Radio Script #88
Little Talks On Common Things
December 17, 1950
A few weeks ago I asked if anyone knew what became of Samuel J3ryant, the wandering son of William Bryant, the Fairfield diarist. Apparently Samuel Bryant died in Australia. At any rate Nahum Totman, who married Samuel’s sister, recorded in a memoir of his own, written in 1898, that Samuel was heard from in Australia as late as 1890. Mrs. Gladys Totman Everett of Hallowell assures me that her mother corresponded with Samuel through many years, and she is certain that he never returned to the States. When Nahum Totman heard from him in 1890, Samuel would have been 67 years old, for he had been 29 when he left for Australia in 1852. With the well known Bryant longevity he might have lived into the twentieth century, but as yet I have not been informed of the date of his death.
We have recently been dealing with account books’ and diaries. What are called memoirs by common folk of 19th century Maine are not so common, and it is a real find to get hold of a good one. Such was a sketch of his life written at the age of 76 ‘by Asa Burnham, who for thirty years lived on and developed a farm in Winslow, and to whom many of the Winslow Cushmans are related.Mr. Burnham wrote this memoir on September 6, 1864.
Born in New Hampshire in 1787 the son of a Revolutionary soldier, Asa became a resident of the District of Maine before he was two years old. The town was Parsonfield, which Asa’ s memoir tells us was then “in the forest”.
You will recall how William Bryant, the Fairfield diarist, collected his son’s wages until the boys reached 21. Likewise Asa Burnham wrote: “I lived with my father and served my minority and, as I believe, faithfully. Then father gave me and brother Noah an old farm which he bought of Dennis Newbegin for $1,000. He also deeded to me one acre of land, on which I built a large, two-story house and barn.”
Directly in front of his Parsonfield house Asa set out apple trees. Are there still farm houses where apple trees can be seen in the front yard in any quantity? From his front yard trees Asa said he often made as many as twenty barrels of cider and half a ton of dried apples, which he sold in Portland for five cents a pound. He even sold applesauce, which he delivered as far away as 35 miles at $5.00 a barrel. Like my own great-grandfather, who used to drive an ox-team regularly between West Gorham and Portland, Asa Burnham made frequent trips by ox-team from Parsonfield to Saco, Kennebunk or Portland, anyone of those destinations taking four days for the round trip.
I don’t recall any reference in the Fairfield diary to the old apprentice system, familiarly called the “bound out” system. But Asa Burnham makes vivid mention of it. He wrote: “I needed help on my farm. After taking a little boy seven years old and keeping him, whose name was John Johnson, five or six years,I hired Asa Parks for a few years. Then I took B.enjamin Jordan, 14 years old of Newfield. He was bound to me by his guardian. I engaged to give him 14 months schooling and when he became 21 years of age, to give him $80. He served out his time faithfully, was a good boy, and obtained a good English education in our school district in the town of Parsonfield.”
Asa Burnham, who was to gain quite a reputation as schoolmaster and school committee member after he came to Winslow, had tried his hand at teaching before he left Parsonfield. He records proudly that he was the first to introduce the study of English grammar into that school district. Concerning his preparation for teaching, Asa says: “When I was 17, I went to Brentwood, N. H., to attend for three months a school kept by William Graves on sunny days. In 1808 I attended Fryeburg Academy one term, likewise on sunny days.”
Apparently Asa was much interested in penmanship, for he tells us he took twelve lessons on the Rockwood system, and claims to have been so materially benefitted that he gave lessons in the system himself, at one dollar a scholar. Then he shifted to the Dunton system, and claimed even more marked improvement.
Like most men of his time, Asa Burnham was deeply religious and staunch in his churchly duties. He was instrumental in starting the first Sabbath School in Parsonfield. Of that experience he wrote: “We were poorly qualified for teachers or superintendents, but done the best we could, giving select portions of scripture for the children to commit and recite, which they generally did in a commendable manner. We also taught the ten commendments and the Assembly catechism. For a while I catechised the scholars in my day school, until opposed by Elder Buzzel, a Freewill Baptist minister, who said he wanted the children to have religion but not learn it.”
Although harassed by debt and even defrauded, Asa subscribed four dollars for the support of the Gospel in Winslow in 1826. What is more, when Winslow was without a minister, as too often proved to be the case, Asa took his turn with other neighbors in what he called “assuming ministerial positions”. Minister or no minister, he was one of those sturdy Winslow men who were determined to have the church open every Sunday.
It was in 1824 that Asa Burnham settled in Winslow, having found the Parson- field farm inconvenient, as he puts it. The most interesting part of his memoir concerns the hard luck of his business dealings before he finally cleared the farm of debt and could truly call it his own. Because those dealings concerned two of the wealthiest men of the upper Kennebec in those days, they are somewhat revealing. The two men were Nathaniel Gilman of Waterville and Benjamin Brown of Vassalboro. But let’s have the story in Asa Burnham’s own words:
“In June, 1824 I went to Winslow to purchase a farm of Jacob Hardon, who said he had bought the farm of Nathaniel Gilman of Waterville and paid for it in money. This I afterwards found to my sorrow was not true. On the contrary, Gilman had Hardon’s note for $500, secured by a mortgage on the place. On June 16 I paid Hardon$600 and gave him my notes amounting to $1,350.
“When I later learned of Gilman’s claim and charged Hardon with unfair and unkind treatment, he said: ‘You shall not suffer. I have fine timber on the farm, and have agreed with Gilman to take it to Augusta to pay my notes and take up the mortgage. ‘”
Here let us interrupt Asa’s own narrative to say that he seems not to have been too smart in dealing with men like Hardon, for he actually helped Hardon get out the timber and market it at Augusta, only to see Hardon make off with the money without paying Gilman. Though Asa reprimanded Hardon again, doubtless more sharply this time, the best he could get was the promise of 50 additional acres, which he did not want, and which he later found was likewise mortgaged. “Hardon”, Asa wrote, “also turned over to me two old lame horses and an old wagon, and several notes against poor men from which I finally realized a little in stock and money.”
The memoir continues dolefully: “In consequence of all this I had to go beyond my means. I used all my skill and energies to meet these unforeseen difficulties. I made up quite a raft of lumber, which Mr. Gilman engaged to take delivered at Augusta, which he did at a low price, so that I paid a considerable part of my notes. Gilman was a hard ticket. Finally my brother Rice befriended me, took a transfer of the mortgage and paid Gilman the remainder. Meanwhile the mortgage on my purchase of Jacob Hardon was assigned to Benjamin Brown of Vassalboro.
“Being disappointed in obtaining money of Huckins and Lougee, I was sued by Brown and all my property attached. The officer with the writ arrived before the dun. So I went down to Augusta and gave a confession note with costs amounting to ten dollars. Had to deal with another hard, oppressive man, even harder than Gilman. Brown done this purposely to give his son business. Son Theodore was a lawyer, a chip off the old block, and it hurt to be obliged to pay his fee in the suit. Brother Rice again assisted me, paid the balance due Brown and loosed me from the grasp of the tyrant. After paying Brother Rice annual interest for several years, by untiring exertion and by selling part of the land, I finally succeeded in getting out of debt.
It seems to me Asa’s opinion of both those prominent men may·have been unfair. I don’t know much about Brown, but I do know that Nathaniel Gilman had a reputation as a fair, honest, public-spirited citizen.
I had always supposed that a hay rack, or what some part of New England called a hay wagon, was a very old and very common vehicle. So I was surprised to ead in Asa Burnham’s memoir that he and John Pease made the first hay rack ever seen in Winslow. He comments: “Old men denounced them, saying we would never get the hay out of them once we got it in. We showed how wrong they were and hay racks soon came into general use.”
Asa claimed that he and Jonathan Garland made the first horse rakes ever used in Winslow. This was before the days of the revolving rake, and had teeth on one side only.
More than a third of Asa Burnham’s memoir is devoted to the Coolidge-Mathews murder case, in which Asa himself was a witness. On the Whole, the facts as he relates them coincide with the testimony before the court, but in a few instances his memory was faulty, or he gave way to the rumor of the times. In all fairness we mgst note that the memoir was written 17 years after the murder, during which time legend and hearsay had perverted some of the facts. Asa is mixed up about the amount of money involved and where Mathews got it, about Coolidge’s attitude when the autopsy was performed, about who saved the contents for Professor Loomis’ examination. He goes much faz~er than did any of the reporters who commented on the ladies at the trial, for Asa wrote: “The ladies in the galleries sent down bouquets on the criminal’s head, for Coolidge was handsome to behold, Which attracted their attention and admiration. With many of these ladies, if such they can be called, Coolidge had been particularly, if not criminally, intimate.”
In 1854, thirty years after he had come to Winslow, Asa Burnham moved to Bangor where, with his sons, he took over a place on Ohio street a mile northwest of the County courthouse. During his thirty years in Winslow he had been town clerk, justice of the peace, and member of the school committee — a worthy citizen of worthy days.
Year: 1950