Radio Script #139
Little Talks On Common Things
March 9, 1952
It is easy to place on the President and the executive departments aI’ the blame for reckless government spending, and they certainly must take responsibility for that part of the unnecessary spending which can be administratively controlled. But they are not to blame for the fal lure of Q)ngress to pass the recommendations of the Hoover Commission which did so much to show us the way to stop dup I i cat i on and waste.There is a minority In Congress, composed of both Democrats and Republl~ cans, who constantly fight for reductions tn federal spending. They are not the voting tools of the bureaucratic and vested Interest lobbies swarming over the cap I tol. Led by Senator Doug las, these Congressmen dese rve our support.
Three:thlngs’,.~~ Congress must do I f the spending spree I s going to be stopped:
1. Eliminate non-essentla I actlvl ties I n every appropriation request.
2. Rev I se downwa rd the who Ie, extreme I y cost I Y program of subs i dies and grants-i n-a i d.
3. Stop blocking the much needed legislation to streamline department operations and cut down duplication and waste.
You may be interested to know that the text of one of these broadcc;lsts has been read by several hundred persons living in a community three thousand miles from Waterville. Last September I told you about the historic Beltane Festival, held annually In the little town of Peebles, Scotland, forty miles south of Edinburgh on the River Tweed.
My friend John Burgess, Junior, claims Peebles as his ancestral town. He secured a transcript of that September broadcast and sent it off to the Peeb leshi re News. A few weeks ago John left at my door a copy of the January 11 issue of that paper. What was my surprise to see these two column headlines: ”8eltane Festival American Broadcast. Something to be said for traditions. Dean E. C. Marriner’S broadcast compliment to Peebles.”
As yet I have heard no protests from Scotland about the text of that broadcast. But I am sure they will come. I rea I I Y know very I I tt Ie about the Beltane Festival, except what read in the Peebleshire News itself last sum … mer. So there must have been a lot of errors, not to say rea I boners, in that broadcast, for my interpretation of some of the Scottish idioms may have been ludicrous to a Scotsman.
Nevertheless we appreciate the space and recognition in that Scottish newspaper, as wei I as the recognition It gave to this station, for John Burgess’ letter to the editor emphasized that this was one of a series of broadcasts over. Radio Station WTVl, an affi Ilate of the American Broadcasting Oompany.
Since we have mentioned the town of Sidney several times recently, I thought it might be interesting to see what the map of that town in the 1879 atlas revealed. The most conspicuous fact that strikes one who examines that 73 year old map is that Sidney then had more dwe II Ings than It has today. The River Road from Watervi lie to the Augusta I ine shows houses close together all the way. When many of those houses burned, apparent Iy a good Iy number were never rebul It — although as country roads go, the River Road is still quite thickly sett led.
In 1879 Sidney had four post offices. Down the River Road only two or three miles from Watervi lie was North Sidney. Farther down the same road, nearer the Augusta line, was Sidney, where a corner store stl II operates. On the Middle Road from Oakland to Augusta was Sidney Center, and on the Pond Road, at Its junction with the Belgrade Road was West Sidney. Sidney Center Is also designated on that old map as Bacon’s Comer. Three-quarters of a century ago Sidney was notab Iy a church-going town. Near the Town House on the Middle Road were two churches, the Union and the Un iversa list, wh i Ie at the j unction of the Ri ver !bad and one of the cross roads was the Baptist Church. On the Pond Road, we II toward the south end of the town near Ward’s Pond, was the Free Baptist Church. There were two Methodist Churches, one at Sidney Center and another at West Sidney. There must have been saw mills and perhaps other Industries In Sidney In 1879, but the only Industrial plant marked on the map is a tannery Just north of the Sidney Post Office, on a road that ran from the River Road down to the Kennebec.
was curious to see where the Howards I ived in 1879. Dr. Ambrose Howard had then been dead more than 40 years, but his descendants and other relatives remained. On the River Road, almost exactly at the Augusta line, two dwell ings are marked “C. Howard” and one “J. Howard”. Is that the part of Sidney in which Dr. Ambrose Howard himself lived? Who can tell me? According to this 1879 map the ferry was not located where I have always supposed. I thought the west slip of the ferry was directly opposite Vassalboro Village. But this map shows the ferry considerably south of that point on the Sidney s I de, just north of the Sidney Post Off Ice, In fact, on the road that led by the tannery from the Ri ver Road to the Kennebec. Three other roads led down to the river, and at some time one or more of them may have led to a ferry. One IEHt the River Road at the North Sidney Post OfNcej another was an extension of the Webb Road; and a thi rd was much nearer the Augusta line, south of the Sidney Post Off ice, at the schoo I house corner.
Some we II remembered names appea r as househo I de rs on that 0 I d map. On the River Road were Drummond, Smiley, Barton, Sawtelle, lovejoy, Clark, Bean and Howard. On the Midd Ie Road were Young, Bowman, Waite, Phi Ibrick, Weeks, Bessey and Faught. On the Pond Road were Longley, Farnham, Goodhue, Hamlin, Dyer and Robinson. Of a I I the towns in the Kennebec Va Iley, Sidney, though today without major industry and with dwindling population, has no reason to take a back seat. She has a great and honorable history; her sons and daughters have done her credit in the far corners of the earth.
Recently I was fortunate enough to gather some more information about my favorite character of Kennebec Valley antiquity, Wi lliam Bryant. On Apri I 25, 1903, when Wi I I iam’s oldest son, Cyrus Bryant, ce lebrated his 85th birthday, the Fairfield Journal secured from him and from his Totman relatives some interesting information about his pioneer father. Will i am Bryant was born, as I have previous Iy to I d you, in the town of Sandwich, Mass. just ten years after the Declaration of Independence, In 1786. He assisted at the launching of the new nation’s most famous battleship, the frigate Constitution” “Old Ironsides”, and as a seaman in the U. S. Navy went to sea in her on her first trip.
Cyrus Bryant remembered we I J one of hi s father’s many stories about Old Irons ides. About two weeks out of Boston on that first voyage a heavy ga Ie put fri ght into many of the crew who were go Ing to sea for the first time. Many cried and prayed whi Ie others cursed lusti Iy. One vociferous Irishman ended his appeal to the Deity with these words: “And we thank thee, a Lord, that we have only twelve months and a fortnight longer to stay on this ship”.
The British practice which was soon to cause the War of 1812 was a con…,.· stant threat. Crews from British men of war regularly boarded American vessels and Impressed sai tors Into the Brlt’ish Navy, and even more often the nefarIous Press Gangs drugged and shanghaied many a helpless seaman or even landlubber in the seaportt’owns. When Old Ironsides was anchored at Bristol, England, some of her crew went ashore, including Wi I Ilam Bryant. CHased by a press gang, some of his comrades were captured, but Bryant and two others managed to escape and get back on board their own ship.
On that April day, 49 years ago, when Cyrus Bryant celebrated his 85th birthday, he did not celebrate it alone. His twin sister, Susan Bryant Tot~ man, was sti II living and she shared the day’s honors with him. She and her husband, Nahum Totman, were the grandparents of Fairfield’s wetl known teacher of music, Mrs. Christine Hume.
The memory of one who, at sixty, tries to remember the town of his freshman year in college is likely to be a bit tricky; so I decided to dig out a Maine Register of the year 1909 and see what Waterville actually was like when I was a freshman at Colby. Memories may be at fault, but the Maine Register Is probably reasonably accurate.
Watervi I Ie had 10,000 people In 1909 compared with more than 18,000 today. The valuation of the city’s property was $5,897,000 compared with the present $18,724,410. In other words, whi Ie Watervl I Ie’s population has increased 90% in the past 43 years, the valuation has increased 350%. Automobiles were not common in 1909, and horse-drawn stages ran twice a day to China, and dai Iy to Fairfield Center, North Fairfield and Larone. City Clerk in 1909 was John E. Nelson, later member of Congress, and the father of the present Congressman from this district. J. Frederick Hili was chairman of the School Board, Carroll Perkins was City Solicitor, Miss Mary Caswe I I (now Mrs. Benjami n Carter) was the pub Ii c I ibrari an, and Harvey D. Eaton was pres i dent of the Board of Trade. Watervll Ie then had four banks — the Peoples, the T’~onlc, the Savings and the Watervi lie Trust Company. Although at least three barbers now active in Waterville were certainly practicing the trade In 1909, only one of them then had a shop of his own. He, of course, was Waterville’s dean of ‘barbers, Victor Robichaud.
have been amazed to find how many old timers have forgotten about the book and stationery store of the man Colby boys used to call ”By-damn” Moore, situated on Main Street near where the Western Union Office now stands. For the life of me I couldn’t have told you the real name of that eccentric character who had the concession for all Colby text books and who rented out those old two cents a mile mi leage books so common on the Maine Central half a century ago. It takes the Maine Register to set me straight. Old “By-damn’s” real name was F. E. Moore, and his place of business was 154 Main Street. Unless I am greatly mistaken, the only Watervi lie lawyers now practicing, whose names appear in the .1909 Register, are Harvey Eaton and Carroll Perkins. Is there any present physician who was then practicing here, except Dr. John Towne?
We should be proud that Watervi lie is a town where people stay in business. Besides the very old firms of W. B. Arnold Co. and the Redington Co., the follow i ng fl rms sti II in bus i ness were operat·ing in 1909: W. W. Berry &. Co., John Raymond, Gallert Shoe Store, William Levine, Hagers, H. R. Dunham Co., G. S. F I cod Co., S. A. and A. B. Green, Proctor and Bow ie, Atherton Furn i ture Co., Merrill and Mayo, Charles E. Morse Co., Preble Studio, City Job Print, Waterville Motors, J. B. Friel &. Co., and Boothby and Bartlett,’ which in 1909 was L. T. Boothby & Son.
Some of those firms ran ads in the 1909 Register, among them the Waterville Motor Company. In spite of the newness and scarcity of auotmobiles in 1909, the name Motor Company was already in use. Among the more unusual ads that Is, they seem unusua I today — were Andrew Ware and Company, p I an I ng niT I I, and Groder’s Dyspepsia Syrup, dispensed by G. H. Grondin & Co., Oak Street.
As our final item tonight, I want to urge your help in ferreting out what think is an important historical point. On the Kennebec River, al I the way from 8ath to Fairfield, the more populous and more prosperous communities are on the west bank of the river. This is casting no aspersions at such fine towns as Dresden, Pittston, Randolph, Vassalboro and Winslow. But it is simply a fact that they are the smaller and less i ndustri a I towns.
Now it was not always so, When the Plymouth Company decided to build two forts to protect Its sett lers In 1754, it built both of them on the east bank of the river — Fort Hal ifax at Winslow and Fort Western at Cushnoc, the name for the east side of the river at Augus ta ,
As time went on, however, It was the west side communities that grew in size and trade — Bowdoinham, Richmond, Gardiner, Hallowell, Augusta, Watervilie and Fairfield. Why did this happen? Who of our listeners can give me any clues to the answer?