Radio Script #287
Little Talks On Common Things
January 8, 1956
Several times I have mentioned on this program that distinguished graduate of Colby College, Robie G. Frye, who received his Colby degree 74 years ago in 1882. On I y about a month ago I to I d you how Mr. Frye made a joll y, wh ims i ca I claim to having started our war with Germany in 1917. You wi II perhaps recal I that Mr. Frye was then employed at the Boston Customs House where he had a distinguished career for ha I f a century.
Tonight I want to tel I you more about this remarkable man, who celebrated his 95th birthday I ast month. He rates a p I ace on th i s program, not on Iy be-. cause he graduated from Central Maine’s only college, but also because he was born and had his early schooling in a community to whose memorable early days we have referred often during the seven years of these broadcasts. That commun i ty i s the city of Be I fast.
Recent Iy Mr. Frye sent me a cl ipp ing from the Be I fast newspaper pub I ished in 1880. It says: “It is a source of gratification to our citizens and a highcompl iment to our city schools that Belfast pupi Is take high rank in the colleges. Robie Frye at Colby took the honorary part in his junior year and Wi II Crawford at the same college took the prize for the best original essay during the same year. Frye and Crawford are se lected thi s year to de liver the commencement orations. T. W. Lothrop at Tufts took the prize for declamation in his sophomore year. Charles Bickford and Wi II Howard, at Orono, were selected as editors of the Pendulum, the college pub I ication. Lizzie Blodgett at Montreal was awarded the Marquis of Lorne medal for the highest rank in her class~ Success of students from any commun ity in the colleges is usually the result of the special attention by one or more teachers. That was certainly true in the 1870’s, when high schools were new on the educational scene and few of the i r graduates went to co liege at a I I. Mr. Frye exp I a ins what happened at Be 1- fast. He says: “In 1875 Augustus H. Kelley, Colby ’73, came to Belfast as ~~aster of the High Schoo I. No boys from 8e I fast had gone to college in many yea rs • Mr. Ke I ley picked out seve ra I boys and sa i d they mus t go to co I lege. One went to Tufts, two to the new Agricultural and Mechanical Col lege at Orono~and four to Colby.”
What is meant by the statement in that 1880 newspaper cl ipping that Frye took the honorary part in his junior year? I have known for some time that a significant annual event of the Colby year was the Senior Exhibition, when seniors delivered orations in competition for prizes. That exhibition lasted well into the twentieth century. What I did not know was that juniors ever competed in that event, because by my eMn time in college, 1909 to 1913, there was also a junior exhibition. I remember those junior exhibitions wei I, for in my own jun i or year I competed with a speech, be I ieve it or not, aga inst the p reposed parcel post.
When Frye was in col lege, 1878 to 1882~ two juniors were annually invited to participate in the senior exhibition, and how do you suppose they participated? Accord i ng to Mr. Frye, the highest rank i ng j un i or de livered an address in Greek, and the one ranking second delivered his in latin. Frye says he had the Latin part in the sen i or exh i b iti on of 1881.
Only recently did Colby College onganize a Department of Art, but interest in art is not new at the college. Mr. Frye te lis me that in his fina I year at Colby he won a $10 prize for the best senior essay. It was entitled !TArt and History!!, and defended the thesis that the art of a nation for a period is the best record of its history. Evidently Mr. Frye is not enthusiastic about modern art. He wri tes, HSha I I th i s country be judged by its modern art? The questi on makes me shudder.!f
Before rv1r. Frye entered the customs service he was a clerk in the consular service, where his father had for some time been an officer. Fresh from college the young Frye was assigned to his father’s consulate at Halifax. There he had severa I interesti ng experiences. One of h is earl iest revealed poignantly the hazards of the sea. On his way by boat from Boston to Halifax the fog was so thick that, after leaving Boston I ight, they had no sight of land unti I they saw the end of the wharf at Halifax. But on the way they barely escaped colliding with another vessel. Out of the f09 suddenly loomed a fishing schooner, which crossed their bow so close that in spite of the heavy mist the passengers on the steamer cou I d read the schooner’s name, fiHenry W. Longfellow n • Frye had been back in Hal ifax only three days when a captain and his crew, dressed in oi Iskins and souwesters came into the consulate. They had no bags or bundles, nothing but the clothes they wore. They were from a shipwrecked fishing schooner, had lost al I their belongings, and had been lucky to escape with the i r lives. t’W hat sch oone r? fl, Frye’s fathe r as ke d the capta in. “The ~nry W. Longfe Ilow n was the rep Iy. Young Rob ie Frye was put to the task of outfitting that crew with changes of clothes and getting them passage back to Gloucester.
Robie Frye remained at the Halifax consulate for three years, unti I 1885. At that time Halifax was a garrison city. About 3,000 British troops were stationed there — engineers, arti Ilery and infantry. Furthermore, Halifax was the summer station for the British North Atlantic fleet, and always in the harbor were at least half a dozen modern, steel naval vessels. By contrast, the United States Navy in the 1880’s consisted of old wooden ships, some of them side-whee lers,. left over from the C i vi I War.
In the summer of 1884 Frye’s father, who had been appointed Consul General at Hal ifax in 1881, got leave of absence to visit the states,. leaving young Ro- bie in charge of the consulate. The father had scarcely departed when Robie became involved in the kind of international incident which sometimes leads to serious conflict between nations. Let us have the story in Frye’s own words:
f1The battery at Point Pleasant, near the mouth of I-!~Jifax harbor, was having target practice one day, shooting at a target anchored back of McNale!s Island a mi Ie away. Just then the U. S. Frigate Alliance, commanded by Captain Allen Reed, came steaming up the harbor at its top speed of six knots an hour.
A nervous gunner,probably trying to show off, pulled the lanyard at just the wrong time, and a solid shot sped across the bow of the Alliance. The frigate went on up the harbor to her assigned anchorage; with Captain Reed getting madder at every splash of the waves. The frigate had scarcely dropped anchor, when the captain summoned his gig, and with his flag officer came ashore and stormed into the consulate. The captain was of the swashbuckler type, short, swarthy, with long, black hair hanging down over his coat collar. He demanded to know who was the commandi ng off i cer of the Sri tish garri son. \1 i sh i ng my father instead of I had to deal with the irate captain, I nevertheless summoned strength to answer his question. ‘The commanding officer!; I said, ! is Si r John Cunningham’. ‘~1here is he? ‘snapped Captain Reed. ‘At his summer headquarters at the Northwest Arm’, I rep I ied. ‘Take me there at once!, be I lowed the captain.
nso I procured a barouche drawn by a span of handsome black horses and with a veritable Tony ~~eller on the bOX, dressed in long black coat, tall silk hat with cockade, tan gloves, and of course holding his whip at the correct angle. I sat on the back seat beside Captain Reed, whi Ie his flag officer sat facing us. Off we went in grand style to confront the British commander.
ns i r John rece i ved us grac i ous I Y . He was a ta”, handsome man!, in scar let coat, breast covered with medals and ribbons. Captain Reed told his story and demanded an apology. The implication was that if he didn’t get it, he would blow the whole British fleet out of the water. Sir John apologized handsomely.
He then told us that he had recently returned from the Soudan~ where he had been fighting the Mahadi and the ‘Fuzzywuzzies’. Then he invited Captain Reed and all his officers to dinner at the \1ell ington Barracks, which I suspect was a II Capta in Reed was after in the fi rst place.
T1ThatT!, says Robie Frye, !’is my story of how I helped avoid a ·war with Eng I and.”
In ~tKennebec Yesterdays” I have told about the early post roads at the dawn of the 19th century. Although by the time of the Civi I War the rai I road had reached Ma i ne, the iron ra i I s had not sp read fa r over the state. The Maine Farmers Almanac for 1860 therefore I ists more than thi rty of what it ca II s “ma i I roa d s TT •
One route was from Hal lowe I I to Quebec, going from Augusta to Belgrade, to Smithfield, Mercer and Norridgewock, on to f’.1adison, Solon and Bingham, then up the road Jim Jackman had built in the 1830’s through Dead River, Parlin’s P ond, Moose River and Jonas Camp to the Canada line, then by way of Pt. Levi to Quebec.
Bes i des -the we I I known route from Skowhegan to Bangor by way of Canaan, Pa Imyra, Newport, Etna, Carme I and Hermon, there was another ma i I route between S’kowhegan and Bangor. It went from Skowhegan to Cornvi lie and Athens, through Hanmony and Ripley to Dexter, across to Corinth, through Exeter, then through Levant and Glenburn to Bangor. There was a mail line from Bethel to Port I and, go i ng by way of A I bany, ~/aterford, Bri dgton, Nap les, Casco and Raymond.
The route from Augusta to Bethel went through Wayne, East and North Livermore, to Canton, then followed the present course of U. S. 2 through Dixfield and Rumford to Bethel.
In light of modern changes, the mai I route from Augusta to Fryeburg 95 years ago is interesting. Leaving Augusta, the mai I stage started out as if it were bound for Lewiston, going to Manchester and Winthrop. But at the Winthrop rai I road station, which in 1860 was on approximately the same site as now, the stage turned to the right and went on to Wayne, from there to Turner Bridge and North Turner, whence it turned off to Buckfield, Paris and South Paris. From there it was only a couple of mi les to Norway. Then at Frost’s Corner, near where C~ A. Stephens wrote those hundreds of Old Squire stories for the Youths’ Companion, the stage took the road to Waterford, instead of the road to Harrison and Bridgton. From Waterford it approached Fryeburg through Love I I.
A I ine of interest to people of Central Maine was the rrai I road from Union to Fairfield. It went from Union to Appleton, then through what later became known as the Ben Ames Wi I Iiams country to Searsmont, thence through Liberty and Montvi lie to Freedom, then on to Albion, Benton and Fairfield.
Another road through Central Maine saw the mail stage from Hallowell to Solon. From Augusta that stage came up the west side of the Kennebec through Sidney to Watervi lie. Then, according to the 1860 almanac, it passed through Fairfield Mi liS, Fai,-field Ferry, ana Bloomtleld to Skowhegan. Now let’s get these place names straightened out. By 1860 the name Mi Iburn had been given up and the east side of the Kennebec at that place was cal led Skowhegan, whi Ie the west side sti I I retained the old name of Bloomfield. Because the almanac gives the distance, we know that by Fairfield ~.1i lis is meant what was more commonly called Kendal I ‘s Mi lIs, now Fairfield Vi I lage. Fairfield Ferry was Pi shon ‘s Ferry at what is now Hinck ley. _
Back in 1860 the ~·~aine Farmers Almanac sti II carried the flONery introductions of its editor Daniel Robinson. In that year just before the Civi I War broke out, he wrote: !,\1e would sti II diffidently solicit the continuance of the kind regards and generous assistance of al I good friends, yet denizens of the earth, who have hitherto been aiders and helpers in our year-after-year task of heralding the coming, movements and advance of mellow Father Time, through all the circuits of his annual journeys, forth and back, to his summer house and winter house. So we implore the favor of our friends, who have through the long period of years endured these multitudinous and multifarious scribblements. Give your succor and aid to us, Daniel Robinson of West Gardiner, in this sober, pleasant, and thrice happy State of Maine, the duteous daughter of our virtuous mother Massachusetts, of whose early guardianship and nurture in our ear I y stages of orphanage, we have ever been des i rous to return a live Iy recollecti on.”
That 1860 almanac contains an announcement of the old Bowdoin Medical School. The ad reads: “Medical School of Maine, Bowdoin College. The medical lectures commence about the middle of February and continue 14 weeks. The fees for a II the I ectures are $50, payab Ie in advance, and graduat i ng fee, inc I udi ng diploma, $18. The library contains 3,400 volumes and is one of the best in the U. S. The anatomical cabinet is amply fi I led. The fol lowing are the subjects on which lectures are given: Theory and Practice of Medicine, by Dr. Wi II iam Sweetser; Materia Medica and Therapeutics, by Dr. Charles Lee; Obstetrics, by Dr. Amos Nourse; Medical Jurisprudence, by Hon. John Tenney; Anatomy and Physiology, by Dr. David Conant; Chemistry and Pharmacy, by Dr. P. A. Chadbourne.!!
The Honorable John Tenney, who gave those lectures on medical jurisprudence to the medical students at Bowdoin 95 years ago, was Chief Justice of the rvlaine Supreme Court, serving at the munificent salary of $1,800 a year.
Reminder of simpler expenditures a cent~ry ago is the almanac’s statement of all appropriations of the U. S. Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1859. Compared with the billions of the 1956 appropriation, the total for 1859 for a II purposes of government was $9,704,000.
Year: 1956