Radio Script #668

Little Talks on Common Things

November 28, 1965

Last week I told you about an entertainment put on in Mount Vernon Village on the Fourth of July in 1884. That show was produced by a group of young ladies who called themselves the Hall Klub, and they spelled it KLUB.

The club also put out twice a year a two page printed newspaper called the Mount Vernon Echo. They had published two issues in 1883, and one in January, 1884, previous to their fourth issue — the one that, after 81 years, has now come into my hands. It is a sheet 14 x 10 inches with news on one side, and the other side devoted entirely to ads.

The masthead tells us that 500 copies were printed and that through the local post office, one copy was distributed to each family in town. Those who wanted extra copies could get them from the club secretary for one cent each. The paper was edited by Louise Mayhew, the business manager was Lena Severy, and the ad solicitor was Nellie Butler. The Hall Klub officers were Laura McGaffey, president; Etta Smith, vice-president; Alice Brown, secretary; and Louise Mayhew, treasurer.

Those enterprising young ladies had a newly built club house, because one item in the paper was a note of thanks to the “gentlemen who have contributed lumber, labor and cash toward the Klub Hall”.

One full column describes that new hall. Here is part of what it said: “It must be distinctly understood that we are not expending all this time and labor to build a dance hall. It will be used for all respectable public purposes, just as the City Hall in Lewiston, the Granite Hall in Augusta, and Coburn Hall in Skowhegan. As soon as the floor is laid, we hope to introduce the amusement of roller skating, a very high toned amusement that is fast superseding dancing.

“The income from the hall will be donated to the improvement of Mount Vernon village. We have in mind a public library, sidewalks, shade trees, and many other improvements. But first we must have the hall. It is well begun and remains only to be finished. We have all the lumber we need. We lack only labor and cash to finish the job.”

In another part of the paper the new building is described thus: “The Hall will be 65 x 38 feet with a wide entry and anterooms on each side. A gallery is across one end, the stage at the other. The hall floor is exactly 37 feet square. The floor will be narrow strips of yellow birch, matched and kiln dried, and will be just the thing for roller skating. In the basement, in a space 50 x 38 feet, will be located the kitchen and dining room. The hall will be a means of keeping our young people in town, and Augusta with its temptations and allurements will no longer have the same charm!”

Now let us turn over this old paper’s page and look at the ads on the other side. If you think Mount Vernon did not then have a genuine general store, selling a great variety of merchandise, listen to this: “A. P. Cram, dry goods, small wares, crockery, groceries, hardware, farm implements, hats, caps, boots and shoes, drugs and medicines, stationery. room paper, trunks and valises, whips, clocks and jewelry, flour, corn and feed. Lowest prices. Cram’s Block, Mount Vernon, Maine.”

J. A. Rundlette advertised fine harnesses, saddles, whips, halters, along with a good stock of carriage dusters, robes and horse blankets. His ad boasted “Anything in horse clothing will be furnished on short notice”.

Fred Allen did not present himself as a blacksmith, but as a horse shoer. He said: “Having bought the shop lately occupied by John Cofran, I am now prepared to do all horse shoeing in a first class manner. I am also the proprietor of Mount Vernon hay scales.”

Cram’s was not the only general store in Mount Vernon in 1884. B. F. Butler announced a “first class general merchandise store, selling dry goods, groceries, crockery and other items” much the same as at Cram’s. Apparently Butler’s made a specialty of millinery for the ad said: “Our stock of millinery this year is large and well selected, Miss Nellie Butler having special charge of this department. All who wish for the latest styles at the lowest prices should call upon her.”

Appended to that Butler ad was this announcement: “After the first of July I will take a limited number of pupils for instruction on the piano or organ. Nellie L. Butler.”

A third general store in Mount Vernon was operated by M. S. Mayhew. He also called himself a conveyancer and insurance broker. His ad further said: “Frank Whittier, salesman on the road with my horse Sarah Kelley hauls the principal part of my goods. Otis Bickford and James H. Allen assist in trucking. Farmers call on me for Ames’ Centennial Swivel and Waterville land side plows, Fillebrown harrows, Hussey and other horse hoes and cultivators, corn planters, fertilizers, forks, scythes and other tools. Ladies call with butter, eggs and cash for dry goods, small wares, boots, groceries, crockery and Diamond Dyes. I sell from an abundant stock of hardware, iron, steel, paints and oils, school books and stationery, hats, caps and trunks.”

Q. L. Smith was Mount Vernon’s leading custom tailor in 1884. He advertised that he had on hand a full line of woolens for suits and overcoats, and he was ready to make them into garments of latest style and superior workmanship.

Mount Vernon, like most other Maine villages, had a hotel running the year around in 1884. It was the Mount Vernon House, operated by Ora M. Sibley. He offered board by the day or week at reasonable terms, and like every other such establishment of those days, he had a livery stable attached.

It is unusual in such a publication to find a post office ad, but in this paper we read: “Mount Vernon Post Office, George McGaffey, postmaster. Morning mail closes at 7 o’clock. Evening mail closes at 6:30. Office open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.”

In most Maine villages 81 years ago it was not usual to find the same man making both harnesses and shoes. Harnessmaker and shoemaker, though both worked in leather, were separate trades. But in Mount Vernon the two were combined in Charles Morse, whose ad said: “Harness Maker, with special attention to job work. Also boots and shoes repaired.”

Of course every town had its carriage maker. That trade in Mount Vernon was carried on by Hiram Cornstock who said he would attend promptly to all orders for repairing or painting carriages, and that he was also prepared to do blacksmithing of all kinds, including horse and ox shoeing. He was ready, too, to do band sawing and planing. Quite a versatile fellow, wasn’t he?

From the evidence at hand 81 years after the event, we have reason to believe those young ladies of the Hall Klub and their gentlemen friends over in Mount Vernon were a lively progressive group working for civic improvement in an active, busy trading center in inland Maine.

In these days when college campuses are being disrupted by demonstrations and even riots, it is easy to get nostalgic about the good old days when students in college never revolted against faculty or trustees. Don’t you believe it! There never was a time when students could be relied upon to remain supine and inactive if they believed there was cause for complaint.

I told you a few weeks ago about the Colby student strike of 1903. I now want to tell you about something that happened at Colby 66 years earlier than that, long before it had the name Colby, and was known as Waterville College. In 1837 the institution that had begun its first classes in 1818 solely as a theological school for Baptists, and had become a college in 1821, had been open for only 19 years and as a college for only 16.

When the first graduation exercises were held in 1822, the college had adopted a custom at that time common in the few colleges then existing in the U.S. of assigning speaking parts on the graduation program according to a student’s academic rank in the class. In 1840 the college in Waterville was still small enough for every graduate to have a speaking part on the commencement program. For several years students had been protesting against assignment by rank, because that method not only honored the highest ranking man, but called conspicuous attention to the lowest. The students actually asked for only a very moderate change, not the abolition of all distinctions among the parts, but that none of them be individually singled out, all being divided into three groups called first, second and third grades. The students directed their petition to the trustees, but that body declared it was a matter for the faculty to decide. After considerable debate, the faculty granted the request.

But it seems that the protest had started much earlier than 1840 and had resulted in the kind of action that always causes college authorities to prick up their ears and note what is going on. This is revealed in an old letter that recently came to light. It was written by Franklin Merriam, a Colby member of the Class of 1837, during his senior year in college. Dated March 19, 1837, the letter said: “There were 34 in my class last year, and now only six are left. Those who have left the college did so under a pledge made in our sophomore year that they would not graduate at this college unless there was a change in the assignment of parts. These men oppose the principle of emulation; consequently they will not graduate. I think the principle of emulation good and I do not object to parts assigned in accordance with it. God grant I may ever do my duty, classmates to the contrary notwithstanding.”

Several times on this program, over the years, I have talked about the startling changes that have taken place in the relative population of Maine communities in the past hundred years. Most of my previous comments on that subject have been restricted to the towns of Kennebec County. As we close this broadcast today, let me tell you about some population figures in Somerset and Piscataquis Counties 125 years ago in 1840. In that year the largest Somerset town was Fairfield with 2,198 people. The second town in size was neither Skowhegan nor Pittsfield, but rather it was Norridgewock. at that time the county seat, with 1,965 inhabitants.

Anson was a close third with 1.941. Both Madison and New Portland had more people than Skowhegan, which itself had only 20 more inhabitants than St. Albans, 1,584 to 1,564. Little Mercer had five more people than Athens. The largest Piscataquis town in 1840 was Dover with 1,597 people and when Foxcroft’s population of 926 was added. the territory that is now the single town of Dover-Foxcroft counted 2.523 folk. Parkman was larger than either Guilford or Sangerville and twice as large as either Monson or Milo. Shirley, with 190 people was larger than Greenville, which had only 128.

Our Somerset and Piscataquis communities have seen a lot of change since 1840.

Year: 1965