You’ve heard the old saying, like father, like son? That could be said for Victor S. Knight who, like his father, became keeper of Woolwich’s Boston Cane.

The ceremonial walking stick is given to the community’s oldest resident. Selectmen made the presentation Monday afternoon, July 18, which by coincidence was the day before Knight’s 95th birthday.

Longevity must run in the Knight family. From September 1987 to August 1990, Knight’s father, Albert Victor Knight, had the honor of being Woolwich’s “keeper of the cane.” He lived to be 97.

Knight was born in Madison, Connecticut in 1921, but has lived in Woolwich in the same farmhouse on River Road since 1957. For many years, he and wife Ruth raised dairy cows in a barn across the road. Mrs. Knight said they sold their milk to Oakhurst Dairy for 30 years. The Knights were married in 1946.

Selectman Dale Chadbourne told the newspaper he remembers his family buying milk from the Knights when he was a boy. “It’s been the Knights’ farm as long as I’ve lived here. After they stopped selling milk they raised Angus beef cattle,” he said.

Selectmen’s Chairman David King Sr. wished Knight continued good health. ”I hope you’ll have this cane for many years to come,” he said.

“Thank you. It’s an honor,” replied Knight.

Asked by the newspaper if he had any advice to offer to today’s younger generation, he said simply, “To stay happy and healthy.”

Also present for the ceremony in the Knights’ cozy living room were selectmen Lloyd Coombs, Jason Shaw and Allison Hepler.

Mrs. Knight shared an interesting story about her husband’s great-grandfather who lived in England and wanted more than anything to immigrate to America.

“He hoped to buy passage aboard the RMS Titanic but couldn’t afford a ticket, not even for steerage,” she said. Steerage, far below decks, was set aside for passengers with the cheapest tickets. The Titanic, of course, was the British passenger liner that sank in the north Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Great-grandfather Knight eventually saved enough money to safely make his way across the Atlantic.

The Knights have four sons; James, Charles and Richard live nearby in Woolwich while Albert Knight resides in Biddeford. The Knights said they are blessed with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

It’s a bittersweet moment when news comes of the passing of the Boston Cane. It’s exciting to recognize the community’s new oldest resident, but sad because it means the loss of the previous holder.

Knight inherits the cane from Alice Russell Willard Bond, who passed away at St. Andrews Village Nursing Facility in Boothbay Harbor after a brief illness. Mrs. Bond was 96. She resided at the Woolwich home of her daughter Nancy and her husband Phil Gosline.

Storied tradition

The passing of the Boston Cane is a tradition entirely unique to New England. Woolwich is among a number of Maine towns that continue it. The custom began in 1902 by the now defunct Boston Post newspaper.

Edwin Grozier, the publisher of The Boston Post, had hundreds of the canes custom made as a publicity stunt. The canes were given to small towns in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire to be given to their oldest resident. The cane was his (later hers) to keep for as long as they lived, then it was passed to the next oldest resident.

All of the canes were handmade by J.F. Fradley & Co. of New York City from seasoned African ebony imported from the Congo. Each is topped with a 14-karat gold knob with the following engraving: “The Boston Post to the OLDEST CITIZEN of (space left for the town’s name). To be Transmitted.” The oldest resident keeps the cane for as long they live, or until they move away, when it then passes to the next oldest.

The Boston Post folded in 1957, but the tradition of passing on the Boston Post Canes has survived over the decades — even if some of the original canes have disappeared or, in recent times, wound up for sale on eBay.

When the tradition first started, only men were eligible to receive the Boston Cane. That later changed, Woolwich in fact, was among the first communities to extend the honor to women.

The cane Woolwich passes on isn’t the original one. For safekeeping, the authentic Boston Cane is kept on display at the town office. Woolwich’s list of Boston Cane recipients goes back to 1914 and is published yearly in the Annual Town Report.