David Tildon (D.T.) Sanders was born in Bath in 1836 and grew up on a farm in Sangerville. He didn’t take to farming. At 14, he talked his parents into letting him apprentice at a store in Greenville, where pioneer businessman John Eveleth put him to work for $50 a year and room and board. It was the beginning of one of the most durable business stories in the history of the Moosehead region.

D.T. learned the trade, found his footing, and eventually struck out on his own. By the time he was 21 he had taken a partnership in a competing firm, and when that split apart he walked away with half the assets and built what would become D.T. Sanders & Son. He worked seven days a week and became known as a sharp, resourceful businessman.

During the financial panics of the 1880s, when logging companies paid their crews in scrip rather than cash, D.T. would meet the men coming off the boats, buy their scrip at a discount, and cash it in later at full value. It wasn’t illegal, but it wasn’t popular with the logging companies either.

The store grew with the region. Sanders & Son supplied the lumber camps with food, clothing, blankets, and tools — hauling goods by horse-drawn tote team in winter and by boat in summer, establishing way stations as far out as Kokadjo, Chesuncook, and the Grant Farm. As the railroad brought a wave of new workers — Irish, Italiens, Polish, Finnish — into Greenville Junction in the 1880s, the store served them too. It was a rough era. D.T. himself recalled that Greenville Junction was one of the most dangerous places in the country, where brawls were nightly and the law was scarce.

As the region’s character changed and sportsmen began arriving to fish and hunt the vast Moosehead wilderness, Sanders adapted. The store became a full outfitting operation, equipping visitors with canoes, guides, gear, and everything they needed for trips deep into the Maine woods. Over the years the Sanders family outfitted some notable names — Henry David Thoreau among them.

Four generations of Sanders ran the store. D.T. passed it to his son Harry A., who led the firm for 47 years. Harry Jr. and Paul followed, and then Harry (Brud) Sanders III, who carried the family tradition into the modern era. In 1981, Harry III sold the store, closing a chapter that had lasted 125 years.

Join members of the Sanders family as they look back on this extraordinary run — a business that was, for generations, as much a part of Greenville as the lake itself.

Thursday, July 9, 2026 | 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Center for Moosehead History