Radio Script #929

Little Talks on Common Things
April 16, 1972

A prominent business man in Central Maine in the middle of the 19th century was John Lang of Vassalboro. He developed the mills at North Vassalboro. At his farm near Getchell’s Corner on the Kennebec he built and launched an ocean-going ship, the Ocean Bird, that is said to have brought to U. S. the first peanuts from Africa.

Recently, I saw a ledger kept by John Lang in 1861. It shows that Lang was interested in sheep, because in that year he started a new flock by buying 25 Somerset Down ewes, 15 ewe lambs and a yearling buck. For the mature ewes be paid $5 each, for the lambs $4, and for the ram, which he called a buck, $7. In the ledger Lang wrote the following description: “The buck has a notch behind each ear and was sired by the Taylor buck from a good Thorne ewe. The ewes have a hole in the right ear and were sired by the Taylor buck, Holendel.” House rent was cheap indeed in that year when the Civil War opened. Lang rented a whole house to bis mill foreman for $20 a year. He also leased what he designated as part of a steam mill for 18 months for a total of $318.

Some of the well remembered families with whom Lang did business were the Popes – Alton, John and Isaac, the Stackpoles – Theodore, Winston and John, Ebenezer Hussey, Joseph Getchell, Sheldon Hobbs and Daniel Littlefield. His business extended to Waterville, where some of his debtors were Abraham Merrill, Tobias Penney, Benjamin Durrell and John Hall.

Among Lang’s purchases was an ox wagon for $9. Another record of John Lang’s reference to prices long before 1861, in fact as early as 1828. A leg of lamb then brought five cents a pound. Apples were two shillings, or 34 cents, a bushel, cheese 10 cents a pound, hard dry wood $2 a cord. The usual, charge for labor was 75 cents a day, with only a few skilled workmen, such as carpenters, getting $1.00 a day. A pair of calf skin shoes cost $1.25 and kid shoes $1.67, or 10 shillings. One day Lang bought three full-length, white oak logs for $ 1.50. One interesting item in that 1828 account is side lights for a door $1.00.

The old Waterville directories reveal a lot of information about where people lived and where business was conducted in the days of long ago. For instance, there is the local directory for the year 1885. Waterville then had three drug stores: George Dorr, then in the Dunn Block that later became the Crescent Hotel on the Lockwood Rotary; Ira Low at 68 Main Street, and Ingraham and Plaisted, farther down the west side of Main Street at No. 42.

The town had four banks in 1885: the Ticonic with Samuel Appleton as its president, the Peoples headed by George Phillips, the Merchants under John Wing, and the Waterville Savings Bank, whose president was John Ayer. In that year 1885, long before the coming of the automobile, Waterville had four blacksmiths: A. A. Simpson, near the corner of Common and Front Streets; George Young on Silver Street; Frank Walker an Temple St., and Simeon Roosenaux down on the Plains on Water Street.

Two long established Waterville hotels were then in business: the Elmwood at the junction of Main Street and College Avenue, and the Williams House on Main Street at the site of the present Federal Bank. But boarding houses, that furnished both room and meals, usually for more permanent lodgers than put up at the hotels, were numerous. Five of them were run by women: Mrs. M. H. Burrell at 142 Main St.; Mrs. Martin Fifield and Mrs. E. E. Richardson, both on Temple St.; Mrs. R. M. Jones on Front St. and Mrs. A. Webster on Union St. Two of the boarding houses were obviously for mill workers operated by O.P. Mosley and J.S. Parker. The location of both was given as opposite the mill on Water St. There were other boarding houses on Silver Street and on College Avenue.

In 1885, Waterville had four shoemakers – not merely men who repaired shoes, but who also actually made them. Those shops were located two on Main St., one on Ticonic, and one on Water. Dry goods merchants had a lot of competition here at that time. The directory lists eight of them, all on Main St. The best known were E. Blumenthal and G. Gallert, but a younger man was fast gaining prominence for his store. He was L. H. Soper, whose large place of business was still in operation 40 years later.

Men’s clothing stores, then called Gents’ Furnishings, were not as numerous as the dry goods emporia, but Waterville did have four, of which the best remembered was Perham Heald’s at 102 Main St. Two doors above him was the store of L. E. Thayer & Son. The other two were located farther up Main St., with Nason and Blaisdell at No. 40, and Swan and Hayes at No. 49. Of course, there were no supermarkets and no chain food stores in 1885. Groceries and meats were handled by individual dealers or small partnerships, and often such stores handled groceries only, there being separate meat markets. However, by 1885 in places the size of Waterville, the old general stores of the countryside had been superseded by specialized merchants such as grocers, meat men, fish men, hardware stores, dry goods stores, shoe stores, etc. In 1885, Waterville had 19 grocery stores, spread well over the town. It is true that eleven of them were on Main Street, but they extended on that street from W. T. Lincoln’s store at No. 14 to Buck Brothers at 175, above the railroad crossing. Two grocers were located on Ticonic St., three respectively on Water, Pine and Grove streets, one on Temple St., and another at Head of the Falls.

Certainly there were livery stables – three of them. George Jewell operated the one connected with the Elmwood Hotel. F. M. Hanson’s stable was on Silver Street, and C. A. Hall’s was in what was then called Mechanics Square. Photography was booming in 1885. Waterville had four such establishments, of which two were in business for a long time: C. G. Carleton at 66 Main St., and S.S. Vose & Son at 15 Main. Two others taking pictures at that time were J. H. Flannagan on. Common St. and Gideon Picher on Water St.

The town had eleven physicians but no hospital in 1885. Dr. N. R. Boutelle, son of the prominent citizen Timothy Boutelle, still had a medical office in his home on College Ave., the fine brick building at No. 33 that would later be the home of Colby Presidents. Quite as prominent as Dr. Boutelle was Dr. N. G. H. Pulsifer, whose office was on Temple Street. Dr. George Howard, who had come to town at the request of Dr. Boutelle, had an office in the Dunn Block. He lived on Winter Street in the house long occupied afterward by his niece, Miss Harriet Parmenter. A younger doctor, who would become eventually most prominent of all, was just beginning at that time. He was Dr. Frederick C. Thayer. There was then only one physician with a French name, Dr. J. l3ashier on Water Street. But today, who remembers at all Doctor Campbell on Center St., Dr. Holmes or Dr. Roberts, both on College Avenue?

Where did some of Waterville’s prominent residents of 1885 then live?

Amos Abbott, overseer of the Lockwood Mills, resided at 78 Center St., Horace Purinton at 18 Winter, George Dana Boardman Pepper at 14 College Ave., Isaac Bangl::i at No. 23 on the same street, L. T. Boothby, the insurance man at 8 Park Street, Cyrus Davis at 46 Silver, Aaron Plaisted at 8 Appleton, Brett Drummond at 45 Pleasant. Of the Gallert brothers, David the dry goods man lived at 58 Pleasant, while Mark the shoe dealer was at 48 Silver. Perham Heald’s house was on Park Street, Christian Knauf’s on Pleasant St., where nearby lived Homer Percival. Warren Pallbrook, later a judge of the Maine Supreme Court, was also on Pleasant St., while W. T. Haines, who would later be a Maine governor, was then on Front Street. John Lang had his home on Sherwin Street. Simon Brown, the well known lawyer, lived on Ash St. Nearby, the corner of College and Abbott streets, was the venerable Colby professor, Samuel K. Smith. John Ware already bad his fine home at 67 Silver Street. Hod Nelson was raising race horses on the Oakland Road, and Colby Blaisdell, who later lived in the Winter Street home that I have now occupied for 40 years, then lived far out of town on the Eight Rod Road.

Now let us take a brief look at a Waterville Directory of a quarter of a century later, 1910. To some of us old timers that seems not very long ago. Actually 62 years have elapsed since that directory was published, and at this time I had just completed my freshman year as a student at Colby.

Unlike the earlier directory of 1885, the publication of 1910 listed Waterville’s Business blocks – 20 of them, extending alphabetically from the Arnold Block to the Thayer Block. Most of them of course, were on Main Street, from the new block on the rotary to the Hussey Block at 185. But off Main St. were the Gilman Block on Charles St. and the Haines Block on Cannon Street.

The 1910 directory also listed 11 meeting halls, all on either Main, Temple, or Common streets. The Masons were already occupying quarters in what is still their building on Common St. The Knights of Pythias were at 50 Main St., and the Knights of Columbus at 148 Main. The Grand Army was still going strong at their hall in the Haines Block. Organizations that have since given up their Waterville units were the Eagles, the Foresters, the Golden Cross, and the Red Men, all with halls on Main or Temple St in 1910. The Elks had not yet come to town.

In 1910 the Waterville post office was located on Common St., with Perham Heald as postmaster.

Who represented the old families in 1910?

The Heaths then lived, as one of them still does today, at 60 Front Street. The directory listed six Redingtons, Charles and his mother at 20 Sherwin St., Frank at 7 Silver St., Annie, Mary and Helen at 20 Sherwin, and Miss Sophia Redington at what is now the Redington Museum, 64 Silver St. Of the prolific family of McKechnies, only one was listed in the 1910 directory. He was Erastus on the Oakland Road, a great-grandson of the pioneer surveyor and mill owner, John McKechnie. Of the numerous Stackpoles, only one of that name was left here in 1910, Miss Julia Stackpole, the much respected teacher of a private school, who made her home at 17 School Street.

In that year 1910, while attending Colby, I earned my board by waiting on table at the Hanford in P. O. Square, then a fashionable boarding place operated by Mrs. Emma Jones. Listed in the directory as living at the Hanford were three persons to whom I served meals that year, the Ball sisters, Mary and Ophelia, and William Morrison a foreman at the H & W Mill. I recall Mr. Morrison especially because as one of Mrs. Jones’ freshmen waiters, I had to be on the first breakfast shift at 6: 30 six mornings of the week. Promptly when the dining room clock showed 6:30, Mr. Morrison would sit down for his breakfast, the same every morning of the week: oatmeal, two eggs on toast, and coffee.

Year: 1972