Radio Script #917

Little Talks on Common Things
January 23, 1972

Recently found in an old house in Palmyra, Maine, was the record book of the first Sunday School established at the Waterville Universalist Church in 1833. Found by Gordon Costley, formerly of Sidney Road, Waterville, and now of Palmyra, it was given to me by Mr. Costley, and I handed it over to my friend and former Colby colleague Elmer Warren, president of the present Waterville Unitarian-Universalist Society. He will see that it is carefully preserved in the archives of the denomination.

Although the Waterville Universalist Society was organized in the late 1820’s, it was not until 1832 that they opened their meetinghouse on Silver Street near the junction of Elm. That building was only one year old when it housed a Sunday School, then universally called the Sabbath School of the First Universalist Society in Waterville, organized on the First Sabbath in June, 1833. Of that school the first superintendent was Alpheus Lyon, and he ordered that an address should be delivered to the whole school on the first Sabbath of each month. The lecture in July was by James Ford, in August by a Mr. CblJ:>y, and ,in September by Alpheus Lyon himself.

Some names that became prominent later in Waterville business society and government, appear on the lists of children who attended that school. There was William Phillips,whose descendants were prominent in the church or its companion Unitarian Society until recent years. There was Randolph Crommett, son of the wealthy owner of Crommett’s Mills where Western Avenue now crosses the Messalonskee. A pupil in 1833 was Isaac Bangs, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Civil War, and who gave to the Waterville Historical Society many Civil War momentoes, including most of the publications of the Adjutant General of the U. S. from 1861 through 1865. The Redingtons were represented by John, the Cools by William, the Mathews by John, the McFarlands by Isaac and David, the Percivals by John, and the Wings by George. There were several Wheelers, Rickers, Estys, Stackpoles, Haydens, Bacons, and Besseys.

In 1841, the Sunday School had grown to more than a hundred pupils. At that time the teachers were J. L. Stevens, Jabez Waters, Volney Sprague, William Bicknell, Lydia Wetherbee, Fidelia Stevens, and Mrs. J. H. Gardner, wife of the minister. Eleven years later there were 12 different classes in the school, respectively taught by persons designated in the old record as Mr. Percival, Mr.Arnold, Mr. Getchell, Mr. Wales, Mrs. Crocker, Mrs. Gardner, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Percival, Mrs. Getchell, Mrs. Mathews, Mrs. Philbrook and Mrs. Phillips.

That old Sunday School made much of its rapidly growing library. Besides such books used in the classes, of which the school had as many as 18 copies were Hudson’s Bible Questions, Balch’s Life of Christ, Smith’s Scripture Doctrine and Reese’s Catechism. But it was single volumes, loaned out to the pupils, that composed the true library. There were the expected religious books for children, such as Life of Our Savior, Imitations of Christian Character, the Christian Monitor, and the Missionary Museum. Moral tomes were plentiful: Principle of Politeness, Lives of Remarkable Youth, Evil of Partiality, White Lies, and Rising in the World.

It is rather amazing, however, to find that secular volumes, some of them of literary endurance, were in that Sunday School Library. It had a Life of Scott, a Life of Byron, a 2 volume Life of Washington, two volumes of Cook’s Voyages, a History of England, works on geography, botany, astronomy, ancient and modern history, and mythology. Some other titles were Stories of Poland, Isles of the Pacific, Scenes in Europe, Stories of Spain, and a volume entitled Animal Biography. By 1850 the library had copies of the Vicar of Wakefield, of Ivanhoe and Quentin Durward, and the Leatherstocking books. Even the Sunday School libraries, were then beginning to accept what became standard fiction.

The last record in this old handwritten volume is for the year 1852, 19 years after the school had been started. By that time the family names of the enrolled children included Getchell, Redington; Percival, Mathews, Bacon, Lyon, Low, Stevens, Soule, Arnold, Crommett, Nudd, Boothby, Pray, Heywood, Williams, and Colby.

It is altogether an interesting record that would have been forever lost except for the vigilance and the thoughtfulness of Gordon Costley of Palmyra.

In recent years, Maine’s service to the mentally ill has expanded so greatly and has so improved in quality that one would scarcely recognize conditions when a new wing of the insane hospital was opened in Augusta in 1856. The Kennebec Journal then said: “The north wing has been completed and the hospital area now accommodates 250 patients. Its present inmates number 150. It is estimated that there are nine times that number of insane persons in Maine, but many patients are not sent to Augusta through fear of expense. A large proportion of the state’s insane are confined to almshouses, many of them caged and chained, because they can thus be kept a few cents cheaper than at the hospital. The price of food there has been raised to $2.50 per week. The hospital has now been in operation for 15 years. It has nearly all the conveniences required. The Superintendent does desire the installation of gas for lighting. The buildings now have a good supply of water. As for costs, the Supt. believes the state must assume some share of the expenses for each patient.”

When we consider how easily an appropriation of a million dollars is made for some worthy cause by the Maine Legislature today, it seems ludicrous that a matter of $10,000 for the State Reform School could cause a furor in 1856. In 1855 the entire appropriation to operate the Reform School had been $35,000. An economy minded group in the legislature were determined to reduce the 1856 appropriation to $25,000. One member of the House commented on the floor: “We have spent a lot of money on this school, and what have we got? Not a foot of the land and none of the buildings belong to the state. We have a costly undertaking in a bad location. We are spending $35,000 a year to support 250 boys, two-fifths of whom come from only two cities.” Another representative said, “We built a barn at that school which cost $3500. It could have been built for half the money.”

A defender of the school said he had seen the barn, and it was money well spent. The economizers prevailed, and the appropriation was reduced by $10,000.

In 1857 the Kennebec Journal made caustic comment on the liquor situation in Maine. Neal Dow’s prohibitory law was then only six years old. On the eve of the annual convention of the State Temperance Society, the Journal said: “The year 1857 opened in painful contrast with 1856. A year ago Maine was an acknowledged leader in the temperance movement. Now we have become an object of pity and reproach. Two years ago, no liquors were brought into Maine for sale, except by stealth, and none were sold except in secret. Now cargoes are landed safely on our wharves, pipes and barrels are displayed in our market places. Two years ago a drunken man was a rare sight. Now in our taverns, he is a daily spectacle.”

“What caused the change? We do not deny that there was infraction of the law in 1855 and that revision was necessary. The enemies of prohibition seized on its imperfections to persuade the legislature to amend the law in the wrong direction. Controlled by the liquor interest, the legislature trampled the law under foot, and in spite of promises to make conditions better and strengthen the law, they proceeded to license the free sale of rum. It is noteworthy that on five of the 96 legislators who voted for license have been reelected to the 1857 legislature. A large majority of the present members of both houses favor a strong prohibitory law, and we have confidence that the free sale of liquor will soon be barred in Maine.”

The spring of 1857 saw floods on Maine rivers. On April 12 of that year the Kennebec Journal commented: “The heavy rains have done great damage on our rivers. On the Piscataquis, the water rose to the highest level ever recorded. Bridges were swept away at Abbott, Guilford, Foxcroft and Dover. On the Sandy River, the bridge at Keith’s Mills went out, and Intervale Road was blocked by ice. At Lewiston on·the Androscoggin, ice piled up against the granite piers of the railroad bridge, causing water to overflow the banks. Large numbers of logs went down that river and out to sea. On the Kennebec at Skowhegan the water was so high that Barney Banks, a Canadian, moved his family from their shanty on the river to higher ground. At Madison, part of the main dam went out.”

In 1854, the year that the Republican Party was formed, there was started in Augusta a weekly paper called the Age, which attacked the new party and tried to rally people to the Democrats. In its very first issue on January 7, 1854, the Age said: “We shall now see how far the Whig leaders in the legislature will be able to lead their allied forces in the direction of folly and disorganization.”

Twenty years after the Aroostook War was over, the taxpayers were still paying for that fiasco. In that first issue of the Age, George Moulton of Augusta placed the following ad: “A late act of Congress embraces the services of officers and soldiers in the Aroostook Expedition and entitles each to 40 acres of land for 30 days service. The undersigned will attend to all applicants for these bounty lands.”

And with that we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1972