Radio Script #714

Little Talks on Common Things

January 22, 1967

New information about Daniel Wing, printer and newspaper publisher in Waterville for 53 years, has recently come to light, and it is time we gave attention on this program to that interesting man. The late Mrs. Albion Blake was a granddaughter of Daniel Wing, and Mr. Blake has kindly given me access to scrapbooks and manuscripts that have long been in the Wing family.

Daniel Ripley Wing was born in Augusta on December 13, 1816, the son of Allen Wing of Duxbury, Mass. and Andra Robinson of Nova Scotia. He learned the printer’s trade from John Burleigh, whose paper, The Waterville Times, we mentioned recently on this program. He married Burleigh’s daughter Ann Elizabeth and from his father-in-law took over the printing business of which he would retain major control for half a century.

Preserved in the Wing collection is a kind of journal kept by Daniel Wing from 1838 to 1842. It was not a diary, not a daily record of events, but was rather what was called a Common-place Book, popular with young men since the time of Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin, Wing set down in his book observations of self-examination, stinging self-criticism and self-analysis.

After more than forty years had elapsed, Daniel Wing wrote in the same book an explanation of the previous record, followed by genealogical information. This is how Wing began that portion of the book in 1884, when he was 68 years old: “This book was begun by me in 1838, more than 46 years ago, and the last previous entry was in 1842. It was not intended to be a diary, but rather a record of my own condition, mental and moral, as well as a commonplace book of valuable facts and opinions for my own improvement. When I began it, I had just attained 21 years of age, and though yet a comparative youth, because of poor health my hope of either a long or a happy life was dim. When I had established myself in business, I neglected to continue the record. Then on February 22, 1884 a great change came to my life with the death of my wife, my companion for 38 years. I woke up to the fact that my life, long and happy, had passed like a dream, that I was now an old man with little to hold me to earth. It occurred to me that my children might like to have a record of the events of my life.”

Then Daniel Wing proceeded to tell the story of his family background. He wrote: “I was born on December 13, 1816 in Augusta, Maine, included then in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. My father, Allen Wing, then 48 years of age, was a very ingenious man, ready to turn his hand to almost anything. He was a miller and tended the grist mill of James Bridge on Bond Brook, working also at times in the Bridge saw mill. My paternal grandfather was Gideon Wing, a seafaring man, who was away from his home in Duxbury at the outbreak of the Revolution. On his return he enlisted in the Patriot Army and took part in several battles. My grandmother whom I remember, received a pension as a soldier’s widow. My grandfather died in Vassalboro in 1821 at the age of 76. My grandmother died in China in 1837, aged 87 years. They had four children besides my father Allen. two boys and two girls.

“It was near the close of the Revolution when the Wing family came to Vassalboro. They had first settled in Augusta in 1781, but the next year saw them clearing a farm in Vassalboro. It was there that my father met and married Andra Robinson. When Nehemiah Getchell and Asa Redington came to Waterville to build the first dam at Ticonic Falls, my father was the first man they hired to work on that dam.

“In 1807 Mr. Bridge of Augusta offered my father the position of miller at Bond Brook. and our family was there until 1812. The family were staunch Baptists and because there was no church of that denomination in Augusta, my father regularly walked to Hallowell to attend church. My father had been converted at a revival meeting in Vassalboro and thereafter became a constant reader of the Bible and a deacon of the Baptist church. If for any reason he could not attend meeting, he would seat himself at home with the big family Bible and spend the Sabbath reading and singing from his hymn book, meanwhile tending the savory turkey, goose or spare rib that hung on a twirling string before the fire.”

Then Daniel Wing set down in his book the names and birth dates of his four brothers and four sisters, six of whom were older than he. The oldest had been born in 1797, nineteen years before Daniells birth, and Daniells youngest brother was born in 1826, ten years after Daniel. The birth dates of those Wing children extended for 29 years from 1797 to 1826.

In a long essay of self-examination, which begins Daniel Wingls book, we find some sharp self-criticism. He denounces himself as lazy and indolent, lacking in basic intelligence and devoid of social graces. He wrote: “I am not a sociable body. I cannot make talk about nothing. I like to sit silent in company. When required to take part in the conversation, I am confused and bewildered. After escaping from an ordeal of that kind, I have often condemned myself as a cowardly blockhead. I am just too retiring and bashful.”

Daniel Wing was too hard on himself. Retiring he was, but no recluse. No man who was completely anti-social could have conducted a successful weekly newspaper in rural Maine 125 years ago, and Daniel Wing was certainly a successful newspaper man. In intelligence, energy and social behavior, as well as in recognized moral character, he was probably superior to many of his contemporaries. Probably he had little need for his own preaching, for preaching was exactly what those moral essays in his book proved to be.

In keeping his common-place book Daniel Wing followed the general practice of copying many moral articles with which the periodicals of that time were filled. Some of those that Wing copied bore such titles as “Rural Contemplation”, “Rules for Exercise”, and many that made up a kind of Emily Post code of social behavior that should characterize a gentleman. Included also were many sentimental verses, some of them mere doggerel, but one the entire poem “A Psalm of Life”, which Wing evidently copied soon after its first appearance without any reference to the author, who, of course, was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Let us now see what Daniel Wing, at the age of 21, wrote about himself. A few extracts from a long essay which he entitled “Myself” are as follows: “I must be my own moral physician without any knowledge of the art of healing. As I have no fixed end in view, my conduct is not governed by principle. If any motive controls me, it is self-love. I am not notoriously wicked, but more from lack of opportunity than from moral scruples. Instead of meeting and overcoming temptation, I avoid it. There is no merit in this. It is easy to defend a castle that has never been besieged.”

Concerning religion, the man who would later become as staunch a Baptist as his father, wrote at the age of 21: “I have no belief of God, religion, and the future state of existence. I hope the Christian religion is true, but I do not believe it to be so.”

As to study, Wing wrote: “I have read considerably, but have thought little about what I have read. I am interested only in what is simple and easily understood. My chief fault is lack of plain, practical, every-day common sense.”

One of the essays in the old notebook has the title “View from Fort Hill”. It reveals a keenness of observation and an ability at description that made him a competent journalist. Here are a few extracts from that essay: “The pines over my head are making melancholy music. The noise of the busy town, the whirling of machinery, the clink of crowbars, the sound of falling water, all come to me softened by the distance. Birds are making merry on every tree. Nature has dropped the gay, flaunting robe of spring and has donned her more sedate summer dress. The river is rumbling over the rocks, flashing, foaming and wildly dancing in the sunshine, then enters the placid bay formed by the widening stream where it is joined by the Sebasticook. The village on the opposite of the Kennebec, the home of my youth, and its surrounding country is the scene of many a prank that I well remember. As for the old familiar buildings, a story seems to go with every roof. The new brick chapel, standing between the two old college buildings, looks like a city beau with an elderly maiden on each arm.

“The pretty little village of Winslow lies at my feet, its church spire rising above the treetops. The old blockhouse is in ruins and totters to its fall. The bay in front of it must have presented a beautiful sight before Yankee enterprise, ever an enemy of the picturesque, swept the trees from the shore, the islands, and the surrounding hills, and disgraced the scene with ugly saw mills. Then, instead of the clumsy, unsightly longboat, was seen the Indian’s graceful, light canoe.”

When a year had elapsed after Daniel Wing began his Common-place Book, he wrote on January 1, 1839: “A year ago I recorded certain resolutions in this book. I was determined to root out evil habits and prejudice, and form correct behavior. In spite of these resolutions, I have accomplished little. I have perhaps accumulated some responsibility. I am more enlightened respecting my duty, but I have shrunk from performing it. But I will not despair. I will endeavor to take warning from past errors and continue to strive for improvement.”

That is how, as a young printer, Daniel Wing faced the future. He became one of Waterville’s best known and most influential citizens. When he died in 1885 the entire community sincerely mourned his loss. By that time his Waterville Mail had become one of the leading papers in Maine. His attractive, spacious home on College Avenue opposite the eastern end of Getchell Street was purchased by the Colby Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and for sixty years was known as the Deke House, until the college moved to Mayflower Hill and the Dekes erected their new home on the new campus.

Year: 1967