Radio Script #718

Little Talks on Common Things

February 19, 1967

It is interesting occasionally to pick up one of Waterville’s town reports -not the city reports that began in 1888, but reports when Waterville was still a town with its three selectmen. So let us take a look at Waterville’s report for the year 1878. At that time the annual town meeting was held on the second Monday in March, so that the fiscal year was from March 1, 1877 to February 28, 1878.

Charles Redington was first selectman, and his colleagues were Mark Gallert and C.E. Gray. For the year the total tax assessed by the town was $40,700, of which only $32,950 went for expenses voted by the town, because state and county taxes together called for $7,750 of the $40,700.

The time we are talking about was 88 years ago, and not many people are left who were around at that time. Although the money appropriated for town purposes at the March meeting in 1877 seems absurdly small to us, we must remember that wages and salaries, as well as prices of farm produce, were then correspondingly low. It is easier for us to get ten dollars today than it was for the people in 1877 to get a single dollar.

The town then actually appropriated more for the support of the poor than for the common schools. While all schools except the new high school called for only $3,000, the poor got $3,500. For some time Waterville had had a fee high school, to which parents paid tuition, just as they did to Coburn. But in 1877 it was a free high school under the Maine law of 1872, and for the entire year’s support of that school, including teachers, heat and supplies, the town appropriated $1,500.

The amount spent for common schools was exactly duplicated by the $3,000 allotted to streets and highways. The town had no police force, but did spend $500 for a night watchman. The town appropriated $650 for lighting the streets. That was for a man to go around with his little ladder and light the lamps placed behind reflectors at the top of a pole. Those were oil lamps, because not until 1886 did the town have electric lights. One exceptional expenditure that year was $1,500 for a receiving tomb at Pine Grove Cemetery.

It is surprising how long some people held town orders before presenting them to the town treasurer for payment. By 1877 the situation had become so alarmi ng that the Treasurer, John Ware, Jr., decided to do something about it. He published the following statement in the town report: “Knowing that many town orders were outstanding, instead of being paid by the treasurer, and that the town owed interest on them, we looked them up and were able to located $11,568 of them with interest due of more than $200. At the last town meeting we recommended an issue of bonds of $50,000 to consolidate the town debt, including outstanding orders, and that was done. With part of the money received from the bonds, we retired those old orders. Still outstanding are orders totaling $1,602, which parties will not as yet bring in, but when they do their money is ready.”

The town report tells us who bought the bonds. They were all sold to local residents. The largest amount, $14,000, was taken by Homer Percival, but whether personally or for his bank is not stated. William Osborn took $3,500 of the bonds, F.W. Knight $2,500, G.W. Files $2,900, Mrs. Emily Hersey $2,000, E.L. Getchell $2,100, and the Waterville National Bank $5,600. Other well known citizens who purchased the bonds were F.E. Boothby, Fred Arnold, Increase Chase. John Webber, T.J. Bates and Mrs. Emily Heath.

It is interesting to note the salaries paid Waterville town officers in 1877. C. H. Redington, the first selectman, got $500; the second, Mark Gallert, and the third, C.E. Gray, each got $400. Leonard Carver was paid $60 a year as town clerk. Charles Soule, Supt. of the Poor Farm, got $400; and Dr. F.E. Thayer drew $100 as town physician.

The selectmen explained why the poor farm had not had a good year. Their statement said: “It is unnecessary to say to any farmer that this has been a hard year. Whatever was sold from the farm brought very low prices. The dairy product was less than usual, owing to the cows doing poorly, notwithstanding the best of care. Mr. Soule and his wife did their best. but owing to short crops and low prices the balance against the farm is larger than usual. New sled and carts have been made by Mr. Soule. and a good deal of labor on roads and otherwise was done by him during the year.”

The pauper account was in fact overdrawn by nearly $500. The $3,500 appropriation, although larger than that for schools was not enough. Expenditures for the poor account, including a deficit of $621 on the poor farm, amounted to $3,977. Again the selectmen published an explanation: “With times so desperately hard, the pauper expenses have been larger than usual, but compared with overdrafts of the poor account in other towns of the state, ours is light.”

The town hall was then what we later knew as the armory. Total expenses of wood and coal to heat the building for the year had been only $120. The street lighting account, to which we have already referred was broken down as follows: “Paid Noah Boothby for lighting the streets $423; for lamps. chimneys, wicks and 0il, $72.25.”

During the 1870’s Waterville, like almost every other town in Maine, was trying to collect money owed it by another town. Often those bills were for expenditures on behalf of paupers who had not been in Waterville long enough to claim residence, and for whose necessary care Waterville was trying to collect from the town where they legally resided. So Waterville claimed $60 due from Bangor. $30 from Pittsfield, $25 from Fairfield. The town of West Waterville, which would soon change its name to Oakland, owed the mother town $50 on an old school account, and $30 was still due from Winslow as part of the cost of freeing the old toll bridge across the Kennebec.

One odd item of expense was rent of land for the lock-up, $20. Some non-recurring expenses during the year had been a fireproof safe $375, additional land for cemetery $900, new furnace in the town hall $148, new street lamps and posts $120, lithographing the town bonds $94, and fixtures and dishes for the town hall bought of the former hall keeper $110.

Among the persons to whom town orders were issued were H.M. Sawtelle for ice, care of tramps, and police services; E.R. Emerson for laying out a new road; E.R. Drummond for a dog license book; Samuel Appleton, rent for the liquor agency; Tobie and Clark for a pump near the common; Bates and Morrill for sawing wood at school houses; W. Mitchell for repairing the town clock; I.I. Ricker for a watering trough; J.P. Hill for repairs to the lockup and G.A. Osborn for matches for the town hall.

Summing up the whole year, the selectmen made further reference to the hard times. They said: “That this has been a hard year for people to pay taxes, everyone knows. Our valuation is too high in light of present depressed values. A new furnace had to be put into the town hall because the two already there had been driven so hard that they would soon have been ruined. We planned to put gas into the hall. The lockwood Company proposed to lay water and gas pipes. It was so late in the season before the work had started that the ground froze solid, but when a thaw came on we agreed. if they would continue, we would pay the extra cost of cutting through frozen ground. Now our hall is lighted by gas. We have also placed a hydrant on the common, which in case of fire is worth more than all the hand engines we could have.”

The report ended with publication of the warrant for the 1878 town meeting.

Besides the usual articles for election of officers, support of the schools, the highways and the paupers, several articles are of special interest: “To see if the town will hire a police officer to keep the streets clear of loafers days and evenings. ” “To see if the town will change the name of any street.” “To see if the town will vote to sprinkle the streets.” “To see if the town will allow the Reform Club free use of the town hall when it is not otherwise engaged.” “To see if the town will authorize the selectmen to set out trees in Monument Park.” “To see what action the town will take in regard to liquors now on hand belonging to the town.”

Seven articles in the warrant concerned acceptance of new streets, at an iron fence near the west end of the north line of Gilman Street. One began that would be the present Burleigh Street. Another was a southern extension of Water Street beyond Grove Street. A third was Gold Street from Silver to Summer; and a fourth was the rest of Gold Street from Summer to Water. The last highway article read: “To see if the town will accept a town way, as laid out by the selectmen. through the land of William Cratty and others, being a continuation of Maple Street as it was laid out in 1875.”

The 44th and final article in the warrant concerned protection against fire: “To see if the town, by ordinance or by-laws, will prescribe regulations for the management of fire engines, hose, ladders. or other apparatus for the extinguishing of fires, for the employment and compensation of men, and for the appointment of officers to govern them and take charge of such apparatus, and to see if the town will take any other action in relation to a fire department.”

Not from this town report, but from a news account, we learn that at the March meeting the town did nothing about a fire department; but at a special meeting in May they did adopt regulations governing such a department, and elected Dr. F.C. Thayer as chief engineer, with Henry Tozier and Josiah Hayden as his assistants.

At that same special meeting the town took over from the Ticonic Village Corporation, on payment of $4, 109, the fire engine Ticonic, 12 rubber coats in two engine houses, 1,400 feet of leather hose, 1,010 feet of rubber hose, a hook and ladder, and Ticonic No. 1 hose carriage, with 400 feet of hose attached to it.

In 1870 an act of the Maine Legislature had authorized the Kennebec County Commissioners to build a free bridge across the Kennebec between Waterville and Winslow, and to assess the cost of construction upon the two towns. Local people were infuriated, for they had depended upon the bridge being built at county expense. Both towns held special meetings and presented resolutions to the Legislature for the chartered company that owned the old toll bridge to erect another bridge that would collect tolls. The Legislature ignored the petitions and went ahead with plans for a free bridge. Appeal to the courts failed.

Finally in June a meeting to make a final decision brought out 847 voters. Election of a moderator was very close. Solyman Heath, who opposed the free bridge, got 428 votes against Elbridge Getchell, supporter of the free bridge, who got 419 votes. The article to be voted on called for acceptance of the plan for a free bridge. A motion was made to dismiss the article — that is, to refuse the free bridge — but so intense was the confusion that no proper count could be obtained.

The meeting adjourned out of doors to the common with the same result. The meeting was again adjourned to the grove on the Plains. There a check list used in the presidential election of 1868 was produced, but confusion was so rampart that ballots printed “Yes”, to be cast in favor of accepting the article, were actually cast in favor of its dismissal. Before “No” ballots could t?e provided, the moderator declared the vote was 389 to 15 against a free bridge. But it was the last flurry of local independence. The act of the Legislature prevailed. The free bridge went up and on December 1, 1870 was opened to travel. The cost was $32,000, of which Waterville’s share was $26,000.

That was the bridge concerning which Waterville was trying to collect $30 from the town of Winslow eight years later in 1878, and with that we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1967