Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 38 : Fall 2018 | Page 62

“The Northern
Light Health
brand is a
celebration of
who we are,
where we’ve come
from, and where
we are going.”
~ Greg LaFrancois
Who is A.R. Gould?
Arthur Robinson Gould was born outside of Bangor in 1857. He married Mary Frances Donovan and
founded a successful candy factory before moving to Presque Isle in 1887. He was a self-made man,
who founded both the Aroostook Valley Railroad and the Gould Electric Company, which provided
some of the first electricity to Aroostook County. He was elected to the Maine State Senate in 1921,
where he championed a bill to build a home for boys and then personally donated half the cost of
its construction when the legislature refused to fund the actual price. Gould was elected to and
served in the United States Senate from 1926 to 1931, the first U.S. Senator from Aroostook County.
During his campaign and term in office, he steadfastly ran against the influence of the Ku Klux Klan,
which had considerable power in the state of Maine at the time. He chose to not run for a second
term, wanting to return to Presque Isle and “my railroad and the pine forests of Maine.” He died in
1946 and is buried in Presque Isle. In 1956, his only surviving child, Marie Gould Wildes and family
donated $100,000 (about $1.3 million in today’s dollars) to the campaign that replaced the outdated
Presque Isle General Hospital with the building that still bears his name today.
“It seems fitting and proper that our fine
organization is named for a man that brought
sweetness and light to the community, railed
against injustice, practiced kindness and
generosity, and inspired those properties in
others. May his spirit live on in our mission
today.”
60
FALL 2018
~ Dr. Jay Reynolds
Arthur R. Gould