Radio Script #616

Little Talks on Common Things

May 24, 1964

In broadcasts based on the diaries of George Flood we often referred to his friendship with Boutelle Noyes. Let us now look more closely into that relationship.

Boutelle Noyes, the son of Edwin Noyes, received his given name from his mother’s family, because she was the daughter of Waterville’s foremost attorney and one of its leading citizens, Timothy Boutelle. The old gentleman had died just a year before George Flood came down from Clinton to attend Waterville College in 1856. When, in the fall of 1859, Flood took a room at the Noyes home, young Boutelle was only eleven years old, twelve years younger than Flood. After Flood’s own graduation from college he remained, as these broadcasts have revealed, a boarder in the Noyes home and became a protege of Edwin Noyes in railroad employment.

By 1864, when Boutelle Noyes was seeking admission to the U.S. Naval Academy, the two had become inseparable. That winter Flood intended to spend in Clinton, but he accepted instead the job of selling bed springs for R.B. Dunn. In Newport, R.I. he called on Boutelle Noyes, who was stationed there preliminary to his going to Annapolis. In the following March Flood spent a day on board the U.S.S. Santee with Boutelle, who told Flood he thought he was doing all right in spite of having accumulated 26 demerits. In September Boutelle was at home for two weeks leave and the two friends had a lot of time together. Ten months later, when Boutelle had graduated from Annapolis in 1868, his friend George Flood accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Noyes to the ceremonies. All through the 1870’s, every time Boutelle Noyes had home leave, Flood noted the occasion in the diary and his delight that they could again be together. In August, 1873 they went to Augusta to attend a ball given by James G. Blaine for his daughter Nellie. On September first Flood recorded: “Boutelle Noyes started on the night train for a three years’ cruise in the South Pacific.” In the summer of 1879 Boutelle Noyes was married. Here’s the way Flood tells about it: “June 22 – Getting ready to go to Boston for Boutelle’s wedding and have Brother Sumner here to stop while I am gone, as Barnum’s Circus is here tomorrow. June 23 – Arrived in Boston at 7 a.m. and went to the Parker House. Saw Boutelle married to Charlotte Luce. The whole party then went to No. 23 Beacon Street, where there was a handsome reception with more than 50 present. I took the 7 p.m. pullman for Waterville.”

A month later Flood wrote: “Boutelle and his wife came today to stop for a month. Gov. Garcelon and his wife are also at Mr. Noyes’ for the Colby Commencement.”

Then on October first the diary tells us that Mr. Noyes went to Fortress Monroe to visit Boutelle on board the U.S.S. Minnesota, there for a squadron drill.

Two years later, on July 12, 1881 the entry reads: “Boutelle Noyes, who has been home on a short leave, has now gone to join the U.S.S. Richmond for a three years’ cruise to China.”

Then in the summer of 1883 came tragic news. An explosion followed by fire on board the Richmond had taken the life of Boutelle Noyes, leaving his young wife with two small sons. She continued to make her home in Newport, R.I., but spent every summer with the Noyes family, coming for a couple of weeks to Waterville, then accompanying the family to their cottage at Squirrel Island. George Flood became very fond of Boutelle’s two boys and spent much time with them. On July 18, 1886 he wrote: “Mrs. Boutelle Noyes’ children have been with me a great part of the day. They are fond of me and I am very fond of them. I became very tired from lifting them on and off the pony.” When they left in early October, Flood noted that the older boy weighed 52 pounds, the younger 45 pounds.

Flood did not get along well with Boutelle’s widow, and after 1888 the diary contains no reference to the family of Boutelle Noyes. In 1879 George Flood became involved in the famous Gilman-Noyes dispute over the boundary line between Lots 104 and 105, Waterville’s business section. That dispute had begun many years earlier and had been in the courts several times when in 1878 a member of the Gilman family fired a shotgun at workmen replacing the fence for Mrs. Noyes. No one was badly hurt, but a few shotgun pellets did hit two of the workmen, one of whom was a relative of Flood’s. In the diary, under date of January 4, 1879 we find this’ entry: “Got John Flood to sign a petition and receipt for all damages sustained in the Gilman shooting affair.” The man who fired the shots had been tried and convicted of assault, but had appealed. On February 13 Flood wrote: “It is reported that Gilman will not be granted a new trial, but will be sentenced in March.” Fool ish as was the act, it had not been without provocation, and the final result was that no one served any prison term. But meanwhile Mrs. Noyes brought suit against the Gilman family for damages. Here is what Flood says about that suit: “March 21 – Mrs. Noyes’ suit against Mrs. Gilman commenced at 11 a.m. before a jury. March 23 – I went to Augusta to testify for Mrs. Noyes. I told just what I knew and was not bothered by the cross examination. The case looks favorable for Mrs. Noyes. March 29 – Jury brought in a verdict for Mrs. Noyes after being out for two hours. Gilman is also to be tried for damage to William McNelf for shooting a pellet into his wrist. April 21 – The Gilmans have had men sounding allover the upper end of Mrs. Noyes’ garden with a steel rod. April 22 – On my return from Lewiston I found that the Gilmans had been digging in Mrs. Noyes’ garden and they had refused to obey orders to leave given by Webb, Mrs. Noyes’ lawyer. I ordered the men off and they left. April 24 – I again found Gilman’s men in the garden. I left William Edwards to keep watch on them while I went to get Sheriff Carleton and put in his hand a warrant secured by Mr. Webb. They left when the sheriff appeared and up to this evening have not been back.”

In July the case came in appeal before the law court in Portland. Flood records that the suit ended in complete victory for Mrs. Noyes.

Naturally the case stirred much excitement in Waterville. Week after week the Waterville Mail published several columns about it. Most unfortunate was that dispute between two of Waterville’s most prominent families. The founders of those families, Nathaniel Gilman and Timothy Boutelle, had been friends and business associates for many years. Only after both men had died did trouble break out, and unquestionably there was fault on both sides. As the years went by the old wounds were healed and both families regained the high esteem they had long held in the community.

In 1893 George Flood himself became a participant in a boundary dispute: “Oct. 21 – At 2 p.m. I met Porter Emery and Ira Getchell at the Stackpole farm. Beginning at the north line, we ran the line from Main Street west as far as we could see with the instrument set in Main Street. Emery drove the stakes. The fence is now built crooked and mostly on my land. I shall have it moved and open a ditch near the new line. Oct. 23 – All the men have been at work laying over the old fence. It has taken my men more than half a day to do the work that Mr. Emery should do. Mr. Emery at first protested, but finally agreed that the survey proved me right.”

Of speCial interest are some of the mentions George Flood makes of his brother Charles. Perhaps better remembered than Charles Flood by present elderly residents of Waterville is Alpheus. the youngest brother. After Charles’ death, Alpheus was for many years head of the G.S. Flood Company. But Charles, who was quite a bit older, was the one on whom George at first depended for aggressive help in getting the business underway. In the fall of 1873 Charles was married to Frances Ballery. George recorded: “I came to Waterville with Charles and helped him select his furniture and crockery at Charles Redington’s.”

At first Charles lived in Clinton, but when he started the fuel buSiness, George persuaded his brother to come to Waterville. Charles in fact built a new house in this city. George told about it in the diary on March 16, 1881: “Brother Charles bought a house lot of Nathaniel Meader today on the old Morrill farm for $500. It is 140 by 130 feet. May 9 – I am getting ready to help Charles build a cellar for his house. May 23 – Charles has Jason Nelson and John Weymouth working on his cellar. June 13 – Charles has finished his cellar and I think it has cost him more than if he had engaged John Flood to build it.” Charles did not finish his house that year, but boarded the cellar over for the winter. Then during the warm months of 1882 he finished the house. It was soundly built, as were most Waterville homes in the 1880’s. On Morrill Avenue it still stands, long the home of Charles Flood’s daughter, Miss Exerene Flood, and now the home of Vice-President Ralph Williams of Colby College.

The diary contains just one reference to the gracious and talented lady many of us knew as Exerene Flood: “May 8, 1887 – Charles brought his little girl to see me. She is a sweet, well behaved child.”

In some respects George Flood was even closer to his brother Alpheus. He saw the younger brother through Coburn, helped him get started in Clinton, then brought him back to Waterville to help with the fuel business. During his last illness in the winter of 1895-96 he was constantly asking Alpheus, as well as Charles, to come to Sunny Hill to see him: “July 24, 1895 – I am still in bed. Alpheus and his wife Jenny were in to see me and cheered me a lot. July 28 – I sent for Alpheus again today. It does me good to talk to him. Oct. 2 – Alpheus has collected $58 rent for for me.” Just two weeks before he died in January, 1896 the diary contained this item: “Alpheus’ wife sent me a very nice pair of worked worsted slippers.”

George Flood remembered all the members of his family at Christmas, although sometimes only one or two of them remembered him. In 1870 he records that he gave aprons to the maids at Mrs. Noyes’, a pair of stockings to Sumner’s daughter, jack-knives to Charles and Alpheus. and a locket, for which he paid $4, to his sister Lizzie. In 1876 his Christmas gifts included a pair of gloves to Fanny Woods, a fancy dish for Mrs. Noyes, flannel for Sumner’s and John’s families. and ties for Charles and Alpheus.

Always interested in public affairs, Flood saw that his diary recorded the tragic events of July. 1881: “JUly 2 – Pres. Garfield was shot by an assassin in the depot at Washington this morning. July 5 – The President is reported to be doing as well as can be expected. He has remarkable courage. July 10 – Strong hope for the President’s recovery. August 21 – Reports that the President cannot live. September 19 – President Garfield died today.”

That is the end of our story of George Flood. He was a remarkable man — a life-long bachelor, but not averse to the best feminine company; an enterprising and venturesome investor who was cautious but not miserly; associate of some of the leading men of Maine; intensely loyal to the family of his patron, Edwin Noyes; a man at once suspicious and gullible, miserly and generous, energetic and yet almost a hypochondriac. Here was the man who by persistent hard work, shrewd management, and honest dealings established a prominent Waterville business that today, nearly 90 years afterward, still bears his name.

Year: 1964