Radio Script #760

Little Talks on Common Things

March 17, 1968

A conspicuous feature of every Maine community 150 years ago was the inn or tavern. Before the days of railroads, those taverns were numerous, because the roads were rough and crude and travel over them was mercilessly slow. The taverns themselves were nothing to brag about. often just a large house, like the Reed Tavern at Benton Falls. Every such homestead tavern had a bar room and a dining room, but often no private bedrooms. Sometimes the men all slept in one big room, all the women in another. Food was plentiful. but of the simplest kind. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that places as large as Augusta and Waterville saw anything like what we call a hotel. In the 1840’s Waterville’s Williams House, on Main Street, at the foot of Silver, came near to hotel proportions, and in 1850 the Elmwood provided the town with a real hotel.

The larger taverns were distinguished by their livery stables where they not only rented rigs to the townspeople and others, but also served as a changing junction for the stage coach horses. Such, for instance, was the tavern at Riverside in Vassalboro.

Some of those public accommodations for travelers began very early on the Kennebec. The first at Augusta was a log house, used as a tavern by Josiah French in 1763, fourteen years before the Declaration of Independence. It was on the west side of the Kennebec, and only a year later David Thomas opened a tavern on the other side. Another inn stood in 1784 on the lot where the Augusta City Hall now stands. Another early tavern was Whitney’s at the corner of Clark and Bangor Streets.

The most noted early inn at Hallowell was Currier’s, a big two-story house on Water Street. It did a big business around 1800, when Hallowell was the trading center for that whole Kennebec area. Actually outside the business district, on a farm two miles west of the river, was one of Hallowell’s important taverns, Townsend’s.

At the time the house was built, all the teaming from Farmington and intervening towns to the port at Hallowell was done over a road, long since abandoned, that passed that farm tavern.

In 1921 there was still standing, on the road from Hallowell to Manchester, a large house built about 1800, and long known as Gage’s Tavern.

Those country taverns died with the coming of the railroad, especially the Androscoggin and Kennebec, which, connecting with the Grand Trunk at Danville Junction, passed through the towns of Greene, Monmouth. Winthrop and Leeds to Waterville.

In 1803 Augusta saw a building erected purposely as a tavern. It was called the Cushnoc House, and with several additions and renovations did business for 85 years.

The tavern at Brown’s Corner in Riverside was operated for more than sixty years by Howes Robbins and his son Prescott. Its feature was a long bowling alley, installed about the middle of the 19th century. The Robbins Tavern was a favorite with pleasure parties.

Bachelder’s Tavern in Litchfield was a noted stage and change-of-horses stop on the stage route from Augusta to Portland. On the east side of the Kennebec, in Dresden, still stands the old Pownalborough Court House. That the building once served as a tavern among its many other uses is confirmed by Charles Allen, who wrote in his “History of Dresden”: “In this venerable building, besides the courts, religious meetings were held at various times. For many years the town business was transacted here. It was Dresden’s first post office, and the only one for many years, the mails being brought to it from Gardiner, then sent east to Wiscasset. Hence it was natural that the building should at times be a house of entertainment. Major Goodwin, one of the founders of Old Pownalborough, made it such at an early date, and yearly in the community’s existence he had a license to sell liquors there. Rum and molasses were at that time regarded as twin necessities of life. For instance, at the Court House on December 23. 1775, Mark Carney bought half a gallon of rum. In February, 1782 Peter Pochard had two gallons of molasses and a pint of rum. In September. 1784 William Gardiner was charged for lodging and breakfast; and in June, 1785 General Dearborn put on a party with dinner and punch.

As the years went by, many other taverns were opened in Dresden. Captain Samuel Alley kept one at Dresden Mills Village, where ;n the 1840’s John Chisolm also opened an inn. His sign was an oval board on which was painted on one side a sailing vessel and on the other side two crossed keys. Chisolm’s was a stage and change-of-horse stop.

Up the river in Skowhegan the first inn was kept by Eli Weston as early as 1788, for the record reveals that that year he was licensed as an innkeeper. Weston was postmaster so that his tavern was both a stage stop and the post office. In 1795 Salmon White built in Skowhegan a large, two-storied house and secured an innkeeper’s license.

Another inn was on the River Road to Fairfield, five miles from Skowhegan village. It was in full swing in the 1840’s. The proprietor was Thomas Fish, who was called Potter Fish, because he made pottery on the place. It had a peculiar sign, worded “T-Fish and Cider”.

Near the present residence of Percival Wyman, on the Middle Road from Skowhegan to Fairfield Center, Asa Wyman operated a tavern in 1800. Later his younger brother Ben became proprietor. In her “History of Skowhegan”. Miss Louise Coburn noted that in 1940 the building still stood, one of the oldest two-story houses in town.

On the other side of the Kennebec, across from Old Canaan were several early taverns. In Skowhegan Village the first inn was on the Bloomfield side of the river. In 1811 General Locke put up a large building especially for a tavern. It stood at the corner of Main and West Front Streets. He conducted it personally for fifty years, and it was carried on by his family until 1870. The sign of the Locke Tavern was elaborately carved in the form of a shield, was painted in green and gold, and carried the seal of the State of Maine surmounted by the state motto “Dirigo”.

The Locke Tavern had a large ballroom where many parties were held by the elite of Skowhegan in the early days. Many stories are told about this famous inn.

One concerns an Indian masquerade. It seems that a son of General Locke was in the Mexican War and one day suddenly appeared in Bloomfield. Many people thought he must have deserted from the army, so a band of Skowhegan youth dressed as Indians, surrounded the Locke Tavern. Making their way inside, they found young Locke hiding under a bed. He was able to prove, however, that he had been honorably discharged from the army, and the make-believe Indians departed in peace.

On the road from Skowhegan to Madison was an inn called the “Old Red Dragon”. It was long conducted by Stinson Herrin and was known as the Stage Tavern. It is said to have been the first public house in Skowhegan to use the name hotel, for at one time its sign read “Skowhegan Hotel”. As time went on, tradition had it that the former name, Old Red Dragon, was applied to the place because it was painted red and it dispensed beverages that made the imbibers see dragons.

The first inn to be called Skowhegan House, on what is now part of the big parking lot back of Water Street. was opened in 1855, was destroyed by fire ten years later and was replaced by the Skowhegan House that many of us present oldsters came to know very well.

In her history Miss Coburn mentions more than a dozen other early taverns in the town. Concluding her chapter on the inns, she wrote: “It is obvious that Skowhegan has by no means the hotel accommodations of former years. Times have changed. The automobile carries business travel at a rapid rate, with calls in several towns on the same day instead of overnight sojourns in each. The traveler, whether for business or pleasure, flits, lights, and flits again, and the old-time hotel sees him not.”

Miss Coburn wrote that 27 years ago in 1941. Even she could not see that the village hotel, allover Maine. would almost completely disappear by 1968. So much for old-time taverns in a few of our Kennebec towns.

Now for another subject. Before 1878 the State of Maine had done little to protect its fish and game. In that year the Legislature passed a law prohibiting the killing of moose in 1880 earlier than October 1 and prohibiting the killing of moose, deer or caribou between January first and October first thereafter. The same law forbade the killing of sea duck or plover between May 1 and September 1, and the killing of grouse, partridge or woodcock between December 1 and September 1. The law stated: “No person shall carry from place to place, in this state, any of the birds named herein, during the period in which their killing is prohibited under penalty of five dollars for each bird so carried.”

Another 1878 law regulated fishing. It said: “There shall be a closed time for salmon from July 15 of each year to April 1 of the following year; for landlocked salmon, trout and togue from September 21 to February 1, and for black bass from April 1 to July 1.”

Evidently the law was not well enforced. for in 1882 the Kennebec Association for the Protection of Fish and Game issued the following public statement: “To the several railroad. steamboat and stage lines: This Association desires to do all in its power to propagate and protect our inland fisheries and game, and your aid is urgently sought on behalf of all citizens of Maine. This request is therefore sent to the Supt. of the MCRR. the President of the Eastern Express Co., the proprietors of the Morrison and Huntiss Stage Line, the Supt. of the Canadian Express Co., and all other transportation companies, to cooperate with each other in prohibiting the transportation of fish and game during the closed season.”

That appeal makes it evident that, 75 years ago, just as now, not everyone in Maine was willing to obey the state laws.

An old book called “History and Description of New England”, published 100 years ago, has some interesting items about Maine towns of that time. Of Bingham it says: “This town is situated on the east side of the Kennebec and contains about 23,000 acres. The first settlement was made in 1784. Incorporated in 1812, it took its name from William Bingham, the great land owner of that part of the state.”

To Bingham’s original million acres he added more, so that his huge holdings were divided into four sections, called North, South, East and Middle. The North section was at the time mostly uninhabited, but the East section included the towns of Canterville, Whitneyville, Cooper, Wesley, Hancock, Franklin, Cherryfield, Columbia Falls, and several unnamed townships. The Middle section included towns along the Airline Road, such as Amherst, Aurora and Beddington.

With that reference to Widely separated towns within the huge Bingham Purchase, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1968