Radio Script #358
Little Talks On Common Things
December 8, 1957
Li fe is filled wi th strage coi nci dences. Let me te II you about one that comes close to me. Raising beef cattle today, on a farm in South Bridgton, is a man only a little older than I, named Ernest Edward STevens. Retired from a distinguished position with one of America’s leading publishers of school textbooks, Ed Stevens is havi ng a wonderfu I ti me on the farm wh i ch was started by his great-grandfather in 1770.
Ed Stevens and I have four things in common. We were both born in Bridgton; we have both spent our act i ve lives in educat i on; we boTh once worked for the same company; and currently we are both engaged in writing the history of an educational institution. worked for Ginn and Company for only two years as a very humble salesman, whi Ie Ed Stevens was a distinguished Ginn editor for more than 40 years. Just as I am now working on a sesquicenTennial history of Colby College, my fellow townsman of Bridgton, Ed Stevens, is compi I ing a history of Bridgton Academy, one of Maine’s oldest and finest secondary schools. Altoget her find it an interesting coincidence.
Edson Smith, who now lives in Clinton, has from time to time sent me information about a narrow guage rai I road in the Klondike region of the northwestern corner of this North American continent. Mr. Smith has spent many years in Alaska, and has Traveled between there and the States numerous times. About a month ago he wrote me: ttl guess I have made my I aST Trip over the Wh i te Pass and Yukon Narrow Guage Rai Iroad. My whiskers are getting a little too gray for going up into that country any more. have been trave I ling up there for the past thirty years, and I always like to come down the narrow guage to Skagway, where I take the boat to Vancouver, and then the train across Canada to MontreaI, from where it is an easy run down what was once the 0 I d Grand Trunk to Portland. It is a trip of four days and four nights, by tra in, from Vancouver to Montreal — one of the most beautiful tri ps in the world. On my last trip to Alaska I worked for th ree years in a tuberculosis sanitarium for the Eskimos.
As you know, they are very suscepti b Ie to the di sease. Mr. Smith has sent me a picture of the sanitarium, which is located at Seward, A I aska. A Ithough there are rrany automobiles parked bes i de the b ui I di ng and not a single dogsled in sight, the picture shows plenty of snow, piled so high that only the top of some of the automobiles is visible.
The White Pass and Yukon Narrow Guage rai I road was bui It at the turn of the century, in the wake of the Klondike gold rush. The road starts in Canada, at Whitehorse in Yukon Territory, and runs for 150 mi les to Skagway where, as Mr. Smith says, there is a regular boat service to Vancouver. Skagway was the center of the Klondike gold stampede, and on the way there from Whitehorse, the passenger on the narrow guage can see the arduous trai Is over which the Klondikers made their difficult journeys.
Whi Ie most narrow guage lines have di sappeared, the Whi te Pass and Yukon has recently been equipped with diesel engines and with observation cars having big view windows, to al low the best view of the panorama of rugged peaks, steep canyon~ and brj-dge-spanned gorges. This little railroad is no mere summer excurs i on route, as i s the Ii tt Ie narrow guage sti II ooerati ng in Co lorado. The \’1hite Pass and Yukon operates the year round, bringing supplies to the mining area. Among its outgoing freight cargoes are zinc and asbestos.
Mr. Smith tel Is me that permanent residents of the Alaskan towns of Anchorage and Fairbanks have discovered that one of the most delightful ways to take a vacation is to drive to Whitehorse, leave their automobiles, and ride the narrow guage to Skagway.
Now I want to give you some interesting sidelights on Arnold’s expedition to Quebec in 1775. I have previously told you how Watervi I Ie’s early settler and surveyor, Dr. John ~.1cKechnie, gave medical treatment to sick soldiers i n Arnold’s army, when it stopped at Fort Halifax. Has it ever occurred to you to wonder how Arnold knew there was a way to get to Quebec by way of the Kennebec, and over the Height of Land to the waters of the Chaudiere? How did Arnold learn of such a possible way to approach the stronghold of the citadel on the St. Lawrence?
As early as 1682 an old French map suggested a route between Canada and the Atlantic seaboard of New England by way of the Chaudiere and K~nnebec rivers. From that day on the fact of this natural highway successively dimmed and brightened, but was never wholly lost. Between 1757 and 1760 Governor Pownal I of Massachusetts had the region carefully inspected. In 1764 General Murray sent a young man to make a thorough exp I orat i on of the area. That young man.
on his way to making himself the King’s chief engineer of surveys in America, was John Montressor. With a party of Indians, Montressor went over the whole route, drawing a map and making a topographical journey of his whole trip. Montressor’s investigations were made from the north. A little later Samuel Goodwin, who like John McKechnie was a surveyor for the Plymouth Company, explored the region from the south.
Long before Arnold was born, mi litary use of the route had been suggested. In 1697 the French proposed to attack Boston by way of the Chaudiere. Baron Castine had much the same plan in 1702. A half century later in 1754, Gov. Powna I I wrote: “The Kennebec is ta I ked of as a route by wh i ch an army might pass, the best and shortest way to attack Quebec.”
Most historians agree that the famous 1775 expedition was not I·Arnold’s idea at a I I. It is known that the fi rst man, or certai n Iy one of the fi rst, to suggest it to Genera I Wash i ngton was Co I. Jonathan Brewer of Danvers, Mass. Washington, feeling the need of giving an important post to Arnold, who had recently suffered humi liating disappointment, told Arnold of Brewer’s plan and suggested that Arnold undertake it. Arnold enthusiastically accepted.
I am sure many of you have seen the Colburn mansion, on the heights above the river, on the east side of the Kennebec, just before you reach the vi I lage of Dresden Mi lis on the road from Randolph to Wi scasset. Every reader of Arnol d knows that iT was Reuben Colburn who arranged to supply Arnold with the controversial bateaux, which proved so valuable in smooth water~ but so impossible to manipulate in rapids. Let us see what actually happened, according to the contemporary reports.
At the very time when Washington was securing Arnold’s consent to lead an expedition up the Kennebec, Reuben Colburn chanced to be in Cambridge on business. Arnold talked with Colburn, and learned much about the river and its approaches, wiTh which Colburn, owner of a shipyard and boats, was especially fami liar. But, leaving nothing to chance, Arnold wrote Colburn a letter, asking the latter how soon he could bui Id 200 light bateaux capable of carryin9 six or seven men each, with 100 pounds of provisions and luggage per man: also what quantity of fresh beef could be had at what price; whether nai Is enough could be obtained; and especially to get information from anyone who had been over the route, as to depth of water, carrying places, swamps, etc.
In August Colburn brought to Cambridge five Indians of the St. Francis tribe, who could give Arnold accurate information about the route. Before Colburn returned home, Washington gave him the following written orders~ “You wi II go with a II expediti on to Gardi nerstOtln on the ri ver Kennebec, and without delay proceed to the construction of 200 bateaux, to row with four oars each, two paddles and two setting poles. Bespeak al I the pork and flour you can find, and acquaint the inhabitanTS that the commissary wi I I have orders for the purchase of 60 barrels of salted beef. You wi I I also organize a company of 20 artificers, carpenters and guides for service with the expedition. Tt
In a message to the Continental Congress in Phi ladelphia, Washington informed the Congress of Arnold’s proposed attack on Quebec, and described the route in these words: HFrom the mouth of the Kennebec Ri ver to Quebec on a straight line is 210 mi les. Sloop can go up about 28 mi les, and flat-bottomed boats can go about 22 mi les more. Then you meet Ti coni c Fa lis, from whi ch poi nt to Norri dgewock i s 31 mi les. From there to the first carry i ng p I ace about 30 mi les. Carry of four mi les, then a pond to cross, and another carry about two mi les to another pond, then a carry of three of four mi les to a thi rd pond, whence is a carry to The first branch of the Kennebec, called the Dead River._ then up that river 30 mi les, whereupon you come to the Height of Land and a carry of six mi les inTo a branch that leads into MeganTic Pond, the head of the Chaudiere River, which flows into the St. Lawrence about four mi les above Quebec.”
It was on September 13, 1775 that the second battalion of Arnold’s army marched from Cambridge to Newburyport, where three days later they were joined by the first batt~lion. On ten transports the whole army left Newburyport on the 18th. On the 22nd and 23rd they were at Swan Island and Pownalborough on the Kennebec. Two nights and parts of three days from September 25 to 27 they spent at Fort Western in what is now Augusta. One division, however, Col. Morgan’s, had gone on ahead and reached Fort Halifax on September 25. A contemporary account tells us that on the 28th Arnold himself~ who had remained at Fort Western unti I the last of the troops were on thei r way up the ri ver .. entered a birch canoe with two Indians who paddled him to Vassalboro. There the leaking canoe was changed for a more modern boat in which Arnold went on to Fort Halifax, where he spent the night, having passed the slower moving bateaux on the way_
It was on September 29, 1775 that the first three divisions of Arnold’s men made the carry around Ticonic Fal Is. It was at the home of a man named Crosier, who was said to live on the west side of the river, but who has otherwise been lost to history, that Arnold had dinner. It is recorded that Crosier procured an oxcart in which Arnold’s baggage was conveyed overland, thus avoiding Five Mi Ie Rip above Ticonic Falls. The record does not say how far the team carried Arnold’s goods, but it was probably no farther than the smooth water above the islands at Fairfield.
Wei I, such are a few sidelights from Arnold’s famous expedition.
Year: 1957