Radio Script #763

Little Talks on Common Things

April 7, 1968

A remarkable job of local historical research has been done recently by a Colby sophomore, Earle Shettleworth of Portland. When he was in high school this young man had become deeply interested in Maine history, especially in old-time art and architecture of Maine. Earle is the son of Esther Knudsen Shettleworth, a Colby graduate, who before her marriage, was a well known and highly respected teacher at Deering High School.

Under the guidance of Prof. William Miller at Colby, young Shettleworth decided to look into certain residential architecture in this vicinity. The result is the leading article in the current issue of “Old Time New England”, a quarterly magazine published by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Entitled “A Mark Upon the Land”, Shettleworth’s article deals with a local carpenter- architect of the mid-nineteenth century, Charles D. Lawrence of Fairfield. We learn not only about buildings that Lawrence erected, but also some interesting facts about his life.

Charles D. Lawrence was born in Fairfield in 1819, the oldest child of Henry and Rose Lawrence. He had four brothers and sisters: Elihu, Hannah, Alfred and Albion. How Lawrence received training as a carpenter we do not know, but that he actually drew plans for houses he put up, though he was not a trained architect. is established by the preservation of a large portfolio containing many such drawings.

The Lawrence home — that is, of this particular branch of the Lawrence family was at Fairfield Center, which at the time of Charles Lawrence’s birth was more populous than Kendalls Mills, now Fairfield Village. As a boy and young man, Lawrence attended Methodist services in the meeting house at Fairfield Center. Town and county records reveal that in 1841 he bought from his father five acres of land near the Center for $300. In the next year, 1842, he sold part of it to Asa Holbrook, and then built for Holbrook a house still standing that is typical of houses that Lawrence built afterward. Situated on the Middle Road to Skowhegan. it is a story-and-half house with ell lower than the main structure, and is distinguished by Gothic trim running down both sides of the gable. Like many houses of the time, this one has its main gable in front, not at the side. Shettleworth points out: “This style of house blossomed in the architectural period of the Greek Revival because of its similarity to the outline of a Greek temple. Like most builders of the time, Lawrence did not center the front door, but placed it on one side.”

Along the Ohio Hill Road out of Fairfield Center are several Lawrence houses. One near the church, is the home of Prof. Mark Benbow, head of the English Department at Colby. A short distance beyond is the Lawrence Caret house, for which Charles Lawrence’s floor plans are preserved. Diagonally across from the meeting house is a house built by Lawrence for his brother Elihu. Shettleworth has been able to date that house fairly closely, because on one sheet of Charles Lawrence’s plans for it is a watermark 1854. Another Lawrence house on the Ohio Hill Road is now owned by Frank Tozier.

Shettleworth found that while Lawrence used chiefly a simple Greek Revival style of building, he experimented also with Gothic and Italianate styles. It was a combination of Greek and Gothic that he used in building his own home at Fairfield Center. “Standing today on the Middle Road to Skowhegan”. Shettleworth wrote. “this house shows the gap that can sometimes occur between an architectural drawing and the actual structure. In the drawing the three second-story windows are straight with the usual moldings. The first-floor windows and doorway are essentially the same. None of the detail of the drawing is present on the finished structure. The only trim to break the plain lines are large thin double brackets on the porch and around the eaves.”

Charles Lawrence’s youngest brother Alfred erected at Fairfield Center a large plain, two-story brick house. Charles probably designed and built that house, as he did the other family homes.

One of the pictures accompanying the Shettleworth magazine article is a fullpage photo bearing the caption: “House (now demolished), Waterville. Maine”. It is a large, square, two-story house. with the three second-floor windows, and a side bay window typical of many Lawrence houses, but this is no proof that Lawrence built this Waterville home. When I saw that picture in the magazine. I identified it immediately, as I am sure many Waterville residents younger than I could do. It is a picture of the Plaisted house that stood at the corner of Main and Center Streets, where a filling station now stands.

Early in this broadcast I told you that Earle Shettleworth had unearthed some information about this architect-carpenter and his family. Shettleworth learned that in 1865, right at the close of the Civil War, James Sylvester and Reuel Woodman bought of Gage and Cates a planing mill on the Kennebec at Kendalls Mills. Soon afterward Charles and Alfred Lawrence bought a large share in that mill, and it was not long before they bought all of Sylvester’s interest. The new firm of Woodman, Lawrence and Co. advertised in the Maine Business Directory as “manufacturers of doors, sashes and blinds, door and window frames, and moldings. Also all kinds of packing boxes made to order.”

Both Charles and Alfred Lawrence sold their homes at Fairfield Center and moved to Kendalls Mills in 1866. Buying a big lot at the corner of Western Avenue and High Street, Alfred erected on the corner what was then the only brick house in the village. Next door Charles built a more modest frame house for himself.

In 1870 Alfred Lawrence sold to Charles his share in the planing mill, and with another partner set up a plaster mill. In 1871 Reuel Woodman sold his remaining interest and Charles Lawrence became the planing mill’s sole owner. Charles was a loyal Methodist. being just as devoted to the Methodist Church at Kendalls Mills as he had been to the older church at the Center. In 1868 he gave $100 toward the cost of a parsonage. In 1876 he was steward and trustee of the church.

Disaster struck in 1882. On the evening of July 21st Charles Lawrence’s mill was burned to the ground. By that time fire insurance had become common, but amazingly for so good a businessman, Charles carried no insurance on the mill. All the compensation he received was for the lot and water rights which he promptly sold.

With his business wiped out, Lawrence, however, did not despair. He started manufacturing boxes in the barn of his home, and by 1887 had returned to his trade of carpenter. Then seventy years old, he sold his house to his brother Alfred, and moved to one on Elm Street near Newhall.

Charles Lawrence left Fairfield in 1904 and spent his remaining three years with an adopted son, Eben Davis, who lived at Eagle Lake in Aroostook. There this builder of old Fairfield homes died in 1907.

No one today would remember Charles Lawrence as a prominent builder of Central Maine homes, if this talented Colby sophomore, Earle Shettleworth, had not discovered the portfolio of Lawrence’s architectural drawings and then had the patience to match those drawings with houses still standing in Fairfield.

In a recent broadcast I told you something about an old-time itinerant preacher, Henry Kendall. Here are some more facts about that far wandering man. In 1832 he went as a delegate from Maine to meetings of Baptist associations in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He sailed from Lubec across the Bay of Fundy to Windsor, and then drove to Amherst. He returned around the Bay by land.to St. John, and from there took a boat to Eastport. He had covered 1,000 miles in seven weeks.

The summer of 1842 found this meandering preacher in Aroostook. He wrote to his wife at home in Topsham: “I am now far from home in the town of Houlton. As you know, I am today 68 years old, and this is the 41st year of my ministry. I arrived at Houlton on Friday and found a quiet village with two meeting houses, one Orthodox, the other Unitarian. The Unitarians gave me the use of their house, and I am preaching there each Sabbath of my stay in Houlton. No Baptist minister before me has preached in this town for twelve years.”

A few weeks later Kendall wrote from Patten: “This new country is the most important field of missionary labor in Maine. The people are eager for the gospel.”

In 1844 Kendall was on the road, collecting money for Baptist missions. Of the experience he wrote: “I have collected $300 in Central Maine. The people in China responded magnificently. I shall now try to help the church in Patten to get the money to build a meeting house. there being none within 80 miles of that place.”

In May, 1847 Kendall recorded in his diary: “I was called to Vassalboro, where the church has become almost distracted and torn at its very center by the influence of their late pastor. After laboring with them for two months, I succeeded in getting a council that condemned his conduct and bound him to make confession, which he did, and the church forgave him.”

Kendall set down a clear record of his own religious beliefs. He wrote: “My manner of preaching was to present the plain truth of the Bible. The doctrine of total moral depravity. the justly condemned state of sinners under the law, salvation by grace — these are the only way for lost sinners. I have noted that recently there have come to our association several learned ministers who have imprudently looked down upon the less educated ministers. One went so far as to state in public that a learned minister without grace would do more good than an unlearned minister with grace. On the other hand I have seen much jealousy aroused against the educated ministry. I have felt it my duty to stand between the two extremes. Now the troubles have measurably subsided. and most of our uneducated ministers have gone to their heavenly reward.”

One of the most interesting items refers to 1816. the famous Year of No Summer. Kendall wrote: “I have a large family, and bread is scarce and dear. Crops, frozen in mid-summer, are a complete failure. A friendly Baptist tailor in Boston supplied me with eight bushels of corn and made me a new suit — all as a free gift. What a wonderful man!”

Yes, there were wonderful men even in the wretched year that got the name of “Good-for-Nothing and Froze to Death”. And with that we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1968