Annie J. Crediford was our first newswoman in the Kennebunks. Born into a Brunwick, Me maritime family, she had traveled the world and lived in Japan before she reached marrying age. Upon her return to Brunswick as a teenager she went to work for the Brunswick Telegraph, learning every aspect of the newspaper business. She did marry Dr. David B. Crediford and had one child in the mid-1890 but her son Richard was still a toddler when his father ran off to California with another woman. Mrs. Crediford was granted a divorce in Kennebunk in 1900. To preserve her reputation, she told her neighbors and the census taker that her husband had died. She lived in the old Kimball house at 2 Summer Street, where the Kennebunk Police Station is now.

The “Widow” Annie Crediford got to local press work. At first, she was employed at the short-lived Kennebunk newspaper, The Local News. In 1901 Mrs. Crediford started the summer tourist newspaper, The Seaside Echo, which survived stiff competition from The Wave through 1907 and was briefly revived in 1914. In 1904 she also established the year-round weekly Kennebunk Enterprise in Eastern Star territory. Unlike Star editor, Lester Watson, Annie never hesitated to express an opinion on local matters.

The Kennebunk Enterprise finally closed up shop in the 1920s after a notorious confidence man made his way onto the staff, but that is a story for another Thursday. Annie then briefly edited a Sanford newspaper and worked in the news business in New York City. She sold her Kennebunk house to the Treasury Post Office Committee in 1935 for $6,500. That building is now the Kennebunk Police Station.

Most issues of both of Annie’s Kennebunk newspapers are now available online at Digital Maine Repository thanks to the Kennebunk Free Library. An annual Christmas and Easter feature at the Kennebunk Enterprise was a special full-color cover to celebrate the season. I shared a few of Annie’s Christmas Covers today.