Radio Script #349
Little Talks On Common Things
October 6, 1957
During the past summer it was my privi lege to talk with Brother Eloi Gerard, a French Canadian priest who has done a life-time of work on the genealogies of fami lies in the several parishes near Ste. Marie de ESauce,. on the highway from Jackman to Quebec. That is the part of Canada from wh i ch came many of Watervi lie’s French Canadian fami lies, who wi II be interested in one or anoTher of the eleven big volumes into which Brother Eloi has patiently collected The numerous fami I y lines.
In ttKennebec YesterdaysTr I have told the story of Jim Jackman’s building of the Canada road in 1828. That was what Mai ne peop Ie ca lied the road from The Forks to The Canadian line. Brother Eloi has given me information about the bui Iding of the Canadian section of that road which connected Boston and Port- I and with The Ci ty of Quebec.
He says the first road planned from Levis on the south side of the St. Lawrence opposite the City of Quebec, to the vii lages down toward the American line, was called in the plans the Justinian Road, named/for Father Justine; a Recollet priest ministering to the first parishes of Ste. !v1arie and St. Joseph in Baauce County_ The plan was made by that priest himself as early as 1758. It was laid out and bui It by the people along the route by their own labor wiThout governmenT support unti I 1813. By small aid from the government during the next seven years, the road was comp I eted to St. Georges. In 1829 the Quebec gove rnment voted for the construction of what they cal led the Kennebec Road. From the earliest times the Abnakis had told the French settlers that this was The shortest route from the Kennebec River to Quebec. The road was bui It and opened in 1830 through to the Maine border, where it met the Canadian Road bui It by James Jackman two years earl ier.
Brother Eloi ~el Is me that in 1833 the road was made an official post road for ma i I between Ebston and Quebec. In 1835 Samue I tbugh, who he I d the franchise for transpor~ation of the mail by stage over the road, formed a partnership with Jonathan Spaulding of Skowhegan, and the Hough-Spaulding stage carried the mail for many years. The trip took originally 4t days, but by steady improvements in the road itself, in the construction of vehicles, and in the use of faster horses, it was eventua I I Y reduced to 2t days.
The Roman Catholic listeners to this program wi II be especially interested in what Brother E 10 i te II s me about an ear Iy priest who vi sited the Watervi lie French in 1841. Brother Eloi unfortunately has not given me the priest’s name, but he was the first parish priest of St. Georges in Eaauce County, Quebec. I-e extended his minis~ry down the Canada Road into the Maine communities where French people from Quebec had settled — Jackman, Skowhegan, Watervi I Ie and Augusta.
On August 1, 1841 th~t priest wrote a letter to his bishop, the text of which Brother Eloi has kindly sent me in translation. The priest wrote:
Ifl have visited Kennebec, Skowhegan, Watervi I Ie and Augusta. I have spent 63 louis from the funds of the Propagation of the Faith, and 3 louis 15 chelins of my own money. I left st. Georges on July 12 with a young man and arrived 10 _~_Ieagues from St. Georges on the Kennebec Road the fi rst day. I slept at the hotel of Joseph Nadeau in a village where there are nine families. The next day we travelled 25 leagues without seeing anybody. The next day, after a long journey of 40 leagues, reached Skowhegan. At the home of a Canadian I said Mass, found 12 fami lies, confessed 24 adults and 12 chi Idren, and made 11 bapti sms. On J u I y 16 I rece i ved a great recepti on at Wate rvi I Ie 0 boarded at J. B. Mathieu’s and preached a mission for four days. I taught catechism to 847 chi Idren, said Mass at 8 o’clock, the sermon and confession ti II midnight. I confessed 100 adults, made 36 baptisms, 7 solemnal communions. On the way to Augusta, about six leagues from Watervi I Ie, I said Mass in a chapel which had belonged to the Protestants and had been purchased by the Catholics four years ago. I confessed 16 persons, i ncl udi ng two fami I ies from Quebec. Everywhere warned our peop Ie to avoi d mere ci vi I marri age: before the squi res. IT
That di I igent priest was surely a worthy follower of the renowned Father Dui Ilettes,and that even more famous Father Ras Ie, who had mi ni stered to the Abnaki, i nd i ans more than a century ear Ii er.
We do not have to go back into the 18th century to find instances of Maine peop Ie I i vi ng under primiti ve condi ti ons. I n ~?Kennebec YesterdaysH I have related the privations suffered by the fami Iy of Elihu Bowerman when they settled in their crude cabin in North Fairfield. Recently I saw a letter written in 1825 from another part of Maine, and I want to share the contents with you toni ght.
Over in the northern part of Oxford County .. near the New Hampsh ire line, is the little town of Stoneham. Incorporated in 1834, it had in 1850 nearly 500 inhabitants. Today its population has shrunk to less than 300. Before the town was incorporated, the region was known as the Batchelder Grant. To that sparsely settled region, where there were only half a dozen fami I ies, a young woman named Sarah Cooley AI len went with her husband to found a wi Iderness home in 1825.
On May 15 she wrote to her mother, back in Portland, about her experience in early Apri I when, returning home, she had to break a mi Ie of road through knee-deep snow. She wrote: HThere was such a hard crust it would almost bear: but not quite. I got a shocking cold. I got al I my crockery home safe, but a week ago the cat broke the Ii tt Ie butter p I ate. I was p rope r sorry.”
Mrs. A lien wanted her mother to be sure to contact Mrs. Euni ce Fox. because the latter had promised to have a bundle of something to give Mrs. AI len when Mr. Allen came to Portland for his molasses. Mrs. Allen added: TTl wish you would ask her to send me a little rice to make some porridge. have nothing but some Indian meal that is good enough, but I would rather have a little rice if I can get some. One day we were out of meal and there was not a fami Iy on the Grant that had any. Yesterday I used the last of my sugar. never sit down to our s imp Ie mea I s but I th ink of the good th j ngs we had to eat in Portland.”
Mrs. A I len then turned to more cheerfu I top i cs. She assured her mot be r that the sheep had nice fleeces and had produced four lively lambs. Her husband had already sown five bushels of wheat and rye and had two more bushels to sow.
She said that, as soon as that job was done, husband Elisha would set out for Portland for the cherished molasses and other provisions. Mrs. Allen didn’t relish the idea of her husband’s absence, for she wrote: “I don’t know what’ would do if anything should happen whi Ie he is gone, but trust al I wi I I be we I I • ” S he added, “Do you remembe r the logwood you gave me ‘as t wi nte r? I wish you would put it in one of the bags and send it up to me. am going to send you a few dried apples. We have three trees and hope for a good crop next fall.
Elisha has cleaned up all smooth around the house and has sown it all ,down to grass. I hope soon we can cut hay enough to keep our stock without buying any. I have pieced up another qui It and qu i I ted its i nce I came here. I pieced it up out of everyth i ng that was ca I i co about the house. A week ago I went to Wate rford and got some sp inn i ng. I have sp un 13 doub Ie ske ins, a II linen.
Twe I ve years later th is woman wrote another letter, th is ti me to her si ster in Port I and. Duri ng those twe I ve years the Batche I de r Grant had become the town of Stoneham, and Sa’rah now I ived near a I ittle vi I I age with store and grist mi I I. She wrote that her husband had just gone to Waterford for a load of apples, and that he was going to make barrel shook that winter in a shop at the end of the house. She had some bad news. Mr. Sawyer’s catt Ie had broken into their garden and had eaten the cabbages. What was worse, one of their best sheep had been found in the woods with her throat cut. The thief had taken the sheep out of the barn and had left the door open.
The leTter goes on to pay respects to certai n di sl iked members of the fami I y~ “Emi I y wrote a letter to mother but never sa i d anyth i ng about me. She said she had been in Portland a number of times but had not cal led to see you. I am sorry TO think a relation I never saw but a few times should act so? but can’t help it. I have heard that Uncle Nathan’s wife said the day after he died, it in that at last she had her neck out from under the yoke and never would get again. Albert is sti II courting Sally. All the fellers is courting because the weather is ti me I y. n
Times were much better for Sarah than they had been in 1825, for she wrote:
nTh is part of the state is fu II of p rovi si ons wh i ch can be bought for a do I I ar a bushe I. Fo I ks never ra i sed better crops for many years.”
We I I, That shows us what a difference a few years made in the pioneer settlements of Maine.
Unti I I recent I y saw an 01 d noti ce for a carta in town meeti ng in the Kennebec Valley, I did not know that at one time town meeting and state election were sometimes held on the same day. That was before Maine became a separate state. In March, 1807 the selectmen of Clinton ordered constables Nathan Brown and Tri a I Ha II to summons those meeti ngs in the fo II owi ng words:
“In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are hereby required to notify and warn all the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of C linton to assemb Ie at the Schoo I House near M-. Robert Phi Ibrook, in sai d Clinton, on Monday the sixth day of Apri I next, at nine of the clock in the forenoon, to give i n the i r vote s for gove rnor , lie utenant gove rnor, an done senator. Also you are required to notify and warn the same freeholders and inhabitants to assemble at the same place at one o’clock in the afternoon of the same day for the purpose of the following bus iness: (1) To choose a moderator to regu I ate and govern sa i d meeti ng. (2) To choose a cl erk and a I f other officers necessary TO serve in said town the ensuing year. (3) To see what sum of money the town wi I I ra i se for the preach i ng of the gospe I ~ fo r the support of the schools, the support of the poor, and to repair the highways and bridges. (4) To see if the Town will vote to raisera sum of money for repairing the bridge across the Sebasticook near Clark and Heald, or act·otherwise thereon as the town sha II agree. ( 5) To gi ve ; n votes for county taxes. (6) To see if the town will vote TO let swine go at large the ensuing year.”
When we get to argui ng about whether we ought to have state and nati onal elections on different days in Maine, let’s remember that there was a time when the fruga I peop Ie of C f i nton cast the i r town votes and the i r sta’te votes on the same day.
Year: 1957