Radio Script #113
Little Talks On Common Things
June 17, 1951
This Is our last broadcast of the season. Again we want to express sincere thanks to the many II steners who have provl dad us wi th Information. We especfa Ily want to apologl ze for our fai I ure to use so many items. We assure you they are not lost or forgotten, but are stored up for future use. Ourl ng the summer we shall Investigate a dozen subjects which we have as yet not touched. In this Kennebec Valley we assure you there is a wealth of unmined ore about the old days. But it is good for both of us, both broadcaster and listener, to have a change. So after tonight we leave the air for the summer. We expect to resume the series on September 16.
Most of the newspapers to which we have referred on this program went out of existence long ago. It is not so with the Republican Journal of Belfast, fran whose fascl nati ng pages of the 1850 ‘s we gave you severa I Items a fortnl ght since. That newspaper is sti II published — has, in fact, enjoyed continuous publication for 122 years. It first confronted its readers on January 4, 1829. Its latest issue, that of June 14, 1951, is Volume 123, Number 24.
I t is qui te a paper today — thl s Repub I ican Journa I of Be I fast — one of the best weeklies In the nation. Whi Ie many of these weekly papers are only four page sheets, and few of them run to more than eight pages, the Republican Journal often exceeds twelve pages. Its issue of June 7 of this year, for instance, came out in two sections, with a total of fowrteen pages. Its make-up is that of the dai Iy papers, and its news items are unusually well written. It contains surprisingly little “boi leI'” plate”, the old-time publishers’ name for fi lIer material provided by the syndicates. Almost every bit of the reading matter is home made and of hane interest. It makes no attempt to duplicate the dai lies with national and foreign news, but it covers Waldo and adjoining counties coq>Ietely and interest- I ng Iy. Although I am acquainted wi th very few i ndi vi duals named I n the col UIIlS of June 7th, I found the stories of absorbing interest. Roger Brace and Harold Todd, Jr. c1eserve highest praise for turning out such a fine paper.
Our brief talk last week about the old race horses stirred up a lot of interest and has brought in a lot of new Information, at least new tome. A man still living In Watervll Ie was one of the old time breeders and trainers of race horses. He is Mr. Thomas BurleiJgh of Roosevelt Avenue. He was the owner of a famous horse, St. Croix, the first horse to lower Nelson’s three year old record from 2:26 3/4 to 2 :26*- Mr. Burletgh assures me th,a’ both Ne Ison ‘s Grand Rap ids record of 2: 10 and his Rigby Park record of 2:09 were made with the old high-wheel sulkies. Some professor of physics ought to figure o,u t what Nelson could have done wfth~one of the modern, low-wheeled, pneumatic tire sulkies.
Mrs. Burleigh has among her many keepsakes of old days In Vassalboro a mostInteresting newspaper account of the homecoming of that famous horse, General Knox, from a tri umphant tour of the MI dd Ie West. As I to I d you last week, General Knox was the most famous of the three horses with which Col. Thomas Lang started his stud farm at Vassalboro in 1859. It was Just after the elvt I War in 1867 that General Knox went on his great western tour. When the train bringing him back to Vassalboro arrived at the rai I road station near Getchell’s Comer, a huge crowd was on hand to we I come the hero. A school holiday had been declared. Arches had been erected and decorated, and the whole length of the triumphal proceSSion from Getchell’s Corner to North Vassalboro was lined with carriages that had come from the whole surrounding area, and ind~d from as far away as thi rty to forty mf les. The school chi Idren marched all the way between the two vi II ages, as did two brass bands. Seldom did any human hero from the wars receive such a mlgh1y welcome as greeted that horse on that day.
E. P. Mayo, then the editor of Turf, Farm and Hone, put into print in 1902 an Interesti ng story about Genera I Knox. Mr. Mayo then sal d that the most remarkabIe race ever trotted over the Watervi lie track was the contest between General Knox and another celebrated horse, Hiram Drew. It occurred on October 22, 1863, when the elvi I War was at its height. Contemporary reports tell us that people aTtended from every one of Maine’s sixteen counties. It was a conventional three heats out of five battle. It looked as if the Vassalboro horse was badly beaTen when the Drew horse won the fi rst two heats. Then General Knox ShOtted his meTtle by winning the next two. The fi fth heat was preceded by feverish arguments and more feverish betting. Great was Col. lang’s pride when his famous General came hone the victor.
Col. Lang was a I ibera I patron of the Kennebec fai rs. In 1859 the North Kennebec Agri cu Itural Society, wh I ch had been incorporated in 1847 wi th headquarters at Watery) lie, passed a vote of thanks to Col. lang for his I iberality in always giving to the society all purses won by his horses. I be I ieve Watervi lie’s ti rst regu latlon ova I race track was constructed at. the south end of the city in 1854. It was there for many years that the Watervi lie Horse Associ at ion he Id 1 ts annua I exh I bi ti on. Watervi lie was indeed quite a horse town. As late as 1900 Mr. Mayo could wrl te: ”Watervi lie has for more than a century been prominent as a center for the breeding and ownership of valuable horses, and it seems appropriate that she should have within her limits today (remember this was In 1900) one whose name is known not only through the length and breadth of this country but even across the sea. We refer to the veteran Nelson, now in his twentieth year, with his world’s record of 2:09.”
Mrs. Bickford of App leton Street has let me examine some old letters that have been in her fami Iy for many years. They are letters addressed to Seth Webb, Esq., most of them to him at Knox, Waldo County, Maine; but a few of them carry the address Freedom, Ma I ne. The letters were all written by Samuel Webb, andhow the correspondence started is explained in the letter of October 17, 1848. Writing from Baltimore to Knox, Maine, Samuel addresses Seth in these words: “Allow me to introduce myse I f as Samus I, the sl xth of that name of the Weymouth b ranch of the Webb family. I haw heard of your visit to Weymouth and regret I was nat there to greet you. My father heis often spoken of our distant relatives, the descsndarits of the fi rst Samue I,. who left Weymouth for Maine. I have often resolved to visit some of you and hope stili to ~o so.”
Samue I asked Seth many quest Ions about the fami I y and re I ated one touch Ing Incident. It seems that, when the first Webb to come to Maine left Weymouth, he left behl’nd in the care of relatives two sons, the chi Idren of his first wife. The new wi fe apparently didn’t care to take them along to the Maine wi ldemess. According to the account In Samue I ‘s fi rst letter to Seth, twenty years af- ter the father~,s departure for Maine, those two sons went to Gorham .. to.see him. Think of i.ltr From Gorham to Weymouth Is only a few hours’ Journey by modern automobile. But It took the Webb sons several days to make the trip, and so in .. frequent wascommun icatlon in those days that they had not seen thei r father for , a II of the twenty· yea rs • Now let us have the story in the very words in which Samuel told It to Seth:
“As the sons approached the I r father’s res I dence in Gorham”, wrote Samue I ,. “they met with one of the I r half-brothers, told him who they were, but asked him not to let the i r father knOllr of the I r coming. The hal f-brother went on before them. It was nearlytwiJlght, and their father was standing In the door as.Samueland Thomas came up. .They wished to see I f their father would recognize them. They spoke to him as I. f they were strangers, asked him questions about the farm and the town. He obviously had no idea who they were. Finally the half … brother could hold In no longer, but burst out: ‘Father, don’t you know them? They are Samuel and Thomas.’ ‘Oh, Samue I and Thomas’, cried the 01 d man, as he threw h Is arms around them and wept I I ke a ch lid,! How the stepmother greeted the young men whom she had left behind in Weymouth 20 years before the letter does not say.
Already, when he wrote Seth from Baltimore, Samuel Webb was on his way to new fields of adventure, just I ike many another New Englander In 1848 and ’49. For only four months after that first letter Samue I wrote Seth from New Orleans. Samuel explains what he is doing: Ifl am on ‘rtf way to upper California over land by way of the City of Mexico. As the journey Is long and dangerous, I could not leave without expressing to you my heart-felt Interest in yourself and family.Since I last heard from you, a son has arrived to bless us, and agreeable to universal usage in our family, he too is called Samuel. This boy, who has just opened his bright eyes upon me, I leave behind with his mother. These are no small trials, but I go in the hope that I shall, in a few years, return to pass the rest of rrtf days on the dea r 0 I d homes tead I n Weymouth. ”
What Samue I wrote Seth from San Franci sco, how he dl d I ndeed return to Weymouth, and how after silence of eight years the correspOAdence was resumed in the 1860’s, we must reserve for a later broadcast. For tonight let us remember merely that these are samples of neny such letters of their days, letters that show the closeness of famt Iy ties spanning the breadth of a continent and making life richer for-the I r endurance.
It hardly seems possible that tonight completes 113 of these little talks on common things. They have been very, very common. None of them has had any lasting Significance, yet they have all had a purpose. By this time you know pretty we II what that purpose has been — to ca II repeated attent i on to the fact that what we ca” our Ameri can way of II fe comes out of a herl tage we must not Ignore — that here In Maine, yes right here in the Kennebec Valley men and women long ago laid the foundations of integrity, kindness and sympathy; of zeal, ambition and hard work; of fami Iy loyalties and religious devotion — in short, the things and the only things thaT can keep America strong.
So we bid you good-bye unti I September 16.
Year: 1951