Radio Script #368

Little Talks on Common Things

February 16, 1958

Have you ever heard of the Keith diaries? A few persons interested in the history of the Kennebec Valley have known about these diaries for a long time, but very little public attention has been given to them. They are now the property of Mr. Arthur Brann of Winslow, who has let me examine these papers, at leisure, over a period of the past several months.

The Keith diaries cover a period of 37 years from 1851 to 1888. They are not a daily record, because there are gaps, sometimes of a few days, at other times of several months. There is indeed a lapse of four years, from June, 1866 to May, 1870, but I suspect that is because the volume containing that record has somehow been lost from the collection. What remains are eight volumes of old-fashioned marble-covered notebooks. Of course I do not mean a book encased in marble, but rather with a print resembling the appearance of marble on the hard cover. It is quite possible that there was once a ninth volume which included the missing period from the middle of 1866 to the middle of 1870.

These diaries were written by Charles Keith of Winslow and they give us an amazing close-up of life in the Kennebec Valley during more than a third of a century, and most importantly during the trying years of the Civil War.

Who was Charles Keith? He was the son of a Winslow farmer, Sidney Keith, who was a selectman of the town from 1817 to 1821, and town clerk in 1837. He had come to Winslow early in the 19th century. On his mother’s side, Charles Keith, born in 1816, was a member of Winslow’s famous Hayden family.

The Hayden family came to Maine from Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and the Keith diaries reveal many associations with that town, as we shall see. Col. Josiah Hayden, the first of the Winslow Haydens, married Silence Howard in Bridgewater on March 16, 1763, and it is for Silence Howard Hayden that the local chapter of the DAR is named. Both Col. Hayden and his wife died before Maine became a separate state, Silence in 1803 and the Colonel in 1818. Their oldest child was Charles Hayden, born in 1764. He married Mary Howard of Winslow and it was their daughter, Ann Hayden, who married Sidney Keith. Thus when Charles Hayden Keith was born in 1816, he was the great-grandson of Col. Josiah Hayden, and a relative of the many Haydens of Kennebec County, including Waterville’s prominent citizen, Josiah Daniel Hayden. Charles Keith further cemented the Hayden relationship by marrying Martha McFadden Hayden, whose father, Major Josiah Hayden, was a brother of Keith’s grandfather, Charles Hayden.

Charles and Martha Keith had no children, so down the years these diaries come to us as the only descendants of a Winslow man who died 70 years ago, for when Charles Keith was 72 years old in 1888, he went to join the companion of his years, who had died four years earlier.

In the last volume of the diaries Keith’s niece, Alice Judson Hayden, has appended a note, making it clear why the last diary entry is dated January 21, 1888. She wrote: “Uncle was sick a little less than a week. His disease was probably pneumonia. The night he was taken, it was storming very hard. The roads were so blocked it was impossible to get a physician for three days. He did not seem himself from the first.”

Now let me say a word about the importance of extensive diaries like those of Charles Keith. Of course they do not have either the historical importance or the national interest that attach to the memoirs, letters and papers of renowned political figures. But the writings of ordinary people are very important for those of us who like to see how relatively insignificant people just like ourselves, lived in days gone by, and especially to note how these writings reveal the changing conditions those people faced, and what they did about them.

Charles Keith made no pretense to greatness. He just wanted to be a cooperative citizen, a devout churchman, and a good neighbor. He was the unusual combination of farmer and school teacher. For several years he divided his time between Winslow, Maine and Braintree, Massachusetts, working on the Winslow farm from March to October, and teaching two terms of school in Braintree from October to March.

The first entry which Charles Keith made in his diary was dated August 18, 1851, when Char I es was 35 years 0ld. He wrote: “Fair and fine, thrashed wheat.”

He tells us that he spent the forenoon of September 6th getting out manure, but in the afternoon he went to Waterville and saw the Lewiston Fire Company. All his life Charles Keith made his two major interests the school and the church. In 1851 he was already school agent for Winslow’s District One. In that capacity he visited the upper level school in Waterville which was called a high school, although it was quite different from the regularly organized high schools of twenty years later. This is what Keith says about his visit to the so-called high school in Waterville on September 16, 1851: “Visited high school today. About fifty scholars. The teacher, Mr. Tucker, seemed rather diffident and does not have a tact to dispatch lessons. The school taught last year by Mr. Parks appeared to much better advantage, not on account of the scholars, but by his having a better faculty to instruct and govern a school.” Charles Keith’s first teaching in Massachusetts was in October, 1852. He had left Winslow on September 30, had gone from Hallowell to Boston by boat and on so cold a night that the deck of the boat was “all frost”. He says: “I took the cars at Boston and went to Braintree. That night I went to Capt. Hayden’s and was examined was asked only a few questions, for which I was very glad, as my head was dizzy from riding in the cars. We passed the evening very pleasantly.”

He opened his school on October 4 with 38 pupils, 20 boys and 18 girls. His schoolroom was on the second floor of a big schoolhouse in a space 32 x 26 feet.

Charles tells us it was “finished and furnished in the best style”. He says that he got through the day pleasantly teaching history, ancient and modern; physiology; arithmetic; grammar; and reading, writing, spelling and geography. On October 7 he recorded: “I have got along better than I expected, though it has been hard work and I have felt almost sick. It is very unpleasant to be separated from one’s nearest friends, especially one’s wife. I think I shall never do it again unless it becomes more necessary than at present. Last night I received a letter from her. It is the first one she ever wrote me, though we have been married eleven years. In that time have not been absent more than two weeks at a time and then but a few miles from home.”

Charles had been less than a month in Braintree when he had a memorable experience. He attended the funeral of Daniel Webster in nearby Marshfield.

Let us see how he recorded this experience: “Went to the funeral of Daniel Webster in nearby Marshfield. He was 71 years old and possessed probably the strongest mind of any man ever born in America. His name and fame are known all over the civilized world. Everything about his home was in perfect order. The estate contains about 1,500 acres, of which considerable is wood and about 200 acres are salt marsh. I think he had as much as 30 acres of corn besides a proportion of other crops. I noticed 12 acres of English turnips in one field. The buildings were good but not extravagant.

“Probably there were 5,000 persons at the funeral. He was put into a metallic coffin, made to fit the body, and adorned with three silver plates and silver handles. He was put in a tomb, where his first wife, his son who was killed in Mexico, and his daughter and her child had been previously buried. The tomb is enclosed within an iron fence. Inside are plain monuments to Mrs. Webster, his son Edward, and his daughter, Mrs. Appleton and her child. I did not see the corpse because the crowd was so great. As I looked at the vast multitude, I could not help thinking for this crowd there would someday be as many funerals as there were persons, though none would be so honored as Webster.

“Some of Webster’s acts appeared inconsistent, but he viewed things differently from men of inferior mind. He has read the bible through every year for many years, and his attendance at worship was consistent.”

As Charles Keith continued his school into December, the snow deepened and the cold strengthened. On December 13 he wrote: “The storm was so bad I had to suspend school.” It was no better the next day, and even on the 15th, when the storm was over, Charles recorded: in sleighs and shoveling out paths. Pit is fair and cold. People are riding made a fire at the schoolhouse but had no scholars.”

On the 19th school was going again, but not to Charles’ satisfaction, for he wrote: “The scholars are very restless today, especially the boys. Mr. Newton told me I had better have my examination soon, as the money will be all expended this week.”

So on December 24, 1852 Charles Keith closed his fall term in Braintree, and began the winter term about the middle of January, 1853. He did not go home to Winslow, but stayed right in Braintree. He makes no mention of Christmas presents or of Christmas festivities of any kind. In fact in the year 1852 his diary does not contain the word Christmas. This is what he tells us about his activity on December 25, 1852: “Went to Captain Hayden’s school and took dinner with him. Saw his father, who is a cousin of my grandfather. He is 78 years old and is quite smart. He said he had been to the Kennebec twice, in 1797 and 1799.”

Charles’ winter term lasted unti I March 3rd. During that term he tel Is us that he swapped watches with Joseph Porter and one day went to Braintree Square and had his picture taken by a Mr. Nye. On March 3 he wrote: “Finished my school today and settled with the agent. Received for my services $168.50.”

On the evening of March 5 he was back home in Winslow, having travel led from Boston to Watervil Ie by train. He had been gone 5f months, during which time he had earned a little less than $170 and his board. But we must remember that he got his $168.50 in cash, which was a scarce and valued commodity in the 1850’s.

Like most diarists, Charles Keith had a lot to say about the weather. On October 27, 1851 he wrote: “A severe snow storm commenced in the night and continued til noon. Greatest depth five inches.” On October 31 he noted: “Rivers very high. Below the meeting house water is in the road four feet deep. It is within three feet of the Sebasticook Bridge. At the mill brook it is about two feet below the top of the dam. The streams are still rising.”

On the last day of the year in 1851 he wrote: “Roads drifted badly. I have been on most of the roads in town within a few days, and have scarcely ever seen the north and south roads blocked worse in March. There are miles of road where snow is as high as the fence and hard enough to bear a team.”

As late as April 6 Charles was able to record: “From Waterville to Augusta there is snow all the way. In some places it is two feet in the travelled road.”

On June 24, 1852 Charles Keith reached his 36th birthday. For him it was an occasion for serious contemplation, and he set down in his diary these solemn sentences: “I have lived more than half the years allotted to man, and yet I do not know how to live. have been anxious to secure a competency and have so far possessed enough of this world’s goods to make us comfortable. I have tried to live as a Christian, but have come far short of living as I should have done. For the future I wish to live more agreeably to the requirements of the gospel.”

And with that resolve from his pen we must leave Charles Keith tonight. Next week I want to tell you about some of his even more interesting experiences.

So, for now, good night for old time’s sake.

Year: 1958