Radio Script #756

Little Talks on Common Things

February 18, 1968

Let me tell you today about some of Waterville’s business men, accounts of whose careers I find in issues of the Waterville Mail three-quarters of a century ago, that is during the decade from 1890 to 1900. To begin with, there was Jacob Peavy. The Mail tells us: “Jacob. Isaac and Louis Peavy established here the firm of Peavy Brothers in 1853. At first they made clothing and sold it at retail, but before many years they had developed a substantial wholesale business. In 1865 they set up a wholesale house in New York. Their wholesale department in Waterville grew so rapidly that they moved it to Boston. They are now the largest clothing manufacturers in New England. Their Waterville store is now confined exclusively to retail trade. It is now under the management of Marshall Peavy, who recently came here from Lynn.”

Now let us see what was said about Waterville’s best remembered manufacturer of cigars: “Peter Herbst, cigar manufacturer, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1868, and came to the United States when he was ten years old, locating in Lewiston, where he learned to make cigars. After working a year at that trade in New York, he came to Waterville and entered the employ of W.P. Preston. In 1894 he opened his own shop on Temple Street, but soon moved to a larger establishment at 89 Main Street. Mr. Herbst is an example of the better class of Germans who have come to this country. He manufactures the popular KP cigar.”

At that time, 75 years ago, even more famous in the field of men’s clothing than the then new firm of Dolloff and Dunham was the Civil War veteran, Perham Heald. Born in Solon, he had been educated at Bloomfield Academy, and had come to Waterville in 1861 as clerk in a clothing store. In 1862 he enlisted in the 19th Maine Infantry, was taken prisoner at Petersburg in 1864, and suffered confinement in the notorious Confederate prisons of Libby and Andersonville. After the war Mr. Heald returned to Waterville and entered the clothing business independently. He served two terms in the Maine Legislature and in 1896 was a member of the State Senate. He was for several years chairman of the Waterville assessors, President of the Waterville Loan and Building Association, and of the Sawyer Publishing Company.

The Mail said: “Mr. Heald keeps one of the finest lines of ready-made clothing anywhere on the Kennebec.”

Probably more Waterville people who remember any local businessmen at all of half a century ago recall Sam Preble better than any other personage of Main Street for Sam in those days took almost everyone’s picture. A short sketch of that well known figure, published long ago in the Waterville Mail, had this to say: “Samuel L. Preble, one of the most artistic photographers in New England, was born in Bath in 1857. He gained his first experience in photography at a studio there. He then went to Brunswick, where he was a partner of Amos Reed, then to Chicago where he was employed in several studios. In 1881 he returned to Maine, decided to settle in Waterville, and in partnership with A.P. Jordan purchased the studio of C.G. Carleton. In 1894 Preble bought out Jordan and became the sole proprietor. It is unnecessary to tell people of the excellence of Mr. Preble’s work. It speaks for itself. ”

In an issue of the Waterville Mail of the 19th century’s last decade, I find an account of the origin and development of the Redington Company, a name still preserved in the funeral home on Park Street. The business was originally established by Williams and Caffrey and was located on the west side of Main Street. On Mr. Caffrey’s death in 1869, Charles H. Redington bought the stock, and the business continued at the same location for the next four years. Martin Blaisdell entered the firm in 1872. and the name was changed to Redington and Blaisdell. Mr. Redington, however. soon bought Blaisdell’s interest and conducted the business alone until 1880 when it was purchased by Frank Redington and T.W. Kimball. Mr. Kimball retired after one year because of ill health. and Charles Redington came back into the firm. It was then named Redington and Company. For twenty years it occupied a store in Ticonic Row on Lower Main Street. In 1893 the company built a fine brick block on Silver Street. Now managed by Mr. Frank Redington, it employs ten persons.”

As always I find typical ads of that decade especially interesting. Listen to this one of Colby. then called Colby University: “At Colby expenses are at the lowest practical point. Advantages have been increased at little additional cost to the student. The total expense for a year, including board and room, fuel and lights, need not exceed $250. Nathaniel Butler, President.”

An ad for Coburn said: “Coburn Classical Institute, founded in 1829. Graduates are admitted without examination, on the principal’s recommendation, to Colby, Colgate, Wellesley, Bates, Maine State, and other colleges. Students are admitted to Coburn at the beginning of each term. Franklin W. Johnson, Principal.”

Here’s a versatile ad spotted in the Waterville Mail in 1895: “Frederick D. Nudd. 4t Silver Street, undertaker, dealer in real estate, employment office. Rents supervised and collected.”

M.D. Johnson, dentist in the Barrell Block at 64 Main Street, advertised that he kept nitrous oxide and ether constantly on hand, and Henry Hoxie advised people to leave their orders for trucking at his house on Union Street or at Buck Brothers store on Main Street.

The Misses Towne called attention to their millinery and fancy goods including the latest designs in center pieces, doilies, sofa cushions, table covers, Bulgarian art work, and Battenburg lace.

Earlier in this broadcast we referred to the cigar maker Peter Herbst. He was a flamboyant advertiser. Listen to this: “P.B. Herbst manufactures the celebrated KP cigar, which now for more than two years has found its way into every leading tobacco store in Maine. It has found favor with all lovers of a high grade Vuelta Abajo Havana. The infamous embargo of General Wayler will not be able to keep KP cigars down or reduce their quality as we are supplied with enough Havana leaf to last for two years. We hold today the largest stock of Havana in this state. There is no need for you to smoke a foreign product when you can buy at home a better cigar for no more money. Why not benefit your own city and your own state?” What later became the Crescent Hotel in the big Dunn Block was in the 1890’s called the Bay View Hotel. Its proprietor announced in the Mail that it was heated by steam and supplied with electric lights. had a sumptuous sample room for commercial travelers. and gave special attention to what Landlord Fiske called an “exquisite cuisine”, which translated into present day American meant “good eats”. He announced also that his coaches met all trains and his rates for lodging and three meals were $2.00 a day.

In 1895 the Dirigo Market, operated by Buck Brothers at 81 Main Street, was featuring a 50 cent sale. For half a dollar you could buy a peck of pea beans or six pounds of salt pork, your choice of six cans of Maine corn or six cans of tomatoes, or eight pounds of raisins.

Perhaps the boldest ad I have seen for those closing years of the old century was one by which a merchant of Fairfield invaded Waterville to compete with the local traders. That man who tried to lure Waterville customers up to Fairfield was the jeweler, H.E. Burgess. whose ad said: “Waterville people can save money by doing business with Burgess the Jeweler in Fairfield. Having no rent to pay and very little store expense. cash to buy stock in trade, and 25 years of experience in buying, I am able to buy goods at lowest prices and can hand the savings on to my customers. Come to Fairfield and save money. H. E. Burgess.”

Speaking of Fairfield. the newspapers of the 1890’s often referred to prominent persons in that community. There was, for instance, Edward J. Lawrence who had been born in Fairfield Center in 1833, and in the 1890’s was president of the lumber and pulp firm of Lawrence, Newhall and Page. His grandfather, James Lawrence, had come to Fairfield from Cape Cod with the Nyes and the Kendalls in the 1770’s. It took them three weeks in a sailing vessel to make the trip. James Lawrence made his home at Fairfield Center as early as 1785. His son, James Jr. was known as Captain Lawrence because of his rank in the state militia. Completing work in the Fairfield common schools in 1855, Edward Lawrence went to work as a clerk in the general store of Wing and Bates in Gardiner. He was transferred to their office in Shawmut, where he was placed in charge of the company’s mill to grind pulp. Purchasing an interest in that property in 1860. he took in his brother G.W. as a partner. They finally bought out the other owners, took in two other Fairfield men, and named the company Lawrence, Newhall and Page.

Mr. Lawrence served as president of the Waterville Trust and Safe Deposit Co., of the Waterville and Oakland Railway and was a prominent Democrat and a staunch Universalist. He was also part owner in several schooners, several of them commanded by the redoubtable Fairfield sailor, Captain Kreger. Edward Lawrence had three daughters known as the “Three A’s” — Addie, Alice and Annie. The family lived in the large mansion that Mr. Lawrence built near High Street that is now the residence of Dr. Pratt.

In the 1890’s the Nye family, which had been liberally represented in Fairfield since the laying out of the Nye-Dimmock survey in 1780, was most prominently represented by Stephen Nye. He certainly came from very early colonial stock, for he was descended from Benjamin Nye. who had settled at Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1637. It was Benjamin’s son, Bartlett Nye, who came to take up land on the Nye-Dimmock grant in the 1780’s. The Stephen Nye of the 1890’s was Bartlett’s grandson, and the son of another Stephen Nye, who started the family’s lumber buSiness, served in the Maine Legislature. and was sheriff of Somerset County. The younger Stephen Nye was born in Fairfield in 1835, and when he was only 15 years old followed the gold rush to California via the Isthmus of Panama. Returning to Maine in 1859, he engaged in the flour business in Fairfield with his brother J.H. Nye. During the Civil War he was in Clinton as merchant and lumberman. Then he returned to Fairfield, took over and expanded the Nye lumber mills. In 1892 he incorporated the Stephen A. Nye Co., manufacturers of furniture and woodworkers. Nye was a prominent member of Amos Gerald’s syndicate to build electric railroads.

And with all that about prominent business men of Fairfield and Waterville 75 years ago, we must say goodbye until next week.