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Poland Spring: Summering in Fashion

Janette Wheeler Bolster Ricker, ca. 1880

Janette Wheeler Bolster Ricker, ca. 1880

Item 25529 info
Poland Spring Preservation Society

While Hiram never lacked for ideas, enthusiasm, and salesmanship, the business sense in the family seems to have come from his wife, Janette.

She was born into the successful and prominent Bolster family of Rumford in 1821 and married Hiram in 1846.

Her influence helped settle affairs after his failed business ventures.

Although women of the era generally could not play prominent public roles, Janette Ricker was widely revered as a supportive wife, loving mother, and gracious host up until the time of her death in 1883.