Radio Script #273
Little Talks On Common Things
October 2, 1955
One of the unique places in Maine — in fact in al I New England — is FarweII Brothers store in Thornd ike. Scattered over the I and are sti I I a lot of general stores, but none quite so complete in its stock or so widely heralded a s Fa rwe I I ‘s •
My most recent visit to the store was on the 29th of last August, and when greeted Wi II i am Farwe II I tol d him I had a party with me from Mi ssouri •
soon made it plain that they were not skeptical about what I had told them they wou I d see, but that they actua I Iy came from St. Loui s. So Wi I I i am Farwe II, genial host that he always is, insisted that my sister, brother-in-law and niece from St. Louis, as wei I as Mrs. Marriner and I, should be shown all over the place, through the store, the grist mi I I, and the blacksmith shop.
Ever since Ford reproduced an old country store at Sudbury, Massachusetts, there have been simi I ar attempts over the I and. But they are rea I ty museums, exhibiting the cracker barrel, the coffee grinder, and other rei ics of the old general stores. As one enters Farwells, his first impression is that this too;( may be a museum, out of which few things are ever sold. He is soon disi Ilusioned.
Whi Ie many objects in that store are little used today, every one of them is for sale. Wi Iliam Farwel I told me, for instance, that only the week before our visit, he had sold four horse col lars. He admitted he didn’t usually sell so many in one week, but he did sell enough of them to demand restocking every year. He said there are left just two places in the country where horse co II ars are sti II made, one in Oh i 0, the other in Pennsy I vani a. Farwe I I Brothers stock a I I kinds of iron ba rs and stri ps; every known size of bolt up to 20 inches in length; tie-up chains, bridle chains, logging chains.
It is one of the few stores outside the big cities where you can buy genuine buckskin gloves, and can get the old-fashioned four-buckle overshoes to go with them, if you can endure the combination of winter overshoes with fall gloves. Do you need a blizzard lantern for a dark night on the farm? You can get it at Farwel I ‘s. Where wi I I you get the kerosene to fi II it? At Farwell’s.
If you break the lantern’s chimney, where can you replace it? Right there at Farwe I I ‘s. How wi II you get the kerosene home? I n a one-ga lion oi I can you can buy at Farwe I I ‘s.
The Farwell Brothers are proud of the publicity given their .s….-t–ore. They wi II show you a publication from Berlin, Germany, in which is a three-page article, illustrated by photographs, with the text entirely in German. It is all about the unique store in a little place called Thorndike, across the Atlantic from Germany, in the Ameri can state of Ma i ne. The Farwe I I store has even been written up in one of the glamor magazines of the movies.
Wi II iam Farwell wi II gracious Iy answer any questi on you ask about his store, but he had rather ta I k baseba II. He graduated from Kents Hill in 1897, where he was a member of the famous team that beat Westbrook, Hebron and the University of Maine jn three successive days. He attended Colby for one year, where he was a member of the Class of 1902, which makes him a classmate of Watervi I Ie’s fonner mayor and Co Iby ‘s famous professor of pub Ii c speak ing, Dr. Herbert C. Libby. At Colby William Farwell was catcher on the baseball team, but at Kents Hi II he had been pitcher and outfielder. He was indeed a versati Ie all-around player, and in the early 1900’s he played professional ball al lover Maine and New Hampshire.
So this program is glad tonight to pay tribute to a great Maine institution~ the genera I store of Farwe II Brothers at Thorndi ke.
When Capta in Samue I Foster, whose papers Fred 0 liver of Vassa Iboro has kindly let me examine, was on his long voyages, he never forgot wife and mother back in Plymouth and Martha’s Vineyard. On March 5, 1787, stranded in london and agonizing over the disastrous outcome of his latest voyage, he wrote to his mother this short, but expressive, letter, letting her know that he had not lost hope and that he had her we I fare a Iways in mi nd. He wrote:
”Honored Mother. I had not opportunity to write by Capt. Cushing as I was at that time in Falmouth. have been very unfortunate this voyage and have lost a I I my venture. I have been ob I i ged to I eave the Po I Iy and Mary and tarry ashore on expenses for four or five months, but I have at I ast got a berth on board the ship Garrick belonging to Messrs. Gardner and Hitchblom of Boston; but to what port she wi II get freight I cannot say, as her voVage is uncertain.
I will acquaint vou as soon as I can. I hope to be with you in October. Please remember me to all inqui ring friends, especia Ily those who have sent adventures by me. My compliments to Esq. Drew and tell him I should have sent his things home but it was not in my power. am your fa i thfu I son, Samue I Foster. If
The oldest letter I have ever seen is one in that Oliver collection. Is there any I istener tonight who has ever seen a genuine handwritten letter dated as long ago as March 30,1765. That, my friends, is more than 190 years ago.
This folded missive is addressed on the back to Capt. Samuel Foster, to the care of Messrs. Hardie, sign of the Markers of Granby, Iron Gate Tower, london. It says:
“Mr. Foster. I was sorry that I was in such a hurry down the ri ver, on IV got ship going down to Wopping and had time to get my chest on board, which made me part with you in such a manner. I wish I had been with you yet, for we have got no farther than Yarmouth Roads, as there is n~thing but gales of wind from the northeast. I am sorry that you had all to pay for me, but I hope we shall see each other again as we know where to write. I shall be glad to hear when you I eave London. By one of the Dundee s lOOpS YOu hiety w r- i tt:: i 0 me. Kemember me to your mother and to Mrs. Foster. wi sh you a good passage and a happy Sight of all your friends. Dear sir, I am your sincere well wisher, Thomas Webster.”
Like most of the Foster letters, this one written ten years before the Revolution reveals a point that I cannot too often repeat. How did these sea captains communicate with each other, to say nothing of sending letters home? They had just one way of doing it. Every ship captain was entirely dependent upon the courtesy of his fe I low capta ins. Noti ce how Thomas Webste r to I d Capta in Foster he wou Id get a letter if Capt. Foster commi tted it to the care of one of the Dundee sloops.
This was how it was done. A ship’s captain, arriving in or compelled to make a long stay in a port, would hunt up a ship soon to weigh anchor in the general direction where he wanted to send letters. The second captain would accept the mission of getting them on the way. If he were bound for Boston, and letters were directed to any American address, it was fairly easy. For, once in Boston, he could find ships going to American ports near the addresses. But suppose he were bound for some port in France. There he would try to find a ship setting out for America and hand over the letters. Sometimes such letters were even transferred at sea. Unless the ship carrying a captain’s letters was lost, those letters usually reached their destination, and quite rapidly considering the distances and the risks of many transfers. Capt. Foster, when he ‘ wrote to his mother in March, 1787, was confident that she would receive the letter long before he got home, as he told her he would, in the following October.
The cumbersome irregularity of communication across the Atlantic is shown in a passage in one of America’s most famous books of the 18th century, Franklin’s autobiography. Old Ben tel Is us that when he was bound on one of his many voyages to England on behalf of the Pennsylvania colony, he found he could geT earliest passage on a packet boat out of New London, Connecticut, advertised to sai I on a certain date. He arrived in New London two days before the sai ling date. The advertised day arrived and the ship didn’t move. The captain told Franklin they would probably sai I tomorrow. The morning went by, then a whole week of morrows. Day by day Franklin, who wasn’t especially renowned for evenness of temper, was getting more and more exasperated. He was too busy a man to cool his heels among the Nutmegers when the fate of Pennsylvania rested on his mission to England. So Ben went to the captain and demanded to know why the sh i p was he I d up. The capta in tol d him they were wa i ti ng for the govern-.or’s mai I. The royal governor of Connecticut was James Loudon. When Franklin learned that this man was holding up the ship whi Ie he leisurely finished letters to England, old Ben exploded, and this is what, years afterward, he put inTo the autobiography: “That governor was a notorious procrastinator. He never did anything on time. When I learned his dal lying was holding up our ship, I said, ‘Loudon, Loudon, you’re like St. George on the signs, always on horseback but never ri de on’. H
Away from the coast, where people were dependent upon overland communication, the desire to keep in touch with people at a distance demanded some regular passage of ma i I. That, as we II as other demands for trave I, was one th i ng that promoted the bui Iding of roads. The first postal services to such places as Gorham and Standish, Bridgton and Norway, and other towns a bit back from the coast were by post riders who travelled on horseback with the mai I in saddlebags.
It is also interesting to note that they delivered Maine’s first newspaper, the Falmouth Gazette, to subscribers along their route — delivered it not as mai I through the newly organized U. S. postal service, but by arrangement with The publishers, who paid them directly. Each rider carried a long tin horn, with blasts of which he announced his approach.
In 1793 a highway for carts was laid out from Portland to Augusta, through Gray, New Gloucester, Greene, Monmouth, Winthrop and Hallowell. On that route the first post rider was Wi I liam Blossom, who started the service in 1794. It was not unTi I 1806 that the first stage coach traversed that highway_ In 1799 a road was laid out from Portland to Bridgton, whence it was extended to Waterford in 1802. Jacob Howe, its fi rst post ri der; went out from Portland through Gorham, Standish, Raymond, Naples and Bridgton to Waterford, then back TO Portland by way of Norway, Paris, Hebron, Poland, New Gloucester and Gray.
Every in I and loca I post off i ce fo II owed the post ri der. He had to come first. BUT the post offices sprang up quickly — Augusta in 1794, Greene in 1796, Br i dgTon i n 1799 , Waterford i n 1800, and Norway and Pari sin 1801.
The WaTervi lie newspaper pub I i shed by C. F. Hathaway, founder of the now· internationally known Hathaway shirt industry, published in its issue of June 10, 1847 The only advertisement I have ever seen that deals with the constructi on of WaTervi I Ie’s first raj Iroad. Hathaway’s Watervi lie Un ion presented its readers on That June day 108 years ago this ad:
!tNOT I CE TO CONTRACTORS
“Proposals wi II be received at the office of the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rai troad in Lewiston, unti I the 17th of June, for the grading and masonry of the first division of the road, extending from the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Ra i I road in Danvi I Ie to Green Centre, 14t mi les. A Iso, separate I y for masonry and woodwork of the bridges across the Great and Little Androscoggin Rivers, the bridges to be constructed on Town’s plan. Plans and profile. will be ready for examination, and the route shown, on and after the tenth of June.
“The second division extending to Snow Pond in Belgrade, 25 mi les, wi II be ready for contract about the 25th of July, and the remainder of the road to Watervi I Ie about the 20th of September.
The A & K Rai I road also took measures to get money to pay the contractors, for in the same issue of Mr. Hathaway’s paper appeared another ad:
“Noti ce is he reby gi ven that the assessment of five per cent on the amount of stock subscribed by each stockholder in the A & K R.R. Co. has been ordered by the president and directors of said company. The assessment wi I I be due and payab Ie to the treasurer of the company at h; s off i ce in Watervi lie on or before the 15th of June next.
Who was that -treasurer of Watervi lie’s fi rst ra i I road? He was Edw~nNoyes, who married a daughter of Timothy Boutelle, Watervi lie’s leading citizen of the early 1800’s. In a time when most attorneys learned their law by studying in an older lawyer’s office, Noyes had attended the Harvard Law School before he went into practice with his father-in-law in 1842. He became treasurer of the A & K R.R. before they had laid a single rai I and continued with the road for more than a quarter of a century unti I some time after it became a part of the Maine Central system.
Readers of “Kennebec Yesterdays If may reca II that Edwi n Noyes was one of the lawyers who defended Dr. Valorus Coolidge when he was tried and convicted for the murder of Edward Mathews in 1847.
So, with that unpardonable connection of rai I roads and murder, let us say good night for old -times’ sake.
Year: 1955