postcards, business records, hunting tags, deeds, and handwritten notes may seem insignificant individually.

Together, they reconstruct a community.

They can tell us:

  • who lived here
  • how people made a living
  • what responsibilities local residents held
  • where people traveled
  • what they hunted
  • how government interacted with rural communities
  • how families depended upon the Maine woods
  • how ordinary life changed from one generation to the next

This 1919 deer shipping license is one small piece of that larger story.

More than a century after it was issued, it still connects Frank Durgin, The Forks, Maine’s hunting tradition, and the history of the surrounding woods on a single surviving sheet of paper.

FROM THE DURGIN HILL ARCHIVES

DurginHill.com preserves photographs, documents, family records, local stories, and pieces of everyday history connected to Durgin Hill, West Forks, The Forks, the Dead River, the Kennebec River, and the generations who lived and worked in the Maine woods.

Every old document tells two stories.

One is the purpose for which it was created.

The other is the world—and the people—behind it.

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