Radio Script #930

Little Talks on Common Things
April 23, 1972

The original settler at North Fairfield was Elihu Bowerman. Members of his large family scattered, but some of them, including his son Benjamin, stayed in Fairfield. Another son, Harper, went to New York State and settled at a place called Wheatland. From there, on June 12, 1833, Harper Bowerman wrote a long letter to his brother Benjamin in Maine, and I want to share a part of that letter with you today. It was mailed from Scottsville, N.Y. and was addressed: Benjamin Bowerman, Fairfield, Somerset Co., Maine, West Post Office.

After the usual introduction about his family’s health, Harper Bowerman proceeded to tell about the place where he had settled, the place he called Wheatland. He wrote: “Last, winter was not so cold as Kennebec winters. We do have much cloudy weather here in the winter, with frequent squalls of snow and chilling winds. But we had enough snow to make sleighing only two or three times. The snow was about 18 inches deep in February in the fields. The farmers generally get into their fields ploughing and the peach trees are in blossom the last of April.”

I am interested that Harper’s next sentence refers to the great Kennebec flood of 1832. He says, “We had a low, northeast storm with much rain about the the of year that the great freshet was on the Kennebec last year.” He continued: “Corn has been backward and, now near the end of June, is quite small. But the wheat looks promising. It is very handsome when headed out. This is a great wheat country. It is also very good for corn, oats and potatoes, and pretty good for grass. We have fine feed in our pastures and get a good crop of hay from the ground we mow. A farmer about five miles from here had wheat that yielded 26 bushels to the acre. He raised over 4000 bushels. The soil is so loose that one span of horses or one yoke of oxen can do the plowing. This is much leveler country than Kennebec. We have no steep hills like you have on both sides of Martin Stream at the mill.”

Harper then urged Benjamin to join him. He wrote: “I wish you could have been here the first of last month and stayed through our wheat harvest. By that time you would have liked Wheatland better than Fairfield. Right near us are three counties that make the best part of New York state for farming. I have seen several men that have traveled through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. They say they found nowhere any better country than this. We are very satisfied with living here, though we miss the company of our dear friends and connections in Maine. We have not got our frame up yet, but are still in our log house. But for the frame house, the cellar is dug and partly stoned up. The frame will be 36 by 14 feet, with a square room at one end and a bed room and buttery at the other. We shall soon have it finished. Son Joseph has got his barn frame up and the roof boarded and shingled. He dug a cellar in the side of knoll and built a wall two feet thick and eight feet high, laid in mortar. The frame is set on that wall. It makes a fine stable and a good shed for cattle. When his barn is finished, it will be 48 by 40 feet.”

Apparently Harper’s wife, Mary could not write, for the next part of the letter says: ”Now I write a line for Mary to Phoebe (Phoebe was Benjamin’s wife) “Dear Sister: My mind has often been turned toward thee since I left Fairfield. I salute thee in that love which reacheth over sea and land. Last week, I quilted a bed quilt out of that calico we got at Hallowell. I have put in every square that I brought from Kennebec. It is a long time since we have heard from you. Please write us soon. We want to know how Brother Abner prospers in his business and how Asa makes it on the old farm. Has the friend Hiram McGiven was expecting from Ireland come over yet?”

Enclosed with Harper Bowerman’s letter was another from Sarah Wing addressed to her sister Dorothy Wing, in care of Benjamin Bowerman. Sarah said: “I am at Cousin Harper’s. I have been sick this spring with what the doctor called slow billeous fever. My son William has buried his wife this spring and is left with two little children, the youngest eight months old. Last fall, Melba buried her twins, a son and a daughter. They were both put in one coffin. They were three months old. I am very feeble and feel that I am most done with this world.”

Then Harper Bowerman attached to his letter to Benjamin another to his brother Zacchaeus. He said: ”My mind often turns to thee for thy growth and preservation in the truth. May we both be attentive to the pointing of the divine finger. May we always have oil in our vessels and our lamps trimmed, ready to go north to meet the bridegroom at the midnight call. When I left Fairfield, I thought I would never see any of you again. But now I understand that several connections are concerned with merchandise. So some of them may have to take their· packs and go peddling and come this way. We still hold a meeting in the old log house. The Hexites are going to keep the meeting house they now occupy.” (By Hexites, Harper meant the branch of Quakers that went by that name, not his branch of the sect).

He continues: “We friends are building a new meetinghouse 30 by 40 feet. It is built with small cobble stones and lime, and on the outside axe rows like brick. It looks as neat as a brick wall. Before we left Fairfield, we thought Joseph and Daniel would hear of a better country away yonder somewhere, and by this time would be on the wing. We did go away from Fairfield, but we have many good friends here and axe well content. I think Benjamin would have done much better it he had come here and bought a farm. With what money he had he could have bought 100 acres and by this time had it all paid for. Land is getting more expensive here all the time. It is now anywhere from $25 to $40 an acre. Give my love to Benjamin Gifford and his brothers. Tell them that I am informed Cousin Stephen Bowerman lives somewhere in New York state, I think in Galen or Wayne. I have not seen him. I don’t work as hard here as I did in Fairfield. I have got me a new bench and tools and do a lot of work making and mending shoes. Why don’t you write to us? You know you can write as well as I can.”

A century ago there were a few people in Maine who had a lot of money. Such was Governor Abner Coburn of Skowhegan, who gave to Coburn Classical Institute in Waterville its big school building that burned about 15 years ago. A bachelor, in partnership with his brother as lawyers and owners of vast timber lands, Gov. Coburn, after making many public and private bequests, left the residue of his immense estate in equal shares to the children of his deceased brothers Samuel and Stephen, and his sister Eliza. His listed public bequests – 29 of them in all – totaled more than $2 million, and the amount left to those nieces and nephews was considerably more. Although Gov. Coburn’s biographer said it was impossible, at the time of his death in 1885, to tell the exact amount of his estate, it was estimated to be at least $5 million. That was a lot of money in 1885. Much of Gov. Coburn’s wealth was in the vast forest lands of Maine. To this day some of that land has never been divided but is still listed as the property of the Coburn heirs.

Among the larger bequests in Gov. Coburn’s will were $200,000 each to Colby College and to the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Five institutions each received $ 100,000: Maine General Hospital, Waterville Classical Institute, Maine Baptist Convention, American Baptist Missionary Union, and the University of Maine. Fifty thousand dollars went to the Maine Insane Hospital, and the same amount to Wayland Academy in Washington, D. C. The Skowhegan Public Library got $30,000, the Bethany Baptist Church of Skowhegan for its poor $20,000. Mr. Coburn also gave to the town the big lot on which was developed Coburn Park, under the special care of his niece, Miss Louise Coburn. Smaller amounts were left to Houlton Academy (now Ricker College), Bloomfield Academy, and the Maine Industrial School for Girls.

Indeed a generous benefactor of public enterprises more than 80 years ago was Governor Abner Coburn of Maine. A prominent Maine newspaper for more than 125 years has been the Lewiston Journal. A few items that appeared in this paper almost exactly 100 years ago, in 1870, give us the flavor of those times. Here are some samples.

“April 15 – The Lewiston Steam Mills logging team reached this city on Friday. The company has put in seven million feet of lumber. There is so much snow still in the woods that the drive is unlikely to start before. This winter the company logged 17 miles above Maxico Corner.”

“May 20 – Timothy Nye of Auburn has patented a singular attachment for a traveling trunk. He makes the oak protection bars so they can be raised on hinges. A fake top swings back’ against this, which being nicely upholstered makes a substantial back like a chair. On each side are arms, which are concealed inside the trunk when it is closed. This forms a firm seat for two people, the clothing in the trunk serving as a cushion. A large trunk that is often an eyesore in a room can thus be converted into a good looking chair.”

“June 10 – Captain Roy of the Auburn Light Infantry has learned from Gov. Chamberlain that the company can have the U.S. regulation uniform. That will indeed dress them up.”

“June 16 – The census of school age persons in Lewiston shows 356 French Canadians between the ages of 4 and 21, an increase of 144 over last year. This would indicate a total of about a thousand French Canadians in this City, all of whom came within the last three years. This influx has become so large that they have started a French paper called L’Emigre
Canadien. ”

“July 8 – Poland Mineral Water is now freely consumed in Lewiston. It is a most healthful substitute for ale.”

“July 10 – The most prolific branch of manufacture in recent years is the sewing machine. A new candidate for favor is the Perham Machine, for which Barnum Jones is our agent.”

“August 2 – A gentleman in Auburn, whose wife is ill, took their baby to his place of business yesterday, with a well filled nursing bottle. He performed the duties of nursing father till evening. Such a man is worth having in an family.”

And here’s the final item for this broadcast from that Lewiston Journal of August 22, 1870: “There was an incursion of organ grinders in Lewiston today. Wailing in mournful agony to The Last Rose of Summer and other slaughtered tunes, they wailed under our windows. Only the monkeys made the awful music tolerable.”

Year: 1972