Radio Script #366
Little Talks On Common Things
February 2, 1958
Tonight let us take another look at Mrs. Henry Abbott’s old atlas of 1795.
You wi II recall that I told you what a significant difference appeared in the maps of Maine and New Hampshire in that atlas. The Maine map showed very few inhabited towns, no division into counties, and only one marked highway. New Hampshire, on the contrary, was depicted with numerous towns, clear county divi s ions, and a network of highways. Now let us see what the 0 I d at I as te II s us about Vermont.
Only three years before this atlas was published, Vermont had become the 14th state. Yet the entire state was so divided into named townships that everyone of them is shown and ina II they cover the enti re state. In 1795 the highway from Montpelier to Burlington traversed almost exactly the present route of U. S. 2. And from the New Hampshire border at what is now White River Junction, a road extended west to Kingston on the east side of the Green Mountains.
As that road passed through Stockbridge and turned north, a branch of it extended southeast over the mountain range, and is designated on this atlas map as fTroad over the mountai nn. At its western end that branch road joined the longest road in the state, for as early as 1795 there was a continuous hi ghway from Benn i ngton a I I the way north to Bur I i ngton •
Many of Vermont’s townships had no vi I 1 ages large enough to be marked on this 1795 map, but some of those that do appear are Gui Iford, Brattleboro, Marlboro, Bennington and Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s home town of Arlington. All of those communities were in the southern part of Vermont, close to the Massachusetts border. Further north vi I lages marked on this old map are scarce, but among them are Rutland, Castleton, Middleboro, New Haven and Burlington. North of Brattleboro the only marked vi I lage on the whole eastern or New Hampshire border is Rockingham.
The map of Massachusetts in this old atlas offers some amazing information.
Published only 20 years after the historic fight at Concord Bridge, the location of Concord is not shown at al I, although the Concord River appears in its correct place. Yet one can easi Iy follow Paul Revere’s route from Charlestown through Mystic to Lexington. There is not a single community designated on Cape Ann — no Gloucester or Rockport; yet we know there were settlers on that cape before 1650, and by the time of the Revolution, Gloucester was quite a port. Off Cape Ann are marked the shoals and rocks which 18th century sai 1- ors knew as the Salvages. The old names on Cape Cod were then much as they are today: Sandwich, Falmouth, Barnstable, Chatham, Harwich, Truro and Provincetown.
On Martha’s Vineyard, what is now Edgartown is given on this map as Old Town and its seaway is marked Old Town Harbor. On the other side of the island the map shows a place cal led Ti lesbury or New Town, and on the southwest shore was a place called Chi Imark.
In the western part of Massachusetts, what are the thriving cities of Pittsfield and North Adams are not shown at all. West Springfield on the west side of the Connecticut River is shown as being a settled community, but on the other side, where now is the big city of Springfield, there was no community in 1795 big enough to mark. On the other hand, Northampton is shown as a large vi Ilage, as indeed it had been ever since Jonathan Edwards had preached his hel I-fire sermons in the old First Church. The ancient vi I I ages of Deerfield, Hadley and Hatfield, settled before King Phi lip’s War, are clearly marked, and east of them the village of Amherst, site of what was then a very new college.
The maps of Connecticut and Rhode Island, in this atlas of 1795, likewise show many settled communities. As in Massachusetts, many of their towns had been settled in the 17th century and were already very old when this atlas was printed. As one views the separate maps of the six New England states in this atlas of 163 years ago, one is struck with the fact that Maine — the only one of the six which was not then a separate state — was the true wi Iderness area of all New England, with very sparse population, widely scattered settlements of hamlet size, and very few roads. In fact unti I long after 1795 Maine’s principal highways were her rivers and the sea.
The maps of other parts of the world which appear in this old atlas of 1795 make much plainer than do modern maps what sai lors cal I the seven seas.
have long wondered exactly what are the seven seas, because if you start nami ng a II bod i es of water that are ca lied oceans or seas, you soon get many rrore than seven. It was only a few months ago when the noted sea captain, Peter Freuchen, pub I i shed his exce I lent book of that very name, “The Seven Seas!!, that I learned their exact identity. Freuchen tells us that the seven seas are the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the North Pacific, the South Pacific, the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Indian. Mrs. Abbott’s ancient atlas reveals that in 1795, long before the days of steam, the northern and southern parts of both Atlantic and Pacific were regarded as separate oceans. Of course, as Freuchen points out, strictly speaking there is no such thing as different seas, for a I I the waters of the oceans are rea fly one. It is qui te i mposs i b Ie, for instance, to say exactly where the Atlantic ends and the Indian Ocean begins, or where the Indian ends and the Pacific begins. The reason why two parts of the Atlantic were considered to be separate oceans was because of the opposite di reet ion of the p revai ling wi nds. I n the north the wind was genera Ily from the southwest, which was also the direction of’ the Gulf Stream, whereas south of the equator the prevai ling trade winds blow from east to west. That was why the Mayflower I I last year went so far south along the coast of Europe before she turned west toward the American continent.
Th i s 01 d at I as we are di scuss i ng ton i ght I abe ts the northern part of the Atlantic as the Atlantic Ocean and the southern part as the Southern Ocean. The labels of the Pacific are, however, exactly as Peter Freuchen gives them, North Pacific and South Pacific.
Of all the maps in the volume, the one most like present charts is an exce I lent map of the Cari bbean area, a long the Gu I f of Maxi co, Centra I Ame ri ca, and the northern part of South America, and the islands of the West Indies. Although, of course, some of the names have been changed, the locations and distances are just as modern maps show them. That is because by 1795 the West Indies had been settled a long time. Since the days of Columbus and the Spanish conquests, Europeans had settled those islands long before the settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth. I am sure you listeners join me in expressing our gratitude to Mrs. Henry Abbott for giving me a chance to tel I you about Carey’s American Atlas of 1795.
Probably no foreigner did mo~ for the cause of the American Revolution than did General Lafayette. But according to the Kennebec Journal of January 8, 1825, there was bitter dispute in Congress about granting the French General compensati on forty years after the war was over.
In the spring of 1825 Lafayette had come to the United States to share with Daniel Webster the honors at layi ng of the cornerstone of Bunker Hi II Monurrent.
Lafayette had never been a wealthy man. The French Revolution had impoverished him sti I I further, and unlike some of his countrymen, he had not profited by Napoleon’s wars. Here is what the Kennebec Journal said: ‘~The bi II making provision for Gen. Lafayette met strong opposition in both houses of Congress. It was carried in the Senate by a comfortable majority, but encountered strong opposi tion in the House. OR Iy wi th an amendment reduci ng the amount was it ab Ie to pass at all, but finally both houses passed the bi II and it was signed by the Presi dent.
In that same issue of the Journal we learn that a post office deficit is nothing new. On June 30, 1824 that deficit amounted to more than $55,000. The bad news was offset, however, by the announcement that a road was planned from Washington City to New Orleans, on which the rnai I could be carried between the two cities in the unbelievably short time of eleven days.
More than once on this program I have mentioned old sayings of Maine people.
Some of these sayings concern the weather, like “red sky at night, sai lor’s delightft. But a lot of them have to do with superstitions, of which modern survivals are thirteen at a table, walking under a ladder, and seeing a black cat cross your path. Sure I y you reca I I the say i ng about marri age: ;;Change the narre and not the letter, is a change for the worse and not the bettern. But are you fami liar with the following sayings which were common on the lip of Maine people a hundred years ago? “By the pricking of my thumb, something evi I soon wi II COt1le.” trOne crow sorrow, two crows joy, three crows a letter, four crows a boy. n “I f you see the morn through a g I ass, you’ I I have sorrow wh i Ie it lasts.”
“Just as far as the sun shines in, just as far wi II the snow blON in.Tl nlf the weather be unsettled, look out for trouble.” “Green Christmas, fat cemetery.” A lot of people believed it was as bad luck to ki II a spider as it had been for the Ancient Mariner to kil I the albatross. So this saying was on many lips in Maine a century ago: “If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.”
A good story is told of a blacksmith in the coastal village of Owls Head about 1800. He and his fami Iy carried on a long standing feud with another family named Butler. One day a stranger appeared at the blacksmith shop and asked the smith if it was true that he had a cow for sale. The blacksmith agreed that such was the case, and the two men started the usual Maine practice of di ckeri ng over the pri ce. Fi na Ily a bargai n was struck and the stranger agreed to come the next day, pay the money and take the cow. Just as the man was leaving, the blacksmith asked, nBy the way, what’s your name?it f!Butler”, rep lied the stranger. ‘rrhen you can’t have no CaN of mi ne”, the b I acksmi th declared angri Iy. “Why not?ft asked the stranger. “Don’t like the name i ‘, said the smith. “Butf!, said the stranger, “my money is good, if my name is not, and anyhow have no connecti on with any But lers hereabouts H. f’Can’t he Ip itH, said the blacksmith, “if your name is Butler, you can’t have my cow. I’m poor enough, heaven knows, but not so poor I’d eve r se I I anyth i ng to a But Ie r. n
Year: 1958