Radio Script #277
Little Talks On Common Things
October 30, 1955
Did you ever see a foreign army on maneuvers? We think of nations jealously guarding their mi litary installations from al I prying eyes. Imagine seeing an encampment of Russian troops! Unthinkable! But I suspect a good many other Americans, perhaps some of you listening tonight, saw just what I saw last summer.
Driving from Fredericton to St. John, New Brunswick on a July afternoon, our party decided that we had not time to go around by the river road because we wanted both to visit St. John and reach St. Stephen the same night. So we cut across country from Fredericton to St. John. No one had told us what lay along the route, except that it went through uninhabited forest. Imagine our surprise when we encountered the Canadian Army on summer maneuvers! On both sides of the highway were mi Ie after mi Ie of tented encO,”pments. Trucks and jeeps were everywhere, and the passing motorist was constantly cautioned to watch out for military vehicles. For the whole distance of a dozen miles there was just one frame bui Iding, apparently a former farmhouse taken over as the principal mi litary headquarters.
Now my point is this. We are justly proud that for more than a hundred and fifty years there has been no fortification manned on either side of the U.S. – Canadian border. Americans and Canadians pass back and forth at wi I I, and in July if you want to see a big lay-out of Canada’s proud army, all you have to do is to drive the inland route between Fredericton and St. John.
I n that fasci nati ng book t!Grandfather Stories~!, Samue I Hopki ns Adams te lis about a poor auction. Paupers were put on the auction blocks and sold to the lowest bidder. Yes, I said lowest, not highest, bidder. Of course the people themselves weren’t actually sold, but they came close to it. The town took the lowest bid for their keep, as a cheaper means of caring for paupers than running a poor house. Those unfortunate souls received in consequence wretched food and harsh treatment.
Now Mr. Adams tells us that his grandfather insisted the custom came to upper New York state from New Eng I and. BCOU I dn ‘t the poor peop Ie do anyth i n9 about it? H, one of the grandch i I dren asked. HOh, yes n, grandfather rep lied!, it if they did not choose to be bid off, they cou I d lie out and starve or freeze.
Humane persons didn’t approve of these auctions, but they went on for years.
The New England system it was called. The custom derived from there.!! Now want to know whether any such custom existed in Maine. The time Mr. Adams is writing about was the 1820’s and 1830’s. Does any listener have any information about a poor auction ever conducted in Maine?
Whenever new inventions, bringing new ways of life, have come upon the scene, there have been those who protested and opposed them. Mr. Adams te I Is us the opposition to the Erie Canal was so strong in some quarters, especially at Palmyra, that clever subterfuges had to be employed to secure a right of way.
Perusal of old Maine newspapers shows that the same was true when rai I roads were proposed in our state. In the summer of 1847 the Skowhegan Press, whose editor was eager to see the proposed line from Augusta to Skowhegan put through, published the fol lowing:
“We learn that there are remonstrances in ci rcu I ati on in the county, coming from outside the county, of course, attempting by false pretenses to induce people to remonstrate against the petitions for a rai I road from Augusta into Somerset County. Let the people of Somerset beware. Those who resort to such underhand means as these to check the enterprise and cripp Ie the energies of) Somerset people have but a poor opinion of our legislators, who wi I I surely not let such i nf I uence preva i I. n
The great quarrel in the Kennebec Valley in the latter half of the 1840’s was over the two ra i I roads. Wh i ch one wou I d get to Watervi I Ie first — the 5 foot 6 inch ga~’ Androscoggin and Kennebec or the 4 foot 8t inch extension of the Portland and Kennebec? The nature of the controversy and some of the heat engendered are revea led in an edi tori a lin the Ma i ne Farmer of June 3, 1847. It refers to another paper, edited byWilliarrLDrew,. a man whom I once talked about on this program as the editor who launched an attack on stoves. In 1847 Drew published a paper called the “Banneri’ , and it is to that paper that the Maine Farmer refers in the followi ng edi tori a I:
!!Brother Drew in the last Banner, after announcing that the several sections of the P and K R.R. had been put under contract and that proposals had been issued for bids on the first section of the Back Road, the A & K, says:
‘It is now thought that the road wi II come to Augusta on its way to Watervi J Ie. ! We thought Brother Drew had seen long ago the folly of such insinuations and unjustifiable remarks about the Back Route. The truth of the position we at first took in regard to these two routes is every day manifesting itself more clearly; viz., that they wi I I both be constructed on the routes specified in their respective (~~.
“We have been accused of being non-committal rather than side with one and oppose the oTher. That is because we are sure that both roads wi J I be bui It and both wi II pay fai r profits to thei r stockhol ders. Nature has made convenient routes for the two roads. The people cal I for their construction. Portland wi I J be the general center of rai I road communication from all parts of the staTe.
Lewi ston wi II be the ra i I road center for the Androscoggi n regi on, Watervi lie for the Kennebec, and Bangor for the Penobscot. Natural conveniences and the 00- sition of the populaTion have decreed this. It cannot be altered: and Brother Drew may as well change, fi rst as last, the current of his thoughts, in regard to the Back Road coming into the P & K road at Augusta, for the facts show to eve ry cand i d and unp rej ud iced mind a d i ffe rent state of af fa i rs • ”
Concerning Skowhegan’s interest in getting a rai I road, Charles Hathaway’s Watervi lie Union had this to say on June 10, 1847: ‘The survey for. the Somerset and Kennebec R.R. has been completed by Mr. Green, The scientific and experienced engineer of The Portland and Kennebec R.R. Two routes were reconnoitered by him during the past week, one by way of WestWatervi lIe, the other, near the river, by way of WaTervi lie vi Ilage through Sidney to Augusta. Both routes are found to be perfect Iy feas i b Ie and sati s factory. N
From Mr. Hathaway’s paper we learn also that a meeTing of citizens was held at Carme I on June 5, 1847. Of that meeti ng Mr. Hathaway wrote: !’S uch meeti ngs show a determination in the people of our state to be no longer behind their neighbors in the great work of improving faci lities of internal transportation and communication.”
The Carmel meeTing passed the following resolutions:
1. That the construction of a line of railway through the interior of the state is demanded by the best interests of the sTate, and at the same time presents a profi tab Ie investment for cap ita I.
2. That the extension of a rai Iway from Portland via Lewiston and Watervi I Ie to Bangor, and its ultimate extension to The eastern line of the state, in connection with a line of rai Iway from Montreal to Portland, must become the trunk line of the ra i Iway system of Ma ine, and secure the great stream of travel and business between the different sections of Maine and other portions of New England and the British provinces.
3. That the energetic measures now in progress to secure the early camp leti on of thi s ra i Iway as far as Watervi lie assures US that the ti me has arrived when the people on the I ine of the proposed rai Iway from Watervi lie to Bangor should adopt simi lar measures to secure the accomplishment of a line through to Bangor.
4. That the citizens of the towns between Bangor and Watervil Ie ought and wi I I combine their united efforts to hasten the completion of the Penobscot and Kennebec R.R. by taking stock to the extent of their means.
In light of all this controversy, it. is interesting to note calmly, 100 years later, what actually happened. Editor Drew was wrong, just as the Maine Farmer predicted. The A & K R.R. never did reach Augusta, and the reason isn’t hard to understand. The A & K was bui It to connect with the Grand Trunk, which was then John Poor’s Atlantic and St. Lawrence, at Danvi I Ie Junction. Poor had insisted on bui Iding a road of widest guage, 5 feet 6 inches. On the contrary, the Portland and Kennebec, which joined the Eastern R.R., now the B & M, at Port I and, was, like the Boston to Port I and line, 4 feet 8! inches, the gat:ge “-,,- which later became standard al lover the nation. There was no point in the wider road connecting with the narrower at Augusta. So, within a few years, the wide gcu.:ge,· was extended from Waterv; lie to Bangor, wh i Ie the narrower line was bui It from Augusta to Skowhegan through Watervi lie. It was that 4 foot 8! inch line, ca I I ed the Somerset and Kennebec, whose tra i ns ran up the rive r bank behind the old Colby buildings, and did not cross Col lege Avenue unti I they reached a point near where the present highway underpass is located. The Penobscot and Kennebec, a 5 foot 6 inch line, was really an extension of the A & K; whose original station was on Pleasant Street near where the Flood Fuel Company is now located. The P & K trains crossed Col lege Avenue about where they do now, but the bridge was farther down the river near the present site of the Maine Central shops.
You see, the whole controversy, so much alive in 1847, when Mr. Hathaway’s newspaper was in its prime, was a part of what old timers call the Battle of the G;lUjeS and was not sett led unti I a I I broad gal..’ge roads in the nati on f ina I Iy adopted as standard in the 1870 ‘s the 4 foot at inch gat:ge. , wh i ch had originated centuries before in the length of the axle of the standard Roman Chari ot.
In “Kennebec Yesterdays” I tell the story of plans for an elaborate system of canals in Maine — plans which came to naught except for the bui Iding of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal from Sebago Lake to Portland. When I wrote that chapter I did not know that a canal was once planned in our Belgrade region.
But in that 1847 issue of Hathaway’s Waterville Union, TO which I have already referred, is this statement: “There has been presented to the Legislature by O. Parsons and others a petition for a charter to construct a canal from North Pond to Long Pond and thence to connect with the A & K R.R. H
Next week I want to tell you about a scandal that hit one of Maine’s famous academies nearly a hundred years ago.
As many of you know, the store where Ray Pape’s business is now located in Watervi I Ie was for a hundred years a drug store. When Hathaway pub I ished his Union in 1847, the drug business had just been started in that store: known as the Phoenix Block, by ~Ii Iliam Dyer. Only a few weeks ago we were talking about sarsapari I I a. It is Thus i nteresti ng to note that Dyer’s ad in Mr. Hathaway! s paper featured sarsapari Ila. The ad says: “Kelley and Company’s Sarsapari Ila.
For scrofula, dyspepsia, jaundice, liver complaint, COSTiveness, humors and rheumatism. Joseph L. Kelley & Co., Manufacturers and Proprietors, 108 Middle Street, Portland. Sole agent in Watervi lie, Wi Iliam Dyer, who also dispenses drugs and medicines of all kinds.”
So, without a comforting dose of Kelley’s 5arsapari Ila, we must bid you good night for old times’ sake.
Year: 1955