Radio Script #933

Little Talks on Common Things
May 14, 1972

Today we complete the account of the diary kept by Samuel K. Smith of Waterville for more than half a century. This closing
account covers the last twenty years in the life of the old Professor of Rhetoric, who died in 1904 at the age of 87.

Smith had fixed opinions about students’ preparation for classes. He thought it bad practice to require recitation in several subjects the same day. In January, 1888, he entered in the diary: “It is a marvel that students should study without cramming if they have to get three lessons at once and retain them overnight, but will cram if they have to get only one, then recite. Does a man cram less on one meal a day than on three? Better three meals at different times.”

We should bear in mind that in Smith’s day, students literally memorized sections of the textbooks. A recitation meant that the student repeated to the professor, word for word, what the book said. Smith made an unusual division of the sciences into two parts: Those that dealt with organized matter, and those that dealt with unorganized. He then subdivided the unorganized into two parts: physiology and natural philosophy and chemistry. He then divided natural philosophy into special natural philosophy and physics. Under special natural philosophy he places mechanics, hydrostatics and pneumatics. “Physics”, he says, “treats of phenomena of vibrations, such as sound, light, heat, and electricity.” His organized sciences included botany, zoology and geology. A more common division of the sciences in the 1880’s, devised from long, historic practice in the colleges, and one much more consistent with the modern view, divided the field into two large areas, natural history and natural philosophy. For three-quarters of a century, starting even before Smith was a student, Colby had recognized that division by professorships. Even when there were as few as five persons on the faculty, one was a professor of natural philosophy.

By natural history was meant what today we call the life and earth sciences, that is, all the specialized fields covered by the general terms biology and geology. Natural philosophy was largely what today we call physics, but it included also astronomy. Chemistry, early recognized as a field by itself, hovered somewhere between the two large areas.

At the end of 1886 this professor, who never got a college salary larger than $1200 a year, figured his assets at $21,000. His land, with its two houses, he set at $ 15,000. He had $ 12,000 in savings banks, $1000 in railroad bonds, $1500 in stock of the Lockwood Mills, $1800 in Minnesota land, and $500 in personal notes. When his youngest son William was in college, Prof. Smith was proud to see the boy make the baseball team – that was in 1890, but as early as 1887 that sport got into the professor’s diary. His entry of September 10 shows that Colby teams made long trips even at that early date – the entry says: “Baseball nine went.to St. John, N. B.”

Many of the Smith entries after 1890 concerned his grown-up children. Let us note a few of them at random. Sept 21, 1890 – George left to work in St. Paul. Oct. 22 – Dr. Boutelle opened an abscess under Jennie’s arm. Aug. 6, 1891 – Will, Minnie and Jennie went to Squirrel Island. Jan. 7, 1891 – Jennie goes to Ladies Hall today as supervisor. (Ladies Hall was the Colby dormitory for girls). Nov. 2, 1891 – assigned work to Will: put on double windows and put up the stove.

Will Smith had graduated from Colby in 1891. When on March 26, 1892, the father put into his diary, “Will left for his school today”, he meant Wiscasset Academy, where Will Smith taught for several years. In 1892 the oldest son George became a professor at Colgate University, where in October Professor and Mrs. Smith paid him a visit, stopping on their way at Springfield to visit their old Colby friends the Lyfords. In 1895, George was elected President of Colgate, and the old professor swelled with pride. Meanwhile, Will had concluded that his career did not lie in teaching. He decided to enter the ministry, taking exactly the opposite tack from his father, who had prepared for the pulpit, but never became a local pastor, though he did a lot of preaching. Will, who started as a teacher, ended up as a pastor.

In 1897 a heavy blow fell. The older son, of whose achievements Prof. Smith was rightfully proud, had a nervous breakdown. The first indication came in the diary entry of May 31, 1897: “George and Will came home today. George is sick with a nervous disease”, George did not improve, though he remained at the family home for nearly a year. The diary entry for April 26, 1898, says: “Will took George to a sanitorium in Winchester, Mass.” This was indeed a heavy blow for the aged professor, who in the preceding October had observed his 80th birthday. George’s illness was expensive. In a single year Prof. Smith spent $ 2400 in sanitorium and other expenses. But he never complained, he only sorrowed for the stricken son and tried to give him every possible comfort.

In October 1896, Smith said he bought a furnace from Arnold for $100. A few days later he walked down to Green’s office to see about coal. In 1897 Prof. Smith made a significant sale of part of his big lot. On May 12 of that year he recorded: “The city government came up and looked at lots for a schoolhouse. They seemed to prefer the north corner of my home lot. My price is $1200 for a piece 150 by 152 feet.” The city did buy that land from Smith, and on it was erected the Myrtle Street school. On October 19, 1897, the diary said: “The town is building a new street on the north side of my lot.” That new street was Myrtle Street, constructed especially to give access from College Avenue directly to the new school.

During the years, Professor Smith, in his capacity as a licensed clergyman, married many couples. Of none of them was he more proud than when on January 26, 1898, he married his daughter Minnie to Frank Philbrick, whose full name is recorded in the Smith diary as Benjamin Franklin Philbrick.

In his years of retirement, Prof. Smith did a lot of pleasure driving. He often recorded carefully the route of those drives. It Feb. 15, 1898 – Rode down Pleasant St. to Silver and on to Grove St., down to the Plains, up Water Street to Main, Silver to Spring to Elm, then up Elm to Main, up Main to Chaplin, to Ticonic, to Maple, and home.”

He added that it was excellent sleighing, but a week later the entry was, “Four feet of snow. Roads blocked badly.” When, in the following May, Smith commented that he rode down Silver Street and on over the race course up Summer Street and home, he referred to the old race track off Grove Street near the present site of the Catholic cemetery.

We think of the old Baptist professors as straight-laced about many things, and Prof. Smith was indeed strongly opposed to
dancing and card playing. But he was not against the theater, nor was he a complete teetotaler. In the diary he placed a recipe for rhubarb wine. “To each gallon of rhubarb juice add one gallon of soft water, in which seven pounds of brown sugar have been dissolved. Fill a keg with this, leaving the bung out, and keep it filled with sweetened water until it works over into clear. Then bung it down or bottle it, as you desire.”

In 1889, Prof. Smith saw his pastor of 20 years, Dr. Spencer, leave the First Baptist Church and Edwin Carey Whittemore take his place, and for the remaining years of Prof. Smith’s life the two men would be very close.

In 1900 Prof. and Mrs. Smith began to spend the winters in Southern Pines, N.C. It began with the diary entry of November 18: “Am debating with myself whether I will go South this winter.” Note that he does not say he was debating the issue with anyone else. He gives no hint to his wife’s wishes. He was still head of the family, and if they went south for the winter, he was going to be the one to decide. “November 20 – Started for Southern Pines. Nov. 22- Have taken rooms at Mr. Emery’s in Southern Pines.” In North Carolina they didn’t escape all the cold. “December 16 – Temperature down to 25. Sand is frozen.”

When the new century began, Prof. Smith was 82 years old and getting feeble. On January 1 he wrote: “I begin the new year in poor health and in doubt whether I shall see it through.”

The Smith diary contains amazingly few mentions of his wife, though it is clear that they were close companions and went to many places together. Samuel K. Smith was evidently not an emotional man. He did, however, on August 14, 1902, record: “I was married August 14, 1854, just 48 years ago.”

That year, because of Prof. Smith’s health, the couple did not leave for Southern Pines until Jan. 5, arriving there on the 10th.

Meanwhile the son Will was interested in a pastorate in suburban Portland. On Feb. 20, the father wrote, “Will’s prospects at Portland seem good.” William Smith not only secured the pastorate of that Central Square Church in 1903, but in that year he was also married to Lois Hoxie of North Fairfield, the gracious lady who died only a few months ago in her 90th year. Although Prof. Smith married them, as he had married daughter Minnie five years earlier, his cryptic record in the diary consists of only three words: “Will married today.” Prof. Smith at the time was only two months before his 86th birthday.

As long as he was able, Prof. Smith took his wife several times a year to visit relatives in Litchfield and in Augusta. They were even closer to Files relatives in Fairfield, and the diary mentions many visits between the Files and the Smiths. The daughters of both families saw each other often.

The year 1904 was the last of Prof. Smith’s life. His failing health made the diary entries few. Let us see what they were: “Jan. 15 – Bought my present horse in 1897. He was taken out for exercise today. It did him good. March 13 – At home all day, not able to go out. April 14, 1829. April 16 – The ground this morning is white with snow. May 21 – Will called on his way to Bangor to preach tomorrow. July 4 – Lublow would be a good man to fill Sam Osborne’s place at the college.”

That refers to the college janitor who had served for more than 40 years and had recently died. The diary’s last entry was made on July 8,1904: “Very pleasant day and a good hay day.” On August 20 of that year, Samuel K. Smith died, a few weeks before his 87th birthday.

Even more interesting and more observant of Waterville’s social life is the diary of Prof. Smith’s wife, Annie Abbott Smith. But we shall leave that for later broadcasts. We have had enough of one family for consecutive weeks. So next week we shall leave the Smiths for another subject.

Year: 1972