Radio Script #765

Little Talks on Common Things

April 21, 1968

When we consider what it costs to operate the City of Waterville today, it is interesting to note municipal expenses here a hundred years ago. I venture to say that people complained just as much about taxes then as they do now. In fact, considering the low incomes and the wages of that time. the money to pay taxes may have come just as hard then as it does today.

I have before me the municipal report for the town of Waterville in 1876. That was the centennial year of the Declaration of Independence and about a decade before Waterville became a city. The principal officers were the three selectmen: Reuben Foster, Winthrop Morrill and Charles Redington. Joseph Percival was the town treasurer.

Almost from the beginning of Maine towns, one of the largest annual expenditures has been for schools. In 1876 Waterville still had the district system. The town voted a lump sum, then divided among the districts according to the number of pupils. At that time Waterville had six school districts, considerably reduced from the 17 that were listed before the Civil War. The total appropriation for all six districts for the year 1875-76 was just $2,500. The town received $991.81 from the state school fund and $1,324.84 from the so-called mill tax provided by the statute. The total available for the ,320 pupils in those six Waterville districts was therefore $4,816.65. or $3.65 per child. Compare that with the more than $400 it costs for each child in a Waterville elementary school today.

That total cost of $4.816 was only for what were called the common schools -that is, the elementary grades. The public high school was then very new. For some time Waterville had had a high school to which parents paid a tuition fee, just as they did at Coburn or any other academy. Not until 1872 did the Maine Legislature pass the law authorizing public tax-supported high schools, and Waterville had been quick to establish one. In 1875-76 it cost $3,006 to operate that school, more than three-fifths the amount spent on the education of 1,320 elementary pupils. But most of that $3,000 came from the state and other sources. For its high school Waterville appropriated from its own taxation only $400.

What did it cost for the general operation of our town in 1875-76? At the town meeting in March, 1875 the voters had appropriated for town expenses a total of $16,780. Besides the $2,900 for common schools and high school, they had agreed to raise $3,000 for the support of the poor, $3,500 for highway repair and winter breaking of roads, $500 for the night watch, $1,000 for miscellaneous expenses, and $600 for a receiving tomb and fence at Pine Grove Cemetery. For capital expenses the town had voted $5,000 to repair the town hall and buy additional land, and $1,200 for land damages on Bridge Street.

One annual report that people always read with interest in those days was that of the town liquor agent. The law provided that liquor could be sold for medicinal and mechanical purposes only, by an agent duly appointed by the town. In 1876 that agent was Morris Soule, who reported that during the year he had received $5,416 for the sale of liquors, and that he had on hand stock to the value of $575. For his services Soule received exactly the same pay as C.A. Wood, the town watchman -$500 a year. One small item in Soule’s report is especially fascinating. It reads: “Liquor furnished paupers, $6.10.”

The fiscal year then ran from March 1 to February 28, and it was the custom to print in the town report every individual town order drawn day by day, giving the name of the payee, the amount, and what he was paid for. Let us take a look at some of those orders in 1875-76.

William Chenworth was paid $15.50 for lighting the street lamps. F.A. Robins got $15.25 for trimming the town hearse. Charles Perry was paid $7.63 for spreading manure on the Memorial Park, and George Maxham $10 for whitewashing the park fence. I.S. Bangs was given $3.00 for providing a watering trough. David Withee got $14.00 for work on the town jail. The new fence at Pine Grove Cemetery was really expensive for those days, and the order to John Flood in payment for it amounted to $1.58.

It would be interesting to note what is the explanation of $25 paid to F.L. Bartlett. It is listed “report on gas machine”. Another interesting item is $32.26 paid for burlap for scenery at the town hall, and an additional $12.62 for scenery $50 was paid to St. Francis Church for ringing the bell as a fire alarm and for public events. Joseph Percival was paid $6.00 for “writing for the town”, and to Bridges & Williams went $6.15 for a pump. The accounts for burlap and for scenery weren’t the only expenses for fitting up the town hall — it later became the Armory on Front Street — for theatrical performances. Windelin Bush — isn’t that an interesting name? – got $150 for painting that scenery. I suppose no one now living remembers what were the scenes he painted on the curtain and other fixtures.

In order to understand the things Waterville people were concerned with a hundred years ago, let us take a look at the warrant for the 1876 town meeting that appears at the end of this report.

Besides the usual articles calling for the election of officers and standard appropriations, the Waterville voters were asked to decide whether they would tax dogs; to see if they would change the name of any street; to determine whether the streets should be sprinkled; and to see if the town would take any action in regard to sewerage.

That 1875 payment to St. Francis Church is explained by an article in the 1876 warrant which reads: “To see if the town will vote to pay for ringing one of the church bells and to raise a sum of money therefor.” It seems to have been the custom to rotate the service among the several churches.

Several articles dealt with proposed new roads. One called for the building of West Street. another for May Street, another for a highway off Maple Street, and finally one that was described as follows: “Beginning at the east line of the Fairfield Meeting House Road to the northwest corner of Joseph Butler’s lot on the west line of Ticonic Street”. That meant, of course, one of the streets that now run between Main and Ticonic. but which one we cannot be sure.

Perhaps the most controversial article in the warrant called for the abolition of the school districts and bringing all the schools into a central system. The voters turned that article down in 1876. but it was finally adopted two years later in 1878.

Well, anyhow. I have given you a few interesting facts about our community of Waterville nearly a century ago.

As you know, I am especially fond of old-time advertisements. Thru the kindness of Mrs. Luke Morrill. I was shown a copy of the Boston Daily Journal, printed more than 115 years ago, on September 21, 1852. The news in that paper I find of little interest, but some of the ads are fascinating.

In 1852 the rush for gold in California was still on, and the Journal had a full column of ads that concerned it. There was the ad of Allen and Welch, which announced the sailing from Boston’s Rowe I s Wharf on September 22 of “the very superior fast sailing packet barque Petrea, under Captain Wendell Lewis, offering accomodations for both first and second class passengers.”

Then there was the Glidden and Williams Line.offering passage on the Roger Praynes, under Captain Penhallow. The ad said: “The ship has spacious and airy stateroom accomodations and will be fitted most comfortably for families or single passengers. Besides a most able commander, the ship will carry an experienced surgeon.”

In 1852 it was possible to go to California by fast clipper ship, though the slower barques and schooners were more common. Timothy and Davis announced the sailing of two smart clippers, the Gem of the Ocean, and the Whirlwind. Clippers were also available on the Glidden and Williams Line — the Westward Ho and the Queen of the Seas. Another clipper was the Dauntless of the Winson Line, whose ad said: “The Dauntless is now at Commercial Wharf. rapidly loading, and will sail on September 30. This ship has just made the passage from Valparaiso to Boston in 64 days. She is a real clipper ship, and her proprietors challenge the world to produce her superior.”

Besides the sailing vessels that made the long voyage around Cape Horn to California in 1852. there were several steamers that ran from Boston to Panama, and there made connections for California. One was the steamship United States, connecting at Panama with the new, double engine steamer Cortes. The ad proclaimed no detention on the Isthmus, but guaranteed through passage to San Francisco. Passengers were to leave the steamer United States at Aspinwall, Panama, and take the railroad across the Isthmus, boarding the steamer Cortes at the Pacific end for the voyage up the coast to San Francisco.

Evidently there was some scalping of tickets going on between the rival lines. The Pacific Mail Company notified the Journal readers that no tickets would be recognized on their ships unless signed by an officer of the company, and that such tickets could be obtained only at the company offices.

Readers of my book “Kennebec Yesterdays” know that California provided only one lure of gold in 1852. From Fairfield, Maine, as told in that book, there departed a son of William Bryant, to seek his fortune in the gold fields of Australia. Although young Bryant did not find wealth in gold, he did become a prosperous Australian merchant, and he never returned to Maine.

The old 1852 copy of the Boston Journal contained two ads for transportation to Australia. A gOO-ton clipper, Ascutna. was preparing to sail for Sydney. and the barque Fanny, a larger vessel of 1,500 tons. would be ready to weigh anchor early in October. The Fanny’s ad said: “Great pains have been taken in the selection of the stores, and it is believed that everything will conduce to render the passage agreeable and expeditious.”

The amusement ads in that 1852 Boston paper are themselves amusing. Listen to this one: “Prof. Anderson will appear at Ordway Hall. In addition to his extraordinary performance on the melodeon, he will exhibit incomprehensible wonders of magic and experimental philosophy, including those of chemistry, electricity and hydraulics. Astounding is his Great Bottle Feat, which has already supplied more than 10,000 citizens of Boston, and will continue to pour forth torrents of rum, gin, brandy and whiskey.”

Another ad called attention to the Learned Canaries entertaining the public at Armory Hall. More sedate performances were available at the Boston Museum with Julia Bennett and a supporting cast in “The Love Chase”, and at the Howard Athenaeum — at that time a fashionable theater, and not the honkey-tonk vaudeville house of a later era — was the celebrated Lola Montez in the melodrama “Bavaria”. How alluring we today would consider the prices at those better Boston theaters. Dress circle. 50 cents; family circle, 25 cents; third circle, 12~ cents. A private box with eight seats could be had for $5.00.

Year: 1968