Radio Script #924

Little Talks on Common Things
March 12, 1972

A lot of questions continue to arise over just who owned what land in Waterville 110 years ago, when Waterville, separating from Winslow, was incorporated as a separate town. Obviously the huge, mile deep lots of the McKechnie survey, with a width of 40 rods on the Kennebec, were soon broken up into smaller pieces.

As early as 1805, when Timothy Boutelle acquired what was left of Lot 105, a part of that lot was already taken up by the town cemetery, situated on what is now Monument Park at the corner of Elm and Park Streets. There is preserved a record of the original grant of Lot 104, which adjoined an the south that part of the old Isaac Temple lot, but by Boutelle. Lot 105 was granted by the Plymouth Company to James Pitts on July 29, 1111.

The lot consisted of 400 acres of land in two divisions. The first division included what is now the Main Street and concourse shopping areas between Silver Street and the present site of Depositors Trust Company. Its area was described thus: “Beginning an the Kennebec at the east end of the north side of a road lying between Lots 103 and 104, thence on the north side of said road NNW 320 poles to another road, thence north on that road 50 poles, thence ESE 320 poles to the Kennebec, thence south down the river to the first mentioned bounds, a tract containing 100 acres.”

Of course, after 200 years, that language requires some interpretation. Pole was another term for rod; so 320 poles made 320 rods, or exactly one mile. The road between Lots 103 and 104 was an old road running east and west approximately in the area of Silver Street, through later changes and many buildings make it difficult to tell exactly how the road ran. We can only say that it ran west from the Kennebec somewhere in the vicinity just north of the present Ticonic Bridge. But we do know exactly where lies its western limit, one mile from the river. That was the ancient highway we now know as the First Rangeway, and it got its name because the Old Plymouth Co. survey made by John McKechnie in 1762 specified a road across the end of the first tier of lots, and another, called the Second Rangeway, across the end of the second tier. That old Lot 104, most of which was later acquired by Nathaniel Gilman, thus extended an eighth of a mile along the river and back to the First Rangeway. On Main Street it ran, as I have said, from the vicinity of Silver Street to just south of Temple Street.

But that 100 acre lot, large as it was, was exceeded by the second division of the Pitts grants. That was located, not on the river, but in the second tier of lots a mile back. Its description read: “Beginning one mile and 8 poles from the Kennebec (The extra eight rods was common to allow for a highway. We still have a road in the southern part of Waterville called the Eight Rod Road) on a road and at the east end of the north line of the 300 acre lot numbered 101, thence N on that road 150 poles, thence SE about 320 poles to a road, thence south down that road to the first mentioned bounds. This is a tract 150 poles wide and 320 poles long, and contains 300 acres. That big lot extended from the First to the Second Rangeways and included the land now occupied by Seton Hospital and the five houses in the Cherry Hill section. In the early 19th century a big section of it was bought and developed into a farm by Peletiah Penney and his stalwart sons.

The Centennial History of Waterville and numerous valued documents, preserved both in Waterville and in Winslow, long ago acquainted us with the fact that Rev. Joshua Cushman was the first settled minister, who came in 1795, when both sides of the river were the single town of Winslow. What was not known, until an old letter came recently to light was that, after Cushman had been preaching here for ten years, there was talk about getting a new minister. Bear in mind that, at that time, there was no denominational church in either Winslow or Waterville. That did not come until the Baptists organized here in 1818. The minster, whatever his individual denomination might be, was selected by the town and paid by the town from taxation.

Thomas Warren in Wiscasset, learning that there might be a change of preacher in Waterville, wrote on December 31, 1805, to Asa Redington, then the town’s most prominent citizen – land owner, mill owner, shipbuilder, and Justice of the Peace. This is what Warren’s letter said: “I have formed an acquaintance with a gentleman, Mr. Chamberlain, at Mr. Richard’s in Boston, who is in pursuit of a pulpit stand. He is a young minister of talents, erudite in theology, and exemplary in his morals. He has served the sanction of the holies and is, in my opinion, completely qualified to please the people of Waterville. Mr. Richards thinks he is the likeliest young minister that he has been acquainted with in a number of years. I told him that I considered Waterville a good stand for him. He directs me to write to you, requesting that you inform him through Mr. Richards of the theme you would like to have him present and any other information. He certainly deserves your encouragement. P. S. Mr. Chamberlain is not rigid orthodox, but is pretty liberal in his sentiments. He is not one of those holy crocodiles whose actions imply that religion consists solely of a lax physiognomy, but he is a social, pleasing, intelligent young minister. His smiling countenance and his actions indicate the purity of his heart. It would be interesting to know how Asa Redington replied to that letter. Did young Chamberlain ever, preach a sample sermon in Waterville? We do not know. It is possible that Redington was one of those dissatisfied with Cushman and had himself made inquiry of Warren. Concerning that we have no evidence, and Redington may indeed have been one of Cushman’s defenders. What we do know is that Chamberlain never became a settled minister in Waterville.

In fact Joshua Cushman continued in that office until 1814, when, if we can believe a letter written by Mrs. Jeremiah Chaplin in 1818, “the people paid him $1200 to preach to them no more”. Whatever arrangement the town made with Cushman, he continued to reside in Winslow as a respected and highly honored citizen, not only representing the town, first in the Mass., then in the Maine legislature, but also serving a term in the U.S. Congress. All that the old letter to Redington in 1805 reveals is the fact that in those long ago days, the wheels within wheels turned in religion and politics just as they do today.

In Waterville’s pioneer days, a major industry was driving logs down the Kennebec. The fact is that they were not usually driven in open formation as single 1ogs, as became the case after the big stone piers enabled booms to provide channels to keep the logs from piling up in coves and shallows.

The Stackpole diaries, concerning which I talked on this program a few months ago, revealed how those logs were bound into rafts, floated down to Augusta, broken up to go over the Augusta dam, then assembled again into rafts to go farther down the river, often as far as Bath. There is also preserved an account book kept by a man whose identity is unknown, dealing with the handling of logs at Winslow in 1826. One item, recorded on May 11, 1826 reads: “To Mr. Sanger, Dr. to 36 days work driving the river $54.” (That was mighty hard work to be done for the wages of $ 1.50 a day.) A few days later the account keeper charged Sanger 75 cents for a half-days harrowing by oxen and boy. Then another charge was 50 cents for hauling joists and half a day working on the road. For running boards over the rips above Ticonic Falls, the charge was another 50 cents.

Meanwhile, this river driver had to get in supplies. He credited Faunce and Sar~er with 66 cents for a pound of teay, clearly revealing that our ancestors pronounced tea, tay. The credit also included $1.16 for a scythe and $4.25 for a fur hat. In the same record Faunce and Sanger were charged $4.00 for “going down river on raft, and board, three days and one night.”

The Southwicks of Getchell’s Corner were good customers of that river driver. During May, 1826 he had a long account with Joseph Southwick. The items included a day’s work driving the river $1.25, a days work guiding logs over the dam $1.17; 5 days work on a raft of logs down the river, $ 5.50, 6 days rafting and running boards, $5.50. The difference between rafting and running was that, in the former case the logs were bound together into what they called a raft and what we today call a boom, while running meant guiding loose logs down the stream.

This man’s account with Jeremiah Richards included credit for 45 lb. of beef at 3 cents a pound – $ 1.35 for the whole 45 pounds. To pay for it he supplied a day’s work of man and oxen piling boards. One long day brought him $2.00 for ploughing and hauling manure. On another account his charge for half a day hauling bark was 42 cents, and for a man and oxen to haul cord wood half a day, he got only 50 cents.

A well known man in early Waterville was Josiah Hayden, for whose wife the Silence Howard Hayden Chapter of DAR was named. Josiah appears in this old account book, being charged 50 cents for hauling joists to Augusta, and 75 cents for oxen for one days work on the Hayden dam. He too sold beef to this river driver at the same price that Richards got, 3 cents a pound for 44 pounds.

Four acres of land is quite a piece. To plow that big lot the charge was $ 2.00.

In July, 1826, this man took on a big job for the Southwicks rafting boards. In a period of nine days he rafted 609,000 board feet. His biggest day saw 90,000 feet go down the river.

During January and February, 1827, this fellow supplied a schoolhouse with wood. It was, of course, one of the old one room schoolhouses, but it consumed a lot of fuel. In those two months our man delivered there 5 cords of wood.

In those days men did not work bare-headed, either winter or summer. Besides the fur hat we have already referred to, our river driver bought a felt hat for a dollar and a straw hat for 34 cents. That latter charge represents a hangover from the days when all prices were in British money. Thirty-four cents represented two shillings of the old New England money, rated at 6 shillings to a dollar.

Year: 1972