Radio Script #563

Little Talks on Common Things

February 3, 1963

I like to examine publications that came out in the year 1891, for that was the year when I was born. So it was with peculiar interest that I recently chanced upon a book called “Anthony’s Business Directory for 1891”, covering the communities of Augusta, Gardiner, Hallowell, Waterville, Oakland and Fairfield.

It was still a time of horse-drawn stages, for no automobiles yet cluttered the roads. There were no fewer than ten stages in and out of Augusta. One went to Searsmont, another to Belfast, another to Waldoboro, and a fourth to Rockland. In the other direction a stage went to Litchfield, another to Winthrop, a third to Vienna via Manchester and Mt. Vernon. Another Augusta stage ran to Oakland via Belgrade and made connections with the new Somerset R.R. Another ran regularly to Weeks Mills and North Windsor. Finally there was a daily stage from Augusta to what was then called the National Military Home at Togus.

While the booklet lists a dozen points of interest in and about Augusta, it makes no mention of Fort Western. In 1891 that historic site had not been restored to its attractive present condition.

E;, lot of information about Waterville appeared in that 1891 directory. The post office on Main Street was open every week day from 7 a. m. to e p.m. and on Sunday from 9 to 10 a.m. That means actually open for business. The postmaster was Willard M. Dunn.

Waterville had eight churches, all staffed with clergy, in 1891. W. H. Spencer presided at the First Baptist; L. H. Halleck at the Congregationalist; L,. B. Codding at the Methodist; and J. W. Sparks at St. Mark’s Episcopal. The Unitarian and the Universalist were then separate congregations, with J. W. Stewart at the former and a pastor designated in the directory only as Mr. Davis at the latter. The city then had only one Catholic Church, St. Francis de Sales, under the beloved Father Charland.

It is interesting to note that besides the usual fraternal orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, Waterville had chapters of the Knights of Honor, the United Workmen and the Golden Cross. Of course in 1891 its post of the Grand Army was still prominent.

The various components of the Waterville Fire Department bring back memories to our older people. There were the Steamer F. C. Thayer NO.1, the Appleton Hook and Ladder Co. No.2, the Neptune Hose Co., and the Water Hose Co. No.3.

In 1891 the Waterville and Fairfield Street Railway had only recently been electrified. It ran half hour service, just as it did almost up to the day it finally expired. Its notice did say, however, that on stormy days the cars advertised to leave Fairfield at 2, 3, 4, 6:30 and 10 ~m. would not run. This was a summer schedule, and there is a reason for the notice that extra cars would leave Waterville for Fairfield at 7 p.m. on pleasant Saturday nights. That reason was to accommodate pleasure-minded Watervillians who wanted to spend the evening at Amos Gerald’s Island Park on Bunker Island between Fairfield and Benton.

In 1891 Waterville had a professional bill poster named E. Williams. It also had a carpet cleaning works run by S. B. McCausland. The town had ten dress makers, among the best known of whom Was Miss E. E. Springfield. No fewer than five express companies did business in the city. In addition to the American Express there were Hoyts, the New England Dispatch Co., the North Vassalboro and Waterville Express, and the Waterville and Larone.

It hardly seems possible that in 1891 Miss Emma Lovering was already dealing in what were called hair goods at 39 Main Street, for Miss Lovering was with us, a venerable and highly respected Citizen, until a very few years ago.

In 1tl91 , despite the railroad and the electric car, the horse was still king, and there was plenty of business in Waterville to attest to that fact. Harnesses were made, sold and repaired by S. A. Dickenson at the corner of Temple and Main Streets, by F. A. Robbins on Silver Street, and by C .. Vigue on lower Main Street. In the city were four dealers and breeders of horses: Paul Marshall on the Plains, Appleton Webb at Mountain Farm, George Wilshire on Union Street, and C. H. Nelson’s Sunnyside Farm. There were seven Waterville livery stables: big ones connected with the Elmwood Hotel and the Lockwood House, two on Union Street run respectively by W. N. Smith and George Wilshire, F. M. Hason’s big stable on Silver Street, C. A. Hill’s in Mechanic Square, and C. Shorey’s opposite the common. Blacksmiths were so numerous we can’t take time to name the  1891 happened to be the one year that saw the operation of Waterville’s last river steamer. It was the ill-fated City of Waterville, about which I have often spoken on this program, and whose story I have told in “Kennebec Yesterdaystt. This old 1891 directory said: “The elegant steamer City of Waterville makes daily trips between Waterville and Gardiner.”

In 1891, before.the time of modern paving, streets got very dusty in the summer, and one way to keep the dust down was by sending around the big sprinkling cart. Strangely that was not a service provided by the city in 1891. Instead the directory listed Eleazer Les~ur Street Sprinkler, Temple Street. Evidently merchants or householders who wanted the street sprinkled in front of their stands had to pay the street sprinkler to do the job.

In 1891 Waterville had two tanneries: one on North Street between Pleasant Street and the railroad overpass; the other near the present site of the pumping station on Western Avenue, though at that time the street was called Mill Street.

Seventy years ago Waterville had a brokerage firm. The directory tells us that John Ware had an office at 72 Main Street where he dealt in investments. At least one patent medicine was manufactured in Waterville in 1891. It was Leighton’s Forest Salve.

At that time Waterville’s leading photographer was C. G. Carleton, but he was given smart competition by the Civil War veteran, Sebastian Vose. Two other men had also set up studios: E. G. Merrill and Gideon Picher.

Considering that Waterville’s population in 1891 was only about a third of its present number, the city had an unusually large number of physicians, no fewer than 14. Among the best known were Frederick C. Thayer and his associate, J. F. Hill, N. G. Pulsifer, A. E. Bessey and M. S. Goodrich. Dentists were not so numerous. The directory listed only three: E. P. Holmes G. W. Hutchins and M. D. Johnson. The number of lawyers nearly equalled the physicians. Of the city’s ten attorneys the best remembered are the firm’ of Webb, Johnson and Webb, forerunner of the present firm of Weeks, Hutchins and Frye; E. R. Drummond, father of our venerable citizen A. F. Drummond; Warren Philbrook, later a justice of the Maine Supreme Court; and William T. Haines who became Governor of Maine.

Now let us see what the old directory had to say about Fairfield.

That was long before the building of the Hotel Gerald, and Fairfield’s then modest hostelry was known as the Fairfield House. The village had two banks, the First National and the Fairfield Savings. It had five lawyers, among them S. S. Chapman and G. G. Weeks. It had a thriving newspaper, the Fairfield Journal, published by E. P. Mayo.

Manufacturing flourished in Fairfield in 1891. The Maine Manufacturing Company made woolens. Both the Fairfield Furniture Company and J. ~. Cilley turned out furniture. E. J. Savage ran a grist and plaster mill. E. R. Ward and Benjamin Rackliff made carriages, and the Somerset Fibre Company produced chemical fibre.

The supremacy of the horse is shown by the fact that Fairfield had just as many livery stables as it had physicians, three of each. The doctors were Crossman, Robinson and Tesh; the liverymen were Hight, Horn and Small.

One occupation in the Fairfield list was unique so far as this region was concerned, for it appears nowhere else in the directory. It was Charles Luce, building mover. But a trade almost as unique appeared in the Oakland section of the directory, where H. W. Wells was listed as dealing in artificial limbs.

Like Fairfield, Oakland had two banks, the Messalonskee National and the Cascade Savings. Its hotel, the Oakland House, was run by G. H. Danforth. It had a grist mill operated by Dr. F. McClure. Strangely, Oakland’s dentists exceeded her physicians,  5 to 3, but the town had only two lawyers, George Field and H. L. Hunton.

The ads in that old 1891 directory are revealing. I have already referred tonight to the Lockwood House. What it was and where it was is revealed by its ad. It said: “Hotel Lockwood, opposite the Post Office, Main Street, Waterville. F. M. Bowman, proprietor; C. R. Miller, day clerk. Ladies oyster room upstairs. Meals at all hours. Free carriage to and from all trains. Lighted by electricity throughout. Bathrooms connected with the hotel. Hack orders promptly attended to in all parts of the city. Street cars direct from hotel to depot. Livery stable connected.”

Here’s an ad attesting to the supremacy of the horse: “The Magic Safety Bit Company, Fairfield. Dr. G. M. Twitchell, President. The only absolute safety bit. No more running away. No more pulling and shearing. No more rearing and plunging. No possible injury to the horse. A perfect bit for training, racing or driving on the road. Price is $2.50.”

If you don’t recall that Waterville Was once the center for fast race horses, just consider three ads in that 1891 directory~

First there was Mountain Farm, Appleton Webb, proprietor, with five warranted stallions, one of which was actually named Appleton. Blaisdell and Folsom of Oakland heralded percheron stallion. Captain Pulley, of course for the breeding of work horses, not racers. They made much of the fact that he had been foaled in France, in 1883, and had been brought to Maine at great expense. Finally Paul Harshall of Water Street on the Plains had a trotting stallion, Rolfe Boy, whose progeny were already making marks on Maine tracks.

And with that salute to horses of long ago, we must say Good Night for Old Times’ Sake.

Year: 1963