Radio Script #526

Little Talks on Common Things

February 18, 1962

It is often said that this is the one part of the United States where Benedict Arnold is remembered as a hero, not as a traitor. For it was indeed a heroic expedition that· Arnold led up the Kennebec to the Dead River and over the Height of Land to the Chaudiere in 1775. Thousands of people who have never been in Maine learned of the tragic expedition from the pages of Kenneth Roberts” best seller, “Arundel”.

I venture to say, however, that few people know that anyone in Maine had dealings with Benedict Arnold after his treason. A few years ago there came to light an old account book, kept in the store of Col. John Allen at Machias from 1783 to 1805. The book contains three references to Arnold, who in the winter 1786-87 was on Campobello Island. There was nothing illegal about John Allen’s dealings with the traitor, because by then the Revolutionary War had been ended for five years; though Arnold might have met with rough treatment if he had stepped foot inside the U. S.

Anyhow John Allen sold goods to Arnold, not directly, but through a Captain Gregg. The three items in the old account book read as follows: “Nov. 6, 1786 — Gen. Arnold, 1,976 feet of lumber, delivered to Capt. Gregg.

“Dec. 6, 1786

“Feb. ?, 1787 Gen. Arnold, cordage, del. to Capt. Gregg. Benedict Arnold, 1 gal. rum.”

Speaking of Arnold, a place well worth a visit is the old Colburn House, on the east side of the Kennebec River, on the road from Randolph to Dresden Mills. The old Revolutionary house, occupied by Major Reuben Colburn, has been beautifully restored.

Nearby stands a huge boulder with a tablet placed by the D.A.R. in 1913. The inscription reads: “This tablet marks the headquarters of Col. Benedict Arnold, Sept. 21-23, 1775, when he was the guest of Major Reuben Colburn during the transfer of his army of 1,100 men and supplies from the transports to the 220 bateaux built by Major Colburn for the expedition to Quebec. To commemorate this event this tablet is placed by the Samuel Grant Chapter of the D. A.. R.”

Did you know that the right to cross uncultivated lands to go fishing in a Maine pond is an ancient right derived from early Colonial times? Under the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, there was created a “court of assistants”, appointed by the governor — a group that later developed into the legislature of Massachusetts, still called the Great and General Court. In 1641 the Court of Assistants passed a number of ordinances that became known as the “Body of Liberties”. The 16th article read as follows: “Every inhabitant that is a householder shall have free fishing and fowling in any great pond unless the freemen of the town or the court have otherwise appropriated.”

In 1647 that ordinance was amended giving the public lithe right to pass on foot through any man’s property to reach any great pond so long as they trespass not upon any man’s corn or meadow. It When litigation arose the Massachusetts courts consistently held that the term t1great pond” meant any natural pond more than ten acres in extent, and that the ordinance gave fishermen the right to approach such a pond through woodlands or pasture but not over tillage or improved ground.

Although the Supreme Court of Massachusetts repeatedly decided that this ordinance was the common law of that Commonwealth, the issue was never brought before the Maine Supreme Court until 1882. The case Was an action of trespass for fishing on Grindstone Pond in the town of Willimantic in Piscataquis County. Since the defendant had crossed a cultivated piece of land to get to the pond, the court held that he had committed a technical trespass, but that there was no trespass in his fishing in Grindstone Pond. In rendering the decision Justice Barrows declared that the old ordinance, having become a part of the common law of Massachusetts, was applicable to the entire State of Maine.

That 1882 case had some historical significance. The prosecution contended that the old Massachusetts law did not apply, because it had been made by the old Massachusetts Bay Colony and could not be held valid in areas belonging to the Plymouth Colony or any part of Maine as it existed when the ordinance was made. In striking down that contention, Justice Barrows said: “This ordinance has been so fully recognized as part of the common law in the courts of both Maine and Massachusetts, without regard to its source or its limited original force in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, that we should regard it as a piece of judicial legislation to do away with any part of it until it shall have been changed by the proper law-making power.”

In this centennial period of the Civil War, thoughts often turn, not merely to the battles, but to the issue that caused the war, Negro slavery. The first Anti-Slavery Society in Maine was organized at Hallowell in 1833. Within a year there were a dozen others in the state, including one in Waterville. In October, 1834 the several Maine societies held a convention in Augusta. One of the officers of that state organization in 1834 was Jonah Dow, father of Neal Dow who, seventeen years later, would promote Maine’s famous prohibitory law.

Speaking of slavery, there lies in the old Eastern Cemetery in Gorham Village an interesting tombstone with a rather long inscription. Here is what it says: “Prince, a slave whom the first William McLellan of Gorham bought in Portland and paid for in shooks. Prince drove the team to haul them. He ran away and enlisted on Capt. Maley’s privateer and was discharged in Boston, came back, was freed, given ten acres of land a,pd a pension. He died in 1829, over 100 years old. His wives: Dinah, died 1800; Chloe, died 1827.”

A Maine institution that deserved mention on this program long ago, but has never had it until tonight, is the Bangor Theological Seminary. According to how you look at it, that nationally known seminary is either one year older or one year younger than Colby College, which was chartered as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution in 1813. If one counts the first Bangor charter, which was never actually implemented, the Bangor Seminary dates from 1812, but if one begins with the charter under which the seminary was actually set up, it was 1814. The fact is, the Act of 1812 did not actually establish a seminary. It was called “An Act to Incorporate the Society for Theological Education, to assist well disposed young men who are desirous of entering into the gospel ministry, but by a deficiency of pecuniary resources are unable to qualify themselves for a situation so important and useful.”

When the incorporators of that Society became convinced that they must have a school to carry out the purposes of the Act of 1812, they secured from the Massachusetts Legislature a true seminary charter in 1814.

It was a woman, Mrs. Abigail Bailey, wife of the Congregationalist minister at Newcastle, who is credited with the first suggestion for a seminary of the established New England church in Maine. Enlisting support from the wives of other ministers, she got the matter before a ministerial conference as early as 1810. That resulted in the formation of the 1812 Society, followed by the founding of the seminary. Mrs. Bailey’s idea, accepted by the founders, was to have a seminary for poor men, to fit them to preach in the new settlements in Eastern Maine.

The incorporating trustees faced exactly the same difficulties as those confronted by the founders of Colby College. The time was the middle of the War of 1812, a rigid embargo crippled Maine trade, and money was extremely scarce. Two years elapsed before the Bangor trustees even organized. Then in May, 1816 a meeting was held at the home of Major Samuel Moor in Montville. They elected officers and decided to open their seminary in the autumn.

At that time the largest town on the Penobscot north of Frankfort Was not Bangor, but Hampden. Its leading citizen was the big trader, General John Crosby. His influence was such that the trustees decided to locate their seminary in Hampden. One reason was that Hampden Academy, incorporated in 1803 and already operating,had an. extra room they would rent cheap. So in that one room in Hampden Academy the theological seminary opened in October, 1816. At first it had only one professor, Rev. Jehudi Asherman.

In 1818 the trustees voted to change the location to the town that would subscribe the largest sum for the seminary’s support. The contesting towns were Castine, Bucksport, Hampden, Brewer and Bangor. Bangor won, by pledging §8,960. Its nearest competitor was Brewer, with §8,468. So in lti19 the seminary was moved to Bangor. Classes were held in the Court House and in the room of a house at the corner of Main and Water Streets. Hev. John Smith was appointed professor at a salary of §700 With this interesting provision: “if the Treasurer thinks it necessary for his support.” The only other professor was Rev. Bancroft Fowler, . who was promised §800 a year without any such provision as was attached to Smith.

In 1821 Isaac Danforth of Milton, Mass. gave to the seminary “a lot of land near the village of Bangor containing about 7-1/2 acres.” Mr. Danforth was an old-fashioned Orthodox Unitarian who not only gave land for the seminary, but also provided the lot for what was then called the Independent Congregational Unitarian Church.

The first building erected on the Danforth lot. was a chapel, in 1823. It burned many years ago. The second building, called the Commons, was put up in 1827 for a dormitory and boarding house. The first large brick building was built in 1833. Meanwhile the trustees were busy collecting funds. In 1822 they sent Rev. Jotham Sewall of Chesterville on a long trip into the South and West. In the new federal city of Washington, his largest subscriber was John Quincy Adams, who a few years later would be President of the United States.

The seminary graduated its first class in 1820, the year when Maine became a separate state. It contained seven men, not one of whom had graduated from any college. In fact to this day, Bangor still ,prides itself on not being a graduate seminary, but accepting older men who have not attended college, and supplying them with certain collegiate instruction at the Seminary itself, before they launch upon theological studies.

One of Bangor Seminary’s first trustees was a most interesting man, Rev. John Sawyer. Born in Connecticut in 1755, and graduatingfrom Dartmouth in 1785, he had become a missionary of the Massachusetts Missionary Society and had been sent to work in the scattered settlements along the Penobscot River. In 1806 he settled in Bangor as a regular preacher and school teacher. He had an unusually long, active life. In 1855, on his 100th birthday, he made a public address in the Central Church in Bangor.

Year: 1962